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!
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