These three were among the read-alouds we finished in July. Coot Club is in the Swallows and Amazons series. I thought it was Book 4, but after we finished it I discovered that it actually comes after the next one we picked up. Oh, well. It doesn’t matter much; each book is pretty much a stand-alone story. This one is all about sailing around on rivers in England. No Children, No Pets has been a favorite story in our family for many years. I think this is the third time I’ve read it aloud, and each of the children to whom I’ve read it has loved this tale of three children, their mother, and their pet cat as they discover the motel that Mother just inherited in Florida. Wild Places is a favorite, too. Each page has 6-8 pictures of various environments and the people and animals who live in them.

We enjoyed learning about rowing a Bronze Age galley, and about ancient Greece and Greek myths, from The Jason Voyage. Prairie Child turned out to be a favorite story. The girls in this story don’t mean to get into trouble, but they frequently do. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole book. The Family Under the Bridge has been a family favorite for many years. I enjoyed reading it to the children again!

These are some of my recent purchases that I screened for the library this month. A Winter’s Day in 1939 is an amazing World War II story. It is narrated by a young boy whose Polish family were forced off their farm in Ukraine and sent to Siberia. For a war story, it is surprisingly gentle. I would have no problem letting an 8-year-old read it alone. Holes, on the other hand, is a much harder book. It is set in a juvenile detention facility where the young offenders must dig holes in a blistering desert every day. Why? The answer is unexpected, as is the result of this treatment on the main character. This one goes on the Young Adult shelf, as does I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade. This is one we owned many years ago, which I sold in a temporary fit of insanity which has resulted in my buying a number of books for a second time when I came to my senses. It has many questionable factors in it, but the overall story is wonderful.

Joric and the Dragon has nothing to do with horses, despite the dust jacket cover. It is set in England, about a boy who pretends to be his godly twin brother instead of his misbehaving self. Gipsy Michael tells the story of the West Coast gold rush and the Maori wars in New Zealand in the 1860s from the perspective of a young boy who was involved. There are some icky scenes, but the author assures us that every event described is actual history. Surviving Sharks would be great to hand to a boy who loves stories of danger. Don’t give it to a child with an overactive imagination!

Betsey’s Wishes is set in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. It is based on family records, and is a fairly interesting book about a 10-year-old girl trying to grow up. I found The Case for a Creator a very readable and interesting (actually fascinating!) account of a man’s search for truth. I found the chapter about consciousness especially interesting, as well as the statement in the chapter about astronomy that the universe seems to be designed for discovery. All About Napoleon Bonaparte is a very interesting biography. It’s the kind of book that made me fall in love with biographies when I discovered them at the library in the early 1980s.

I also read a number of Bobbsey Twins books back then. When I found a few copies last year I picked them up to see what I think of them now. They are lovely stories of a family; some have the children solving a mystery, and some don’t, but the children always have adventures.

Esther visited a secondhand bookshop in Dunedin while she was down there for a couple of weeks. She found an unabridged copy of Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret to replace the one she bought awhile back. It did not say it was abridged, but compared to the audiobook she listened to, there was a lot missing. Comparing the two print copies confirmed to us that we don’t want abridged books! She also found a copy of Pat of Silver Bush to add to her L. M. Montgomery collection, and read What if They Find Us? which she bought last year. She said it is very good.

A local homeschooling friend invited me to have a look at the books she was sorting out to give away/sell as she packs to move, and suddenly, the month that I thought would not see many new ones for this post got changed! I brought home 60 books, but some of them are waiting for me to read them first. Among the rest were many easy readers. What a windfall! Easy readers have been very popular, and my youngest is right at that stage now.

I bought Yell and Tell from her. This isn’t a topic I really like to read about with my little children, but it is so necessary for them to know what to do if they are ever molested. I decided to house it on the Adult Miscellaneous shelf, rather than the picture books shelf, and added two more books that I had kept in a closet. This way, they will be easily accessible for adults, but children aren’t likely to notice them.

One of my teenage sons loves The Wingfeather Saga and the Green Ember series, so I brought home all she had to offer of those. He was delighted to buy them from me for what I gave her for them, as well as another Ranger’s Apprentice book. I also brought home The Mill on the Floss to add to our classics collection.

Finally, I chose What Makes You Ill for the children’s science shelf, and a few books for the Independent Readers shelf. I had never seen an Amelia Bedelia chapter book, but I’ll be watching for those. She also had several Paddington books that we didn’t have yet. My little girls love them!

Betteken’s Refuge has been on the shelf for many years, but I finally read it. We have read another book about Maeyken Wens; this one tells the same story but from a different perspective. This is a look at a girl whose mother died for her faith. White Water was quite a contrast. It is the story of a group of people, including some from New Zealand, who took jet boats up the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon–the only time that was ever done. I had forgotten that jet boats were invented here, but this is the story of the inventor and his family. It’s quite an adventure! I also finished The Bible Companion Book 8; I’m enjoying this Bible Study series.

At the shop in Dunedin, Esther found Peter Duck. Now we have the entire Swallows and Amazons series! We really enjoyed this [rather unrealistic] adventure story!

More new books! We have just completed a complete inventory of the library, laying hands on every book that is not currently checked out and making sure that the book is not lost, it is in the correct place, and the cover image is correct (because we changed a setting on LibraryThing last year, which made 2/3 of our cover pictures change to the wrong one! Oops.). It was a bit scary to realize how many new books we have acquired since our last inventory in September, and how many we haven’t read yet. This is my To Be Read stash.

Esther went to a large secondhand book fair when she was visiting friends for a weekend, and found some lovely books. She bought these old copies of The Three Musketeers and Little Dorrit to add to her collection of classics. The Bamboo Cross is an amazing story about Vietnamese Christians during the 1960s. I read a borrowed copy several years ago, and it was inspiring. She also found several more books to add to her collection of Agatha Christie books.

She also found replacement copies for several of our books that have been well-loved. The paperback copy of The Story About Ping that I bought when Esther was quite young is nearly worn out, so I was delighted when she found this hardcover copy of one of our favorite picture books. Our old paperback of The Wheel on the School was falling apart, too. I love this hardcover–with the original dustjacket still! We had a first edition of Jungle Doctor Operates, but it was in very poor condition, and this one matches most of our other books from that series.

At another secondhand book sale, we found a copy of Anne Frank to replace ours, which was literally crumbling. That same sale yielded a Marguerite Henry book we didn’t have yet, Misty’s Twilight. I was delighted to be able to complete the Misty series although, to be honest, this book is not my favorite of Henry’s books. Several days later we went secondhand shopping, and I found this hardcover copy of The Carrot Seed, a delightful picture book about a little boy who knew his seed would grow.

The Silver Sword is another old favorite in our family; now we have a hardcover on the shelf to replace the falling-apart paperback. And then there are these lovely old copies of Little Men and Jo’s Boys!

Mary on Horseback and Dolphin Treasure were two of the books I read recently to my youngest. They are also old favorites that I’ve read many times! After we finished Mary, we looked up the 1931 documentary mentioned in the end of the book, and got to see old movie footage of the same scenes! As we were doing inventory, I rediscovered this picture book of Sir Francis Drake. We happened to be studying him at that time, so we added it in to one of our reading sessions. It’s a humorous look into the explorer’s life.

I got to read Caddie Woodlawn to one of my daughters. What a treat! I don’t know how many times I’ve read this one, but I always enjoy it. I finally read Traveller to myself. It was especially interesting because it is set in Canterbury, in places we have been. It’s a beautiful story of redemption, and of forgiveness, and letting go. We also read Westward Ho! It turns out to be a tale of the struggle between England and Spain for naval power, in the 1500s; the Spanish Armada figures into the story. Sadly, it ended up being quite a bloody story, with a lot of prejudice shown (the Spanish are completely evil; the South American Indians are a lower race, just barely above the level of monkeys). Since it was written in 1855, it is likely an accurate portrayal of the attitudes of the time, and gave us something to talk about.

I have been working on collecting the Swallows and Amazons series for a year or so, and finally found Swallowdale! Now we are only missing #3, Peter Duck, and one or two of the last ones. Joe found a Ranger’s Apprentice book at a secondhand shop to add to his collection, and Esther found Wives and Daughters. I haven’t read it, but she says it’s really good. James bought Called when he went to a meeting where the author spoke about her life experiences. He enjoyed reading it, and said it was inspiring.

A package of new books I received for the library included all these fun ones. A is for Arches is from a series I used to get from the library when we lived in Michigan. It’s a fun way to explore the states. The Longest Journey is a description of the voyage faced by people immigrating from England to New Zealand in the 1950s. Dick Whittington is a fun retelling of the old legend of a boy and his cat. Avoid Being in a Medieval Castle is from a fun series; I’ve found these quite good for studying various topics. And then there are two more Life of Fred books. I love the way they teach difficult topics in a fun way.

The World of Mathematics and Seven True Elephant Stories were also in that package. I really like Tiner’s books about various historical/scientific topics. The elephant book has been shelved with the Independent Readers; it’s a great book for children who have graduated from Easy Readers and are ready for simple chapter books. Sermons From a Soapbox is one that I got for review, and my mom brought it along when she came. I used it for a daily devotional after she left (she was reading it that way while she was here). I like the short, bite-sized encouraging essays.

I finally talked someone into choosing The Bounces of Cynthiann’ for a read-aloud! I brought this one home in a suitcase last year. It is a delightful story of four orphan children who discover, when they arrive in a small town in Oregon, that the cousin they were to live with has died. What happened to them next makes an engrossing story. Brave Buffalo Fighter is a page-turner about traveling the Oregon Trail. Be sure to read a few reviews of it before handing it to children, though. I included a number of content warnings with my review. Then there is Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters. I chose this one from my TBR pile just because of the title. The author uses stories-within-a-story to change a character’s mindset and bring people together.

As usual, we were able to get through several books that have been on our shelves but unread by us for many years. The Yanks Are Coming is a very readable history of World War I. Some of it is terrible–the way war is. I appreciated learning more about that war; there are a lot of books about World War II, but not many about this one. Esther read Defying Death. It is the story of a Coptic priest in Egypt, and his discovery of Jesus and how he shared Jesus with those around him. She was quite impressed with the story. Sebastian Bach is another book I discovered while doing inventory. I read it quickly, and decided it belonged on the Independent Readers shelf. It is a fascinating story!

These readers were in another parcel of books I bought. They have beautiful pictures! My youngest loves reading them.

That same parcel included all these beautiful science picture books. My children enjoyed studying the pictures in them.

That parcel also included these picture books! When one of the boys read Hattie and the Fox, he asked, “Why does the fox never catch the chicken in picture books?” Sunshine is a fun wordless book. I like these books illustrating various aspects of New Zealand farm life, too. Sadly, Deer Recovery is missing the center pages, so I’ll be watching for a replacement copy.

We finally have a copy of The Story of Ferdinand. Can you tell I like the old picture books? We found Ten Girls Who Used Their Talents in a secondhand shop. I think we have all except one of the books in that series now. And, I found another Bear Grylls Adventures book! The Safari Challenge joins the other three we have from that series. I don’t like the magical aspect, but I do like that these are high-interest, low-level books, and even printed with the OpenDyslexic font. And, the life lessons that are taught in each book are good, too.

I finished reading The Russians series. These are good! I have read a lot about the events of the Bolshevik Revolution and Lenin’s takeover of Russia, but to read about it in this format really makes the events real and personal. I found it fascinating to get an inside glimpse into the tensions that brought Russia to the point of Lenin being able to take over the country. Every so often there is a chapter directly about the Romanov family, the family of the Tsar. Those were a bit hard to read, because I knew what happened to them. Find my reviews of Heirs of the Motherland; The Dawning of Deliverance; White Nights, Red Morning; and Passage Into Light on Goodreads.

And that’s all for June! There will be more books going on the shelf in July, I’m sure. Remember that TBR pile at the top of this post? I’m working on it! As always, to borrow any of these books or others, please go to our catalog. If that link doesn’t work, find another view of it here, and then email me through the contact form on this blog. Find out how we loan books on this page.