Weekly book shelf, 3/7/14

In history this week we explored the rise of the Byzantine empire plus its ruler Justinian and his theatrical wife, Theodora (SOTW2, ch. 4).

We read a few books about Justinian and Theodora, but our favorite was the chapter in Famous Men of the Middle Ages. We turn to this book for simple biographies quite often.

For information about the ear and the setting, this title from "Cities Through Time" collection was informative and interestingly illustrated, without being falsely entertaining or too visually distracting—my two must haves in a non-fiction. It was a little wordier than we needed, so we did more skimming than reading, and it was also written with a Christian bias, but what isn't, really? This title, with its comprehensive time lines, was especially useful for fitting Constantinople/Istanbul into the larger scheme of things.

And since this chapter highlighted the schism in the early Christian church that gave rise to the Eastern Orthodox religion, we also picked up this book from the "Religions of the World" collection. Simple books, simple explanations of the real life defining characteristics of the religions in the world. Easy reading.

Science this week was our ongoing review of BFSU1.

In literature this week we read and studied The Incredible Journey together. I hadn't read this story since I was young. Very young. I enjoyed it then, but reading it now as an adult I discovered my favorite part of this story—the very realistic depictions of the animals and their thought processes. The usual anthropomorphism is so light as to be almost non-existent in this classic story of three pets surviving a long journey through the Canadian wilderness. It provided many opportunities for further discussions about evolution and animal vs. human traits. A favorite topic of mine. Calvin loved the story, and for fun, after we'd finished the book, we watched the 1960s movie of the same title, which we also enjoyed.

And by himself this week, Calvin chose Owls in the Family to read and study. It's a sweet story of a boy and his animal menagerie, including his two new pet owls. A story of antics and escapades, Calvin fell in love with Wol and Weeps and the entire cast of characters.