Weekly book shelf, 7/30
And I'm posting it on time! So only a few days after last week's. Oh well. It's actually the last week of the library summer reading program (since most people around here get out of town for the last month before school). I'm sorry to see it go only in the sense that for the past six weeks I've had at least some of his weekly reading at my fingertips to post right here. Without that list he can be hard to keep up with.
What Calvin read to himself this week...Sunset of the Sabertooth is yet another Magic Tree House book. He said to me after he finished it that he wanted to read Dinosaurs before Dawn again next because he LOVES that book. I love to hear him say that. The Boats on the River is a beautiful book about boats on a river by a town by the sea. It has flowing, lyrical language just like that, and uses repetitive language, rhyme and rhythm to build sentences. It's good old 1940s, right down to the illustrations. Makes me think of Virginia Burton. It's a big winner with us.
Changes, Changes is a wordless picture book that follows two wooden dolls who continuously refashion the blocks around them in new and imaginative ways to escape tough situations. They begin, for instance, in a block house, but when the house catches on fire they take part of the house blocks and build a fire engine to put out the fire, which creates a lake, so then they turn the blocks into a boat, and so on. This has been a favorite in our house for a while and was rediscovered this past week (we didn't actually include this book on his reading list for the library, since there were no words, but I thought it was better than listing yet another Tree House book here!).
And Hidden Dinosaurs is a rhyming book about paleontology, a fact book about dinosaurs, and a hidden picture book, all rolled into every page. This is by the man we met at the library on Friday and he signed the books for the kids after the program. Calvin, who is now on a dinosaur kick thanks to "PaleoJoe," is delighted with this book, and I think it is well done.
Calvin also started reading Mr. Popper's Penguins this week. We're doing a sort of FIAR unit style reading of this book. He's reading it to himself, but then we're talking about the chapters and learning more about things as we go, like penguins.
What we read together this week...I like Song of the Swallows because it is just a beautiful story. Many books try to teach lessons, but this one is just a sweet story about a little boy who loves the swallows that nest in the gardens near his home. When they fly to their winter nesting grounds he misses them, but prepares the gardens for their returns, adding a beautiful place for them at his own house so some will come nest there, which they do. Printed music to go with a song that he sings is also in the story/book. Another 1940s treasure! We are also rereading some of the Magical Monarch of Mo this week.
On my shelf this week...nothing new. I am just starting The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells, and am still making headway on my second trip through Swann's Way, by Marcel Proust. I've started a new reading blog called Finding Time for Proust on Blogger (starting post here) where I'm keeping all my book notes, mostly from Proust right now, but I also post notes and reivews from the other books I read as well.
Book reviews, Weekly book shelf | tagged children's fiction, dinosaurs, youth fiction Weekly book shelf, 7/23
I'm way behind, so it's nowhere near 7/23, but it always takes me a bit to catch up after vacation, and I didn't want to skip a week because Calvin read some fun books while we were away, so I'm just posting late.
What Calvin read to himself this week... Lots of really great books this week, and three of them were entirely new to us. They came into the library sale room just before we left and they looked so perfect I bought them! "Hidden Michigan" is a hidden pictures kind of book with illustrated maps of various regions in our state, plus written facts and anectdotes. It was fun for him to read as we were driving from the SE corner of the state to the NW. "Let's Go to Mackinac Island!" is a week long trip with a family of four to the historic island in the Straights of Mackinac. The illustrations are light and airy and the story is realistic and engaging. We didn't actually go to the island, but we saw it from the shore, and Calvin really enjoyed the book.
"Coyote Cry" is an incredibly beautiful book about living with nature. This is probably not a book for very young children; in it a family is struggling to protect their sheep from the coyotes, and when the young boy's puppy goes missing they assume the coyote has eaten him like the sheep. In the end they find that the coyote has stollen the pup to raise herself, possibly because her own young have died. So there is allusion to death, and a lot of instense emotions, but they are handled with maturity and beauty. Calvin loved it and I think it is to become a family favorite. And "All About Trains" is one of Calvin's favorites because he is such a train lover. It is full of information that is accessible to kids, but not watered down, and illustrations that are realistic and interesting.
Things we read together this week... we're still reading the Little House book. It's taking us this long because we just don't go back to it all that often. It might be time to let it go and move on. And because we were out of town all week we packed a couple of old favorites, including the Arabian Nights and The Aeneid, but haven't really started something new yet.
On my shelf this week...I finished the disappointing "The Map of Time" and I think I'll pick up The Time Machine to supplement this week. I am making headway on Proust, too, even though it seriously feels like I'm going nowhere since I decided to re-read the first volume to up my note taking. Oh well.
Book reviews, Weekly book shelf | tagged children's fiction, children's non-fiction, trains