The bigger boys start school this week, and everyone will be in school in two more weeks, so now's a good time to tell you all about the many books I bought this summer, right? Right.
Most of them were for Poppy, who has definitely become a reader.
Many books.
All the Ralph S. Mouse books
All the Ramona Quimby books
All The Borrowers books
All the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books (except the farm one) in a treasury format
Bed Knob and Broomstick (not as good as the movie, I'm told)
An Episode of Sparrows (I read this--it was fairly good, but not what I was expecting)
Poppy's absolute favorite was the complete Pippi Longstocking collection--three books--although that didn't make it into the photo.
Also not pictured, but for Poppy, I got The Little House Cookbook.
A couple of books by William Durbin, including Dead Man's Rapids, that were mostly for the youngest boy.
The next Horatio Hornblower book for the middle boy, although he informed me it was in no way as good as the first one so I shouldn't get the rest.
We Live in the Arctic, mostly for the older two boys.
And then later in the summer, one son was remarking that he was thinking of writing an encyclopedia of monsters, which led to us investigating if there is one. We found several, but most of them are either actual encyclopedias for adults that are trying to establish the existence of Big Foot or whatever, or ones geared toward small children.
I did end up getting a DK book about mythical creatures.
The plant book was an impulse purchase.
Because it's a DK book, it's good. Poppy enjoyed this one.
I also got another DK book--bad day for impulse buys--called History Year by Year: The History of the World from the Stone Age to the Digital Age. This was very popular with all three younger children. DK wins again.
And for me . . .
A collection of short stories by Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen, including "Babette's Feast." Similar to Bed Knob and Broomstick, the movie was better, but the stories were okay.
I did not enjoy Surprised by Joy, by C.S. Lewis. Extreme navel gazing, mostly.
I did enjoy Gilead, though I'm trying to decide if I liked it enough to read the sequels.
Not pictured, I got a collection of Erma Bombeck books, too.
For the eldest, I got the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. This is dystopian fiction, which I have no interest in, so I didn't read it, but he requested it and said it was good.
Also requested and enjoyed by the eldest, though I can't vouch for it myself, was Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds.
And now for the minor announcement: I did not renew my contract at the school for this year, which means that while the children are going back to school, and A. will be going back to driving the school bus, I will not be going back. Well, except as a substitute. I did tell them I could continue doing that.
This means I will shortly have more time for reading! Do you have any recommendations for me? Or for the children?
13 comments:
Oh, read Long Way Down. It is different and very , very good. I read it when homeschooling 2 yrs ago, and iI still think about it. Teen boy liked it too. His book The Boy in the Black Suit also very good. ( Reynolds also wrote a few Miles Morales Spiderman books that the boys enjoyed. )
Teen boy enjoyed The Three Musketeers, Walk in the Woods, and Michael Vey Series. Other teen boy read a lot- oh, The Martian, Project Hail Mary, and a bunch of classic novels. Husband loved Lonesome Dove.
Macbeth- then watch Throne of Blood by Kurosawa.
I read so much but don't remember it- though I did like Gone with the Wind.
I'll look over my list from homeschooling this spring to see if anything pops out. We read a lot; I'm probably not the best English teacher but with SparkNotes help, we covered a lot of literature.
The first five Murderbot Diaries. The first 4 are brisk novellas, full of action and themes of what makes a person. I don't generally sci fi and fell for them. Maybe for teen boy and not you.
And great job reading, Poppy!
Volume one of the young reader fiction, called The War That Saved My Life. A young girl from a terrible abusive background is sent from London into the country to avoid the bombings, where she learns about kindness for the first time in her life and has to decide if she will allow herself to be weak by becoming kind. Really heart tugging. Was a Newberry Award winner. About 14 year olds are the target audience but the adults I recommended it to, loved it.
That's a great series! The sequel and related books are awesome. Even my teen son approved.
Code Talkers, All the Light We cannot See, Boys in the Boat, Maus, ( we covered WWII in history so I picked a bunch of books related to that), The Diary of Anne Frank, World War Z, To Say Nothing of the Dog, The Things They Carried, Prayer for Owen Meany.
For you: Kate Quinn's The Briar Club; anything by Louise Erdrich.
My daughter loved the Franny K Stein books. She even wrote the author one year and sent a picture of herself dressed as Franny K Stein for book day at school and he sent her a signed sketch of Franny! She also loved the BabyMouse series which are graphic novels so not heavy duty reading, but she read them over and over. I'm of a mind that as long as they're reading, I will support almost anything!
Also, the Borrowers books were a big hit. :)
Thank you, Mable and mbmom11, for letting me know about the sequel! We're on holidays at the same place where our whole family read The War That Saved My Life two years ago and being at the same place thought back somewhat fondly. Off to request Ms Kimberly Brubaker Bradley other books from our library!
My older kids who really liked the Divergent books are also very into Greek and Roman mythology, particularly as imagined in the Percy Jackson books. On the dystopian fiction front, I thought The Hunger Games and the two sequels were well worth the time, even though dystopian fiction is really not my genre (nor is mythology). I read for character, and if the setting becomes a character, then even better. This is part of why I personally love the L.M. Montgomery books, which my kids won't touch with a 10-foot pole. Anne is fine, Emily is better, Jane and Valancy and Pat are better yet. Our youngest who's close to Poppy in age loves the Wings of Fire graphic novels — not my bag, again, but she has about worn the covers off of them.
Funny, I also am not a huge fan of the C.S. Lewis books. It's one of those things that I suppose I ought to like, but meh.
Recent reading on the random front — In the Likely Event by Rebecca Yarros is a recommendation.
(Karen.)
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