Weekly book shelf 12/2

Read as a family:

I'm sure this classic needs no description or introduction, but...a boy goes to bed awaiting Christmas morning, and awakes to the Polar Express pulling up outside his house. Once on board, he and a number of other children are whisked away to Santa's home.

This turns out to be a great companion book for BBC's Walking with Cave Men. Though it's not strictly a children's book, Calvin will pour over it for hours.

Reading to himself:

This might be a sacrilege, but I'm fond neither of this book, nor of this series. My feeling about the novel itself is just personal preference, but my issues with the Great Illustrated Classics series are more general, and twofold. First, the illustrations are a mid-century noir heavy line style of art. That's the style in every novel in this series regardless of subject matter, and it rarely fits. My second problem with the series is that the books aren't just abridged, the writing style is severely dumbed down. I gave this to Calvin to read in preparation for going to see the stage production next week, but had I planned ahead and started ealrier, I would have just read the original aloud. He enjoyed it fine, though.

Reading together:

(continued) Ester discovers an 11,000 year old artifact that becomes a porthole, sending her back to the time when that artifact, a spearhead, was used. Ultimately she learns a respect for the artifacts and history left from which we can learn about those who came before. Calvin and I are both enjoying this book.