Monday, July 20, 2015

What We're Reading :: July

Me
C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters (just started too)
Goudge's Pilgrim's Inn (loving this one)
Sampson's How To Raise a Wild Child (just read the first chapter--I'll review later!)
Charlotte Mason's Volume 6 and Susan Schaeffer Macaulay's For the Children's Sake (for our CM study group using Brandy's Start Here)

To the Big Kids
Trevor's Sun Slower, Sun Faster (finishing up from summer)
O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (on audio)
Speare's The Sign of the Beaver (our new read-aloud--I remember reading this one as a kid)

Vincent, age 9
d'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths (as soon as we started Age of Fable for school, he pulled out this one for free reading)
Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (seems like Dahl is always being read by someone!)
Brown's Kateri Tekakwitha: Mohawk Maiden (his Sunday reading)

Gianna, age 8
Field's Poems of Childhood (first time she has picked up a true book of poetry casually, I think!)
Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy (thanks to a reference to "Fautleroy" in the Eugene Field book)
Alexander's The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen (just finished)
Streatfield's Ballet Shoes (a re-read)

To the Middles (Cate, age 6, and Xavier, age 5)
Garnett's My Father's Dragon
The Complete Beatrix Potter Treasury
Piper's The Little Engine That Could
Burton's Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
For this week's reading lessons: Stevenson's "Rain" (for Cate) and Seuss' Hop on Pop (for Xave)
On audio: Jim Weiss' "Famously Funny" (lots of laughs!) and Cooney's Miss Rumphius (over and over again)

To the Littles (Bridget, age 3, and Clara, age 2)
Spier's The Star-Spangled Banner and Sendak's I Saw Esau (3yo Bridget's current favorites)
Aliki's Welcome Little Baby and Eloise Wilkins' Mother Goose (2yo Clara's current favorites--these two never go out of style with my littles)

New Additions to our Home Library
These gems are from the box of books I have bought in the past and stashed in the garage to pick through for my kids' birthdays.  Vincent turned nine last month, and I went with a theme this time around...


And then last week I had a pretty fruitful trip to the thrift store...


I already have a pretty copy of Robinson Crusoe, but I couldn't resist another hardback library-bound version illustrated by Wyeth.  I should probably keep one and sell the other, but I'm torn--which would you keep?

14 comments:

  1. We've been on a Beatrix Potter kick this summer. If you don't have Beatrix Potter- A Journal, you need to get it and then watch the movie Miss Potter. My twelve year old was totally uninterested in listening to me read all her little books out loud, and even uninterested in her journal, but after watching the movie, she got our anthology out and buzzed through them.
    http://www.amazon.com/Beatrix-Potter-Journal-Peter-Rabbit/dp/0723258058/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437407529&sr=1-1&keywords=beatrix+potter+a+journal

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    1. Looks like a great supplement, Melanie! Thank you for thinking of us. I will definitely check it out!

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  2. OOoooo...Ships by Macaulay and I bet that Book of Pirates by Pyle is neat! :) Robinson Crusoe is a hard one for me to pick because of so many variations. ??? I'm always confused which one and so many are abridged etc. I love the looks of the Wyeth one, but is the text the one you want??? :) We do not have RC on our shelves yet because of me always second guessing myself. I saw that beautiful Wyeth one this past weekend and I'm not familiar with your other one. :) So no help from me! Such a great idea to have a book box to keep book treasures...this would be helpful for baby showers, birthday party invites etc ! :)

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    1. That is a great point, as RC can be a really tricky one! I believe both of these RC versions are unabridged...the beige one definitely is, as that's what we're reading along with now as we listen to the audio version. I have only done a cursory look at the Wyeth one but I think it is too. I may need to keep both. :)

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  3. Whatever you do KEEP THE WYETH version of RC!! If you decide to get rid of it GIVE ME FIRST DIBS! I have several of these Scribner Classics illustrated by Wyeth and they are so lovely.

    The Pyle Pirate book looks glorious, too. I've always wondered about it...

    And...sigh. The Shoes books. Oh, how I loved them as a girl! I'm confident I read them all multiple times.

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    1. Haha--point taken, Dawn! It would be a no-brainer to just keep the Wyeth and sell the other, but the other is in such nice condition whereas the Wyeth has some wear to the cover under the library dust jacket. It's in great condition otherwise, though, so I may just need to keep both on my shelf. (Just don't tell my husband. ;))

      I will get the review of Pyle's Pirates once my kids finish it!

      I never read any of the Streatfield books growing up. Seriously deprived. :/

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    2. GASP! You have a house full of girls and you haven't read them?? Now is your chance! Pre-reading for your children is the perfect excuse for indulgence in the Shoes books! And you thought Goudge was good....

      PS - Good call on keeping both copies. I give away lots of duplicates, but some I just can't part with. One never knows, right?

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    3. Well, I have read a few of them now, thanks to my daughter's insistence last year...thankfully homeschooling gives us time to right the literary wrongs of our youth! :)

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    4. Celeste, consider keeping both as you can then feel free to give to a child when they are old enough to start their own library as an adult. If one of the kiddos loves it particularly, save it as a special gift for them when they get older or have a family of their own. I imagine you'll have loads of grandchildren some day and it would be such a lovely precious gift to give one of them a book that their parent personally read some 20-30 years ago! I rhink it was on an AO forum post where someone mentioned having grandparents purchase the same copy of a well-loved book for each child so that they have their own stocked library when they move out. Got me to thinking about how to ensure each of my kiddos gets a library of their own (feasible with such a large family? Must find a strategy...)

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    5. I saw that lovely idea on the forums too, Sarah, though I can't imagine how that would be practical for us considering how many books we have already! :) I'm figuring that if my kids would like to have well-stocked libraries upon leaving home (and I hope they do!), I'll just have to give them books for gifts from *that* point on. LOL

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  4. My 7 year old just pulled out Pets in a Jar to learn how to keep the various insects they catch alive. We won't let them have an indoor pet right now. I know, we are terrible parents. But we are just not up for the extra work it entails until we have multiple older kids that can take it on instead of us. So she let me know she will just have to have insect pets instead. Sigh. But we do have 12 chickens, so I'm trying not to feel too guilty.

    Screwtape Letters is so good. It's one of Lewis' easier to read, but tons to think on. I'm excited for when my kids are old enough for it.

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    1. I'm a mean mommy too, Virginia: my oldest daughter in particular would love a pet but I told her no, nope, no way, never gonna happen. It's either siblings or pets, not both. ;) But they do find plenty of creepy-crawlies to befriend for the short term, so that works for me. :)

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  5. I say you have 8 children, keep both :) always love to see what you're reading. I always end up adding a few to our "must read" list.

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    1. Thanks, Barb! Actually I pulled out both copies of RC today while we listened to the audio so my kids could read along in their own copies rather than sharing. So maybe two copies is just right for us after all! :)

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