Rabbit Day Book Review - November

One of the things I like about our family is our love for books.  Often they bring them to the table to eat meals because they don't want to put them down (Of course, we tell them they have too once we start eating).  For that reason, my husband gave me leave years ago to buy whatever books I wanted for our personal library.  I'm frugal and try to buy used and not take advantage of it.

I like old books, they have so much personality.  I will search, sometimes for years, for a bargain on old book.  Plus, when you buy used you never know when it will be delivered; it's like Christmas all year.  The kids and my husband will ask what it is and I'll honestly say "I don't know" because if it came from overseas it can take many weeks to arrive. If you are having trouble finding a book I recommend in the library or for a good price used, I encourage you to keep looking, sometimes it just takes time and patience.

One more note on buying used books - if you use amazon to buy your used books, you might want to search heavy this month; they'll be adding sales tax to all used book sales starting soon.  Abebooks has been much cheaper lately anyway but it takes longer to get the books.

Big John's Secret by Eleanore M. Jewett was our family History Read-Aloud this month.  This covers the time period of the 5th Crusade.  The story centers on a young boy's search for his missing father and his heritage.  The plot was well liked and not easily discerned by any.  The most charming part was the weaving of a true account between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan of Egypt at the time.  This is the best book I have found about the Crusades, giving insight to the perspective of both sides at the time, without getting into a lot of gory battles.

I went off topic for Lance's Independent Read this month.  He's reading a modern biography of the most famous German Shepherd trainer/award winner ever.  Her name is Winifred Strickland and she only died a few years back. Chris and I had followed her for years before the boys were born and this book was on our shelf. Joll and Me describes both her life and the evolution of her remarkable training techniques.  He is really enjoying this book and talks even more about someday training his own dog.  With the chaos of the holidays it will probably take him through December to finish.

Jared surprised me this month by asking to read a book Lance had finished reading a few months ago.  It was nice both to see his enthusiasm for reading a longer book and desire to challenge himself.  The book he chose was The Good Master by Kate Seredy.  This is one of my all time favorite books and the fact that it's the author's autobiography makes it all the better.  It takes place in Hungary at the end of the 1800's.  The amount of trouble this young girl gets into is amazing, as she slowly matures from a "bag of monkeys" to a beautiful young lady.  It's incredibly written; has adventure, humor and sentimental moments as well.  This should be on every book list. Both my boys enjoyed it immensely and want to read part two but I'm making them wait till we approach WWI in World history.

For Titus, I picked up three books by Peter Reynolds called Ish, Sky Color and The Dot.  These are cute books that encourage the artist in all children.  They have be requested more than once so I'd call them a success.

For himself Titus again found a gem.  Science books by Vicki Cobb.  These are the best early elementary science books I've ever read.  I fall Down was our first selection.  I have to admit I thought it was a baseball book until we started reading.  I was pleasantly surprised by the simple yet complete explanations and fun experiments.  Though it was suppose to be our bedtime read, the family found Titus and I downstairs doing the experiments. They were very easy and amazingly still fun.  Next, from the library, we checked-out I Get Wet.  It was equally pleasing and we look forward to finding the rest. (I wish science books were listed by author at the library.) 

When I started my blog, I wanted to only talk about books that we enjoyed. Listing and critiquing every mediocre or inappropriate book I try would take too much time. I have decided to change my stance on this and I will occasionally comment on popular books that I just don't understand why anyone puts them on a reading list.

The first book I will comment on and the reason I changed my stance is Kidnapped by Rudyard Kipling.  I am a fan his other works, but I simply could find no redeeming quality in this book.  There's tons of violence, child abuse, compromised morals and, well, that's about it. These types of books are why I pre-read them before the kids have access to it. Just because a book is popular does not mean it will be appropriate for my (or your) family.