I’ll start this post with a quote I loved from a book I recently read, Wilderness Treasure. It is about several botanists who traveled around Colonial America/the young United States, collecting specimens. The first man, John Bartram, loved reading. He had a number of books, But always he pressed Peter [an Englishman for whom he collected specimens] for more. His friend began to wonder if John were neglecting farming and plant hunting for reading. “Remember Solomon’s advice,” he cautioned, “in reading of books, there is no end.” John replied, “I take thy advice about books very kindly, although I love reading such dearly: and I believe, if Solomon had loved women less, and books more, he would have been a wiser and happier man than he was.”
Several of us went to most of the secondhand shops in our small town one day. It turned out to be a good day for finding books! I got quite a few picture books. Grandma’s Bill is a lovely story of a grandmother showing her grandson pictures of his grandfather throughout his lifetime, and finishing with pictures of the little boy himself. The Sky Soldiers is about World War II in Crete, and the New Zealand soldiers who helped to liberate the island from the Germans. Beautiful pictures and a lovely story!
I was delighted to find two more books in the Chronicles of Paki series. These are graphic novels that tell the story of New Zealand’s history in a fun way. Torty and the Soldier is a beautiful picture book of a tortoise saved and brought back to New Zealand by a soldier in Europe in World War I; the tortoise is apparently still alive today! I also found two more of the Rancho Cucumunga Kids series. These are stories told by a grandfather to his grandchildren, and then turned into picture books. They are rather far-fetched, but fun, and set in Canterbury in an area we often travel through. I bought Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox and Night Animals because they are easy readers, and I am always on the lookout for more realistic books for that shelf. I like books like the Polar Animals one, too, for the Art shelf. Esther picked up this Curious George book on a different occasion, but it slipped through the cracks and didn’t get entered into the library until now.
We actually bought some brand-new books, too! I added Cornmeal Samaritan and Fitting In, Frankly to an order of school books. The first is a picture book about how an Amishman saved the lives of six elderly Native Americans in Indiana in the 1820s. The second is written for third-culture children, those caught between the country of their citizenship and that of the country in which they live. I found it absorbing, and could relate in a lot of ways to Francisco (Frank) and the way he couldn’t fit in completely either in Guatemala where he was born, or in Canada where his grandfather lived. Several of us went together to buy The Grace Stories for my daughter for her 11th birthday, after she devoured three of the books in the series and was desperate to find out what happened next.
I had the chance to buy both of The Gift of Values books. I love Rosie Boom, both as a friend and as an author, so I knew I wanted them when I saw them. These go on the Junior Devotionals shelf.
Esther lived in Timaru for several weeks, and had the chance to go secondhand shopping a couple of times. She brought a number of books home with her, which I’m working on previewing. Summer Pony and The Valley of the Ponies are great for middle-grade horse-loving girls, and Shark Lady is for children who have graduated from easy readers and want true stories.
I bought a few beautiful nature-study books. Want to learn about Ants? What about New Zealand Insects and Other Creepy-Crawlies? Or maybe all the small creatures that inhabit gardens, the bush, or other areas of New Zealand? Look no farther!
This was an unexpected find! About a year ago, we read The Story of the Trapp Family Singers together and loved it. When I saw Around the Year With the Trapp Family, I knew I wanted it on the shelf. It has a very Catholic slant, of course, but I love the way Maria talks about the feasts and other special days of the year. There are many songs sprinkled throughout this book, too.
I’m working on the backlog of books waiting for previews! This month I read Gordon Korman’s Everest trilogy. These three slim books must be read together; the story is not complete without that. It is the story of four teenagers who won a contest to climb Mount Everest and what they learned about life and themselves along the way. I struggled to put these books down.
The Radical Book for Kids was one of the books I brought home in August, and I decided to use it for part of our morning homeschool routine. It talked about many different topics relating to the Bible, and we enjoyed it. Esther bought The Blue Castle not long ago, and read it, and loved it. She recommended it to my mom, who read it and loved it, so I read it, and loved it. The ending is funny!
My brother came to visit, and of course I sent some books for him to bring us in his suitcase. Here are some of the picture books. Planet Earth is an easy reader for the young readers who want something scientific. A Child’s Book of Art is a beautiful, large-format book. A couple of years ago, I found it online and enjoyed it with my little girl, but it’s much better when it is a physical copy (and be sure to look at the page of the senses; the “smell” picture is hilarious). Guess Why God Made the Rainbow was a book sent me for a review; it joins the others in the same series with the Christian picture books we have.
I received Plague of Lies for review. (Notice the Not for Resale banner across it?!) It turned out to be very good–see my review here. Homer Price was a bargain book I bought. Such fun stories!
We managed to read aloud a few of the books that have been on the shelf for a long time, as well. Ho-Ming Girl of New China was in a box of books handed to us by an elderly neighbor who was clearing everything out of her house about four years ago. We moved on almost all the books, but noticed that this one was by the author of Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, which we had, so we kept it. It turns out that “New China” is the 1920s or 1930s, around the time of a massive flood on the Yangtzee River, and it basically tells, in story form, what life was like for rural families at that time, and especially for girls. Justin Morgan Had a Horse has always been a favorite of mine, and I was delighted to get to read it aloud again. We also all found South Pole fascinating. The chapters in this book alternate between telling the story of Scott and of Amundsen, as they raced to be the first to reach the South Pole. This meant that we would enjoy one chapter, and the next would make us very sad. It was quite well done, and I recommend this for people who like to read about exploration or Antarctica.
I spent the last year and a half slowly going through Talking With Your Kids About God with one of my children. It brought up a lot of very important topics, which I was glad to get to discuss with her. We just read The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt By Day, about William Tyndale, and enjoyed this perspective of him from the point of view of a smuggler who took the newly-translated Bibles into England. I chose The Mission and the Cross to fill a prompt for a reading challenge, and really enjoyed this glimpse into the Catholic missions in California in the 1770s.
In Grandma’s Attic has been a favorite of mine for many years, and I was delighted to get to read it to my youngest recently. When a young girl came to the library to borrow a few books, I recommended it to her, too. Another of my favorites is The Lewis and Clark Expedition, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it to my girls over the past month. Then there is The Bible Smuggler–one of the first historical fiction books I ever read, over 40 years ago!
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