Category Archives: First Grade

Memory Work Monday

Posted on by
6

A fellow homeschooler over on the Well Trained Mind forums requested that bloggers post their memory work on Mondays because she needs ideas to use in her homeschool, etc.  Since sharing our memory work  is something I have planned to do here  all along, this was the incentive I needed to actually do it today.  We spend about an hour each morning doing our “couch work,” which is done while we sit on the couch together (or lately, in the floor together, so I can keep a sharper eye on the DLM).  Included in this time is our memory work, as well as our Bible story reading and most of the other reading aloud that we do for science or history or just for fun.  Currently this is what our memory work consists of:

  • Philippians chapter one, to the point that we have memorized
  • A hymn, currently “How Firm a Foundation”
  • Bible quiz questions and verses
  • A review of previously learned materials, generally using the Simply Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System. 

I admit that I’ve slacked on this lately.  I find it tedious to type the hymn, scripture passage, or poem into a format to put it on an index card, and it really hasn’t occurred to me to just print it on paper and put it in a notebook.  Thus, our file box isn’t up to date, and we haven’t used it in the past several weeks.  I dont’ know why I didn’t think of using a notebook once we established this routine during our couch time–I actually made a notebook for our memory work last year but never used it!  Sometimes I get so caught up in using a system that I don’t use any common sense.  I was perusing Kash’s Memory Work Monday post at A Little Rebellion, and the lightbulb went off.  I’m beginning to discern a little more about Lulu’s learning style, and I think it would probably be helpful to her to actually read the memory work herself instead of just listen to it.  Lulu shall have a memory notebook ASAP, and because what Lulu has Louise wants, so shall Louise.  Be it enacted.  :-)

In addition to the above admittedly short list of memory passages, we have also learned the following this year:

  • the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy”
  • the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
  • the hymn “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
  • the hymn “This Is My Father’s World”
  • All of the poems in First Language Lessons except “Mr. Nobody,” which we’re learning now.  The poems we’ve learned thus far are “The Caterpillar,” “Work,” “Hearts Are Like Doors,” “Days of the Week,” and “The Months.”
  • Many Bible memory passages, some of which I don’t even remember that we’ve learned.  ;-)   We’ve been doing this since the girls were really, really young.  This is what I have in my aforementioned box:  Colossians 3:1-17, Psalm 23, Psalm 1, Psalm 19, and Psalm 24.  I know we’ve learned a short passage relating to the Resurrection, too, and I’m sure I’ve probably forgotten a few more pieces.
  • “The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson.
  • All of the animal poems from Elemental Science:  Biology for the Grammar Stage.

Since this post probably isn’t of much interest to many of my usual readers who come here for book reviews, I’ll leave you with the portion of Philippians 1 we’ve learned thus far.  I’ve been inspired by the various folks around the ‘net who are endeavoring to learn an entire book of the New Testament, so I thought we’d jump in, too.  It’s slow going, but Lulu has these verses pretty much nailed, and Louise almost does.  Me?  I’m working on it.  :-)

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,    To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

Yeah, we’ve stopped in the middle of a sentence.  :-)  

I love that we’re working on this together, and I love the feeling of accomplishment that goes along with tackling and completing such a task. 

What is your family working on together for memory work now?

Image: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Read Aloud Thursday–Abraham Lincoln

Posted on by
10

This post probably isn’t very helpful to anyone because Abraham Lincoln must be the most written-about president we’ve had, but I like to cover all the bases.  Since I wrote about George Washington books last week, here’s my post dedicated to our sixteenth president.  I hope you find a new-to-you gem among these familiar titles!
Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire are a well known author-illustrator couple, of course, and Abraham Lincoln won a Caldecott Medal in 1940.  What’s not to love about this book?  It begins with Lincoln’s birth and covers major events in his life up through the end of the Civil War.  I like that it includes a few fun anecdotes, like Lincoln playing a joke on his stepmother by holding a little boy upside down to put footprints on the ceiling after the new Mrs. Lincoln told tall Abe to keep his head clean so she wouldn’t have to clean spots off her ceiling.  This book captures the spirit of Lincoln very well, both in its story line and its illustrations.  It deals forthrightly with the issue of slavery (although since it was published in 1939 it does use the term Negro, which might be considered objectionable by some), but it does not mention that Lincoln was assassinated.  This is an excellent, longer picture book that does justice to the Great Emancipator.    

Stand Tall, Abraham Lincoln by Judith St. George is a picture book disguised as a chapter book.  :-)   Actually, it’s the sort of chapter book that works very well for children with short attention spans, since each chapter is around five pages long, and each page is only about half-full of text.  The illustrations in this book, done up in an expressive and cartoonish style by Matt Faulkner, are large, colorful, and usually bleed across both pages of a two-page spread.  This book covers only Lincoln’s early life, so the focus is on the hardships he faced and how he overcame them.  This book is one of a four part series called “Turning Point Books.”  Each one is about one of our presidents; you can see all the titles here on her website.    

Abe Lincoln Remembers by Ann Turner is written from Abraham Lincoln’s perspective, as if he were thinking back over his life on the night of his assassination.  According to the author’s note, this is not so much as storybook as  it is a “poetic narrative” for which “some events have been compressed.”  I like this one a lot.  The writing is poetic–

Sometimes I went to school, but

I don’t suppose those days would add up

to much more than a year.

I’d fold up my legs like an umbrella

and sit quiet at the back of the schoolroom,

gulping down learning like water.

The illustrator attribution on the cover indicates that this illustrations are paintings by Wendell Minor.  It is obvious that he took his subject seriously, and of all the books I’m reviewing here, these illustrations are the most realistic in terms of what Lincoln really looked like.  This book doesn’t provide a lot of details, but it really captures the spirit of Lincoln and what he accomplished.

Last we have Abraham Lincoln by Amy L. Cohn and Suzy Schmidt.  This one is a lot of fun but packs a punch in the end.  It’s written in a folksy, storytelling voice that is fun to read aloud:

Abraham read about Aesop’s animals and Aladdin’s lamp and Robinson Crusoe’s shipwreck.  He read about George Washington, our first president.  He read while the plow horse rested.  He read while he ate his lunch.  Late at night, he leaned toward the dying life of the fire with a book in his hand.  “My friend’s the one who has a book I ain’t read yet,” he said, and he’d walk miles for the chance to borrow something new.

David A. Johnson’s illustrations are both muted and expressive, and I love the full-page rendering of the Lincoln Memorial that ends the book.  This book is the only one of the four that addresses Lincoln’s assassination.  As I mentioned before, the ending of this one is quite emotional, at least to me (but I’m a softy, anyway). 

Really, you can’t go wrong with any of these titles.  If these aren’t enough, there’s also Thanksgiving in the White House, which I wrote about in this post.  Alice @ Supratentorial also recommends quite a few Presidents’ Day selections, several of which are about Abraham Lincoln.

Share your family’s latest read aloud by leaving a link to your blog post in the comments, and come back tomorrow for a list of links!

Happy Read Aloud Thursday!

A Good Problem to Have

Posted on by
8

Since Christmas, Lulu has been reading like a house afire.  In fact, I have to insist that she stop reading and do ___________ numerous times a day.  I’ve been attempting to keep a list in the sidebar of the chapter books she reads, but I’m pretty sure I’ve already missed several.   She reads and re-reads and reads and re-reads, to the point that she has re-read a few books more than once, I’m pretty sure.  Of course, she loves anything by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I have introduced her to the sequels and prequels that are written by various other authors.  I’m something of a purist myself (although I have to say that I adore Melissa Wiley’s blog, so anything she has written must be good!), but Lulu’s insatiable appetite for pioneer stories must be fed!

Yes, this is a good problem to have, but I’m wondering–how do I feed this hunger and guide her toward good literature?  So far she’s mostly reading what might be considered twaddle–series fiction, some of it possibly even written by committee.  We all know that well-written literature requires more effort.  I don’t want to squelch her love for reading, but I also want her abilities and understanding to grow.  She is somewhat resistant to suggestions, although I have had some success with the “strewing” method.  Ideas, anyone?

Read Aloud Thursday–George Washington

Posted on by
8

As you have probably guessed, today’s books are ones we enjoyed last month, the month of Presidents’ Day.  I’m behind, as usual.  Here are some early recommendations for February 2012 ;- ).

I’m probably showing my ignorance, but I didn’t know that George Washington was such an animal lover.  Obviously, my American History education left something to be desired. ;-)   Well, he loved them so much that he owned thirty-six in his lifetime.  Thirty-six dogs!  This and many other animal minutiae are found in George Washington and the General’s Dog by Frank Murphy.   Of course, the big story and the one from which this book takes its name is the story of George Washington finding the British General William Howe’s dog during a Revolutionary War battle.  So great was Washington’s love and respect for a man’s relationship with his pets that he actually had General Howe’s dog returned to him.  This book is a Step into Reading book, so it’s appropriate for young readers.  However, this did not detract from the interest level at all; in fact, I love finding high-interest nonfiction titles like this that Lulu can read on her own or aloud to us.  I also like that this book includes an author note with a picture of the actual handwritten letter that Washington sent to General Howe regarding his dog.  Richard Walz‘s illustrations are true enough to historical depictions of Washington that he is definitely recognizable, yet the illustrations retain a child-friendly, almost cartoonish appearance that keeps the story light-hearted.  This is a great history story that shows a very personal side of our first president.

George Did It! by  Suzanne Tripp Jurmain is a story with perseverance as a theme, but it still manages to be light-hearted and fun.  I really like this one, as do my girls, and again, I’ve learned many things about George Washington that I’d either forgotten or never knew.  George Did It! really capitalizes on the fact that Washington never really wanted to be president; that taking the Office caused him much personal sacrifice and even distress, at times; and that his new job was untried, and much of what he did was so much groping in the darkness.  The bottom line, of course, is that “George did it” anyway.  What a message!  Larry Day‘s illustrations, like those in George Washington and the General’s Dog, are both historically accurate and amusing; I particularly like the one of tall George hugging his short mother goodbye as he leaves for New York.  I give this one a Highly Recommended for any history study, or just for fun. 

Well, as you might guess, next week I’m planning to highlight a few titles about our sixteenth president–I certainly can’t leave him out!  Of course, next Thursday is also St. Patrick’s Day, so I wanted to link up my past St. Patrick’s Day post today, just in case anyone is looking for a good title or two to share:  Read Aloud Thursday–St. Patrick’s Day Edition.

Link up your Read Aloud Thursday post in the comments, and come back tomorrow for a list of links!

Read Aloud Thursday–Ancient Egypt

Posted on by
14

I’ve had these books stacked up in our library book basket, just waiting to be reviewed, for so long that I’m not sure I can do them justice any longer.  However, I know that history resources, particularly ancient history resources, are sometimes difficult to find for young elementary students, so I’m going to do my best to shine the light on a few books we enjoyed while we were studying Ancient Egypt (for the third or fourth time–those ancient Egyptians just kept going and going and going. . . !)

My girls and I spent quite a few days on Egyptian Diary:  The Journal of Nakht by Richard Platt.  This book is a large-format picture book, but it is probably most appropriate for middle- to upper-elementary aged students.  My girls were quite interested in it, but the story is very involved, so unless you’ve been studying Egypt (as we had been) or have a younger child who is unusually interested in ancient Egypt, I think this one is best saved for the 8-10 years plus age group.  It is the story of a young boy, Nakht, and as the subtitle indicates, it is written in diary format, so it gives a lot of insight into daily life in ancient Egypt.  Nakht is training to be a scribe, and he and his family move from a small village, Esna, to Memphis at the beginning of the story.  In Memphis, Nakht and his family experience all that ancient Egyptian life has to offer.  Nakht attends a school for scribes (in Esna he simply learned under his father’s tutelage); he and his new school friend have adventures at the wharf; he and his sister solve a mystery involving corrupt officials and tomb-robbers; etc.  Really, the story itself is almost a little too pedantic in that it seems to cover virutally every aspect of ancient Egyptian life; however, I don’t think my girls noticed that ;-) .  Actually, I guess this could be a good thing if that’s what you’re after.  There are some instances of violence (the boys are beaten in school if they do not perform well in their lessons), drukenness (the boys inadvertently get drunk), and lots of mention of Egyptian gods and goddesses, so if those sorts of things are of concern to you, this book might not be what you’re looking for.  The illustrations, which are watercolor and ink drawings by David Parkins, are very good in that they are large and follow the story very well.  Each two-page spread is at least half composed of pictures.  The illustrations themselves are expressive and almost have a comic-book feel.  This book contains a fair amount of supplemental material at the end:  hieroglyphics, the hierarchy of Egyptian society, the gods, pyramids, etc.   We actually read this one like a chapter book, and with fifty-plus large pages, it worked out well.  Unless you find the aforementioned materials offensive, I think this one is a great book to use while studying ancient Egypt.   (ETA:  I just googled Richard Platt and found his website.  It looks like he has written quite a few informational books for children, many of which are about different time periods in history.)

I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert is one of those books that took me by surprise.  Ancient Egypt is a topic that I find unusual for Eve Bunting to write about, but maybe I don’t know Eve Bunting as well as I think I know her.  ;-)   (I have written about her books here, here, here, here, here, and here, but that certainly makes me no expert. ;-) )  As you might guess from the title, this story is told from the perspective of a mummy.  Heb-Nefert was once the wife of the pharaoh’s brother, and she recounts some small details of her life as a well-to-do Egyptian woman.  Her cause of death is not identified, but she describes her burial preparations as “[she] rose above [herself] and watched.”  This book is written in free verse poetry, and it is poetically and descriptively written.  It’s a reminder of our mortality, I suppose, more than anything else, although it does include some interesting details about life in ancient Egypt.  (For example, I didn’t know that the women wore “cones of scented fat” on their heads that would melt and give off their scent in the heat, did you?)  David Christiana‘s watercolor illustrations are very fitting for the story; they have a very misty, other-worldly feel.  Although this book deals with a serious subject, I think it captures the feel of ancient Egypt very well.

The Tomb of the Boy King by John Frank doesn’t actually fit the time period for ancient Egypt since it’s about the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb, but I included it because my girls were really interested in the whole tomb business.  This book is written entirely in verse form, and while this is sometimes distracting to me, I think it works well for this story.  It just made me read it all the more carefully.  The whole Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon story is really engrossing, and this picture book captures the mystery and excitement of the discovery.  I really like Tom Pohrt‘s illustrations in this book, too–they are detailed and colored in such a way that captures the colors of Egypt.  Again, this one works well for interested or more mature listeners.

I actually didn’t discover this last book, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World  written and illustrated by Lynn Curlee, until we had finished with the ancient Egyptians (for now) and were studying about ancient Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar’s gardens.  However, I’m sticking it in this post since the Great Pyramid at Giza is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  I really like this book, and since my own knowledge of the ancient world is lacking, I am learning right along with my children.  Each one of the wonders has four pages devoted to it:  two of text and two of illustrations.  The last couple of pages are devoted to the ancient wonders drawn alongside some “modern marvels” (i.e. State of Liberty, U.S. Capitol) all drawn to scale so that we can understand the size of those ancient structures.  Highly Recommended.

This post is a little different because I’m really not giving all of these books a wholesale recommendation for all ages.  Your own personal judgments and convictions about mythology and at what age children should be introduced to those concepts should guide you.  Here at the House of Hope, my girls and I have had many, many (many) conversations about false gods, etc., and so while at times I have been a little uncomfortable personally with the stories we’ve read, Steady Eddie and I agree that over all, we like this classical method and want to man the rudder, so to speak, while we navigate these waters with our children. 

What’s in your read-aloud stack right now?  Please share in the comments, or leave a link to your blog post.  Come back tomorrow for the links, done up nice & easy, in a blog post all their own! 

Read Aloud Thursday–Valentine’s Day Edition, Take Two

Posted on by
13

 

You thought I forgot, didn’t you?  :-)   Actually, we have been reading Valentine’s Day books, but I just plain old ran out of time to get a post up last week.  I almost turned all our books back in, but I had a change of heart at the circulation desk and brought them all back home again, in hopes that I’d be able to write them up for Read Aloud Thursday this week.  This week it seems like I’ve met myself coming and going, I have been so busy with work, homeschooling, and church activities.  Nevertheless, here they are!  You still have a few days to enjoy some holiday picks, so let’s get started, shall we?

Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda (yes, the Robert Sabuda whose books I’ve raved about here , here, and here!) is actually a book that I purchased at a homeschool conference last year.  I paid very little for it because it was marked as a damaged book due to some water stained pages.  I forgot that we even had it in our collection until I read Alice’s review for last week’s Read Aloud Thursday.  I dug it and read it first to myself to discern whether or not it would be appropriate for my young girls, and then we gave it a go the next day.  Since our religious heritage (evangelical Christian, and about as “low church” as you can get) doesn’t include saints in the sense of the Catholic church (or its variants), reading about saints is always as educational for me as it is for my girls.  This is a very gentle story of the man who became Saint Valentine and how he acquired this title.  I’ve learned that there are several stories associated with Saint Valentine; the one recounted in this picture book is the one in which the little girl of the jailer has her vision restored when she receives a note from “her Valentine.”  As is true of every Sabuda picture book we’ve read, the illustrations are the star attraction.  While this one isn’t a pop-up book, the illustrations are unique in that they are all mosaics.  I really like that.  This book is a great addition to a holiday booklist. 

I probably wouldn’t have picked up The Story of Valentine’s Day were it not written by Clyde Robert Bulla.  Since we read (and the girls enjoyed–me, not so much) his Squanto:  Friend of the Pilgrims, I was curious to read an informational title by him.  Honestly, I was a little turned off by the illustrations to begin with–I would be much more likely to simply pass over this book because the illustrations look a little blah to me.  It turns out that the text of the book is copyrighted 1965 and these particular illustrations (by Susan Estelle Kwas) are copyrighted 1999.  I have not searched out an older copy of the book to see if the original illlustrations are any more noteworthy.  In terms of the text, this book is a nice overview of the holiday.  It includes both the roots of Valentine’s Day from the Roman holiday Lupercalia and the Christian basis from Saint Valentine’s exploits.  What I like most about this book is that it highlights Valentine’s Day celebrations down through time and in different countries. 

Honestly, when it comes to Valentine’s Day, I’m much more interested in a fun take than a romantic one, and that is most definitely true when it comes to kids’ books.  The Best Valentine in the World by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat is a book that my girls have asked for over and over again, and it is quite funny.  It is the story of Ferdinand Fox, who begins work on his valentine for Florette Fox on November 5.  When Valentine’s Day rolls around, he is quite miffed that Florette (apparently) has a lackadaisacal attitude toward the holiday and has (apparently) forgotten all about it.  Hmmph!  Of course, this isn’t true at all, but how the little communication melt-down is resolved is giggle-inducing.  I particularly like the illustrations in this story–Lilian Obligado chose to use non-traditional colors throughout in her purple and lime green color scheme.  If my girls’ reactions are any indication, this one would be a hit among the young elementary contingent, so it gets a Highly Recommended from me.

I almost didn’t include The Valentine Party, written and illustrated by Pamela Bianco, but I like it a lot and so did the girls.  It’s a vintage find, copyright 1954.  It’s one of those books that’s perfect for children who have no trouble sitting for a long picture book but aren’t quite ready for a chapter book; it is twenty-five or so pages, and those pages have about five color illustrations scattered throughout.  The story is one that would appeal to most small children, girls in particular.  It’s the story of a little girl named Cathy who feels left out because everyone is going to a Valentine’s party except her.  Cathy decides to take matters into her own hands and crash the party she thinks everyone else is invited to, with some unexpected results.  I like that this story contains gentle suspense and ends in delight for everyone.  The only thing I don’t like about the story are the illustrations–they are a little weird, but this might just be a case of my twenty-first century tastes finding the older artwork extremely dated.  I don’t know how many of these little books are still lurking on library shelves, but if you see this one in a used bookstore, I think it would be worth a few bucks.  (However, I don’t recommend paying $65 for it.)

I’ve saved the best for last, at least as far as my opinion is concerned.   This may be one of those kids’ books that appeals mainly to adults, but so what?  It can’t be all about them.  ;-)   Love Is. . . by Wendy Anderson Halperin is simply an adaptation of a portion of 1 Corinthian 13, accompanied by detailed illustrations.  The illustrations are in frames, and there are many to a page.  Each frame has a corresponding frame on the facing page, and the left-hand frame will show the “not love” way and the right-hand frame will show the way of love.  For example, one frame shows an adult, with arm tautly outstretched and finger pointing, ordering a gaggle of small children to go somewhere.  The corresponding frame shows the same woman happily working with the same children in the kitchen.  (Ask me why I picked this example. Could it be because I relate?)  This book offers plenty of material for dicussion and study.  I’d like to have this one, if for no other reason than my own edification.  :-)   Highly Recommended.  (I’ve written about some of Wendy Anderson Halperin’s books before–here and here.)

These aren’t all the Valentine’s books we’ve enjoyed, of course.  The girls have been toting around The Ballad of Valentine (which I reviewed here) and singing it (to the tune of “Clementine”), and Lulu has even volunteered to read it to Louise a number of times.  Here are some other books I’ve reviewed at Hope Is the Word that are appropriate for Valentine’s Day:

Read Aloud Thursday–Valentine’s Day Edition, Take One

Ruby Valentine Saves the Day

The Heart Is Like a Zoo

Other Related Links:

Sherry’s big Valentine’s Day post at Semicolon

Wendy Anderson Halperin’s website

Clyde Robert Bulla obituary

Does your family have a favorite Valentine’s Day read-aloud?  I’m all ears!  Share your recommendations, as well as any Read Aloud Thursday links,  in the comments.  Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for a Read Aloud Thursday link roundup! 

Read Aloud Thursday–Reptiles and Amphibians

Posted on by
14

 

I’m not sure what it is about these reptiles and amphibians, but picture book authors and illustrators love them!  I have been so pleased with the selection of nonfiction books about animals that I’ve been able to find at our local libraries, but I think the books we read about chameleons and frogs in the past few weeks have topped them all.  These wonderful picture books have so enriched our science studies!  Shoot–I think I’d love them even if we hadn’t been studying reptiles and amphibians–these are that good!

Chameleon, Chameleon by Joy Cowley is full of simple, bold text and stunning photographs.  I don’t think there’s much more to say about it, but this is truly one book that you must see to appreciate.  Nic Bishop has cornered the market on animal photography.  Have you ever seen a chameleon catch a catepillar from about a foot away?  This book contains this amazing photo and many more.  Once we discovered Nic Bishop’s photography, of course I went searching for his stuff.  It seems that not only does he illustrate books, he also writes them.  Frogs, both written and illustrated by Nic Bishop, was the perfect addition to our study of frogs because in addition to the photgraphy, the text of this book  is very detailed, with all kinds of information about frogs in general as well as specific kinds of frogs.  While the text in Chameleon, Chameleon is sparse (so sparse, in fact, that I would think a very young child could sit through it), Frogs contains enough information to warrant both a short index and glossary.  I’d say it’s about as perfect as a juvenile nonfiction title can be.  I think I’ve discovered my favorite juvenile nonfiction author and illustrator.  We have Nic Bishop’s Spiders waiting on us for our next science lesson, and I can hardly wait!  (I am only a little arachnophobic, but I think I can hold those feelings at bay for the sake of Nic Bishop’s wonderful photography.)  These books most certainly get a Highly Recommended from me! 

After reading the Nic Bishop books, I was accustomed to photographic illustrations instead of drawn ones, and I might’ve passed over Jim Arnosky’s All About Turtles were it not for Carrie’s ebullient praise.  (Her post is linked up below.)  I am so glad I checked this one out!  Arnosky‘s artwork is very realistic and vivid, and the information in the book is presented in a way that is both interesting and kid-friendly.  I like that each page contains the main text, but there are plenty of species-specific (say that three times fast!) details in smaller type font.  I love how Arnosky includes interesting drawings on the front and back flyleaves–in this case, turtle tracks in the sand showing both footprints and shell drag.  I am eager to seek out more of Arnosky‘s titles after reading this one!  Highly Recommended!

Stick, written and illustrated by Steve Breen, is a fun picture book that provided a little bit of comic relief for our serious study of frogs and other amphibians.  ;-)    With spirit and perspective that are reminiscent of David Wiesner’s books, Stick is a story that delights both young and old because it is an audacious tale that depends on both imagination and wordplay.  How much fun is a story about a little frog named Stick who literally sticks to a passing dragonfly and is taken on the adventure of his life?!?  Another Highly Recommended title!

I know there’s no shortage of good titles out there about reptiles and amphibians, but these are definitely winners.  Do you have a favorite nonfiction series about animals?  What about an author?  I’m always looking for nonfiction titles, especially those that Lulu can read herself.  I’m all ears! 

Related Links:

Nic Bishop’s website

Carrie’s post about Jim Arnosky (with lots of links)

Jim Arnosky’s website

My review of Chameleons Are Cool by Martin Jenkins

My review of Growing Frogs by Vivian French

Now it’s your turn.  Link up your Read Aloud Thursday posts below, or simply leave a comment detailing what you’re reading together with your children.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for today’s RAT Links post! 

Have a terrific Thursday, everyone!  :-)

Me & Junie B.

Posted on by
4

Last night after nursing and rocking the DLM to sleep, I went into the girls’ bedroom and quietly packed up the borrowed Junie B. Jones audiobooks and dumped them in our library basket.  My vantage point of the rocker in the DLM’s room, which is adjacent to the girls’ room, afforded me the opportunity to really listen to Junie B., and I didn’t like what I heard. 

Now believe it or not, I am not one to go to the extreme in terms of censoring what my children read and/or listen to.  No, they are not and will not listen to anything that is grossly age inappropriate.  However, I do think that some things in life are best experienced vicariously, and as a parent, I hope that the vicarious experience will be enough to deter them from doing certain things that go against our family’s religious and moral beliefs.  My six year old and five year old daughters, however, are not old enough yet to discern the spirit of things just yet.  While listening to Junie B. last night, I realized that a sudden upswing of sassy behavior from my girls might have been influenced by their listening materials during rest time.  It took one roll of the eye, the description of which I overheard, and one shouted “SO THERE!” punctuating her disapproval when I informed one of my girls (who shall remain nameless) that it was time to turn off the audiobook to make me resolute.  Junie B. is going back to the library.

I am not writing this to villify Junie B., really.  Your mileage may certainly vary.  I am just writing this to get it off my chest, for one thing, and for another to remind myself that I should’ve gone with my first instinct–an instinct that had prevented me from putting Junie B. in our bookcart numerous times at the library.  I get the whole idea of twaddle, and yes, I do believe Junie B. is twaddle.  One of my (covert) goals in having my girls listen to audiobooks is to expose them to literature that they are not capable of reading yet for themselves.  Junie B. certainly doesn’t fall into this category.

We’re taking Junie B. back to the library tomorrow, and I hope to replace her with something better.

L.M. Montgomery Meanderings

Posted on by
10

I feel like someone is going to revoke my membership in the L.M. Montgomery fan club any day now, after the ho hum review I wrote of Magic for Marigold and the downright snarky review I wrote of Kilmeny of the Orchard.  The purpose of this post is to convince everyone, myself included, that I do indeed still love L.M. Montgomery.

First, a little anecdote from this week.  Lulu has fallen in love with reading, a transformation that I am nearly speechless over.  (Me!  I have a child who loves to read!  Oh, the joy!)  Her latest bookish infatuation is the My America series, Hope’s Diary in particular.  She read books one and two on Monday and Tuesday of this week (I think–I truly can’t keep up with what she’s reading now!), and on Tuesday afternoon she requested that we go to the library immediately, if not sooner, so she could check out book three.  She proceeded to read aloud to me, her face positively glowing, her favorite bit in the book:  a long lost older brother, who I presume ran off to join the army, returns home to a warm welcome by his family during a cold and snowy Philadelphia winter.  Lulu plotted and planned all day to turn this story into a play when she and Louise went to visit Nana that night.  (Play acting is something they do a lot at Nana’s. They are so blessed to have a Nana who enters joyfully into play with them.)  She had even already assigned roles to everyone:  she, of course, would be Hope; Nana always gets the male roles; and Louise was to be the baby sister, Faith.  Faith, an infant, has no speaking parts.  :-)   The joy that both girls were already deriving from this bookish play–even before actually carrying it out–was just wonderful.

Courtside Reading: My America is more entertaining than Upward basketball. :-)

Watching Lulu fall in love with a story she read herself, to the point that she had to share it with me, reminds me so much of myself when I was a girl.  I didn’t discover Anne of Green Gables until I was eleven or twelve years old, but I very clearly remember reading the entire series, and then being positively blindsided by Rilla of Ingleside.  Awestruck.  Heartbroken.  Oh, the pathos!  I promptly did two things after reading that part of the story.  (If you’ve read it, you know which part I’m referring to.  If you haven’t read it, you must.)  First, I copied out in longhand several pages from my tiny little Bantam paperback, which translated to many pieces of noteobook paper, and sent them to at least one of my best friends back home in Alabama.  (We had moved to Georgia for my dad’s job, and I enjoyed corresponding the old fashioned way with several of my friends back home.)  Second, I held some of my school buddies captive one  morning at the table in the cafeteria, where we had to await the bell signalling us to go to our first class, as I read aloud to them that part of the novel.  I have no idea if they enjoyed it or merely tolerated it (although now, some twenty years later, I have a good idea), but I simply had to do it.  It had to be shared.  (Maybe this was an early precursor to my book blogging days! ;-)   )

I have debated several times over whether or not to read Anne of Green Gables to my girls, and I can never bring myself to do it just yet.  Part of it is because I discovered Anne when I was older myself, and it seemed to be just the perfect time.  I want my girls to get maximum enjoyment from it.  Also, I wonder if some books are best discovered solitarily?  Knowing how much Lulu has enjoyed her own private forays into Hope’s world, I wonder if I should leave a few books unopened for her and Louise to discover for themselves.  I wouldn’t knock the bloom off these particular roses for anything–even the joy of experiencing these stories with them.

I actually have other stories to tell about my LMM obsession, but I’ll save them for another time.  Just in case what I’ve written above isn’t enough to get reinstate my LMM fan club membership, I want to share a little bit of the decor of the House of Hope.  Way back before I had children, I collected teapots.  What was at one time a sizeable collection has been de-cluttered down to a mere handful to make room for more books, toys, etc.  One of the prizes of my collection, though, and one that I won’t be compelled to part with, is a teapot I purchased on our honeymoon trip to PEI.  This piece just makes me happy.  I hope when you look at it, you think of Anne. 

L. M. Montgomery Reading Challenge And so ends the third annual L.M. Montgomery Reading Challenge hosted by Carrie at Reading to Know.  I am so glad Carrie does this every year; without it, I doubt I’d ever make time to visit these old favorites of mine.  To close out this post, I am linking up all the books I’ve read and reviewed for the challenge in the past two years.  These reviews, plus the ones from this year (linked above) and my photo-heavy honeymoon post (also linked above) make up the bulk of what I’ve written about LMM here at  Hope Is the Word. 

 Lord willing, I will be back at it again in January 2012! :-)

Read Aloud Thursday–the Civil Rights movement

Posted on by
11

 

I realize that since this past Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and a holiday is celebrated in our country in his honor, I’m about a week late with this post.  As I’ve said so many times before, just consider this extra early preparation for next year’s holiday, or a little advanced preparation for Black History Month next month, whatever floats your boat.  :-)

Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport probably doesn’t even need mentioning, with all the accolades it has to its credit.  I just happened to remember it when I went to the library last Friday and snagged it off the biography shelf, where it sat amidst a handful of longer works about Martin Luther King, Jr.  The Civil Rights movement isn’t something I’ve ever intentionally brought up with my girls, but since we live in a state that gained so much notoriety during that period, I thought Monday’s holiday would be a good opportunity to begin the dialogue.  Martin’s Big Words is a beautiful picture book that gives an overview of the movement and MLK, Jr.’s part in it.  Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parkes, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Memphis garbage collectors strike–they’re all mentioned, but it’s Martin and his “big words” that take center stage.  The cadence of Martin’s speech is echoed in this story, a refrain that Rappaport uses repeatedly in the course of this picture book:

Martin walked with them and talked with them

and sang with them and prayed with them.

Bryan Collier‘s Caldecott honor-winning watercolor and cut paper collage illustrations work with the text both in terms of sound and sight.  The illustrations capture the spirit of the text, but the text itself communicates the importance of Martin’s “big words,” since quotes from his sermons and speeches appear on almost every page, and they are differentiated from the text of the story by the color and size of the typeface.  I think my girls, at 6.5 and 5 years,  are at a good age to begin to grasp this particular era in our nation’s history, and this picture book couldn’t be a better introduction.  I am eager to seek out Rappaport’s other historical picture books.  You can see what else she has written by visiting her website here.  Highly Recommended.

Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey has been languishing in my to-be-reviewed pile for months upon months.  The nice folks at Lerner Publishing Group sent it to me in exchange for my honest review, but I kept it on the back burner because I thought it would be above my girls’ understanding.  I meant to read it myself, but I just never got around to it.  After reading Martin’s Big Words on Monday, I was inspired yesterday to pull it out of the stack and give it a go, cold.  (How many of you know this can be a dangerous thing to do?)  Well, I am so glad I did!  The Ruth in this story appears to be not much older than my girls, so there was an immediate connection.  She and her family are traveling to Alabama (of course!) from Chicago to visit her grandmother, there’s connection number two.  Ruth takes along her beloved Brown Bear, and since both my girls still have “loveys,” there’s connection number three.  Score!  :-)   The problem in this story is that because of the skin color of Ruth and her family, they are forbidden from being served at gas stations and restaurants between Chicago and Alabama.  The further south they go, the worse the situation grows.  However, Ruth’s daddy’s old soldier buddy, with whom they stay in Tennesse, tells them that Esso service stations are the ones to watch for, since these service stations would serve customers without regard to race.  They stop at an Esso station and purchase (at the suggestion of the gas attendant) The Negro Motorist Green Book, a pamphlet which lists businesses that welcome blacks.   Having this little booklet makes all the difference to their journey, and at the end it made Ruth “feel like [she] was part of one big family” of people helping each other.  Floyd Cooper‘s illustrations are lovely–they have a certain 1950s luminosity (Is that a word?  Yes, it is!) that is beautiful.  They have a slightly grainy appearance, which really helps to give them an historical feel.  The only quibble I have with this book–and it’s a tiny one–is the typeface/font used.  It’s some sort of sans-serif font, which I think gives the book an unpolished look.  This is merely my opinion, though, and is probably influenced by the years I’ve spent grading essays in Times New Roman.  ;-)   I couldn’t have “accidentally” had a better story to introduce my girls to the idea of racial segregation, and I thank Lerner Publishing Group for the chance to review this book.  You can go here to access all sorts of additional information to go along with this story.

Do any of you have any books that you’ve used with your children to discuss difficult topics like the Civil Rights Movement?  Do share in the comments!  Whatever you’re reading together, link up your Read Aloud Thursday post, or simply tell us about it in the comments.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for a R.A.T. Links post!  :-)

Happy Read Aloud Thursday!