Welcome back for this month’s spotlight on books! To begin, I came across a blog post that had some wonderful thoughts about choosing books for our children to read. It is written by a Christian mother whose children attend public school. She has several simple lists of things to look for in choosing books and discussing them. Have a look for some inspiration!
The same friend from whom we acquired a lot of easy readers last month found more books to give away. This time, I chose a number of beautiful picture books. Aren’t they gorgeous? We’re enjoying exploring them, and I hope other families will borrow them and also enjoy them.
This first book is another from my friend. One day, we went secondhand shopping locally, and found several craft books. My little girls are really into this kind of projects right now. We have quite an extensive collection of such books, if anyone else needs activities for their children.
In the secondhand shops, I also found these two books for the New Zealand Picture Books shelf. The Naughtiest Puppy is a delightful story about a sheepdog, and Sam’s First Swim is set in Kaikoura. That place feels like home to us, since we went there for church for eight years.
I loved the pictures in these books about spiders and desert animals. I’ve always been fascinated by the Berlin Wall, ever since learning about it when I was in third grade. The title is a bit of a misnomer, though; the book is about the building of the wall and its history, rather than its end.
My friend also gave us some more early readers. The two about cooking are a lot of fun for my little girls! I found Plenty of Penguins at one of the op shops.
Some of our read-alouds this month included the old favorite The Hundred Dresses. I’ve probably read this one aloud four or five times, and never get tired of it. It’s a wonderful story about two girls learning how their actions affected another girl. This copy is on the verge of falling apart, and has a tunnel through it where an unknown insect attacked it decades ago before we got it, but the story is still fresh and alive. The Nine Lives of Montezuma is the first Michael Morpurgo book I’ve read aloud, although I have read a few myself. We all enjoyed this story of a farm cat who well and truly used up his nine lives. The Llama Who Had No Pajama is one of my favorite children’s poetry books. It contains a large variety of types of poem, mostly about animals, and the pictures are fun, too.
Little Britches is such a joy to read aloud. I was trying to remember how many times I’ve read this book. I believe I read it aloud four times now, and to myself at least once. I love this book–and the whole series. Return of the White Book is also wonderful. It’s a completely different setting and theme; this one describes how the Karen People of Burma learned about Jesus, and then took God’s Word to other people groups near them. And then, there is The Shakespeare Stealer. What a fun adventure/mystery story set in and around the Globe Theater! We enjoy it every time we read it. (News flash–I think I just bought the other two books in the trilogy! I’m waiting for the purchase to be confirmed.)
I have been reading Egermeier’s Bible Story Book to my youngest daughter for a little over a year, and we finally reached the end. I have read this with almost all of my children when they were 5-6 years old. It’s a great introduction to the entire Bible. I also read her Johnny Appleseed (in one sitting). This is a gorgeous picture book biography. I love the story and the illustrations. In our trip through world history, we have reached the early 1600s, so I read Peter and the Pilgrims to the children. It’s a good peek into the voyage of the Mayflower.
It’s been many years since I read any George MacDonald books, but in reading Sir Gibbie I remembered why I like them. It’s a slow read, but very good. And isn’t this a beautiful edition! What Money Can’t Buy is a very personal glimpse into the Great Depression and how individual farm families were affected. I really liked this one. I read A Boys and Girls Life of Christ to the children for our morning reading time. I liked the way it told the life of Christ as a continuous narrative. There were two places where we noted some doctrinal differences to our beliefs, and I mentioned them in my review.
Yours, Anne provides a good introduction to The Diary of Anne Frank. It describes Anne’s life before, during, and after her years of hiding in a house in Amsterdam. Not I, But Christ was one of last year’s Bookarama finds. It is a collection of short (2-3 pages) radio talks that Corrie gave. I found them encouraging and sometimes convicting. Farm Boy came from the Bookarama last year, too. It is a sequel to War Horse, which I also enjoyed.
We all like Stone Soup, so when I found one, I got it. It’s not our favorite version, but will do till we get a better one. The Cow Who Fell In the Canal is just plain fun. I love the style of pictures in it! Wombat Goes to School was a birthday present from someone for Miss Joy. It joins the other two Wombat books that we have.
Flood and Snowy were also birthday presents for her. Flood describes a flood that happened in Australia, while Snowy is about a little girl who lived on a canal boat in England, and her pet, the horse that pulled the boat. Two Are Better Than One is a lovely story about two friends, age 13, and their last year of school before high school. This is a great story for girls.
These two Popular books were also birthday presents. They are collections of stories for little children, apparently printed in the 1950s. I love the illustrations! The Bears of Blue River is a boy’s adventure story. The main character tangles with one bear after another. It is set in the early 1800s in Indiana.
These two books by Kate DiCamillo are from the same series. They are both rather goofy stories with funny illustrations. Franklin Endicott and the Third Key has a main character who learns how to deal with worries that have taken over his life, and Francine Poulet Meets the Ghost Raccoon shows a person learning how to conquer fears. I read Made You Look slowly, a couple of pages a day. My children became acutely aware of advertising and how it works on us. This book has sparked many discussions!
I bought three more Life of Fred books this month, to complete the elementary series. These are a fun way to learn math concepts, as well as much more about life.
We’re slowly reading through all the Swallows and Amazons books, and just finished Winter Holiday. One of my little girls asked if we have the whole series, and was delighted when I told her we do. Takashi’s Voyage and Six Little New Zealanders have been on the shelf for a long time, and I finally got around to screening them. Takashi’s Voyage is a delightful story of a sailing voyage from Japan to New Jersey. In Six Little New Zealanders, we get a glimpse at what happens when six children, ages 9-19, suddenly move onto their three bachelor uncles’ farm for a year. What an adventure!
I always enjoy books by Jean Fritz, and the perspective offered in Early Thunder is really interesting. What was life like for people loyal to the king who happened to live in New England in 1774? Most books I read are written from the perspective of those who wanted independence, but there were also a lot of Loyalists. A Fistful of Summer is a series of stories about a child’s life in Christchurch and Wellington during the Great Depression. Horse Stories From the Man Who Played With Sticks is intended for two groups of people–children who love horse stories, and their parents who need to know how to train their children for obedience.
I’m working through a pile of My Story books, deciding which ones merit a place on our shelves and which I don’t want to keep. Sabotage! made the cut; it is the story of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in the Auckland Harbour, and how Greenpeace gained a foothold in this country. I also liked Journey to Tangiwai and Nowhere to Run.
One day, after meeting some friends for lunch in Reefton, I popped into a secondhand book shop that I’ve been looking at when I passed by for several years. One book I found was one that Esther and I read and enjoyed after borrowing it from a friend. Minka and Margaret is quite an inspiring story.
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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