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.
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