Two Spring Treats

Miranda has created a Gentle Spring Playlist, and Donna has put together a fiendish literary quiz to test your knowledge of seasonal reads.

Spring (Fruit Trees in Bloom) by Claude Monet

Gentle Spring Playlist

You know how much I enjoy curating playlists to match moods or seasons, and as a springtime treat, I thought I’d share a playlist filled with music as calming and soft as spring showers (and you may be in need of some mental soothing after trying Mum’s literary spring quiz, further down). Play below or click here to access my playlist. — Miranda

A Springtime Literary Quiz

I've chosen music, poems and books from our shelves that give me those sunshiny, Springtime vibes! I'd love it if there might be a few new musical pieces as well as authors/books/poems for you to remember or meet for the first time, but primarily I just hope you enjoy doing the quiz as much as I enjoyed putting it together! — Donna

Who wrote these Springtime picture book classics?

1. Springtime for Jeanne-Marie

2. The Runaway Bunny

3. The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes

4. Flower Fairies of the Spring

5. Spring Story

And the authors of these children's/ YA Springtime books are?

6. Flowering Spring

7. Spring Comes to World's End

8. Spring Comes to Nettleford

9. From Spring to Spring

10.The Peacock Spring

Name that title:

11. S— F— by P. G. Wodehouse

12. The S— of the R— by Dorothy Dunnett

13. In the S— of the Y—by Susan Hill

14. I— S— by Ann Bridges

15. The C— in S— by Elizabeth Cadell

Name that title and the author:

16. U— F— in the S— by — — —

17. S— by —  —

18. The B— of S— by — —

19. A— in the S— by — —

20. In P— of S— by — —

Name that Title and Author in these April books:

21. The — — by T— A— o— E— a— h— G— G—

22. — in — by R— P—

23. — — —by I— H—

24. — —by G— H—

25. The — —by N— S—

Name the Title and the Author in these Springtime Romances and Mysteries:

26. A— G— by G— L— H— (US author)

27.  A S— A— by K— F— (British author)

28. A K— S— by G— B— (Canadian author)

29. The I— of S— by L— D— (British author)

30. The C— M— by L— P— (Canadian author)

Can you name this Springtime Tune?

31. Y— than S—

32 W— I— S— in the R—

33.The R—'s R—

34. The F— that B— in the S—, T— L—

35. A— in P—

36. S— S—

37. E— P—

38. It M— as W— B— S—

39. A— S—

40. T— S—

And finally, who wrote the lines below (Bonus points if you can name the poem they're from)?

41. "The year's at the spring. And day's at the morn..."

42. "And blossoming boughs of April in laughter shake"

43. "April is the cruellest month"

44. "The cherry and hoary pear/ Scatter their snow around."

45. "And the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halve cours..."

46. "It waits upon the Lawn/ It shows the furthest Tree"

47. "April/ Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers"

48. "(while/people stare/arranging and changing placing/carefully there a strange/ thing and a known thing here)"

49. "keep us here/ All simply in the springtime of the year."

50. From you have I been absent in the spring"

Answers below:

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1. Françoise (Seignobosc)

2.Margaret Wise Brown

3.Du Bose Heyward

4.Cicely Mary Barker

5. Jill Barklem

6. Elfrida Vipont

7. Monica Dickens

8.Malcolm Saville

9. Alison Uttley

10. Rumer Godden

11. Spring Fever

12. The Spring of the Ram

13. In the Springtime of the Year

14. Ilyrian Spring

15. The Cuckoo in Spring

16. Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P. G. Wodehouse

17. Spring by Ali Smith

18. The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald

19. Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott

20. In Pursuit of Spring by Edward Thomas

21. The Enchanted April by The Author of Elizabeth and her German Garden

22. Snow in April by Rosamunde Pilcher

23. Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

24. April Lady by Georgette Heyer

25. The April Baby by Noel Streatfeild

26. April Gold by Grace Livingston Hill

27. A Springtime Affair by Katie Fforde

28. A Killing Spring by Gail Bowen

29. The Ides of Spring by Lindsey Davis

30. The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny

31. Younger than Springtime

32. When It's Springtime in the Rockies

33. The Robin's Return

34. The Flowers the Bloom in the Spring, Tra La

35. April in Paris

36. Spring Song

37. Easter Parade

38. It Might as Well Be Spring

39. April Showers

40. To Spring

41. Robert Browning, "Pippa Passes"

42. Robert Bridges, "Awake, My Heart"

43. T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"

44. Robert Bridges, "Spring Goeth All in White"

45. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue from "The Canterbury Tales"

46. Emily Dickinson, "A Light Exists in Spring"

47. Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Spring"

48. E. E. Cummings, "Spring is like a perhaps hand"

49.Robert Frost, "A Prayer in Spring"

50. William Shakespeare, " Sonnet 98"