Recent children’s reads

I haven’t done a Read-Aloud Thursday in awhile, but there are so many popular children’s reads around here I’d better get started without further ado.

For both 5 and 8-year-olds, I’m reading The Princess and Curdie. I’ve read it myself and reviewed it, and since they both liked The Princess and the Goblin I thought we’d give this a try. It’s been a slow start, more digressive and abstract than its predecessor, but now that we’re up to the part where Curdie is getting his “mission” from Irene’s grandmother it’s beginning to grab hold. There’s just something the girls find captivating about the grandmother, so changeable and mysterious and wise.

In addition to that, Younger Daughter has enjoyed three books in particular this week:

A Bargain for Frances, one of my faves as a child, though as an adult I’m bothered by both the meanness of Gloria, who tricks Frances into buying her second-rate tea set, and the sneaky revenge of Frances, who tricks Gloria into buying it back. I keep quiet about my grown-up snobbery, though, remembering that as a child the story made perfect sense to me. It does contain some useful wisdom about the world, as well as the thrill of seeing our heroine outsmart her persecutor.
The True Story of Peter Rabbit is a beautifully illustrated, gentle tale about Beatrix Potter’s special friendship with a sickly child, for whom she penned Peter Rabbit in a letter. I picked it up at last year’s massive Penguin-Putnam book sale (which is soon to return to our community!), along with the complete works of Beatrix Potter at a bargain price. This tale has been a favorite from the word go.

My Visit to the Aquarium is full of information about the fish world. It contains lovely pictures, loads of information, and the standard closing appeal for education and conservation that I’ve come to expect from a nature book.

Older Daughter’s favorites are independent reads and not read-alouds, but I’m including them here anyway. Horses and history have been the order of the week, starting with these two collections of horse stories and a lesser-known Marguerite Henry tale found at the library:

Though I haven’t read these word-for-word, I’m aware of the content and have been made more aware by the many tidbits of information dropped into conversation this week. As a bonus Seven True Horse Stories is written by the same author that wrote my children’s biography of Helen Keller, another favorite around here.

Here are the choices for favorite history books this week:

What appeal this book has had! It covers material prior to the period we’re studying right now, but from the moment we picked it off the shelf it has displayed amazing magnetism. It’s basically an information book written in diary format about a year in an eleven-year-old boy’s life. It chronicles his adventures learning archery and hunting and the like, and it’s lavishly illustrated.

Do you have favorite lines from movies or books that your family occasionally quotes, then dissolves into giggles? The girls have found such a line in this book. This I know, because many times this week I’ve heard, “Brom bread! Ewwww!! (wild giggles…)”

This post is insanely long, but here are the last few books:

Older Daughter read the first of this two-volume journal by a girl in the Jamestown colony in 1609. The entries are short and interesting, and she’s been so drawn in that she’s read each book in one shot during her bedtime silent reading time. She always comes out and reports on what she’s read, needing I suppose to process things verbally, so such “reading comprehension questions” as are necessary arise naturally in the discussion. In this one, Elizabeth’s mother dies — a sad enough turn of events to potentially disqualify future reads from this series. I hope it won’t.

Last but not least, off the new book shelf at the library:

This is an information book about the Age of Exploration. It’s been another that leads to disobedience at lights-out time because Older Daughter can’t put it down. It’s a National Geographic book that fleshes out the era we’ve studied in history this year with photographs, illustrations, and commentary.

Now can I give my favorite read-aloud for the week?I discovered this book of children’s poems last week and included “library” in my Poetry Friday post. This collection of short, vivid poems about everyday things, each accompanied by a delicate illustration, is a feast for eye, ear, and appetite for significance. Best of all, there’s a horse poem in here, one about a horse whose

…back, curved
Like a high sofa,
Turns on unseen
Legs, looms closer…

until finally we can reach his

…face
Of thin silk over
Bone: to be stroked
Carefully, like
Fine upholstery
On a hard chair.

Older Daughter listened thoughtfully and returned a half an hour later with her own illustrated horse poem:

Little baby walking
Never ever talking
Now he said, “Na-a-ay!”
“I see my hay!”

How can I fail to be enthusiastic about a book that makes poetry so accessible and inspiring to a child? This little volume is highly recommended.

So there it is, a segment of the most popular reads from this week. To find out what others are reading, head over to Read-Aloud Thursday at Hope Is the Word.