To start out, I’m going to share a quote from a book Esther listened to the end of December. The book is The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley, a sequel to Parnassus on Wheels. It was published in 1919. This passage is a newspaper clipping, and is from Chapter 3 of the book. It struck me funny, and I thought people who enjoy this post might like it, too.

ON THE RETURN OF A BOOK LENT TO A FRIEND

I GIVE humble and hearty thanks for the safe return of this book which having endured the perils of my friend’s bookcase, and the bookcases of my friend’s friends, now returns to me in reasonably good condition.

I GIVE humble and hearty thanks that my friend did not see fit to give this book to his infant as a plaything, nor use it as an ash-tray for his burning cigar, nor as a teething-ring for his mastiff.

WHEN I lent this book I deemed it as lost: I was resigned to the bitterness of the long parting: I never thought to look upon its pages again.

BUT NOW that my book is come back to me, I rejoice and am exceeding glad! Bring hither the fatted morocco and let us rebind the volume and set it on the shelf of honour: for this my book was lent, and is returned again.

PRESENTLY, therefore, I may return some of the books that I myself have borrowed.

Now, on to the new books for this month! Several of us had some fun sorting through a lot of boxes of books that a local used bookstore could not sell, which the proprietor offered to us for free. I like the format of the Ladybird biographies, and my little girls loved the book of flowers. These have gone on the Junior Biography and Science shelves. Those Were the Days looked interesting as a glimpse into New Zealand’s daily life nearly a hundred years ago; I’ve put them on the New Zealand History shelf.

This one about Captain Cook looks like it will be a good one to go along with a study of New Zealand history, too.

We read a few books from the shelf, too. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Carry On, Mr. Bowditch aloud for the third time (although it’s been at least 10 years since the last time). It’s a great, very interesting biography of the man who transformed navigation at sea. We also finished The May Series with The Fortunate Ones. This was a great way to see what life was like in rural areas in New Zealand during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. I also finally read Committed, which was a very interesting biography of a man who flew bombers during the Vietnam War.

I found a way to fit The Road From Home and Maniac Magee into a reading challenge this month. I think I read the first many years ago, before we moved to New Zealand, but didn’t really remember it. It’s an incredible account of the Armenian genocide in the 1910s. When I was young, we had a neighbor whose mother was caught in that, so the topic has always been of interest to me. I have reassigned it to the Junior Biography shelf, from the History shelf. Maniac Magee has been on our shelf for at least ten years. Now that I’ve read it, I’m wondering why I waited so long. It’s an amazing story that defies description. So many hard topics are covered here, within the context of a great story. It goes on the Young Adult shelf. Pure Joy is one that came home from America with us a few months ago. I’ve enjoyed reading through this devotional, and now it’s on the shelf for others to borrow.

I also bought some more books from a Facebook group. My girls were delighted to have another Amelia Bedelia book, and I was also glad to find Winky, another easy reader. There was also a Jungle Doctor book we didn’t have yet.

Sometimes I see some books on that Facebook page that I reserve as fast as I can. These five by Kenneth Thomasma are good examples. We already had three of his books on the shelf, and our children, at least, have loved them. I was thrilled to be able to add five more, and I’m looking forward to reading them. They are on the Junior Fiction shelf. I noticed Are You an Art Sleuth? on the page as well. We have never done much art study, but this one is a lot of fun. I’m still debating on which shelf to place it–the Junior Art shelf, where there are a lot of how-to books, or the Adult Miscellaneous shelf, where I put the Norman Rockwell book I recently purchased? Any input?

These five books from the Wonders of Creation series were also an immediate purchase. We already had The Weather Book, which I read to the children last year sometime. I found it very readable, quite interesting, and I learned a lot from it. I’m planning to work these books into our morning homeschool routine over the next year. They go on the Junior Science shelf. I was also delighted to find a copy of Genesis: Finding Our Roots. I borrowed a friend’s copy a number of years ago to study with some of the children, and loved it so much that I’ve been looking for my own ever since. It is on the Junior History shelf.

These next three books have just been added to the Young Adults Fiction shelf. We like most of Rosemary Sutcliff’s books, and have read Beowulf online. I love reading that legend from the persepective presented in After the Flood, which, sadly, is hard reading, that the dragon was a form of dinosaur. The Watsons Go to Birmingham is an engrossing, humorous, hard story about a Black family during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Rowan Farm is the wonderful sequel to The Ark–both make great family read-alouds.

Prudence and the Millers and Storytime With the Millers are good books to read as part of a morning routine, offering encouragement in Godly living. They are on the Junior Fiction and Independent Readers shelves. Encyclopedia Brown Saves the Day was given to us by someone who borrowed five other books in the series for her son–thank you! It will go on the Independent Reader shelf, along with the others in this series that children love. I bought Pink and Say because I love almost all of Patricia Polacco’s picture books. This one is not fuzzy and warm, though. It’s a war story, and has a sad ending. It was written to honor a person who gave his life for a friend–but we ended up with tears after reading it. “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the Sloth is a fun one about rain forest animals. Tracks of the Tiger is great for boys who need a high-interest story. I put it on the Junior Fiction shelf, but when I picked up the next Bear Grylls book I had bought, and pre-read it, I decided that one would not go on our shelf. I would recommend caution with his books, and I’m trying to be wise about choosing ones to keep.

We have several new books for adults! I bought the rest of the books I didn’t yet have in Chautona Havig’s The Agency Files series. These are unique thrillers with a small amount of romance in most of them. My mom and one of my sons are working their way through them right now. I plan to reread the entire series at some point, too. I also bought Ties That Blind to finish the Sight Unseen series by the same author. Trim Healthy Wisdom was my recent “continuing education” read; I learned of some amazing research about health. Gut healing has become a passion of mine in the past few years, since I’ve seen what a difference it has made in my husband’s life, and I learned a lot in this book.

With a recent order for schoolbooks, I also ordered a few reading and picture books. These included Tell Me the Stories of God and His People, a beautiful Bible storybook; Zainab’s Miracle, about a child in a refugee camp; and Money in the Cow Feed, a true story that happened to the author’s father. All of these are gorgeous, full-color, hardcovers. Beautiful books and wonderful stories!

The Mystery of the Date Palm and Fitting In, Frankly were also in that order. The first is a picture book retelling of an old parable. It is another beautiful, colorful, wonderful hardcover story. The second is an exploration of what it really means to fit in–and how much do we want, as Christians, to fit in with the people around us? It is especially meaningful for missionary children. As I read it, I constantly compared it to our family; our children don’t feel like they fit in with their relatives in America–but they don’t totally fit in here, either. I really enjoyed this book! It is going on the Junior Fiction shelf.

I have also been doing some reorganizing. We have many wonderful nonfiction picture books on our shelves, which are rarely, if ever, read. I decided to pull them out of their slots and put them all together in one section. Look at all these fun resources for learning about all sorts of subjects! While I was at it, I also pulled out the nonfiction books that are at the same reading level as the Independent Readers, and put them in their own area, and also the Graphic Novels (which are mostly nonfiction!). As of writing this post, I haven’t gotten the shelf assignments relabeled in our catalog, nor made new spine labels for them, but that will come soon.

To borrow any of these books or others, please go to our catalog. Find out how we loan books on this page.

Graphic novels are not my style of book! I would much rather read a book with no pictures than this style. However, I have typical children who love any sort of comic book, so we have a few. I have just added these three to our shelves, and am thinking about whether maybe I should collect all the graphic books we have in one dedicated section. I’ll report it in one of these posts when/if I do that!

I was able to source some more I Survived books! I think we have all except 7 of them now. My 10-year-old is delighted every time she gets to read a new one, and can hardly wait for me to get through it first. I brought this Hank the Cowdog book home with us from America. I love the Hank stories–his use of language is fun, and the dog is so dumb, while thinking he’s incredibly smart, that I have a lot of fun reading these aloud. The one problem with them (other than the language, which I have censored) is Hank’s thoughts about “women.”

George Stephenson is an easy reader biography that I picked up at the Bookarama. I think it is the second one in this series that we have, and I will certainly keep my eyes open for more. I’m in a quandry–do I put a book like this with the children’s biographies, or with the easy readers? It fits in both places! If you have an opinion, please comment. I would like to know what other people think. Her Own Song is a very different book. Mellie’s father got hurt, and she was on her own, and the only person who helped her was a Chinese man–in Portland, Oregon in 1908! She learned a lot of disturbing things about her past in a short time. This book covers racism, adoption, family, and friendship. When I bought Ramona Quimby, Age 8, it meant that our set of Ramona books was complete. I read through all eight of them in a week to make a decision what to do with them. I remembered enjoying them, but a couple of other people I talked to couldn’t stand them. I have decided to keep the set, but because we are running out of space, I will put them on the shelf in the container. I like the way the author is able to get into a little girl’s mind and help me, as an adult, to understand the way a child thinks and sees the world. I also like the way she portrays Ramona growing up and changing from a spoiled brat at age 4 to a responsible young woman at age 9, at the end of the series. These are available for anyone who wants to borrow them, but I would recommend parental guidance for children under the age of about 10.

Esther finally read Someday You’ll Write and really liked it. She recommends it for middle-grade children who are interested in writing. I’m putting it on the Adult Miscellaneous shelf. I posted a review of Start Little, Dream Big, which you can see here. It is on the Adult Biography shelf. I have finally found a way to get myself to read inspirational books! I chose one slot of time in my day when I generally take five minutes to read something, and I read a couple of pages of one of these books at that time. In that way, I got through Prayers and Peanut Butter, which has been on the shelf for a few years. It is a wonderful book of encouragement to mothers. I put it on the Adult Devotional shelf.

We added several picture books to the shelf. One day when several of us were in town, the used book shop happened to be open. I had never been in there, but my oldest daughter had a couple of times. What a gem! That is a shop I plan to visit whenever I can. We found Rechenka’s Eggs in a basket of children’s books, and since I love Patricia Polacco’s books, that one was quickly added to our stack. As we talked with the owner after paying for our purchases, she picked up A Christmas Story by Brian Wildsmith and gave us this copy, because the corners were scuffed. Do we care about scuffed corners with such beautiful artwork? No! (Even though the story is rather fanciful.) One of the younger girls found this gorgeous copy of The Poky Little Puppy for free, too, there. The same day we received a package of books I bought, which included two by Ezra Jack Keats, one of our favorite picture book authors. They are delightful! I also got five Billy and Blaze books by C. W. Anderson that day in the mail. If you have a young horse-lover, don’t miss these. The illustrations are gorgeous, even though the stories are somewhat lame. We already had old hardcover copies of two of these, but they are so old the pages are becoming brittle, so I was quite happy to find better ones. A friend who uses our library a lot had a cleanout, and she gave me The Road to Tuapeka, among other books. It’s a fun fantasy about wekas, which are a troublesome bird in our area. Except for the last one, which is on the New Zealand Picture Books shelf, these are all with the picture books.

The day we went to town, we went to all the secondhand shops around, as well as the book shop. One of my finds was this gorgeous copy of Uncle Remus Stories! The cover doesn’t look like much, but just see the artwork! I’m looking forward to reading it to my littlest girl. We have a newer version of these stories, which I read to her last year, and she loved it. I also picked up The Lost Seal. It’s a story about a seal in Antarctica that lost its way and was helped back to safety by scientists–a true story, apparently. It is a bilingual book, both English and Maori. I found Red Fox and His Canoe in a listing on Facebook. My youngest is at the perfect stage for this I Can Read Book, and she enjoyed having one she hadn’t seen before. The same person was selling The One and Only Dr. Seuss, and one of my older sons snatched that one up; he loves Dr. Seuss. Looking for Solid Shapes was another gift from my friend. It’s a good introduction to geometry. Every one of these books goes on a different shelf: Junior Fiction, Easy Reader, Picture Books, Junior Science, and Junior Miscellaneous!

My friend also gave us all these easy readers that her family had finished with. Once again, it was great to have some new ones for my youngest to practice with. She spent a long time studying the pictures in all of them, and organizing them after I showed her the numbers on the covers indicating their order in the series.

I have continued working my way through the stacks of books on my dresser. Still More Two-Minute Mysteries joins the other books like this by Donald J. Sobol, who wrote the Encyclopedia Brown books that I loved when I was young and most of my children love now. I picked up Secret Admirer in the A to Z Mysteries series from the Bookarama. I wasn’t at all sure I would keep a book about Valentine’s Day, but I loved it! The House on the Volcano is set on the slopes of Mount Pele in Hawaii, and though I don’t love the Hawaiian mythology, I love the story and the glimpse at what it’s like to live beside an erupting volcano. El Blanco and Flaming Star are both perfect for young horse-lovers. The first is set in Mexico, the second in England. Emil and the Detectives is a fun mystery about a boy who was traveling alone to visit his grandmother in Berlin, and was robbed on the way. Because he had recently done something he shouldn’t have, and had a guilty conscience, he couldn’t ask the police for help; instead, he ended up with a lot of new friends. Norton was given to us a number of years ago by a friend. I debated a little about keeping it, but decided that cat-lovers would like it, so I’ll put it with the animal stories on the Junior Science shelf. A Grain of Rice is not new, but after reading it (for about the sixth time) this week, I decided to feature it because I love it so much. This is a wonderful love story, which also illustrates exponents. Then there is The Great Trouble. This is a great story about a medical mystery: how did cholera spread? Everyone in the slum area of London was sure it was spread by the terrible-smelling air–but one doctor believed it came from water. Eel made it his mission to help Dr. Snow prove his hypothesis.

When we went to the used book shop in town, I noticed The Gully That Gabriel Found in a box of free books outside. It is the story of a discovery of gold, written in the style of “The House That Jack Built.” My oldest daughter also found Endurance there. She had just listened to it, and said it was a very good book. I’m looking forward to reading it. We already had a copy of We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, but when I was able to get one in better condition along with more books in the series, I took it. (The old one has insect holes boring through many pages!). This series (Swallows and Amazons) is delightful. I’m planning to read them all aloud over the next year.

I have been going through American History with my 10-year-old. We just read The White House is Burning. This is a fascinating description of two or three days during the War of 1812. We also read The Constitution of the United States to learn about that document and how it was drafted, and then read The Bill of Rights to go along with it.

The day that we went secondhand shopping, one of my boys picked up Friends to the End and The Blue Day Book. They have beautiful photographs of animals along with sparse, witty text. I did take out a page or two in each of them that were not appropriate. This edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress is a graphic novel based on an animated film. My family has spent a lot of time studying the pictures in this book!

Colossal Creatures is a book packed with information about a number of different large animals. Dinosaur’s Day is an easy reader, perfect for children who love those creatures! Alamo All-Stars is a graphic book about the war between Texas and Mexico. I read it aloud to my daughter as part of our study of American history, and many others in the family have picked it up, too.

And yet more books from my stacks! One of the boys picked Page Boy of Camelot to read aloud; as I read the first few pages, I realized that I read it to them a few years ago from an online library. We enjoyed this King Arthur story again, and then I glued it back together, since it fell apart as I read it. The Wild Boy in the Bush is a story about pioneer life in New Zealand, and children who found moa bones. Mystery of the Empty House is a fun story about some children who solved a puzzle that revealed secrets from the American Revolution.

The last book I read from my stacks this month is Escape From Stalingrad. I don’t think I had ever read anything before about the battle for Stalingrad, when Hitler threw his troops against that Russian city. Whew! That was a terrible time in history. Turkey for Christmas is a recently-reprinted book that I brought home from America. I read it to the family on Christmas evening, and we enjoyed it.

To borrow any of these books or others, please go to our catalog. Find out how we loan books on this page.