Weekly book shelf 9/7/12

I'm not sure how I'll run the resources section this year. There are plenty of resources we'll go through in a single week in science and history, and I plan to list those not only for my own edification in years to come, but also in case they can help someone else who goes or is going down the same road. In addition to those books, however, there is plenty of other reading going on in our house and I might try to list those books separately, because I know how much I love reading about books on other people's blogs. That's just the way I am.

So for the week of 9/1-9/7:

Monsters: The Grim Reeper (Rachel Lynette, 2010) and Monsters: Frankenstein (Adam Woog, 2006). Calvin is somewhat obsessed with monsters right now. It was dragons, and then goblins and ogres, and now (since we're reading Lord of the Rings) it's the Ring Wraiths. He picked these books up at the library and devoured them at home over last weekend. Whatever floats his boat, I guess.

Calvin is reading Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll). He read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland last week, and found both books hilarious. I love the play on words in both books. I had not ever read them myself, but now having listened to Calvin read them, I think I can see where Norton Juster (Phantom Tollbooth) may have found some of his inspiration. Calvin read our 1960s boxed set of the two books with original illustrations.

He also read Dragon Country, written by Kevin Dangoor, a father in our homeschooling group. The book is not available to the public yet, but Calvin read the first book from the series, Chasing the Gnome, several weeks ago and loved it so much that the author brought him his proof copy from the publisher to read over the weekend. Calvin devoured it in one afternoon. These are light and enjoyable fantasy books for young readers who are reading chapter books on their own. They have a great story line, with two good friends going on a quest in magical lands, meeting challenges and magical beings. The books are full of richly imagined lands, but not with the pop-culture drivel or social apathy that usually mark books for this age group.

As a family we are reading Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring aloud right now. We read The Hobbit over the summer, and Calvin loved it so much he begged and begged to read The Lord of the Rings immediately after. It is kind of slow as a read aloud, but so far he's had absolutely no problem with understanding or attention span on this one, like I thought might be a problem.