Weekly Reading Hightlights (May 11th 2009)

Weekly Reading Highlights (May 11th 2009)

  The book the girls were most interested in hearing this week was TheRunaway Dolls, by Ann M Martin, the 3rd book in a series about dolls that come alive and have amusing adventures. We are listening to the audio version of this book and the girls are loving it. I think it's pretty good too.
  Both girls were really excited to see the book Franklin's ClassicTreasury by Paulette Bourgeois. These books are really sweet and I would have thought that Laurel (9) was way too old for them, but she wanted to hear every single story twice.
  Ella was particularily happy to see that we got The Sneeches andother stories from the library and I read those stories for her over andover.
  The House on Maple Street was another often requested book thisweek, and it's about the story of a peice of land over the course of 300 years. It's really neat to think of how many people may have lived where you do now. At the end of the book, the modern kids find toys from kids who lived a hundredyears ago, 200 years ago and wonder how they got there...
   We read the chapter book Jenny Goes to Sea (1957) by Esther Averill, which is the Jenny the Cat series that the girls enjoy. This story was about how Jenny travels around the world by boat with her brothers and becomes good friends with the ship's cat, Jack Tar. Ella loved the story and says it gets 5 1/2 stars. Both Laurel and I think it's pretty good too. 
  Sarah Morton's Day by Kate Waters is a book that my girls are fascinated to hear over and over again. We got it for our Story of the World history reading, as we are studying about how the Pilgrims cameover on the May Flower. This book is really neat because it's all photographs of the outdoor living museam called Plimoth Plantation in Massachusets. SarahMorton has a lot of chores to do and is thankful that she has the opportunity to learn her letters from her (step) father.

  Another book reccomended from Story of theWorld was the book Sword of the Samurai by Eric Kimmel, which is actually a collection of folktales from Japan. Some are funny, some are profound, and nearly every one has someone's head being cut off. There were a couple of sentences that were a bit too gruesome for my 6 year old to hear so I just edited those out as I read the book. I liked that before each story there was a paragraph or two with some interesting historical facts. Both girls really enjoyed this book and to my surprise, insisted on hearing all 11 tales.
  The Best Time of Day by Eileen Spinelli was a endearing picture book about how everyone has a favorite part of the day. "The best time of day, declares Famer Fred, / is eating his lunch in the shade of the shed - / with his dog alongside and a note from his wife: / 'Kisses XXX - till supper.' Ah, this is the life."
  We are listening to the audio book The Penderwicks on Gardam Streetby Jeanne Birdsall for the 3rd time in about 9 months, which must tell you it is a family favorite. This is the 2nd in the series about 4 daughters whose widowed father is starting to date again... the beginning is really sad, with a flashback to the mom's last week before she dies ofcancer... but actually most of the book is very funny and we absolutely love it.