What We're Reading :: Late Summer 2020

Like I have mentioned, we started back to lessons a couple weeks ago (here and here for some peeks at our school year so far), so I'm squeezing in this summer break post right at the end here to share what we read over the past couple months or so.

Our libraries were closed due to COVID this summer, so we were SO grateful to have our own stocked shelves to "shop" for summer reading. (Can anyone else relate?!)

Amy shared with me that each student in her house creates a summer reading stack for themselves -- so we decided to do the very same thing! I had the kids grab a stack of books from our shelves that they wanted to read through over the break. We kept the stacks on the bookshelf in our entry for easy access and it worked really well.

Me
Zena Hitz's Lost in Thought (was reading with friends online)
Cather's The Song of the Lark (started this in the spring and have come back to finish it)
Don Quixote (Form 4 novel for Term 1 -- we're using an edited version the PNEU assigned)

Belloc's Characters of the Reformation (also for Form 4)

Montgomery's Jane of Lantern Hill (just fnished re-reading for my Form 2 students' novel -- so good!)

Vincent, age 14

Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel

Knowles' A Separate Peace

Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days (he also read a bunch more Verne)

Caras' The Forest (out of print, but it was a recommendation from Amy)

And he spent a good amount of time rereading some Walter Farley books and Bethlehem Books' historical fiction, which is perfect summer reading!

Gianna, age almost-14

Gilbreth's Cheaper by the Dozen (my kids found this very relatable -- LOL!)

Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby (I have been giving them a Dickens to read each year)

Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth

Austen's Sense and Sensibility (re-read) and Pride and Prejudice (first time!)

The last few books in the Betsy-Tacy series

Mother Loyola's Home for Good (I mentioned this in my Catholic books post for this year)

Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (the Sea Wolf Books reprints are really nice!)

Cate, age 11

Montgomery's Emily of New Moon series (I have the older versions which I can't link to - but there's this one-volume option that looks ok...)

Eloise Jarvis McGraw's Mara, Daughter of the Nile (a favorite of my big girls)

Long's School of the Woods

Pyle's Otto of the Silver Hand (after reading King Arthur this past year, she pulled it from the shelf)

Buck's The Big Wave

Alcott's Little Women (her first read-through!)

Xavier, age 10

He has been obsessed with Redwall this summer, as you can see!

Bailey's Miss Hickory (his sister told him he had to read it)

Lawson's Rabbit Hill

Crusader King: A Novel of Baldwin IV and the Crusades (a birthday gift for my knight-loving boy)

Hilda van Stockum's The Winged Watchman and Pollard's Beorn the Proud (both related to last year's history reading)

Bridget, age 8

McCloskey's Homer Price

Stoutenburg's American Tall Tales

The Father Finn books (Vincent got a set for his birthday and the kids have been passing them back and forth since)

Estes' Pinky Pye (she read Ginger Pye last year)

Campbell's Fiddlesticks and Freckles

Pyle's The Wonder Clock

Clara, age 7

I dedicated a bit of daily time to Clara's reading lessons each day with the Treadwell Readers. She made lots of progress and decided to paint little cards of each story as she goes!

The Little Boys, ages 6, 4, and 3
We did lots and lots of picture books together this summer. Here's one evening's selections by Damien:

Byron Barton's Airport

Orchard's Little Yellow Book of Nursery Rhymes

Flack's Ask Mr. Bear and Angus Lost (the Angus series is among my very favorites to read aloud)

Lenski's The Little Auto

On audio
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (the Term 1 novel for my Form 1 kids)
They also listened to a couple of the Redwall books this summer, which inspired lots of drawing and story writing -- like these maps by Xavier!

(I don't know about you, but I'd like to live at Redcrest if I could! :))

There was also lots and lots of pre-reading and books in the mail this summer. I'll have to sprinkle those in through the year as there are too many wonderful ones to share here!

{What We're Reading}

Me
Beryl Markham's West with the Night (a CMEC selection for high school geography)
Cather's Death Comes from the Archbishop (first read this ten years ago -- time for a revisit!)
Alcott's Little Women (re-reading for my local book group)
Verne's Michael Strogoff  (just finished this exciting and satisfying story, which ties in wonderfully with our focus on Asian geography this year too)
Mason's Volume 4 and Volume 1 (for my reading groups)
...And of course I am keeping up with the coursework for our Mother's Education Course through the CMEC, which includes dipping into the volumes but also reading some new-to-me Parents' Review articles each month -- what a joy!

I have been reading quite a bit lately as the weather has finally turned colder and I'm spending more time indoors at the end of this pregnancy.

As a Family
Hawthorne's A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (I planned these as literature selections for my Form 1 and 2 kids this year, but it turns out the Form 3 kids have been listening in the whole time anyway, even though they have already read them many times on their own! We just started Book 2.)

...And I'm trying to choose a good Advent read for us all together! We are already reading The Way to Bethlehem and The Christmas Rose, as we do every year, but I'm seeking out something fresh to add in. I went through my shelves last night and am thinking Alice Dagliesh's Christmas might be a good fit this year!

Vincent, age 13
Betz's Yankee at Molokai (he has been on a biography kick)
Montgomery's Rilla of Ingleside (I wasn't sure he would make it through the Anne books but he did!)
The Story of the US Coast Guard (probably to balance out all the Anne -- LOL)
Tolkien's Tales from the Perilous Realm (started it right after Gianna finished it!)

Gianna, age 13
Tolkien's The Silmarillion (first time and adoring it)
Rankins' Daughter of the Mountains (tie in with our geography focus on Asia this year)
Gaskell's Cranford (I handed it to her when I finished it last month)

Cate, age 10
D'Angeli's The Door in the Wall (a re-read many times over!)
Sarah, Plain and Tall series (she read the first and then never picked up the sequels -- until now)
Lenski's Strawberry Girl (pulled back out when a penpal recommended it :))

Xavier, age 9
Henry's Stormy, Misty's Foal (he couldn't believe it when I told him Chincoteague was a real place!)
Ransome's Swallows and Amazons (we have listened to the whole series on audio, but this is his first time reading it)
Reynolds' Winston Churchill (one of his biographies from this term and a big favorite)

Bridget, age 8
Wilder's Farmer Boy and Little House in the Big Woods (reading aloud to her little sister -- they always have one or more Little House books going)
The Borrowers series (fun, as always)
The Light Princess (she just fell in love with MacDonald and I'm guessing The Golden Key will be next!)

Clara, age 7
She was determined to get out all the seasonal books the first day it really rained hard for the season -- and that was just this past week. Since then, she has been carting these around...
Tudor's Around the Year and Beskow's Around the Year
Over the River and Through the Wood, with woodcuts by Christopher Manson (love)

The Little Boys, ages 5, 4, and 2
They are still on a singalong songbook kick, so our folk song picture books are in HEAVY rotation!

Drew spends a lot of time following Big Kids around and requesting to be read to, especially Chicka Chicka 123 (not one of my usual picks, but he has been on a numbers kick lately), The Fire Engine Book, and Krauss and Blair's I Can Fly (one of my personal faves).

Justin got just a couple books for his birthday that have become fast friends...

The Mother Goose Songbook and Gregory Griggs and Other Nursery Rhyme People (selected and illustrated by Lobel).

And Damien's current selections: Eloise Wilkins' Poems to Read to the Very Young (a new pick for him but always popular with my older kids) and Lois Lenski's Small books (constantly!).

In the Mail
I have been on a bit of a buying moratorium lately since the holidays are coming up and I can't use the very good excuse of "school shopping" this late in the year. ;) But there have still been a couple very exciting arrivals lately...

Riverbend Press has reprinted all five volumes of Mason's The Saviour of the World in beautiful hardcovers. For now, I bought the one volume my Form 3 kids are using this year, but I plan on buying them all in the new year. :)

And it's always a happy day when Common Place Quarterly arrives!

That's what we have been up to -- how about you? What are you reading? Are you buying books for gifts? I have been doing a bit of book-related shopping...so far new Bibles for my older kids are en route and I have a bunch of classics like The Enormous Egg, The Cricket in Times Square, and Rabbit Hill ready to go for nephews. Still brainstorming a bit for my own kids, but I know some of Lois Lenski's Regional America books are on the list, and I'm hoping to finally get the beautiful saint books illustrated by Lydia Kadar-Kallen. We'll see what ends up under the tree! :)

What We're Reading :: October

Me:
Enger's Peace Like a River (finished last month for book club -- but it's on the AO list too)
Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich (for this month's book club)
Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter (slooowly making my way through the first volume of the trilogy)
CM's Parents and Children (for an ongoing video book club)
The Story of Charlotte Mason (I planned to finish this over the summer but didn't have a chance)
Please Understand Me II and Gifts Differing (dipping back into some MBTI)

As a Family:
Latham's Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (started this as a read-aloud, finishing it on audio -- you can buy it for much cheaper through Peace Hill Press as an mp3 download)
Ransome's Swallowdale (our car audiobook -- I can't recommend Larkin's versions highly enough!)
Lewis' The Silver Chair (just finished and on to the next Narnia audio)
Collodi's Pinocchio (in Morning Basket)

I have three September birthday girls, and they all got books...

Gianna (newly-10):

Tolkien's Mr. Bliss and Eliot and Le Cain's Growltiger's Last Stand (she loves quirky books)
A lovely hardback Anne of Green Gables (which she read for the first time over the summer)
Estes' The Alley (as you can see, the bookmark is already in that one -- ha!)

Bridget (newly-5):

Caldecott's Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross and A Farmer Went a Trotting (I can't find a version to link since it's OOP)
Walton's So Many Bunnies: a Bedtime ABC and Counting Book
Lobel's Alison's Zinnia
Eichenburg's Ape in a Cape: An Alphabet of Animals
(can you sense a theme here?  she's on an alphabet kick!)

Clara (newly-4):

Eloise Wilkin's Poems to Read to the Very Young in board book format (LOVE)
Wallner's The Farmer in the Dell and Langstaff's Frog Went A-Courtin (both of which I included in my favorite picture book folk songs!)
Wild Animal Babies (Clara adores these out-of-print cut-out books, so I'm always excited to find one)
Keats' Over in the Meadow (another for the folk song shelves)

...and she really wanted a set of Real Mother Goose miniature board books like I gave Bridget last year.  Thankfully my favorite online bookseller happened to find me one because they are out of print!

Grandma gave some great book gifts to the girls also:

The Four-Story Mistake (we still don't own all four yet -- they get borrowed regularly from the library!)
two Elsa Beskow books: The Curious Fish and Princess Sylvie
Little House on the Prairie on audio (she's slowly gifting the collection)
Sunshine and Snowballs, a re-illustrated Margaret Wise Brown

Yes, my mom has fabulous taste and totally supports our homeschooling.  I am blessed! :)

The Boys

Vincent (age 10) has been busy with some American history books in his free time:
Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence, Forts in America (yes, he's reading reference books!), and The Signers (love the woodcut illustrations).

Xavier (age 6) has requested The Kitchen Knight every day this week and has been copying pictures from Sylvia Long's Mother Goose in the evenings.

The Baby Boys (ages 2 and 11 months) have been demanding There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and Richard Scarry's ABC Word Book.

Cate (age 7) is plugging along on Milly-Molly-Mandy with me and is already re-reading Understood Betsy after finishing it a couple days ago.  She declared it her favorite book of Year 2 despite our being only a third of the way through the year. :)

In the Mail:
It has been quite a couple months for book deliveries and library finds!

The Story of One Hundred Symphonic Favorites
McGraw's Mara: Daughter of the Nile
LeMarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
Wendell Berry's Hannah Coulter (my favorite book of 2014 -- but I read a library copy)
Gombrich's The Story of Art (a hardcover in pretty good shape for 50 cents!)
Ness' Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine
Snowden's The Young Astronomer (for our reference shelf)
a tattered but still delightful copy of Poortvliet's Gnomes
In One Tidepool: Crabs, Snails, and Salty Tails
a hardcover of McCloskey's Time of Wonder to replace our worn paperback

Buehr's The Spanish Conquistadors in North America (we enjoyed his Marco Polo but haven't read this yet)
The Metropolitan Opera Guild's Lohengrin (so neat! -- I immediately bought the others in this series)

And one that a friend set aside for me to buy from her at the CMI conference: Jeanne Bendick's All Around You.  I've been hunting for this one!  Charming, right?

Well, that's what we've been reading the past couple months.  What I didn't share is the gigantic stack of vintage beauties I grabbed from our little library bookstore a few days ago after popping in there on a whim -- I'll save that for next time. :)

What books keep getting unshelved, reshelved, and then unshelved again in your home? :)  What's on your nightstand?  I'd love to hear!

(Links above are affiliate links. As always, thanks for your support!)

What We're Reading :: April

I planned to get a couple posts up this week, but I came down with a nasty head cold on Monday and haven't yet recovered. But! I had this post sitting in my drafts folder just ready for a little finishing up. So I guess we'll chat about books today!

Me (that's my nightstand up there!)
Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle (just finished for our local book club)
Berry's Jayber Crow (still working on it six months later! ;))
Robinson's Gilead (had to return it to the library, but I have it back now)
Doerr's Four Seasons in Rome (just started it and can already tell it's going to get gobbled -- ha!)
Mother Mary Loyola's With the Church (pre-reading for my kids)
Anne White's Minds More Awake (skimmed this last fall but now I've started a slow read)

And not pictured, but hasn't left my desk: John Muir Laws' The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling.  I know I have been mentioning this book all over the place, but I'm entranced! I'm working on writing up a set of related "challenges" to do alongside my kids this summer.

As a Family
Enright's Gone-Away Lake (a Year 4 free read)
The Big Alfie and Annie Rose Storybook (for my littles)
Spyri's Heidi (on audio)

And I'm going to share the books I piled under each child's Easter basket this year, since that's most of what they have have been reading lately!  As a reminder: I grab these from a box I keep of all the random used books I buy over the course of a year, so they always are gifted a bit of a mish-mash! :)

For Vincent, age 9

Leiper's By Hook and Ladder
Windeatt's St. Dominic and St. Benedict
Rops' Golden Legend of Young Saints
Kielgaard's Two Dogs and a Horse

For Gianna, age 9

Carl Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories and More Rootabaga Stories (these have a reputation for being rather odd -- but she's going to try them and I'll let you know how it goes! :))
Windeatt's St. Margaret Mary and St. Rose of Lima
Fr. Lasance's Emmanuel

For Cate, age 7

Brown's The Golden Bunny
Edwards' My Naughty Little Sister Storybook
Barklem's Sea Story (part of the Brambly Hedge series)
Lovasik's St. Joseph Catholic Children's Bible

For Xavier, age 5

De Brunhoff's Babar the King
and a few unabridged mini-books from the Winnie-the-Pooh collection (these look the same as mine)

For Bridget, age 4

Brown's Home for a Bunny
a darling box set of Real Mother Goose board books

For Clara, age 3

Richard Scarry's Bunnies
The Zoo Book
Suess' Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? (oversized board book -- a duplicate for us but this one is "hers")
I am a Little Giraffe (my littles loooove miniature books, and this one is tiny)
Screech Owl at Midnight Hollow (another miniature version of one we already own)

For the Baby Boys

a set of Byron Barton board books: Trucks, Planes, and Boats

In the Mail

Donald Silver's One Small Square: Woods
Prelutsky and Lobel's The Terrible Tiger
Knowlton's Geography From A to Z
Stories from The Old Testament
Celenza's The Farewell Symphony
Willard's The Voyage of the Ludgate Hill
Gaskell's Cranford, Everyman Library edition
Henry's King of the Wind
Lawson's The Tough Winter
The Swiss Family Robinson
Fabre's Book of Insects
And a few books for Year 5: Oliver Twist and a lovely hardback of Kim

So that's a lot to keep us busy! I actually had another box arrive today and Xavier got a stack of books for his birthday, but those I'll save for next month. :)

(Links above are affiliate links.  I left unlinked the books that are recommended by AmblesideOnline because I'd prefer if you bought through their affiliate links. ;)  As always, thanks for your support!)

What We're Reading :: March

Me

Bronte's Jane Eyre (re-read for local book club with free Kindle edition -- just finished)

Cather's My Antonia (I've read several of Cather's books, but this is my first time through this one)

Robinson's Gilead (after being recommended in the same month by Angela and Leila, it went to the top of my TBR list!)

Karen Glass' Consider This for my local Charlotte Mason study group (re-read)

Vincent, age 9

From the Year 4 free reads list: Lassie Come Home and Gentle Ben

Nature Anatomy (of course)

Gianna, age 9

Hunt's St. Patrick's Summer (a Lenten re-read)

Garnett's Crossbows and Crucifixes (another re-read from our Year 3 history studies)

Allen French's The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow (from Bethlehem Books)

Brill's Madeline Takes Command (I didn't realize she's reading so much historical fiction right now!)

Cate, age newly-7

She has been busy with her birthday books:

a few from the Flicka, Ricka, Dicka series (great for new readers!)

Neumann Press' A Story of St. Catherine of Alexandria

To the Littles

Jim Arnosky's Wild World (5yo Xavier's favorite book he got for Christmas)

Sylvia Long's Mother Goose (4yo Bridget reads this to Clara and Andrew all day every day)

Elsa Beskow's Around the Year (3yo Clara is rarely without it!)

Aurelius Battaglia's Animal Sounds (1yo Andrew mimicking animal sounds is the sweetest)

Reading Together

Swallows and Amazons on audio (almost finished!)

Gone-Away Lake (Year 4 free read in the Morning Basket)

Forbes' Johnny Tremain and...

Garnett's The Red Bonnet (two Year 4 tie-ins that the kids and I are reading separately together ;))

Beatrix Potter stories (before bed, with Daddy on audio when there's time)

In the Mail...

I have a backlog of in-the-mail photos from the past couple months, so bear with my gazillion book photos here!

Walter Buehr's The Crusaders (haven't read it yet, but we like his Marco Polo and it looked intriguing...and that cover!)

Boggs' Three Golden Oranges (Spanish folk tales)

Our Country's Story (a fabulous vintage history find for the younger set)

A Newberry Christmas (already stowed with the other holiday books for next year!)

Cranberry Thanksgiving

Robert Lawson's Watch Words of Liberty (great for copywork and I love Lawson's illustrations)

V is for Verses (a lovely poetry compilation for children)

My Shadow (Stevenson and Rand are a great combination!)

Peck's A Year Down Yonder

We Were There at the Battle of Gettysburg (because Molly threw it in for free ;))

Ox-Cart Man (because we needed a new hardcover version)

O'Dell's Sing Down the Moon

Church's The Odyssey of Homer

Enright's Thimble Summer (to replace our paperback -- a Year 4 free read)

Hilda Van Stockum's The Angels' Alphabet

Galdone's The Three Bears (because I never pass up Galdone)

Holder's The Lord's Prayer (the prayer set to beautiful illustrations)

St. Pius X Daily Missal (I have had great luck finding these at thrift stores lately!)
Mr. Gumpy's Outing
Garfield's Shakespeare Stories (we use Lamb, but you can never have too much Shakespeare!)
Birds of North America (large photos will help with identifications)
Bernadette Watts' St. Francis and the Proud Crow
Lullabies: An Illustrated Songbook (I buy any books for children that the Met puts out because they're always fantastic!)

Willa Cather's Shadows on the Rock (haven't read this Cather either, but it was scheduled for Well-Read Mom this year and I heard lots of raves from friends)
...and a few vintage readers

Augustus Caesar's World (in hardcover)
The Raphael Bible (with text by Rumer Godden -- so intriguing that I couldn't pass it up)
another version of Little Men that matches my edition of Little Women (pretty sure I now have three of each, but this is my first matched set ;))
Scott O'Dell's Streams to the River, River to the Sea
Nature Atlas of America

I didn't chat about books here in February, so it was nice to catch up!  What are you reading?

(Links above are affiliate links.  I left unlinked the books that are recommended by AmblesideOnline because I'd prefer if you bought through their affiliate links. ;)  As always, thanks for your support!)

What We're Reading :: For Christmas

In lieu of my What We're Reading post for December, I figured I'd wait and share our Christmas books--because that's pretty much all the kids have been reading since they unwrapped them!

Warning: this is a monster post.  It was a delightfully bookish Christmas this year. ;)

On Christmas Eve, I went out to the stockroom (aka a hidden bookshelf in my garage!) and chose books for each child out of my stash from used book shopping throughout the year.  It is so much fun picking out which ones go to which child!  I try to gauge both reading level and individual interest, and of course it depends on what I have on hand too.  I barely ever buy books new, so their gifts are always partly determined by what I come across.  Thankfully, I come across a lot of wonderful books! ;)

For Vincent, age 9
Sid Fleischman's Jim Bridger's Alarm Clock and Other Tall Tales
Eric Sloane's Diary of an Early American Boy
Petershams' The Story of Aircraft
the Illustrated Junior Classics version of Arabian Nights
d'Aulaires' Book of Trolls

For Gianna, age 9
Edward Lear's The Four Little Children Who Went Around the World (looks like this is out of print, which is too bad because it is fabulously quirky)
TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Norton's The Borrowers Afloat and The Borrowers Afield (ours are vintage copies, but they have the same illustrator)
Kate Greenaway's Book of Games
Pyle's The Wonder Clock (the vintage hardback is out of print, but they sell new paperbacks thankfully!)

For Cate, age 6
Richardson's Great Children's Stories
Trina Schart Hyman's The Sleeping Beauty
Kate Greenaway's Family Treasury
Hoban's A Bargain for Frances (although ours is the oversized hardback)
Gutmann's I Love You: Verses and Sweet Sayings

For Xavier, age 5
Margaret Wise Brown's Seven Little Postmen
Cooper Edens' The Glorious American Songbook
Margaret Wise Brown's Little Fur Family
Hoffmann's The Story of Christmas
Richard Scarry's ABC

For Bridget, age 4
Eloise Wilkins' The Christmas Story
Gutmann's Nursery Songs and Lullabies
Susan Jeffers' Hansel and Gretel
Sylvia Long's Mother Goose
Aylesworth's Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Mosel's Tikki Tikki Tembo and Richard Scarry's Little ABC and About Animals (for Clara, age 3)
Eloise Wilkins' My Good Morning Book and The Provensens' The First Noel (for the Baby Boys)
the songbook Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!, illustrated by Anita Lobel (for the Big Kids)

From Grandma..,.

Winnie-the-Pooh on audio (for Bridget)
Little House in the Big Woods on audio (for us all)
Elsa Beskow's Around the Year (for Clara)
Stratemeyer's The Minute Boys of Bunker Hill and The Minute Boys of Lexington (for Vincent)
Farjeon's Heroes and Heroines (for Gianna)
Elpel's Botany in a Day (for me!)
Kahl's The Duchess Bakes a Cake (for Cate)
Jim Arknosky's Wild World (for Xavier)

And other goodies!

O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi, illustrated by Lynch (from a friend who knows we love classic tales beautifully illustrated)
Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories (from a friend who knows I never mind a book straight from the thrift shop!)
Nature Anatomy (for my boys from their aunt)
...and some more Little House picture books and a lovely hardcover Douay-Rheims (picked up for my husband from the thrift store!)

And just before Christmas, this sweet package arrived in the mail from dear Kimberlee--she said she saw the books at her local used bookshop and thought of us...

I love that people see vintage Italian texts and sweet baby board books and think of our family! :) It even came wrapped in tissue paper and colored string, which my girls thought was so charming and tried to duplicate in their own wrapping this year.

And now to find homes for all of them...  Thankfully my husband gave me bookshelves for Christmas!

So what were your favorite books to give and receive this year?  Is your home as full of Christmas book readers as mine is?  Are you plotting out your 2016 reading plans?  I'm up for a little all-things-books chat if you are! :)