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Summer Reading Challenge: Nature Study

I’m sponsoring a summer reading challenge in my library. The rules are as follows:

Out of the forty categories listed, choose the number your child intends to complete, one book per category from Meriadoc Homeschool Library. Children in grades K-12 can choose to read 10, 20, 30 or 40 books between June 1, 2019 and August 31, 2019. Books must be recorded and responses given on the official record sheet. You do not have to check out your books from Meriadoc Homeschool Library, but many categories may be easier to find in MHSL than in other libraries or at home. Books can be read and recorded in any order you choose.

The first category is “books about nature study.” Here are a few suggestions from my library:

Out of School and Into Nature: The Anna Comstock Story by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Jessica Lanon. A picture book biography of the well-known educator and naturalist. Here’s a link to my review of this lovely story of a girl who was in love with nature.

The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies is another picture book biography, this one about John James Audubon.

Jim Arnosky has a plethora of wonderful nature books. I have the following books in my library:
Sketching Outdoors in Summer
Secrets of a Wildlife Watcher
Turtle in the Sea
Raccoons and Ripe Corn
Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing Animal Habitats
Come Out, Muskrats
All About Turkeys
All About Frogs
All About Owls
Thunder Birds: Nature’s Flying Predators
Hook, Line, And Seeker: A Beginner’s Guide To Fishing, Boating, and Watching Water Wildlife

Read more about Mr. Arnosky and his fabulous books. You can find more of them at the bookstore or at the public library.

The Adventure Book of Nature Craft by Richard F. Dempewolff. This book is from an old series that used to be sold in hobby shops and craft stores. Other books in the series that would qualify as “nature study” are The Adventure Book of Birds, The Adventure Book of Insects, The Adventure Book of Leaves, and The Adventure Book of Growing Plants. These are for the child (or adult) who wants to start a new hobby or collection: a leaf collection, a garden or terrarium, bird-watching, or an insect collection. Good reading and lots of good fun to go with it.

Right in Your Own Backyard: Nature Math by Anne Miranda. From the I Love Math series, published by Time-Life Education. Discover patterns in nature, study animals tracks with Professor Guesser, and learn about the geometry of a spider’s web.

In Woods and Fields by Margaret Waring Buck. “This book is for boys and girls and other beginning naturalists. Every effort has been made to make it as accurate as if it were written and illustrated for scientists.It is the result of years of firsthand observation and study.” Ms. Buck describes the birds, insects, and plants that a nature lover is likely to encounter during each season of the year, with detailed drawings of each one of the flora and fauna mentioned. I also have In Yards and Gardens, a similar books by the same author.

Ruby Throat: The Story of a Hummingbird by Robert M McClung. Mr. McClung is another author whose books are all worth reading —over and over again. In this one, the author tells about the life and habits of Ruby Throat, a hummingbird, only three and a half inches long.

The Bug Club Book: A Handbook for Young Bug Collectors by Gladys Plemon Conklin. Ms. COnklin was a librarian who hosted a bug club for “young bug collectors” at her library. Read her book and find out how to start your own bug club.

For parents who want to join in the nature fun:

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. Mr. Louv, father of boys himself, describes “the human costs of alienation from nature.”

Wild Days: Creating Discovery Journals by Karen Skidmore Rackliffe. Learn how you and your child can start a nature discovery journal of your own.

The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden. This book I’m going to read to see what I can learn about Edwardian ladies and their affinity for nature.

Do you have a favorite nature study book? Are you planning to make some time to get outdoors this summer and experience nature with your children?

Book Tag: Large Families

Erin at her blog Seven Little Australians has a post called Families of Six Plus Children about children’s books that feature families with six or more children. Her list includes All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor, The Mitchells: Five For Victory by Hilda Van Stockum, The Story of the Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit, Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner, Children on the Oregon Trail by A Rutgers Van Der Loeff, Seventh Pebble by Eleanor Spence, Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott (one of my favorites), First Farm in the Valley by Anne Pellowski, and Ten Kids, No Pets by Ann Martin. Read more about her selections at Seven Little Australians.

I thought children’s and young adult books about “Large Families” would be a good topic for a round of Book Tag. The rules are:

“In this game, readers suggest a good book (or series) in the category given, then let somebody else be ‘it’ before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.”

I’ll start the game with my suggestion, Gentle’s Holler by Kerry Madden, the story of Livy Two and her little sister Gentle, who is blind. Each of the children in this loving but poverty-stricken family in the mountains of North Carolina has his or her own personality, standing out from the rest of the family in one way or another. The sequels are Louisiana’s Song and Jessie’s Mountain.

What are your favorite large family books?

Sisters Day

The first Sunday in August is Sisters Day. How can you celebrate your sister or help your children celebrate sisterhood?

Read a picture book.
Big Sister and Little Sister by Charlotte Zolotow.
A Baby Sister for Frances by Russell Hoban.
A Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban.
Flicka, Ricka, Dicka Bake a Cake by Maj Lindman.
One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey.
Big Sister, Little Sister by Leuyen Pham.

Give your sister a book.
Some fiction books that feature sisters and their lovingly complicated relationships are: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, Deadly Pink by Vivian Vande Velde, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, With a Name Like Love by Tess Hilmo, All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor, The Other Half of my Heart by Sundee Frazier, Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, Beautiful by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma, Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Sense and Sensibiity by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Losing Faith by Denise Jaden, Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary, Cranford by Mrs. Gaskell.

Call your sister. Send her a letter. Do something together if you can.

Book Tag: Do you have any favorite “sister books” to suggest? The Book Tag rules are:

In this game, readers suggest a good book in the category given, then let somebody else be ‘it’ before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.

Book Tag: Asia Picture Books

It’s time for Book Tag again. The rules are:

“In this game, readers suggest a good book in the category given, then let somebody else be “it” before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.”

I’ve been working on a follow-up to my Picture Book Preschool curriculum (for several years I’ve been working, ruefully), called Picture Book Around the World. How about you all help me out by suggesting picture books set in Asia today?

I’ll start us off with one of my favorite authors of picture books set in Japan, Allen Say. Mr. Say’s Bicycle Man tells the story of two American soldiers, immediately after World War II, who entertain Japanese children in a schoolyard by doing tricks on a bicycle.

Allen Say was born in Yokohama, Japan, in 1937. He now lives in the United States, and he both writes and illustrates children’s picture books. Most of his stories are either set in Japan or feature Japanese American characters.

What picture books set in Asia can you suggest for this edition of book tag?

Book Tag: Books for a Senior Citizen

How would you like to play book tag this summer? The idea for this game originally came from Carmon at her blog Buried Treasure, but since she no longer seems to be keeping a blog, I thought we’d play here.

“In this game, readers suggest a good book in the category given, then let somebody else be ‘it’ before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.”

Last week we played book tag by suggesting books for my Dancer Daughter’s summer reading list. (You can still go to that post and suggest books for Dancer Daughter, age 23.) Now it’s time to go older, much older. My mom is almost 80 years old, and she likes to read on her Kindle so that she can adjust the size of the print. What books do you suggest for a “seasoned citizen” who likes to read classics and new books both?

A Summer Reading List for Dancer Daughter

Dancer Daughter is 23 years old and just went away to college in North Texas for the summer. She called this afternoon and asked me for some reading suggestions, so I thought I’d post my list for her so that you all could see it, too.

Some of Dancer Daughter’s favorite authors are Madeleine L’Engle, Robin McKinley, Agatha Christie, and Sarah Dessen. She also likes memoirs and true crime books and books related to biology and forensics. She’s majoring in college in laboratory science/biology.

Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow. Jayber Crow is a book about community and about the secret life of a Kentucky bachelor and about love that is love even when it’s unconsummated. And Mr. Jayber Crow is one of the most thoughtful characters I’ve read about in any book. He’s a homespun philosopher, and better yet, a loving man.

Cahalan, Susanah. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. A journalist describes her remarkable recovery from a rare and mysterious illness.

Christie, Agatha. Evil Under the Sun. “And from June till September (with a short season at Easter) the Jolly Roger Hotel was usually packed to the attics. . . . There was one very important person (in his own estimation at least) staying at the Jolly Roger. Hercule Poirot, resplendent in a white duck suit, with a panama hat tilted over his eyes, his mustaches magnificently befurled, lay back in an improved type of deck chair and surveyed the bathing beach.”

Dean, Pamela. Tam Lin. Dean’s novelization of the ballad/story Tam Lin is set on a modern day college campus that is “haunted” or maybe invaded by faery folk disguised as professors and students. The students themselves are rather pagan, with very little hint of even the vestiges of Christian thought to inform their decisions.

Godden, Rumer. In This House of Brede. An excellent story about the lives of women within a closed community of nuns. Not only does the reader get to satisfy his curiosity about how nuns live in a convent, but there’s also a a great plot related to contemporary issues such as abortion, the efficacy of prayer, and the morality of absolute obedience.

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928. Before she was married to famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, Anne Morrow, daughter of the American ambassador to Mexico, kept a journal and wrote a plethora of letters. This book is the first of five volumes of collected letters and journal entries of Anne Morrow soon-to-be Lindbergh. The others are called: Hour of Gold Hour of Lead, Locked Rooms Open Doors, The Flower and the Nettle, and War Within and Without.

Mckay, Lisa. My Hands Came Away Red. Eighteen year old Cori decides to spend her summer in Indonesia, building a church, out of mixed motives. Yes, Cori is a Christian, and she wants to do something meaningful in God’s service. She also wants to get away from her confusing relationship with her boyfriend, Scott, and she just wants to experience her own adventure. She gets a lot more “adventure” than she bargained for.

Verghese, Abraham. Cutting for Stone. Co-joined (Siamese) twins are separated at birth but sustain an unbreakable bond throughout the vicissitudes of life in Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, and even after one of the twins, Marion, must flee to the United States for political reasons.

Young, Glynn. Dancing Priest and the sequel, A Light Shining. The story of Michael Kent, Olympic cyclist, Edinburgh student, Anglican priest, and orphan with a mysterious past. Of course, it’s also the story of Sarah Hughes, American artist and also a student in Edinburgh, whose lack of faith throws a kink in the developing romance between her and Michael.

Ooooh, let’s play book tag:

“In this game, readers suggest a good book in the category given, then let somebody else be ‘it’ before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.”

Only this time, instead of a category, look at Dancer Daughter’s interests and favorites, and suggest one book per comment for her summer reading list.

Book Tag: Dog Days

These are the dog days of summer (where does that phrase come from?), and we have a dog. Not my choice, my son brought him home and foisted him upon us in a moment of weakness on my part, but he is kind of cute, both actually the dog and the son.

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So let’s play Book Tag again. In today’s edition of Book Tag, please suggest your favorite dog book. If the dog doesn’t die in the book, you get extra points.

Remember the rules: In this game, readers suggest ONE good book in the category given, then let somebody else be “it” before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.

I’ll start off with a classic, sort-of dog book, the series by Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot that begins with All Creatures Great and Small. I’m not even much of an animal lover, but I love these books. The stories Herriot tells are funny, poignant, sometimes dramatic or sad, but always absorbing and full of human (and animal) interest–and lots of dogs.

Book Tag: Something Old

It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. ~C.S. Lewis, Introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation

Let’s play Book Tag again. In today’s edition of Book Tag, please suggest your favorite book or work of literature, fiction or nonfiction, written or published BEFORE 1800.

Remember the rules: In this game, readers suggest ONE good book in the category given, then let somebody else be “it” before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.

I’m going to start off the game with Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes or El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha as it was originally titled. Published in two separate volumes in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote was one of the earliest examples of a “novel” and has been influential in literature from the picaresque novel to modernist school of magical realism. At first people considered Don Quixote to be a comedy; the bumbling hidalgo, or gentleman, muddles his way across the Spanish countryside making a fool of himself and his faithful servant Sancho Panza. Then, later, critics sawa the book as a tragedy in which a cruel world destroys the idealism and gallantry of a good man and eventually drives him to insanity. Take your pick, but I think it’s a little of both.

En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no hace mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
In some village in La Mancha, whose name I do not care to recall, there dwelt not so long ago a gentleman of the type wont to keep an unused lance, an old shield, a skinny old horse, and a greyhound for racing.

Now it’s your turn. What Old Book can you recommend?

Book Tag: Rivers

The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

'Mississippi River' photo (c) 2010, Chris M - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Rivers are fascinating. And traveling down a river is such a rich metaphor for traveling through life. A river can be adventurous (Huckleberry Finn) or languorous (Langston Hughes’ poem) or perilous (River Rising by Athol Dickson). So in today’s edition of Book Tag, please suggest your favorite book, fiction or nonfiction, that features rivers.

Remember the rules: In this game, readers suggest ONE good book in the category given, then let somebody else be IT before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.

My suggestion to start the game off is Athol Dickson’s River Rising. The book I’m reading now, Same Kind of Different as Me, reminded me of Mr. Dickson’s novel, since the man in my current book, Denver Moore, grew up in southern Louisiana, where Dickson’s story takes place. However, River Rising is about the Mississippi River flood, the greatest flood in modern history on the lower Mississippi River and about how such a flood can be horribly destructive, but also can provide an opportunity for cleansing and for a new beginning.

Your turn. What river-themed books do you recommend?

Book Tag: Midsummer Night’s Dream

“Midsummer day simply refers to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different cultures. Midsummer is especially important in the cultures of Scandinavia and Latvia where it is the most celebrated holiday apart from Christmas.” ~Wikipedia, Midsummer

This weekend some people, mainly in Europe (and possibly Colorado and California), will be celebrating Midsummer or the summer solstice with pagan ceremonies, bonfires, intoxicating beverages, and fertility rites (according to my reading, no personal experience). I prefer to celebrate with . . .

Shakespeare.

So the theme for this edition of Book Tag is: Shakespeare. Share your favorite play by Shakespeare or your favorite Shakespeare-inspired novel or nonfiction book. This time only, we’ll even allow movies.

The Rules: “In this game, readers suggest a good book in the category given, then let somebody else be ‘it’ before they offer another suggestion. There is no limit to the number of books a person may suggest, but they need to politely wait their turn with only one book suggestion per comment.”

My favorite play is Much Ado About Nothing, and I love the movie with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson.

You can suggest anything Shakespeare-related for this round of Book Tag.