Book Round Up, October 2010

Lots more reading going on here now that school has started. I'd still like to see Joe and me doing more reading in our free time, but painting and hanging drywall in the basement have been consuming our evenings of late, so not too terribly much reading has been happening.

Me

I must confess, I never did start The Last of the Mohicans. I meant to, but then I just wasn't in the mood anymore. Instead I got sidetracked by a few of these lovely biographies that I hadn't read before, and Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams (which I'm still reading, actually) and Ben Franklin kept me from Fenimore Cooper's book. Once was I was fully immersed in the Revolutionary War era, both in school with the kids and in reading, I officially took Mohicans off my to-be-read pile.

A couple years ago Joe and I watched the John Adams miniseries based on David McCullough's most excellent biography of America's second president. We loved it and, ever since, I've wanted to read the book. I feel like I barely have time to read it, but when I do squeeze in a few pages here and there I am loving it; it is wonderfully readable and I love all the snippets of Adams' own words interspersed. The only test might be finishing it before the library wants it back!

I am also reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which Madeleine read last month and loved. I read a chapter here and there and, she was right; it's quite lovely and I can't imagine what little girl wouldn't enjoy the tale.

Madeleine

For school Madeleine is reading Born in the Year of Courage, which she is not crazy about. She just came off of reading Red Sand, Blue Sky by Cathy Applegate and she loved that and it's hard for a new book to measure up.

For pleasure reading, Madeleine, as usual, has an array of books going. She's been re-reading the Little House books again and she's reading Little Farm in the Ozarks, which is the series about Laura's daughter, Rose. I think this might be a first read for this particular book and she is, as I expected, tearing through and enjoying it. She's also been tearing through some of her old reliable series: Allie Finkle, Lemony Snicket, etc. Lastly, she discovered the Runaway Dolls series and she has been highly recommending them to her friends.

Hank

Hank has actually been reading, on his own and without complaining. He's gravitating towards things I would not choose for him, but he's reading-- for fun!-- so I'll keep my mouth shut. He loves the Geronimo Stilton books and Spiderman comic books. He's also a big Beverly Cleary fan and has just about wrapped up Ralph S. Mouse.

For school he's reading Vostaas: White Buffalo's Story of Plains Indian Life. He gives the book two thumbs down. "Moo-oooom! It's not even a story! It's just a bunch of facts."

Family

On an audiocassette, we have been listening to Ben and Me by Robert Lawson, which is the wonderful story of a mouse, Amos, who moves in with Ben Franklin. Think Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence? I bet his mouse friend, Red, might disagree...

Fellow home-schoolers, I can't rave enough about books on tape. It's so easy to find wonderful, classic stories that overlap with whatever period you're studying in history and they're such an enjoyable way to relax for twenty to thirty minutes every day, as a family.

I'm also still reading the Wizard of Oz aloud to the kids. We're averaging a pathetic chapter a week, maybe two, at best. Still, though, we are enjoying it when we do find time to read 

Elisabeth


Elisabeth-- er, Ellie-- always enjoys being read to. She has a stack of books she checked out from the library and her clear favorite that we have read, I think, no less than eight hundred and twelve times is Beatrix Potter's Fierce Bad Rabbit.

Joe


Joe also has struggled to find time to read and is still working through This is My Body, just like he was last month. He's been enjoying it immensely when he's hard time to dig into it but it's very heady book and it's taking him awhile to work through.

So, book suggestions! What are you all reading?