Attack of the Killer Bagpipes

I am a huge bibliophile and sometimes I like to go to search engines like Amazon and Barnes and Noble and type in random words to see what they come up with. I put the word 'bagpipes' (I know, shocking) in there recently and noticed that there is an interesting assortment of children's books that focus on the good old bagpipes.

I don't own any of these books, I haven't read any of them either, so I have no idea what their content is like, but they sound like they'd be crazy fun to read.

Max Power and the Bagpipes by Suse Moore and Andy Elkerton. Max and his sheepdog Haggis deal with a power outage when the circus comes to town. This book seems to also be centered around some environmental conservation themes. Personally I think it'd be cooler if the kid's name was Haggis. Then Haggis could play the bagpipes...hee hee.

Noddy and the Magic Bagpipes by Enid Blyton. The title alone makes this one a winner. Noddy is a young boy (who looks like he belongs at the North Pole) who is taking bagpipe lessons but he doesn't practice...and guess what? His bagpipes are magical and start running around town causing mass chaos. Who will stop them?? I think a nice adult spin on this book would be staged around an attack of magical killer bagpipes.

Sandy Chisholm's Chanter Lessons by Scott Williams.
Set in Nova Scotia, Canada in the 1950's, Sandy is a young boy who learns to play the bagpipes. He starts on the chanter of course, and I would hope that by the end of the book he's on to the pipes. Sounds like a nice juvenile historical fiction book.

And then there's a whole slew of mystery books.

The classic is the Nancy Drew: The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes by Carolyn Keene. I've never read a Nancy Drew book, but I might have to give this one a try. Nancy troops all over Scotland, culminating in a kilt clad Nancy climbing Ben Nevis and playing the bagpipes. Sounds like a good one.

Mystery of the Waterloo Bagpipes by Donald B. Willis. This is a newer book, published in 2001. But it's set in 1957 in Ohio at their Scottish Highlands Games. A set of bagpipes played at the Battle of Waterloo is a focal point of the games, the priceless pipes are stolen and five pipers take on the case.

Mystery of the Missing Bagpipes by Kathy Lynn Emerson. This one's set in Maine. A set of valuable bagpipes is (wait for it) missing! A young kid is the suspect so he teams up with another kid and the duo work the case. Happy reading and pipe on!

Harry Potter Plays the Bagpipes

Okay, maybe he doesn't really play the bagpipes, but the story is set in the UK so I figure with a little bit of stretching I can make the new Potter book fit in with my blog. No worry's, I'm not going to post any spoilers here, just some general merriment and a bit of bereavement over the ending of the Potter era. Well, I guess it's not really done yet, there are still some movies left so just the end of the written word Potter era.

I went to Walmart a little after midnight to get my book, decided not to fight the kiddies at Barnes and Nobles. But the line at Walmart stretched out the door and a half hour in length. With my prize clutched in my hands I couldn't resist going over to Barnes and Nobles anyway, if only to gloat to those standing in line at 1am that ha ha! I'd gotten my book a half hour earlier.

I finished my book Sunday night and in my humble and purposely vague opinion, it was the best one yet, definitely (in staying with the theme of this blog) two pipes up! That's it, that's all I'll say about the book.

I did a random Internet search on any specific connections between Harry Potter and Scotland and there are loads. For one things, they offer specialized Harry Potter tours to England and Scotland looks like both the England and Scotland tours are sold out through August. Actually, the England tour looks a bit better in terms of seeing different areas where the Harry Potter movies were filmed. Some highlights include London Zoo (where the escaping snake scene was filmed in movie #1), Kings Cross Station, Australia House on the Strand (Gringotts Wizarding Bank), Charing Cross (Diagon Alley), and Christ Church College (interior Hogwarts scenes). Than I think you'd have to ditch the tour for a day or so and head over to Alnwick Castle where a lot of the exterior Hogwarts shots were filmed.

Actually, even if you can't make one of these tours it's pretty interesting to read about all the places in England and Scotland where the movie was filmed.

Plus, according to a USA Today article,J.K. Rowlings has all sorts of connections to Scotland.
She has lived in Edinburgh, Scotland since 1994 and calls it her home. The article speculates that Edinburgh castle provided inspiration for Potter's world, and in the real world, several Edinburgh establishments saw J.K. Rowling working on the Potter series. Having been to Edinburgh I agree that one couldn't help but be inspired by this amazing city.

I'll miss you Harry Potter!
Pipe on!