Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
A Passion for Victory: The Story of the Olympics in Ancient and Early Modern Times by Benson Bobrick (Knopf Books for Young Readers, June 2012) is a highly readable history for children about the international phenomenon of the Olympics through the ages. Beginning in ancient Greece by looking at archeological as well as historic records,
Our homeschool studies took us to Australia this month! One picture book we enjoyed helped us appreciate the size of Australia and the various scenery. Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester was a child’s perspective of a month-long road trip around Australia. My four-year-old son enjoyed learning about the various landmarks and began to
Because my son is so young, I’m just beginning to re-familiarize myself with middle grade fiction; I haven’t really read much since I was a youngster. I remember really loving the gentle rural setting of Patricia MacLachlan’s Sarah, Plain and Tall when I was a young girl: it was one of my favorite books. When
One of the first posts I have on this blog centered around one of my then-favorite authors, Alexander McCall Smith. Although I have since refocused my personal reading around classics (and Dickens, Eliot, and Wilkie Collins now vie for the favorite author designation), McCall Smith is still an author I have a special place for,
As I followed along with Allie’s Shakespeare Month in January, I was impressed that so many of the plays that other readers discussed sounded familiar, even though I knew I had not read them or seen them performed. I knew I had never seen or read A Merchant in Venice, for example, but the plot
I enjoyed revisiting a classic, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (published 1969). It was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1970. I remember enjoying this story when I was a child, so I was pleased that my son (age 4) also enjoyed it. Sylvester is a donkey with a pebble collection. One day,
I absolutely adore Marla Frazee’s artwork, and Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers and illustrated by Marla Frazee (Harcourt, 2001) had the double bonus of being about babies, a subject I love these days since my newborn daughter has so recently joined our family. In Frazee’s wonderful style and Susan Meyers’ special text, we follow babies
A Child’s Calendar by John Updike, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman was awarded a Caldecott Honor in the 1960s and it’s not just Hyman’s soft and detailed illustrations that are noteworthy. John Updike’s poems give life to the seasons, from the frozen stanzas of January to the warm months of summer and the festivities of
The Kiss that Missed by David Melling (Barron’s, 2001) is a clever story about a busy father (a king) that didn’t take the time to slow down: and the bedtime kiss he blew to his young son missed, going out into the wild wood where it met with amusing results for the knight he went
My son has been quite interested in maps and geography, so (even with the arrival of my newborn five weeks ago) we began a project of studying the continents, starting with Antarctica. Learning about the continent with a four-year-old prompted me to learn more myself: a few months ago, I posted about a Sally Walker
I mentioned previously that my son is fascinated by the human body, probably because of my changing body during pregnancy. My baby is now five weeks old! We’ve found some fun books about the human body that my four-year-old has enjoyed. One book that made him laugh because of the title is You Can’t Smell
Even though my second child was born in February, since January, my four-year-old and I have done a fair amount of “school at home,” which my son regularly asks for because he simply loves to learn. I hope that his interest continues because I’ve enjoyed learning with him. I discovered a fantastic series by Lerner
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