Monday, May 28, 2018

What We're Reading :: Spring

Catching up on some current reads for me and gifted books for the kids from the past couple months. There are few things I enjoy talking about more than books! :)

Me
Elizabeth Goudge's Green Dolphin Street and Lord of the Rings (both finished for my local book club -- loved them both!)
The Month of St. Joseph (spiritual reading with the kids for Term 3)
The Cloud of Witness (always!)
Karen Glass' Know and Tell (finished last month with my local CM study group)
Norms and Nobility and Formation of Character (for online book groups)

On to the kids' Easter and birthday books...

Vincent, age 11


Pyle's The Story of Sir Lancelot and His Companions (total mom fail because we already own this! I was actually looking for the second book in the series. I promised him I'll switch. :))
Saint Patrick: Apostle of Ireland (a new release from my favorite Catholic publisher, St. Augustine Academy Press)

Gianna, age 11


Lindbergh's The Midnight Farm (because she adores Jeffers' illustrations)
My Sister, Saint Therese (a biography written by the sister of her favorite saint)
Favorite Fairy Tales (love the classic illustrations)

Cate, age 9


Cinderella, illustrated by Arthur Rackham (she is fascinated by silhouettes, and you can't go wrong with Rackham!)

And for her birthday... Cate fell in love with Little Bo from the library, so I decided to get her a couple others from the series for her birthday (Little Bo in London, Little Bo in France, and Little Bo in Italy). She had no idea there were sequels, so she was so excited!  


Funny enough, she also received A Nest for Celeste, one of Gianna's old library favorites that we didn't yet own; we noticed after the fact that all the books are illustrated by Henry Cole! Such an odd but fun coincidence.


And I just love the watercolor bookmark Gianna made her for a birthday gift. :)


Xavier, age 8


Carolyn Haywood's Little Eddie and Robert Rows the River
Saint Vincent de Paul and Saint Anthony of Padua from the Footsteps of the Gospel series (I knew these were out of print, but it looks like they aren't available used on Amazon either!)

...and his birthday books:


Cooper Edens' Robin Hood (Edens always compiles the most fabulous illustrations!)
And more of the Eddie books: Eddie's Green Thumb and Eddie and the Dog Holder

Bridget, age 6


This beautiful set is from St. Augustine Academy Press -- a new release and it is just perfect for Bridget! Beautiful pictures and thick, durable pages. The content is delightful.

Clara, age 5


Burgess' Old Mother West Wind (we have this in hardcover, but I found this paperback at the thrift store to meet her desire for her own copy)

The Baby Boys


Virginia Lee Burton's Choo Choo (one of the only Burton books we didn't have in hardcover)
Five Little Firemen and Tootle (I'm a sucker for the vintage Golden books)
and then some tiny books for tiny hands :)

And newly-4yo Drew's birthday books ...


Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever (my little boys loooove Scarry)
Smithsonian Handbooks: Horses (an illustrated "field guide" for my horse-loving boy)
Yankee Doodle, illustrated by Ed Emberley (we love folk song picture books!!)
Marjorie Flack's Angus Lost (finally found this in hardcover -- it is one of my favorite series!!)

For the Family
As usual, my kids get a stack of books at our exam celebrations. Some for the free read shelf, some for reference. Here are the books from Term 2...













Daughtery's The Magna Charta (Year 2 tie-in)
The Art of Chinese Paper Folding (for my boys' handicraft for Term 3)
Ryan's Echo (Year 6 tie-in)
Morpurgo's War Horse (Year 6 tie-in)
an abridged version of Kipling's Jungle Books (for the illustrations by Nicola Bayley-- Year 3 tie-in)
Animals Marco Polo Saw (we just finished Marco Polo this term for Form I)
Seal Pup Grows Up and Manatee Winter (reminded us of the White Seal in The Jungle Books -- to add to our Smithsonian nature book collection of hardcovers)
The Atlas of British History and The Atlas of European History (references for my Form II kids' mapwork)
Diane Stanley's Leonardo da Vinci (Year 3 tie-in)
Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures (related to our architectural sketching)
and a bunch of Dover coloring books connected to this year's time period (given by a friend -- these have useful line drawings for the Book of Centuries!)

In the Mail
First, a friend went thrifting and brought me home this! (Great friend, right?)



In the mail: The Oxford History of the American People. A friend is using it with her high schoolers and I wanted to give it a look-through. Seems like a great one to have on the shelf even if I don't schedule it formally.

And I was excited when I saw a lovely (and affordable) copy of Amy Steedman In God's Garden, which we have read off of my tablet during Morning Basket. Aren't the plates beautiful? (You can buy the paperback sans-plates here.)



Last but not least: The First Book of the Great Musicians came in, thus completing my set!


I loooove seeing previous owner's names in the cover, especially when they're old. Aren't the scripts charming? I love how they used to sign and date their books.


So, that's a lot of books! But it's summer break here, so we have all been doing quite a bit of reading -- these new books have sure come in handy.

Did I mention I got four new bookshelves too?! :)

(All links are Amazon Affiliate links, which means I receive from Amazon a credit for any purchase made when you click through.  Thanks!)

15 comments:

  1. Sigh. Thank you so much! I'm always referring to these post for ideas for book giving. I'm the book Aunt in my ever growing extended family as well as my own kiddos. :)

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  2. I love the month of st Joseph! What a charming book it is!

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  3. I love your updates on what you're all reading and seeing that we have read or are reading some of the same books! I picked up A Nest For Celeste last year at a library sale for my oldest. He wasn't quite ready yet last year, but this summer he's turning 8, might be time to re-introduce it to him.

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    1. Yes, my 9yo daughter is really enjoying it. I think it would have been too challenging/quiet for her a year ago. :)

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  4. What do you think of the Europe atlas? There are no reviews and I’d like one for Sarah Beth. Thank You ��
    Catherine.

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    1. Catherine, I am sorry -- I haven't been getting blog comments in my email for some reason, so I didn't see this until now! :/ Yes, the Europe one is great. We used it a lot. There are historical atlases that are MUCH more thorough out there, but this one is slim enough to be approachable for the kids to use themselves, if that makes sense!

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  5. Where do you get your bookshelves? I want to replace my cheapo Walmart ones with something more sturdy.

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    1. Pretty much all of our bookshelves are from Ikea: Billy and Kallax. They have held up surprisingly well!

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  6. Caleb listened to Echo on audio a few months ago and really enjoyed it. We had never read anything from that author before, but I go it for the Y6 tie in too. =) I have never heard of Little Bo, I'll have to go look at those.

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    1. Sorry, that's from VL.

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    2. I have heard that Echo is fantastic on audio! We weren't familiar with the author either. Little Bo is very sweet!

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    3. HI Celeste,
      I am wondering when you read to your littlest ones. I know that’s a strange question but as you know, making a schedule for the whole family is quite a job. I was looking at your schedule in your post about the school year just passed (2017-2018) and noticed you have a pretty full schedule. Our schedule feels very full these days too, and that’s the one piece that I find hard to do. I’ve been thinking of asking other family members to take turns reading to our littlest one.

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    4. The littles get read to by everyone in the home. :) My 9yo, 8yo and 6yo read to the littles in the mornings and in the afternoons. They happily offer, and the littles love it, so they go through lots of books together! My Big Kids will usually read a couple books as well in the afternoon. And then my husband and/or I always read at least a couple books during after-dinner time, while the Big Kids are doing after-dinner chores.

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