The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything and Do Not Open

These are a couple of our very favorite Halloween-y books. 

The first, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, is appropriately spooky and gives a good lesson in remaining unruffled though you are fearful.  The woman being chased by a "live" pair of pants, shirt and pumpkin head, and has to figure out a way to defeat it. 

Brinton Turkle, of Obadiah fame, wrote and illustrated the second, Do Not Open. It shows thrift and being at peace with your life, even if hard times have come. The woman faces a very scary situation and keeps her wits about her. She saves her life and everything works out well.  There is a frightening picture in it that scared my littlest ones the first time we read it, so this one is best for around seven and over in my opinion. Pre-read as always to make sure it's a good fit for your family! 

Who Put The Pepper In The Pot?

This funny little book has long been a favorite with my Lambies.  The family is busy.busy getting ready for the arrival of their aunt. Everyone has lots of things to do, but  everyone is so helpful to mom, too!  

The text is simple, which is great for young readers, without being dull and too dumbed down.  

I don't know exactly *what* draws kids to this story, but it's been a favorite of so many of my Lambies I had to include it in this series. 

Get your own copy here! 

The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman

First up in my series on overlooked books is The Seven Silly Eaters.  This book has it all.  The artwork is detailed and interesting, the story engaging and entertaining and the rhymes, impeccable! Mr. and Mrs. Peters certainly have their hands full, and the snowballing trouble of allowing children to be picky eaters is evident throughout.  I love.love.love the realistic, large-family home depicted so well by Marla Frazee.  The solution to the family's problem? Cleverness, thoughtfulness and creativity!  Such a good book.  Can you tell how much it's loved? 

I recently picked up another copy, since this one is nearing the end of its life. I'll pull it out soon for one of the Lambies to read to the babies we watch on weekends.  A new generation will come to love the Peters Family! 
   
Want one of your own? Just click the link below and get one from Amazon! 

The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman 

The Boy Who Ran To The Woods

I read this book to my 11-14 year old set last week.  It's been on my shelf since I found it at a library sale. I did not preread it before reading aloud.  I was taken by surprise at the heavy content of this beautiful book, but the hard topics were handled with care by the author.  I don't think I would read it to a child under eight, or an older child who is sensitive.  

Not many children's books tackle violence between children, juvenile delinquency, parental "tough love" and the difficult transition back into society after making bad life choices. The ones that do, don't do it with the wisdom, beauty and tact that this book uses. 

This damaged and angry little boy is brought to healing by a wise and determined father and the beauty of a lovely forest.  Nature study features heavily in his healing, and the illustrations are soothing and hauntingly beautiful. 

I'm glad I found this book and it will retain its place on my shelves.  

All Through The Ages

Can I share one of my favorite resources with you? It's Christine Miller's outstanding work: 
"All Through the Ages".  

What a work it is!  All the living book titles you could ever want, organized in several different ways: all of them by grade level (1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12), and in chronological order and geographical history.  The histories of Science, Mathematics, Visual Arts, Music, Western Civilization and the Christian Tradition are also included.  

Planning units or read alongs is SO easy with this resource!  I wish I had found it earlier in my homeschooling career.  Please do yourself a favor and buy this book. It's one resource I think *every* homeschooling family should have on their shelves.   

The Overall Boys

This is a sweet little Primer I found at a thrift store. The Overall Boys and the Sunbonnet Girls were quite popular in the 1900's and far beyond. In fact, in the 1960's, my grandmother made a Sunbonnet Girl quilt for my baby sister who, sadly died at 6 weeks old.  I have that quilt now and it is precious to me.  I tucked each of my babies with it. The original copyright on my book is 1905, with a later copyright date of 1915.

The Overall Boys follows Jack, Joe, Tim and Ted as they explore their world. The text is not dumbed down and the Boys have REAL adventures!

Like the Sunbonnet Girls, their faces are hidden by their hats much of the time. 

Don't you just love the bodysuit swimwear?

Boys will be boys and have FUN!

My copy included this precious inscription, which documents my copy as being given as a birthday gift in 1919.

What a great find!  I love visiting thrift stores and discovering treasures.

When Hannah Var Eight Yar Old

It's been a while since I did a vintage book review. I came across this story when it was mentioned on a Homesteading board on Facebook.  It is the story of Hannah, an eight year old Swedish girl who later immigrated to America.  It was published in September 1915, written by Katherine Peabody Girling and beautifully illustrated by Alfred James Dewey. There's little information available on the author or illustrator, but what work I saw of the illustrator was beautiful!

Sweet Hannah is a young woman worthy of praise!  Her mother is ill and she needs to step in and step up, and she does a marvelous job of it. This is a bittersweet short story of a mother's great love, a daughter's faithfulness and the sturdy hardiness of the immigrant people who made our nation great.

Here's the complete book, with original illustrations, to enjoy with your children!

When Hannah Var Eight Yar Old

Odds and Ends Regarding The Book House

I have been collecting My Book House books for a long time. I have need of just ONE more to have the complete set!  If anyone has a spare Volume 1 with a light green cover laying around, please let me know.  I looked through my new-to-me Volume 2 last night, just randomly reading bits and enjoying the pictures.

I so love the colors of vintage books. You just don't get them with reproductions!  Speaking of reproductions, Dover is reprinting My Book House. I have seen that the first two volumes are published and ready for purchase. Volume One Volume Two If you can't get the originals, these seem to be a suitable substitute.  I haven't seen them in real life to compare the quality of the illustrations, though.  Do use Amazon's "Look Inside" feature in the links above. They have nice samples available.

Essentials by Greg Laurie

We do a lot of Scripture study in our family.  We attend Calvary Chapel and go through the Bible book by book, verse by verse with our church family.  We have read through the Bible aloud at home.  We've also read through Catherine Vos' great story Bible.

My Lambies are old enough to do some real thoughtful Bible application now, so we are adding other interesting books to our Bible study. On their own, they're reading classic devotional books, like More Than A Carpenter and A Year With C. S. Lewis.  They're reading apologetic books like Know What You Believe and Know Why You Believe. We spent half of last school year and the first couple of weeks of this year reading Essentials by Greg Laurie.  We've enjoyed it very much and had many great discussions sparked from its pages.  I highly recommend adding this book to your family's library!

A Classics Offer!

I was made aware of an incredible deal on classic books.  Yesterday's Classics, who I have ordered from several times, has made 225 of their titles available in Kindle or EPUB form for only $49.95!  This is an outstanding chance to expand your home library for pennines per book.  I am not getting a commission or any credits for passing along the link. I just want each and every homeschooling family to have the chance to take advantage of Yesterday's Classics generous offer!  Click over and buy before Tuesday, August 28th!

Animal Tracks and Wildlife Signs Science Unit-Part Two

We have been using Crinkleroot's Animal Tracks and Wildlife Signs as a science spine for the Littles for the past few weeks.  I blogged about the first part of the book here.  We're finally done so the book can be returned to the library. I really do need to invest in them for our own shelves.  Here's the remaining activities:

We met Owl next.  As I began reading about Owl, I asked each child what they already knew about owls.  I was pleased that they knew so much already!  They learned nothing new from this section, but did enjoy doing a virtual owl pellet dissection.  If I had planned ahead, I would have ordered a pellet kit.  They are inexpensive and a fun, hands-on activity that they would have enjoyed.  We did an owl coloring page and talked about owl characters in books we've read.  There are many!

We read about Snowshoe Rabbit and Bobcat on the same day, since they are a common prey/predator pair.  The Lambies enjoyed learning about the way the Lord camouflages the hare during the different seasons.  They were also amazed at the size of his feet!  I used this amazing video (even though it has a lynx rather than a bobcat) to show how agile he can be.  Be sure to preview this one if you have sensitive littles.

We watched several videos of bobcats winning the race and enjoying their meal afterward.  We also enjoyed the "Bobcat Kittens" videos.  This is the coloring page we used.  We discussed how wild animals are not pets, of course, and how, now matter how very cute they are, we mustn't touch any wild animal we may see in the forest. I have at least one child who wants to be a wildlife rehabilitator when they grow up.

We live close enough to take a trip to CatHaven and I plan to take all the children there this spring or summer. They even have a 'Track and Trail' class they can take!

Red Fox came next.  We have some foxes around here and saw one once, running across the road.  None of the Littles remembered it, though.  We watched a video or three and looked at this page.  We're not in Virginia, but I appreciated the big pictures and simple summaries. Note, too, the links at the bottom to useful videos and a coloring page.  (Can you NOT mention Redd Foxx during this lesson?)

Last but not least was the Grouse.  What a pretty bird!  We used this site to learn a bit more about this handsome fellow.  There are tabs for additional info, including the interesting sounds a male makes with his wings and a video, too. I printed off this coloring page.

So, that's all for this Crinkleroot book.  I let the children color a picture of Crinkleroot himself, too, so they could remember this fun unit and all we did.  I hope you find it in your library and share it with your children, too!

Elementary Christian Reading

My dear nearly-non-blogging friend Twiggy wanted me to do a post about Christian reading for kids.  I have to admit that I don't seek out many specifically Christian series or books.  I mostly keep the reading to classic things that don't go against our beliefs.  That being said, there are some that are in our library and come to mind.

First and foremost, the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis.  Every one of my children who are able have read these.  Most have listened to at least one read aloud.  I really love these books.  The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was read to me, and the rest of the class, in the third grade by my favorite teacher, Mr. C.  I'm so glad that he introduced me to Narnia!

Another from my childhood was "In Grandma's Attic" by Arleta Richardson. My parents bought me the first while we were driving from Northern Oregon to Northern Washington. I began to read and read until the book was finished. I looked up and we were at the ferry boat, ready to end our drive!  Those were the fastest hours ever.  I received many of the remaining books as I grew, buying the last few that I didn't have as an adult.  I have a complete series now and enjoy sharing them with my girls.

Brian Wildsmith's Jesus, Joseph, Exodus and The Easter Story are beautifully illustrated, fairly simple stories.  I was put off by a rather clear drawing of Joseph's hiney in his story.

Paul Maier's excellent, beautiful books are a great addition to our library.  He has done a great job relating the stories of Genesis, Exodus, Easter, Christ's birth, Martin Luther and The First Christians.  I put these out often and the children pore over the beautiful paintings.

I have The Sugar Creek Gang series and The Kingdom Series by Chuck Black, but have not read them through so I can't review them.  Do any of you have something to share?

Animal Tracks and Wildlife Signs Science Unit

I've been using this Crinkleroot book for science for the Littles.  We love Crinkleroot!

The first animal mentioned is Beaver.  We read the section here, then went through Getting To Know Nature's Children: Beavers.  We did a coloring page and watched some videos on YouTube.

Otters are next.  The kids had fun sliding down the back of the bathtub like an otter slides down a muddy bank.  I showed them pictures we had taken when we saw the otter exhibit at Monterey Bay Aquarium a few years back.  Of course we also watched some videos, including the MBA Otter-Cam and colored a page.

Raccoon is the next one we met.  In addition to videos, we did a coloring page and read Jim Arnosky's Raccoons and Ripe Corn.  We discussed why raccoons are considered pests in some places and how dexterous they are.  We looked at the anatomy of their hands and how they have functional (but not opposable) thumbs.  I taped down the children's thumbs to show them how hard life would be without thumbs!

I found a great video showing Beaver and Otter together during wintertime.  I now can ask a Little is he or she is acting like Beaver or Otter and they will have a character trait to identify.

Whitetail Deer was next.  We saw a doe and her two fawns last summer when we were camping and the children have a great memory of it.  We learned about how bucks grow their antlers and why.  We learned how they shed them every year.  The Lambies spoke of trying to find some next time we are in the forest before the mice nibble them away.  I let them feel some faux-velvet so they knew the texture of the velvet on the antlers as they grow. We read Deer At The Brook and watched a clip or two of the graceful creatures.

I'll continue blogging our activities for the second part of the book when we are finished with them!

Autumn and Thanksgiving Books

Hard on the heels of Halloween, it's time to discuss autumn books. I love this season, though we experience little of it here in the Central Valley of California. We do get cooler weather and changing leaves, but not the brilliant colors so many of you enjoy. We get our fall color on the pages of favorite stories! Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year (along with Christmas and spring). Oh, how we need to remember to be thankful to the Lord for His abundant blessings! Here are a few (and I do mean a few!) of the books we enjoy this time of year.

The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dagliesh is one that we read every fall. Helen Sewell's illustrations are so gentle and classic.

Now It's Fall is a tiny little Lois Lenski story. It's a perfect before-bed story, short, sweet and filled with Lois Lenski's gracefully illustrations.

A Plump and Perky Turkey is the funnest book to read! It's a traditional November book for The Crew. It's got great rhymes and cadence and a creative, humorous story.

Leaf Man is one that I do not own, but it's one I will grab the first time I see it. I like all of Lois Ehlert's other books!

I have many of the adorable Mousekin books. Mousekin's Thanksgiving is as good as any. The details of Mousekin's life, and the animals he encounters, make this series useful for nature studies as well as literature.

Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving I love the way this book gives all the glory to God. Squanto's life parallels the Bible's Joseph and it's clearly laid out in this well-illustrated story.

Sarah Morton's Day and the rest of the series are good for studying the life of the folks who lived in the 1600's. They are accurate representations of the activities of their days.

If You Were At The First Thanksgiving is full of facts about the life and times of the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Small paragraphs make the nuggets of information easily understood by younger readers, while not being "dumbed down" in content.

Scary Books...

... but not too scary! I am not a big fan of Halloween. I very much dislike the ugly, death-exalting facets of it. I don't mind "Hallowee-lite" costumes; the innocent, playful Halloween of days past. I'd rather attend a Harvest carnival than trick-or-treat. I do like to read some 'scary' books to the Littles at this time of year. Here's are some favorites.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything is a classic. Every one of my children has listened to this repeatedly. Now, my older children are reading it to the younger.



Teeny Tiny is a teeny tiny paperback book that shares an ancient folktale. It's not a very long or complicted story, but children love it anyway.



We were introduced to the the Cranberry Family by FIAR. This is a fun story with engaging characters.



Another illustrated by Tomie de Paola, The Vanishing Pumpkin tells the tale of a couple, each HUNDREDS of years old, bickering their way through a spooky adventure. I think it's a darling story!



Mercer Mayer has a great series of books with monsters and such. I avoided these books with little-Littles until they were about six. No need to introduce the idea of things living under the bed or in the closet if they haven't made that up themselves already. If I did have a child with a fear of creatures, I would use these books to assuage them. He also has a series of Little Monster books that are similar to his classic Little Critter books.



McBroom's Ghost is just part of the great McBroom series with which every child should be familiar. I can't say enough about McBoom and his family. I love their tenacity, their aplomb and the simple fact that they are always there for each other.



Mommy? is a great pop-up books that we have enjoyed. I have even blogged about it before.



The Trip is a sweet book, like all Ezra Jack Keats books. It's another story in the Louie series.



Can I add another Tomie book? Four Scary Stories is always worth the read.

What about you, Do you have any favorite scary-but-not-too-scary stories? Please share! I'll post The Crew's favorite Autumn Books next time.

New Books

I went to a book sale tonight and came home with a mixed bag of great books. The first is "A Voyage of the Basset" by James Christensen. Wow. This book leaves me speechless.

The art is truly amazing. I can't believe that I hadn't heard of it before! Make a search of the title in Google images and enjoy some of the lovely artwork.
I haven't read the story yet, but if it matches the illustrations, it'll be wonderful!

The next one is "Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like" by Jay Williams.

This is illustrated by Mercer Mayer, so you know the art is great. The colors in this book are deep and earthy, just like I like best. The story is good, too! Han is polite and generous, to the joy of all involved. He also knows not to judge a book by it's cover!

I grab any and all Patricia Polacco books I see, if they are a reasonable price. This nice hardcover is a library-bound copy that looks new. Bonus-I didn't have this title yet!



Bill Peet doesn't write great literature, but he does write entertaining stories that stick with my children. The vocabulary is challenging, but the Littles understand just fine and always want another book. I am *this* close to having ALL his stories now!



I will be reading about the Kweeks with the Littles tomorrow, I believe.

Stand Back......

I picked up a gem of a book at the thrift store today! For one thin little dime, I became the owner of "Stand Back," Said The Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" by Patricia Thomas, illustrated by Wallace Tripp. Have you read this story? It's hilarious! I am always on the lookout for good rhyming books. Two of my sons and one of my daughters seem to have been born without the ability to rhyme or recognize a rhyme when they hear it. We read lots of rhyming books to help them overcome this lack of poetic ears.

I read it to Troubles, Jack and Missy and they immediately asked to hear it again. That's a sign of a great book. As I was looking it up on Amazon to get the link for this post, Troubles saw the computer screen and gasped, "Your going to sell that book???? I don't want you to sell that one!". That's another sign of a great book!

Petunia

I've been reading through the Petunia books with the Littles. What a treasure this collection is! Poor little Petunia has some mighty common character flaws but she always learns her lessons at the end. Roger Duvoisin's bright, sketchy drawings illustrate her plights perfectly! Here, Petunia suffers the natural physical effect of pride...

which of course, results in a fall.....

...but leads to a search for real wisdom...

...which leads (in family discussion) to discovering James 1:5 (NLT) "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking."

Maurice Sendak

I have a large collection of Maurice Sendak's books. Everyone knows and most folks love "Where the Wild Things Are" (book only, skip the movie!). Many folks have seen and enjoyed "Seven Little Monsters", "In the Night Kitchen" and "The Nutshell Library". Some were even familiar with "Higglety Pigglety Pop!" before they made the short for the Wild Things movie.

Having written and/or illustrated over 90 books, some are bound to be out of print and/or lesser known. I recently found out from Little Lamb Books that Maurice Sendak made a pop-up book. It's called "Mommy?". As soon as I read about it's existence, I ordered one from Amazon. It came yesterday. It's classic Sendak, with slightly creepy but cuddly monsters and a simple storyline that lends itself to imagination. It's been in one child or another's hands since we got it. Troubles rolled out of bed this morning, layed on the couch for about five minutes, then stretched out on the floor with it, naming the various monsters and watching the mechanics of the book as he slowly opened and closed it.

"Outside Over There" was Mr. Sendak's last book, written in 1981. He has finally written and illustrated a new book! It's called "Bumble-Ardy" and it's due to be released in September. I can't wait! I have it in my Amazon cart even now.

Whatever the title, you can't go wrong with a Maurice Sendak book. Go get one today and READ with your children!