That brings the total for the year to 160 books, 47 magazines, and 5 abandoned.
The Enchanted Hour : The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction
by Meghan Cox Gurdon
Wow! This book was encouraging and challenging. The author cites many studies showing the numerous and varied benefits to reading aloud to young and old alike. It confirms and affirms my belief that reading out loud is a family tradition that is worth keeping up and worth making sacrifices for. It saddened me to realize that I slacked off on reading to my younger three, compared to their older three siblings, but it encouraged me to increase and prioritize reading time with all of them. I listened to the audio version, read by the author. She is a very good reader : able to imitate the accents and styles of the people she quotes. The last chapter contains a list of questions and objections and encouragement to start reading aloud to the people in your life, no matter their age. BTW, "enchanted hour" refers to bedtime story hour, though she does make the point that you should read aloud whenever it makes sense for your family -- it doesn't have to be at bedtime (or just at bedtime). I highly recommend this one, especially to parents.
Adam of the Road
by Elizabeth Janet Gray
Set in 1294 England, Adam is the son of a minstrel. He and his father enjoy life on the road until one day his dog is stolen by a fellow minstrel. While searching for the dog, Adam becomes separated from his father and encounters many adventures before they are all finally reunited. Excellent story! It would be helpful to have some background info on the time and place to fully understand the story. This would make good read-aloud during a study of the time period. I read parts of it and listened to the audiobook version of other parts of it. When we get to the point of reading it as a family, I expect we'll do the audio version to avoid mispronunciation errors. :-)
Blind Hope : An Unwanted Dog and the Woman She Rescued
by Kim Meeder
Told in a mixture between narrative and interview, this is the story of a young woman who rescues a sick dog (who soon goes blind due to diabetes). Through the relationship with the dog, the woman learns many lessons about herself and her relationship with God. There are a number of passages in the book that I was tempted to copy out and show to my students as great examples of strong writing and vivid imagery.
The Man Who Listens to Horses
by Monty Roberts
Sort of an autobiography of Monty Roberts, though not strictly chronological. It tells many of the same stories as in the book I read last month (The Horses in my Life), but in more detail. It does contain more graphic descriptions of the cruelty of his father -- to horses, his son, and other people. Also more language than the other book. Not recommended for children or sensitive readers.
Shy Boy
by Monty Roberts
I believe this is Monty Roberts' third book. This one is mostly about the wild mustang he gentled out in the open and under the watchful eyes of a film crew. A couple of uses of "hell", but otherwise pretty clean. It covers some of the same ground as The Man Who Listens to Horses, but not as graphic. I did let my 12 year old read this one.
Tumtum and Nutmeg : Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall
Tumtum and Nutmeg : The Rose Cottage Tales
by Emily Bearn
Each book contains 3 stories, which were originally published as separate books. A mouse couple live inside a grand house inside an unused broom cupboard in a run-down English home. They are content with their quiet, non-adventurous life. But they have compassion on the two children who live there with their absent-minded inventor father. They take it upon themselves to help with maintaining the house, mending clothes, etc. and find themselves drawn repeatedly into many dangerous adventures. Clean and fun.
Paddington Helps Out
Paddington Abroad
by Michael Bond
I discovered that Michael Bond wrote many more Paddington books than I had previously known about. Our library has most of them as e-audiobooks, so we enjoyed listening to these two during our travels this month. Everyone seems to enjoy them. Just plain good fun!
A Piglet Named Mercy
by Kate DiCamillo
My kids have very much enjoyed the Mercy Watson books, so when I saw this new one at the library, we checked it out. This picture book tells the story of how the piglet Mercy came to live with Mr. and Mrs. Watson on Deckawoo Drive. Very cute. My little ones loved it. This is a picture book, not a chapter book like the other Mercy Watson books.
Pluto Visits Earth!
by Steve Metzger
Pluto hears that he has been demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet. He is so upset that he comes to Earth to demand reinstatement. I was previewing this book to use in our astronomy studies this year. Loved it!
Journey to Pluto
by Jordon Brown
an easy-reader based on a screenplay. Gives info about Pluto as some children are discussing how and why it was reclassified as a dwarf planet. This wasn't my favorite. The story just didn't grab me and the pictures weren't very helpful in identifying the characters.
Pluto and the Dwarf Planets
Nathan Sommer
Except for one page with evolution, this was pretty good at describing recent discoveries about Pluto and other dwarf planets. We will use this to supplement our older astronomy text.
Pluto : A Space Discovery Guide
by James Roland
A bit more detailed than the previous book, this describes the New Horizons mission and the information that scientists discovered about Pluto. I expect we will be using this one as well. As usual, it does approach it from an evolutionary world-view.
by Mary Kay Carson
This one is even longer and more detailed and it focuses on the people involved in creating and executing the New Horizons mission. Fascinating. Even my husband read quite a few pages of this book. This one is probably too long and detailed for my younger kids, but I'll check it out again for my older kids when we get to our study of Pluto. As usual, it does approach it from an evolutionary world-view.
Hummingbird
by Nicola Davies
I saw a review of this book in one of the magazines I read. Since it is hummingbird migration season, I checked it out from the library to share with the kids. Beautiful picture book describing the preparation these tiny birds make for their long, non-stop flight across the Gulf of Mexico every fall and spring to their winter and summer habitats.
Beware of the Crocodile
by Martin Jenkins
A picture book full of fun and factual information about crocodiles. Engaging illustrations. The kids loved it. Especially the part about the daddy crocodiles eating the baby crocodiles.
A Father's Love
by Hannah Holt
A picture book describes different animal fathers and how they care for their babies. Delightful rhymes and pictures.
Texas Aesop's Fables
by David Davis
I loved this book of Aesop's fables retold with a Texas voice and characters. I'll be reading this out loud to the kids as we start our Texas history studies this fall. This is also great because our writing program (IEW) has taught the kids to retell fables using different characters and settings. So this is an excellent example of that!
Texas Mother Goose
by David Davies
Many familiar Mother Goose rhymes and songs retold with a Texas twist. I'm going to use several of these for our poetry memorization this year, to go along with our Texas history studies.
Meanwhile Back at the Ranch
by Anne Isaacs
A Texas tall tale about a rich widow in Texas who is pursued by one thousand suitors. She has to figure out a way to get rid of them. In the process, she finds the one she really wants.
Pecos Bill and Slue-Foot Sue
retold by Virginia Schomp
A Texas tall tale about the cowboy Pecos Bill and his equally amazing wife Slue-Foot Sue.
Tumbleweed Baby
by Anna Meyers
The Upagainstit family finds a wild baby in a tumbleweed and decide to keep it and civilize it.
Did You ever Meet a Texas Hero
by Marj Gurasich
Short biographies of Stephen F. Austin, Mary Austin Holley, Jane Long, William Barret Travis, James Bowie, David Crockett, Susanna Dickinson, Jose Navarro, and Sam Houston.
The Penderwicks
by Jeannie Birdsall
I've been hearing about this series for a while now and it's been on my "to-read" list. When I saw it at the library this month, I decided to go ahead and bump it up to the top of the queue. Four sisters (ages 4-12) go on vacation with their widowed father. They have all sorts of adventures with the 11 year old boy who lives on the estate where their rental cottage is located, much to the dismay of the boy's mother. It was a nice story, sweet and funny. But there are a lot of sibling arguments and words like "stupid", "idiot", and "darn". Also some lying to avoid getting in trouble. And the 12-year old girl swoons over a 19 year old boy.
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