Something Wonderful This Way Comes 12 Blogs to Help You Start Something Wonderful with Hollyhock Books

Something Wonderful This Way Comes

12 Blogs to Help You Start Something Wonderful with Hollyhock Books

Blog 1: The First Page of Your Own Adventure 

 How to Start a Hocksbox Book Club

By Sophia Salazar, Editor-in-Chief

There is a particular kind of magic that happens when a story moves from being something you read alone to something you share. It's the difference between watching a sunset by yourself and turning to someone beside you who gasps at exactly the same moment the sky catches fire. The story hasn't changed. But somehow, it has grown.

This is why book clubs exist. This is why reading groups have survived every technological advance, every prediction of their obsolescence. Because stories, wonderful as they are in solitude, become something else entirely when they're held in common.

And with the Hocksbox collection now open, with these stories landing in inboxes and blogs and listening devices around the world, we keep hearing the same question from readers:

How do we share this?

How do we take the whimsy of Wobbleton-upon-Jelly and turn it into an evening? How do we introduce friends to Old Crumpet Noggin in a way that lands? How do we make story time feel like an event rather than just another item on the to-do list?

The answer is simpler than you might think.

You start a book club.

Not a formal one, necessarily. Not the kind with assigned chapters and discussion questions and someone who feels obliged to bring printed agendas. (Though if that's your style, we support you entirely.) But a Hocksbox book club. A gathering of people who want to spend time inside these worlds together.

And because we believe in starting small and starting well, we're going to focus this first guide on four stories that are perfect for almost any first meeting:

• "The Remarkable Evening of Oliver Hefflewhistle and the Gingham Glimmergit"
• "Old Crumpet Noggin and the Singing Flummywisters"
• "Oh, the Roaming Fairy Folks of Mischief"
• "The War of the Whiffle Waffles"

Four tales. Four moods. One perfect place to begin.

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Why These Four?

Before we dive into the how, let's talk about the why.

These four stories represent something essential about Joules Young's work. Together, they offer a kind of sampler platter of the Hocksbox universe—a tasting menu designed to show new readers what's possible.

"The Remarkable Evening of Oliver Hefflewhistle and the Gingham Glimmergit" gives you romance, mystery, and a January evening so peculiar that the stars themselves have turned into arithmetic equations. Oliver, lanky and earnest, walks through the frost with his hand-knitted mittens and his Gingham Glimmergit—not a guitar, exactly, but something stranger—to serenade Sally Snodgrass, heiress to the parsnip fortune. A snowbird feather floats down from her window. A heart is won. It is a story about courage in its smallest, sweetest form: a boy willing to play music with mittens on, to risk embarrassment, to hope.

"Old Crumpet Noggin and the Singing Flummywisters" offers something quieter. A character study disguised as a tale. Crumpet Noggin—with his face like a confused turnip, his hair like mashed carrots, his wooden leg from a runaway bread cart, and his sign reading "I Am Not Entirely Blind—Just Thoughtful"—sits outside Mrs. Fidget's General Store playing an invisible violin while the flummywisters yodel their yisters overhead. He collects oddities: a thimble for five-cent pieces, a copper cup for athletic types to toss coins into, a wooden mug with a hole in the bottom so the poor can give and still keep their money, and a mysterious bucket he's been waiting twenty-five years for a wealthy merchant to fill with gold. It asks a gentle question: what makes a life well lived?

"Oh, the Roaming Fairy Folks of Mischief" is chaos, pure and delightful. Noddy Fiddlewhisk—with his nose like a weather vane and his swagger like an enthusiastic amateur mischief-maker—and Poppy Fizzleglint—with her ribbons and her giggle that disarms magistrates—stumble into the town of Here, where a man is about to be tarred and feathered for wearing a bowler hat with a kilt during the Festival of Matching Socks. With a rusty pocket watch that grows dragonfly wings and whisks the condemned man to safety, with five long-legged jack-rabbits who somersault through village fairs and eventually leap over a skyscraper so high it scrapes the thunder clouds, with a whirlwind that carries that very skyscraper—"Thaddeus Twigglebottom the Third, Esquire's" pride and joy—off into the horizon never to be seen again... it is proof that Joules can do mayhem as well as tenderness.

"The War of the Whiffle Waffles" brings us back to baked goods and bravery. Fizzwick Tumblebutton, who can read books upside down better than most people can right-side up, and Toddy Brimblethatch, who makes everything sound like a toast at a grand banquet, set up a bakery in Marmalade Junction after navigating the bureaucratic hurdles of Sir Bluster Twaddlefoot (a rabbit with a nose for paperwork). Their pies and treats become famous across Bumbleknuckle Woods and Tiddlytop Moor. But then come the Whiffle Waffles—a fearsome band of confectionary warmongers who believe only waffles should reign supreme. They descend in their flying machines called Luftwaffes, dropping cinnamon bombs, coating the town in sugary chaos, sticking the cows in toffee. Our heroes escape in "The Flying Scone," piloted by an owl named Thaddeus Twigglebottom III, Esquire, and eventually find their way to a quiet farm they name "Brimblebutton's Rest." It is adventure with a sugar coating, perfect for the youngest listeners and the young at heart.

Together, these four stories give a new group something essential: range. You can read one or read all four. You can spend an evening on a single tale or a month exploring each in turn.

The choice, as always, is yours.

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Step One: Decide Who You're Gathering

The beauty of a Hocksbox book club is that it can be anything you need it to be.

For families, this might mean Tuesday night story time with a twist. Perhaps once a month, you declare a "Hocksbox Evening." The screens go off. The cocoa comes out. And instead of just listening, you do something with the story afterward.

For parent groups, this could be a way to gather while the children play. You don't need a formal meeting—just a shared commitment to reading the same story during the week, then chatting about it when you're together at the park or after school pickup.

For educators, these four stories offer rich material for a single class period or a week of activities. They're short enough to read aloud in one sitting, layered enough to reward returning.

For book clubs proper, the kind that meet in living rooms with wine and cheese and strong opinions, these stories provide something unexpected: a chance to talk about craft, about whimsy, about why certain kinds of storytelling work on readers of all ages.

Decide who you're gathering. Then let that decision shape everything else.

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Step Two: Choose Your Story and Set the Scene

Let's walk through how you might approach each of these four stories as a book club selection.

If you choose "The Remarkable Evening of Oliver Hefflewhistle and the Gingham Glimmergit":

This is a January story, if the calendar matters to you—"one of those peculiar January evenings when the sky seemed to take an uncommonly keen interest in earthbound affairs." But it works whenever you need a little warmth.

Set the scene: Dim the lights. If you can, find a feather—something light, something that might float. Place it where everyone can see it. The story is about serenading, about putting yourself out there. Before you read, ask everyone: when was the last time you took a risk for someone you cared about? Also, discuss the mittens. Oliver knitted them himself. He plays with them on. What does that say about him?

After the story: Discuss the Gingham Glimmergit. What is it, exactly? It's not quite a guitar—Mrs. Wimbly's Emporium of Miscellaneous Curiosities sold it, and Oliver chose it over a piano because "you can't sling a piano under your arm and serenade a lady from beneath her window." Why does Joules leave it mysterious? And that snowbird feather—what does it mean that Sally tossed it down? Is it enough?

If you choose "Old Crumpet Noggin and the Singing Flummywisters":

This story asks for a different kind of preparation. It's gentler, more reflective.

Set the scene: Find the most comfortable chairs in your house. This is a story for sinking into. Make tea. Real tea, in real cups. Perhaps something that tastes faintly of rhubarb, if such a thing exists. Before you read, ask: what invisible things do you carry with you? What do you play that no one else can hear?

After the story: Talk about the flummywisters. What are they singing? Their lullaby goes: "Flummy, flummy, flummy, / Spread your wings and yister, / Flummy, flummy, flummy, / Don't forget to blister!" Crumpet admits it doesn't translate well into human. What do you imagine they sound like? And that bucket—the one Crumpet waited twenty-five years for a wealthy merchant to fill—a merchant finally appears after Crumpet foils a robbery by hurling a tin of Mrs. Fidget's baked beans at a thief. The merchant buys the bucket for fifty gold sovereigns to hold his enchanted marbles. What do we hope for, quietly, without ever saying aloud? And what happens when hope finally arrives?

If you choose "Oh, the Roaming Fairy Folks of Mischief":

Brace yourself. This one is loud.

Set the scene: Clear some space. You might need it. This story involves tar and feathers (metaphorically, we hope), a public spectacle, five jack-rabbits with gangly spider-legs, a village fair where one rabbit spins itself a candy floss coat, and a skyscraper being carried off by a whirlwind. Before you read, ask everyone to take off their shoes. Something about being barefoot makes chaos more acceptable.

After the story: The question at the heart of this tale is simple: what happens when well-meaning people cause absolute mayhem? Noddy and Poppy mean well. They always do. And yet—disaster follows. Is that okay? Is intention enough? Also, discuss that rusty pocket watch. It grew "delicate, iridescent wings, the kind you'd find on an oversized dragonfly after a particularly good lunch" and whisked a man away from tar and feathers. What else might that watch do? And what became of Thaddeus Twigglebottom the Third, Esquire, last seen spinning into the distance inside his skyscraper?

If you choose "The War of the Whiffle Waffles":

This is the food story. Always a crowd-pleaser.

Set the scene: Bake something first. Waffles, obviously, though pies would also be appropriate. The story takes place in Wobbleton-upon-Jelly, where "pies are plentiful" and the sky is "jam tart pink every Thursday." Honor that. Have food ready for after the reading. Before you begin, ask: what would you defend with everything you had? What's your bakery?

After the story: The Whiffle Waffles are "fearsome," but are they evil? They drop cinnamon bombs from Luftwaffes. They coat towns in syrup. But they're still waffles. Discuss the nature of the enemy in children's stories. Are the waffles just hungry? Misunderstood? Also, consider Fizzwick and Toddy as a pair. How do they compare to other famous duos? And what about that dedication at the beginning: "To little things long remembered / To Moonlight walks and shooting stars / To D, Young / From the girl who painted stories and the boy who sat beside her"—how does that shape how we read the tale?

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Step Three: Add One Simple Activity

A book club doesn't have to end when the story does. In fact, the best ones don't.

For these four stories, here are simple follow-up activities that require almost no preparation:

For Oliver: Have everyone write (or draw) a short serenade. It doesn't have to be a song—just a message they'd send to someone they care about, if they had the courage. Share them aloud or keep them private. The act of making is what matters. Alternatively, bring a pair of mittens and try to play an instrument while wearing them. Discuss the results.

For Crumpet: Create your own flummywisters. What do they look like? What do they sing? Give each person a piece of paper and five minutes to invent their own whimsical creature, complete with a lullaby. Then go around the room and introduce them. Bonus points if someone brings a "mysterious bucket" and everyone guesses what might be in it.

For the Fairies: Act out the tar and feathers scene. With pillows. Safely. Then have someone be the jack-rabbit who spins the whirlwind. See if you can make a paper skyscraper "fly" across the room. Laughter is mandatory.

For the Waffles: Taste test. Make different kinds of waffles (or buy them) and vote on which one the Whiffle Waffles would claim as their own. Discuss the results with the gravity they deserve. Also, consider: what would your bakery serve if you opened one in Marmalade Junction?

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Step Four: Keep the Door Open

The best book clubs don't end when everyone goes home. They linger. They leave traces.

Before your first gathering ends, do one small thing to mark the occasion. Perhaps you start a shared journal where people can leave thoughts about each story. Perhaps you take a photograph of the group (with permission, of course) and add it to a "Hocksbox Club" album. Perhaps you simply agree on which story you'll read next.

For groups just starting out, here's a suggested path:

• Month 1: Oliver Hefflewhistle — for the romantics
• Month 2: Old Crumpet Noggin — for the dreamers
• Month 3: Oh, the Roaming Fairy Folks — for the chaos agents
• Month 4: The War of the Whiffle Waffles — for the hungry

After that, the Hocksbox universe is yours to explore. Sherlock Lockwood's mysteries. Percival's island misadventures. Holloway and Graves and their supernatural investigations. The stories keep coming, and now you have a way to share them.

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A Final Thought Before You Begin

There's a moment in "The Remarkable Evening of Oliver Hefflewhistle and the Gingham Glimmergit" that has stayed with me. Oliver, walking home after Sally's feather has landed in his mitten, looks up at the stars. The numbers that had been so clearly visible earlier—"fours and sevens, sevens and fours, all interspersed with the occasional misplaced nine"—have rearranged themselves into something else. "An equation that only Oliver could understand," the story tells us. "Perhaps it was a secret message from the universe, a cosmic acknowledgement of his success, or perhaps it was just another bit of celestial whimsy."

Starting a book club is its own kind of celestial whimsy. You're offering something. You're hoping someone will listen. You're trusting that the Gingham Glimmergits of the world—the strange, the unexpected, the wonderful—might just answer back.

They will.

They always do.

So gather your people. Choose your story. Make the tea, Light the candle, Bring a mysterious bucket, or don't. The only requirement is that you show up, ready to listen, ready to share, ready to let these stories do what they were always meant to do:

Find their readers.

And help those readers find each other.

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Next  in Blog 2: "Listening with All Your Ears — Making the Most of Free Audiobooks with Oliver, Crumpet, the Fairies, and the Waffles"

Until then, happy reading—and happier gathering.

Look, Listen, Linger, Laugh, and Love.

— Sophia Salazar, Editor-in-Chief