Library

More new books (no one except Esther and I get excited about book mail–it happens too often)!

Esther was delighted to be able to get this beautiful edition of The Story Girl. It’s hardcover, and the perfect size to hold, and matches some of her other classics.

I found some more Jungle Doctor books. We now have 11 of the chapter books, and two of the picture books. The chapter books are on the Junior Fiction shelf.

I have also been able to read a few more books that I bought in the last several months. These are good enough that I added them to the shelves (there were some that didn’t make the cut, unfortunately, for one reason or another). Goodnight Mister Tom is a heart-wrenching story, set during the London Blitz–but that is not the hard part. The main character is a little boy who had been terribly abused by his mother, and has now been sent to live with a crusty old man whose love died many years ago along with his only child. As with many of the My Story books, Plagues and Federation has some attitudes I don’t care for, but I decided to keep it because it tells of a time and place in history that I had never read about before. This book about William the Conqueror is an amazing glimpse into a time long gone–I learned a lot about that famous man!

Circle of Gold is a beautiful story about a girl’s love for her mother, and about being honest even when it’s very hard to do so. The Dolphin Crossing describes the rescue at Dunkirk, near the beginning of World War II, from the perspective of two boys, one of whom had been evacuated. I loved the way the two boys cared for the mother of the one when she badly needed help. These two books are on the Junior Fiction shelf. Treasures Beneath the Sea was a book I picked up at a local secondhand shop recently. It describes the search for treasures from ships that sank while carrying large amounts of gold. I’ll put it on the Junior History Shelf. Arctic Hero is the amazing story of Matthew Henson, who accompanied Robert Peary to the North Pole; it goes on the Junior Biography shelf. Both of those are the same reading level as our Independent Readers, a step above Easy Readers, for those who are ready for short chapter books. The Secret Three is a delightful story about three boys who created adventure together. It will go to the Easy Reader shelf.

Lisa Settles In is a delightful story about a little girl who moved to a new place and had to figure out how to make friends. She did wrong things a few times, and always made them right. Interestingly, this book was translated into English from some other language! I am placing it on the Independent Readers shelf, for children who have grown past the Easy Readers but are not ready for Junior Fiction yet. Swallows and Amazons is a classic from the 1930s, about a family of children who enjoyed a summer of freedom, camping on an island and sailing a small boat about the lake. It will be on the Junior Fiction shelf.The Red Pony has been on my TBR stack for a long time. It is called a children’s book, but because of the subject matter I’m putting it on the Classics shelf instead. I picked up The Magic School Bus: The Fishy Field Trip because my children enjoy those books. It is a chapter book about the Great Barrier Reef. It would go on the Independent Readers shelf if I didn’t keep the Magic School Bus books together on the Junior Science shelf. Trina is another delightful story of a little girl trying to make friends. Trina and her family are Mexicans, living in a small town in Wyoming because her father works on the railroad. Her problem with making friends is that she can’t speak English, so her father sets to work to help her.

Here are a few more books we bought secondhand, recently. I loved Encyclopedia Brown books when I was young, and my children love them, too, so I was delighted to find two that we didn’t have already–and one of them is hardcover! The two books in the next photo are written with a second-grade reading level, what we here call “Independent Readers.” However, the subject matter is for a much more mature audience, so I decided to put them on the Readers shelf, which is above eye level for most children. They are books that I will offer to mothers who have early-mid teens who struggle with reading. Then there are three hardcovers from the Narnia series that Esther was delighted to find! She will keep them on the Classics shelf.

I also found a copy of Shakespeare’s Globe, a pop-up model of the famous theatre. I’ve seen this in the home of a couple of friends, and thought it would be great to have on hand when we read The Shakespeare Stealer again, so we can see the setting.

We also reread a couple of books that have been on the shelf for many years, which I decided to feature here. We are studying the Reformation for history, and have reached the Anabaptist movement, so I picked out all the books from the shelves that cover that time and had the children choose the ones they wanted me to read aloud. Fire in the Zurich Hills is the story of the first Anabaptist congregation, in a small village near Zurich, Switzerland, in 1525. It really brings the history of that time to life. Not Regina is a fictional story of a young woman who lived near Zurich in 1525 and had to figure out for herself what the truth about the Anabaptists was. Forever With the Lord tells the story of Michael Sattler, one of the early martyrs of the Anabaptist movement.

Esther spent a weekend with some friends, and they all went op shopping together. Esther found these beautiful hardcover copies of the Winnie the Pooh books and Wind in the Willows, and couldn’t resist. Then, she found Tactics, which Elijah had just listened to and decided he want to buy a physical copy of. He was delighted!

We have added a lot of books to the library this month. The first shipment was these two books from The Penderwicks series. We already had book 1, The Penderwicks, and had borrowed all of them from a friend to read together. When I saw them offered for sale, I knew we wanted them! They are on the Junior Fiction shelf.

I managed to read a few more books from my stack in the bedroom that are waiting for a judgment about their worthiness. Esther gave me Climb Every Mountain for my birthday last year. I have been wanting to read it for over 30 years, so I was delighted that she found me a copy! It is an inspiring biography of Paul Brand’s mother. We finished reading Blood on the River last week. It’s not a fun, easy read; the settling of Jamestown was a violent time. However, it’s a good way to learn history. The My Story book about Pompeii is one that I read aloud to my family in one day many years ago, while we shelled four or five bushels of peas one day. It’s another one that is not fun and easy, but true to history. Meet Grace falls into that category, too. It is the story of an orphan girl living in London in the early 1800s who ended up on a convict ship. This book ends with her going on board the ship; there are several more books in the series. It reminded me of the American Girls books, but set in Australia. This is a series I’ll be watching for. All three of these books are going on the Junior Fiction shelf.

Several of us went to town last week. One of the children had a dentist appointment midmorning, so we canceled school for the day and went secondhand shopping after the appointment. Along with some clothing and household items, we found a number of books–of course! These first few pictures are books that the children picked out. Three of the children each chose one book–the Roald Dahl and Encyclopedia Brown books. Miss Joy found five books that she wanted! She loves books, and do you see the common theme in these five books? There are animals on every cover!

Esther found some books she was delighted with. This edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress is easier to read than the other one she has–and it contains both Part 1 and Part 2–and it has illustrations! It joins The Tenant of Wildfell Hall on the Classics shelf. Rosette and the Muddy River is a delightful picture book of a girl and her father. Gospel Patrons is a book that she listened to at some stage, and when she found it in the free box at the Op Shop she grabbed it. I’m not sure yet which shelf it will go on, since I haven’t looked at it. I noticed And the Shofar Blew by Francine Rivers among the books in the shop, and she was delighted to get it for only a couple of dollars to add to her collection by that author, on the Adult Fiction shelf.

And here are the books I found! Pawprints in the Butter is a delightful collection of poetry about cats by a New Zealand author. Drawing books are rarely used here, but occasionally someone gets in the mood to use them and then I’m glad to have a selection on the shelf. Same with the Build it With Boxes book–once in awhile someone finds that kind of book laying around and is inspired. And then there is The Velveteen Rabbit. I got that just because it is a classic. The original publication date is 1922!

Esther went to town with someone. They had car trouble, so decided to go shopping while they waited. She made the mistake of going into the local used book shop, and came out with quite a stack. She was delighted to find hardcover copies of Emma and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She bought Propeller Island because she wants to read Jules Verne. She’s actually reading a digital copy of The Whisper of Glocken aloud right now, so was surprised and delighted to find a paper copy. She’s also collecting books by the Brontes for our Classics shelf, and we all love Astrid Lindgren. This hardcover of Eric and Karlsson On-the-Roof is a actually a first edition!

Another book she found at the book shop was Jungle Doctor’s Fables. I was tickled that she found a hardcover with the dustcover in such good shape–I wish I had mylar covers to protect it! These books are delightful. I added it to the Junior Fiction shelf.

On the Facebook page from which I buy a lot of books, I found The Animals of Doctor Schweitzer. I remember reading a book about Albert Schweitzer when I was fairly young, and being fascinated by him, but hadn’t read anything else since then. However, when I saw this book, and that it was written by Jean Fritz, I knew it was one I wanted on our shelf! I read it to several of the children while we were traveling, and they all thoroughly enjoyed the antics of some of the animals that Doctor Schweitzer adopted. The illustration, ink drawings, are beautiful. I have placed this one on the Junior Biography shelf.

I also found Lynn Austin’s A Proper Pursuit. Esther has an extensive collection of her books (which she plans to read, someday!), and she didn’t have this one yet, so she was delighted to get it. It will be on the Adult Fiction shelf. Starting Strong was also listed that day. We used to have this one, but I hadn’t kept it during one of our moves. However, I was considering buying it again from Sonlight Curriculum to go along with the next level I plan to go through with one of my girls, so decided to get it while it was being offered for a fraction of the new price. It goes on the Junior Theology shelf with the other devotional books for children.

Another book I found on the Facebook page was All Through the Ages. I have a weakness for book lists. This one has some very interesting articles about historical trivia sprinkled throughout, along with lists of books for each time period or geographical region. It goes on the School Shelf.

I also purchased a few books for the New Zealand shelves. All About New Zealand Machines and Inventions is nearly a history of New Zealand in itself. At Home in the Bush is basically a field guide of plants and trees. A Children’s Guide to the Common Insects & Garden Animals of New Zealand is just what it sounds like–a field guide! It’s good to have these on hand for those times when someone needs to identify something–right now!

I took the children to a small secondhand shop while we were in town one day. My 5-year-old spotted a children’s cookbook, and requested that I buy it for her. That’s the kind of request I can’t bring myself to deny, so it came home with us. It’s on the Cookbooks Shelf.

I read several books from my stack in the bedroom that are waiting to be screened before going on the shelves. Trapped on Devil’s Peak is one from a series I’ve been seeing for a number of years; in fact, we have two of the books in the series in our Kindle library. I’ve never read them, though, and didn’t get around to reading the one I checked out from the local library. So, when I bought a print copy recently, I made a point to read it so I would know what this Christian series, set in New Zealand, is like. And what do I think? It’s rather melodramatic. My sons would not like it because it is unrealistic (a live volcano near Nelson? really?). I can see a lot of other boys loving it, though, as well as girls; the protagonists are two boys and two girls. For people who want high adventure with Christian values, this is a great choice. Just don’t expect realism!

My next read was also set partly in New Zealand. Beyond the Narrows features two boys and a girl traveling from England to New Zealand on a ship (date not specified, but flying was common, and the book was published in 1985. This one turns out to be sci-fi, involving experimental gene therapy. The New Zealand setting of the story is Fiordland, near Te Anau, and is depicted pretty accurately. I normally don’t like sci-fi, but this style suits me. One thing I liked was the friendship that was shown here between the children, and how they worked together, and how the father of two of them was involved in the action. Both of these books have found homes on the New Zealand Fiction Shelf.

I picked The Freedom Machine up at a secondhand shop recently, when I recognized the author after having just purchased two of her other books (mentioned in last month’s post). This isn’t a great story, but good enough to stay on the shelf. It is set in Scotland, and the main character runs away from home with his bicycle to get away from the aunt he can’t stand. He meets up with several (very plausible) adventures, makes a new friend, and learns a lot about friendship, family relationships, and love. The biggest thing I didn’t like was the two times he thought he saw a ghost, which could easily be chalked up to imagination. He spends a lot of time talking to his bicycle, and the bicycle talks back to him–but that is obviously imagination, as well. I put this on the Junior Fiction Shelf.

One of the children chose We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea for me to read aloud. We really enjoyed it! It is a great story of resourcefulness, and of children doing their best to honor their parents, even though they ended up doing the opposite of what their mother wanted (they had no choice in the matter). I also liked Land of Promise. The My Story books are a mixed bag. Some are really good, and some have bad attitudes on the part of the children who are the main characters. This one describes the trip by ship from England to New Zealand, and then the early days of the settlement of Wellington. I really liked the way the history was presented. This book will reside on the New Zealand Fiction shelf.

I also read The Wind Blows Free. It’s a lovely story of a family pioneering in the Texas Panhandle. The main character is the oldest daughter, 14 years old when they moved there from East Texas in 1893. She could hardly wait until she turned 16 and would be able to go back to attend a finishing school–but something happened to her during that two years of living where the wind was always blowing. This book is a wonderful addition to our Young Adult Fiction shelf.

When I saw a friend advertising her copy of Trim Healthy Mama Plan, I decided to get it. I have the original Trim Healthy Mama book, but decided this would be a good book to have on the Health Shelf.

A friend who is a frequent patron of the library donated two books to us. I love the beautiful illustrations in Mr. Lincoln’s Boys! We have a number of picture book biographies now on the Junior Biography Shelf. The Companion Library book with Gulliver’s Travels and Treasure Island makes a wonderful addition to the Classics Shelf.

I visited a new bookstore, Pure Books, in Timaru that some friends of mine opened last year. I bought several books there. God’s Missionary caught my eye because I have always been fascinated with the story of Thomas–and a picture book about him? Yes, please! I shelved it with the Junior Biographies. I bought The Fortunate Ones because I already have the first three books in the series, and have borrowed the fourth one from a friend, so when I had the chance to buy the fifth I did. This one goes on the New Zealand Fiction shelf.

We have added a lot of books to the shelves this month! A lot of good books came up on the Facebook page from which I buy a lot, and a large pile was donated to the library. I haven’t read as many from my backlog this month as last, but I did get through a few that are being added to the shelves. This first picture shows books from the A. D. Chronicles series. Neither Esther nor I has actually read any of these books, but we had one of the series on the Adult Fiction Shelf, so I decided to take a chance on them. Have any of you read this series, or books by these authors, and care to offer your opinion on them?

Esther added these beautiful, small-format books to the Classics Shelf. She is working on collecting individual copies of all of Jane Austen’s books; she has an omnibus edition of all of them, but has decided that it is too hard to read from such a big volume.

Esther also bought Pippi Goes Aboard, to complete that series on the Independent Readers Shelf. The Pippi books are fun tall tales! We had Books 1 and 3; now we also have Book 2.

We have been using Sonlight Curriculum since about 2003 or 2004, when Esther was in Kindergarten or First Grade–I can’t remember exactly. We have collected almost all of the books that Sonlight uses, but occasionally I find one we didn’t have. Mostly, those are the Preschool books, since this year is the first time I have ever used that level (with my last child!). I was delighted to be able to purchase Mike Mulligan and More (used in Sonlight Preschool) and Stories From Around the World (used in the Pre-K level we’re working through right now). We have individual copies of three of the four Virginia Lee Burton books already, but they are Esther’s, so I wanted my own–and this includes the one we hadn’t gotten yet! We’ve been reading Stories From Around the World from Internet Archive, but it is much nicer to read a print copy. I’m putting both of them on the Picture Books Shelf. The same person was also selling Beverly Cleary’s Ralph S. Mouse series. Again, we had Books 1 and 3–now we also have The Mouse and the Motorcycle, which is Book 2, to add to the Junior Fiction Shelf.

The books I managed to read this month from the backlist included Tug of War and Between Two Worlds, about a family from Latvia who had to flee their home during World War II. The duology follows them as they travel from one refugee camp to another in Europe, and then immigrate to Canada after the war. Very interesting additions to our Young Adult Shelf! I don’t recall ever reading about people from Latvia before, although we had someone live for a time with our family several years ago who came from there. Survival: Blizzard is not a great book, but a good one for children who love stories about surviving in the wilderness. There are two main characters, a boy and a girl, so it will appeal to both genders. This one is on the Junior Fiction Shelf.

The next two books I read were Anastasia and A Night Divided. What really struck me in Anastasia was the vast divide between the luxurious life of the ruling class and the absolute poverty of the poor–and how the rich had no idea what life was like for the poor. The Tsar’s family seemed utterly unaware of the disparity and how the lower classes viewed them. A Night Divided is an amazing story. I’ve known about the Berlin Wall all my life; I remember studying about it in third grade. I haven’t read many, if any, stories about it and the effect it had on the lives of the people of Berlin, however. This book really pulled me in. I knew that, since it was a novel, the ending had to be happy–but until about three pages from the end I couldn’t be sure! It took me about a week to read this one, and at least twice it dominated my dreams at night as I tried to figure out how Gerta and Fritz could complete their task and escape–before they were caught by the Stasi, or secret police. These books have both been placed on the Junior Fiction shelf.

I also managed to read two books that have been on our shelves, unread, for several years. These are ones I bought from Sonlight Curriculum several years ago, but never got to. I read Code Talkers aloud to the children. What an amazing story! There are parts that are not so nice to read, as it describes World War II in the Pacific, but for the most part it is not too graphic. What I found most fascinating was the way the Navajo Indians used their language as a code to transmit radio messages, and how that code was never cracked by the Japanese. I remember my dad telling me about it, probably less than ten years after that story was declassified, but had never actually read anything about it. This book is a must-read for any study of World War II. The other book is also about World War II–actually, the time immediately after the war. I have been wanting to read this one for several years, and it perfectly fit a prompt in a reading challenge. This one is about a Jewish girl who survived the concentration camps and then found herself wandering through a hostile Poland where Jews were still not wanted. She was found by a Zionist group and helped to lead a large group of children to Palestine. There is some language, and a couple of romantic scenes that I would leave out if I were to read it aloud, but it is an incredible story. Both of these books are on the Young Adult Fiction shelf.

I needed something from Amazon recently, and they offered free shipping if the order was a certain size. Because I had some gift cards, I decided to use them to buy a few books I wanted that also offered free shipping (that’s hard to find to our location!). I came across the Tree Street Kids series a couple of months ago, and listened to the first three with the children while we were on a road trip. We all enjoyed them, and I was impressed with the family values and Christian worldview, so I decided to buy the series. These Junior Fiction books will be enjoyed by anyone who likes the Brady Street Boys series, or Sugar Creek Gang (which we don’t have). I still needed a few more dollars to get the free shipping, so I found Desert Dog. Some day, I want to have all of Jim Kjelgaard’s books on the shelf–one at a time!

Now, on to the donations! A local religious group who publish some books sent us a boxful of some of their titles.

Some of these, especially the ones about New Zealand’s history, look pretty interesting!

A friend who patronizes our library donated this book about Michael Faraday. She picked it up somewhere, their family read it, and then she decided it would do better being in our library than languishing on her shelves. It looks quite interesting, and will help to fill out our Junior Biography Shelf!

We have acquired a lot of books this month, but most of them are stacked in my bedroom, waiting for me to read them before adding them to the shelves. Therefore, I have decided not to share pictures of our new acquisitions anymore, but only the books that are going on the shelves. I have started to tackle the immense task (and a fun one, most of the time!) of reading lots of children’s books to decide if they are worth keeping, and each month I’ll share the ones that make the cut. So, here are this month’s keepers.

Esther found this beautiful hardcover copy of Persuasion on a Facebook sales page. It does not appear to have been read. She is working on reading all Jane Austen’s books this year, and is delighted to have one that feels so nice in her hands. It will live in the container, on the Classics shelf.

I bought Thomasina a few months ago in a large stack of other books, and added it to the pile in my bedroom. A reading challenge I did this month requested a children’s classic that I hadn’t read yet, and since this was copyrighted in 1957, it fit. There were aspects of the story I didn’t like, but the overall story arc is wonderful, and I love the way the author writes about cats. I’m putting this one on the Young Adult Fiction shelf.

Another prompt in the reading challenge suggested a book mentioned in another book. I hadn’t decided if I would do that prompt yet, until one day when I was listening to the audiobook Leeva at Last and it mentioned One Crazy Summer. I had just added that book to my TBR pile. It had been on our shelf for several years, but not read. Recently Little Miss picked it up, but she didn’t know what to make of it and told me she would like me to read it before she finished. Well, it sure is a different type of story. It is an amazing picture of the turbulent year of 1968, with the Civil Rights Movement gaining traction, and three girls whose mother abandoned them. I like the way the girls cared for each other. It is on the Junior Fiction shelf.

Yet another prompt in the same challenge suggested a book that would help me grow in some aspect of my life as a woman, so I went to our Family shelf. The first book that caught my eye was The Girl Inside, which I bought sometime last year. It is a book of advice for girls about how to live for God in their mid-late teens and early twenties. It is written in a friendly, chatty way, and even I, as a middle-aged woman, found it inspiring.

The World of Christopher Robin was another of Esther’s finds on the Facebook page. We already have a couple of copies of When We Were Very Young, but we didn’t have Now We Are Six, and this is a beautiful hardcover copy with a number of colored illustrations. She will love reading this to her little sisters–they often read a few poems at bedtime. We’ll put it on the Poetry/Anthology shelf.

I also bought two books for the Adult Biographies shelf from that Facebook page. We already had four of James Herriot’s five books, but were missing All Things Bright and Beautiful, so I was delighted to be able to finish the set. I’ve also been working for several years to collect the books from the International Adventures series, and found Lords of the Earth. This is the story of a missionary working with a tribe in Papua New Guinea. I read it a long time ago, and look forward to reading it again.

Along with Lords of the Earth, I bought these two Jungle Doctor books. When they arrived, I immediately read the picture book to Miss Joy. She loved it, as she loves all stories. I liked the parable, and the salvation message at the end. It will be on the Picture Books shelf, of course, and the other goes on the Junior Fiction shelf.

Several of us went to town one day, and we went to a lot of secondhand shops. Miss Joy picked out this set of National Geographic early readers. She loves animals, and these are beautiful books!

Esther found this DVD at one of the shops. Our family has watched it on YouTube, and really enjoyed it–Buster Keaton is pretty funny.

She also found these three books. One of the boys already has a full set of the Chronicles of Narnia, but she is working on collecting them, too. Sadly, after she got home and I took this picture she discovered that there are a number of pages torn out of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so she won’t be keeping that one We also have a copy of The Lantern Bearers, but she wanted her own.

I have also added six more books from the I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis. The more of these I read, the more I like them. Each one describes a significant historical event from the point of view of a fictional child who lived through it. The stories are intense, but written simply enough that 8-10 year olds can easily read them; while I was working my way through these six, Little Miss picked one up from my desk and started reading it. She was immediately engrossed, and for the next two days, while she read seven of the books, I had a hard time getting her to do anything else! If you need a high-interest story for boys, especially, have a look at these books. (Little Miss’s one gripe was that the main character in each book is a boy!). These books will be on the Junior Fiction shelf.

A Girl on Schindler’s List turned out to be a fascinating story of survival during the Holocaust. I’ve been curious about Schindler’s list for a long time, and now I finally know what it was and how Schindler saved so many people. This book is going on the Junior Biographies shelf. New Zealand Disasters is a collection of 20 short stories about disasters that New Zealand has experienced, from the train wreck at Tangiwai to the sinking of the Wahine, and many others in between–earthquakes, plane crashes, fires, and more. This book will live on the New Zealand History shelf. Champ: Gallant Collie has been on the shelf for a couple of years, but neither Esther nor I had gotten around to reading it. I finally did (it took all of half an hour!), and I like this story. It is a wonderful account of a dog redeeming himself after spending the first part of his life goofing off. It will go on the Independent Readers shelf.

Speaking of the Independent Readers shelf, that is something new in the library this month, too! A five-year-old friend of our family started borrowing books from us a couple of months ago, taking five at a time, and swapping twice a week. When we learned a few weeks ago that she was reading Pollyanna, we realized she needed more than the picture books we were sending–although, as we explained to her father, picture books often have a more advanced vocabulary than “easy readers.” We looked over the shelves for books that would be suitable for someone who has advanced beyond our Easy Readers shelf but needs gentle stories that are still pretty easy. We found so many that we decided to create a section of the library just for the 6-8-year-old range. After discussing labels for the section for a day or two, we settled on “Independent Readers.” Look at the wonderful books in this section!

When I order school books from Christian Light Publications, I usually add a few extras. This time, we got Something Extra for Ryanne, and Sidetracked. I ordered the first because we now have a nephew who has Down Syndrome and I wanted to help my children understand him better. I can’t remember why I ordered the other–I don’t even remember adding it to the order! It looks very good, though, and I plan to read it one of these days.

We went to town one day, and went to the one op shop in town that wasn’t still closed from the Christmas holidays. Esther found a couple of books she had been wanting:

I found a couple of the I Survived books offered on a Facebook page, and jumped at the chance. I haven’t read these particular ones, but I bought and read a few others several months ago and found them very easy to read and quite interesting. One of the children who doesn’t necessarily read a lot picked one up and read through it without stopping. That made me want to buy these books when I can.

Esther stopped at a business in a small town close to here, and had a look in the book swap housed in an old refrigerator there. She actually found two books she was interested in! I was amused that I already had a copy of one of them, but she hadn’t seen it because it is in my bedroom waiting for me to read it.

I bought this book for Little Miss for her birthday. She loves to read, so I hope she will enjoy it.

Esther went to Nelson for a friend’s baby shower, and while she was there she did some secondhand shopping. She found these books–a couple of classics; Jane Austen’s last book, finished by someone else; and two children’s books. Miss Joy is excited about the Paddington book; Esther has been reading her one of the other books in that series and she loves it. Good Charlotte is an unknown quantity; we’ll have to read it to decide if it’s staying or not.

Back in January, I took advantage of Sonlight Curriculum’s annual clearance sale, and bought a number of books at 50% off. One that I considered buying but didn’t get to in time before someone else purchased the last one at that price was The Mozart Season. A few weeks later, someone here in New Zealand offered it for sale; she had accidentally bought two of them! She had just borrowed a stack of books from me, so I bought that one and she put it with my books, to send all at once when they were finished. It’s here now, and I’ve added it to my stack to read before putting it on the shelf–I have no idea what the story is like!

Just before that same person mailed our books back, she advertised a number of other books. One that caught my eye was William the Conqueror, so I asked her to send that one along, as well. Again, I have no idea what it is like, so it, too is on my TBR stack. I’m planning to do the Read Your Bookshelf Challenge again this year, and one of the prompts is “Royalty.” I hadn’t found a book yet for that prompt, so was delighted to find one I wanted to read about a king. (I decided that for this year’s challenge, I was going to try to find books for each month from my stack of ones I want to read before they go on the shelf–and I found one on that stack for each of the twelve prompts!)

One evening, a neighbor stopped Gayle and asked if we homeschool. When Gayle, wondering what this was about, answered that we do, the man said that he is the caretaker of the local area school (just behind our house). The teachers were in the process of doing a cleanout and had instructed him to burn piles of old, unwanted books, so he wondered if we wanted them. We took them, and I sorted through them. Two big boxes were old maths textbooks, multiple copies of each, which I am not interested in. Another box was other maths supplementary books, which I don’t need for the most part. There were also many reading and phonics and spelling books, but my last child is learning to read right now and I don’t need them. (I’m trying to give them away!) Then, there were stacks of dictionaries and thesauruses. We were delighted to find a thesaurus that is easier to use than our Roget’s, so we kept one of those, and a fascinating Reverse Dictionary. Esther flipped through that and found a page of French terms. She was quite amused by the definition I circled in this picture.

Another book I kept was this one full of brain teasers. I copied a page of it and, without telling anyone, taped it to the whiteboard in the kitchen. It quickly got attention, as various people sat down and worked out the problems. I plan to post more, at random times, for anyone who wants to work them out. It’s a fun family activity, as it turns out!

There were around 15 copies of each of these picture books, so I kept one of each. They are simple, but beautiful; they’ll make a good addition to our shelf of New Zealand picture books. If you live in New Zealand and want either of these, pay me the postage and I’ll send you a copy of each!

One evening, I noticed someone selling almost the complete set of the Anne of Green Gables books on a Facebook page. I knew Esther wanted them, so I showed her, and she bought them. She already had a copy of the one that was missing, the first book. It didn’t match these–but one of her brothers had one that did, so she swapped with him and now, much to her satisfaction, she has the whole set in print.