Family Reading #7

James reading with his Grandma during our last week in France.
 

In honor of my brand new wall-lining bookcase, I thought it was time for a new books post....

 

Picture Book Highlights

For some reason, we ended up with several cowboy books on our last library trip (namely Cowboy Andy and Harry the Wild West Horse).  These have become the favorites in this pile.  Who knew my kids liked cowboys?  (Speaking of library, we are blessed to have a wonderful library and resource center for homeschooling missionary families less than 10 minutes walk from where we are living right now.  It’s fantastic.)

 

Michelle’s Reading (Age 7)

Michelle has been devouring the Boxcar Children series (many volumes available in aforementioned library).   I had heard that volumes 1-19 were the only ones penned by the original author and all the ones after that have been ghost written for mass production (and are therefore not as good).  We’ve found this to be true – while there’s nothing particularly bad about volumes 20+, the storylines in the earlier books have been much more engaging for her.

 

Featured School Book

We’ve just started AO Year 1, and week 1 went well.   Michelle loved James Baldwin’s 30 More Famous Stories last year, so she was really excited to see his 50 Famous Stories on the AO Year 1 reading list.  She chose to do her notebook page for week 1 on “The Sword of Damocles” which was from this book, so I take that as an indication that she’s enjoying it.

 

Bedtime Read-Aloud

We are almost finished with The Tanglewood’s Secret by Patricia St John.  I like the way that these stories weave spiritual truths into plausible storylines.   Given that this is the second Patricia St John book that Michelle has chosen in the past couple of months, I’d venture to guess that she is enjoying them too.

 

On Mama’s Nightstand

So many books, so little time.   I did recently finish a James Herriot trilogy (All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Wise and Wonderful) and really enjoyed them.  I had never thought to read these books before since they are stories about a vet, and I’ve never cared all that much for animal stories…but these were actually really good.   Far more about the people he met and lessons learned in the course of his life as a vet in 1930’s rural England.  And funny.  (Although, beware of some profanity.)    I am also working steadily through Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy of Education (Volume 6).   Wonderful insights here.  Hoping to blog my way through these at some point.  

 

So tell me...have you read anything especially good lately?   I'd love to hear about it!