Read Aloud Thursday: Nostalgia and Glamsters

The Man who Didn’t Wash his Dishes has been a favorite of mine since I was a very small child. Everyone else probably knows this story about a middle aged, single man who cooks an unusually large dinner one night, then decides to put off doing the dishes. He keeps putting it off for days [...]

Read Aloud Thursday: Non-escapist Reading

I couldn’t pass up Read Aloud Thursday this week — not when we’re reading a tale our gracious host is reading! The difference is that this one gives us the story without the Dickensian trademark of (often delightful) long-windedness. An abridgement for children, Malvina Vogel’s Great Illustrated Classics version of A Tale of Two Cities [...]

Sam the Minuteman

Just one book to mention for Read Aloud Thursday this week: Sam the Minuteman, by Nathaniel Benchley, illustrated by Arnold Lobel.

I picked it up from the library last week in connection with history, but the cover didn’t appeal to Older Daughter. When she finally read it, she changed her tune and wanted me to read [...]

Read-Aloud Thursday: Snowflakes and Revolution

The Secret Soldier is a remnant from my own childhood. I remember really liking the slim chapter book about a girl who posed as a man in order to be a soldier, so I was eager to read it aloud this week as an accompaniment to the era of history we’re studying. Both girls really [...]

Happy birthday, Half-Pint

I learned on the Writer’s Almanac that today is Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birthday. She was born 143 years ago, and received her 6 gentle birthday spankings from Pa 137 years ago today.

My mother read the series to us when we took our trip across the country in 1978. There were five of us in the [...]

Westmark

Westmark was published in 1981, but it’s a new Lloyd Alexander find for me. I’ve read the Prydain Chronicles, but hadn’t ever delved into this author’s other books. There are quite a few, and perhaps I didn’t know where to begin.

Westmark has some of the same qualities I loved about the Prydain Chronicles:

a flawed but [...]

Read-Aloud Thursday: Masked Mammals, Patriots, and A(u)nts

The photo GretchenJoanna posted of her early morning visitor inspired me to recommend this story — and then, of course, to pick it up and read it again with the girls. It’s kind of a twist on the theme of hospitality, of entertaining angels unawares — but in this case, the “angel” is a raccoon.

I [...]

Read-Aloud Thursday: Bill Peet

This week, we’ve been revisiting a favorite author. Bill Peet was the first writer my oldest daughter chose independently as a favorite, because his stories are a combination of funny and warm-hearted, and his illustrations are bold and lively and frequently hilarious. (Better than Dr. Suess’, as Older Daughter explained in this conversation.) Last year [...]

Alice in Wonderland

I’ve sunken into a reading (and blogging) malaise this week. It’s partly that I’m really enjoying teaching the K-1 chemistry class at co-op, and when I have a free moment my thoughts seem to gravitate toward activities and ideas related to that. I’m not feeling that great this week either, running an ear infection that [...]

Landmark — er, bookmark

Today was a first. After a harrowing trip to Walmart this morning (all trips to Walmart are harrowing for me), I returned home to find Older Daughter totally absorbed in this book. There she sat on the couch, an almost-frown of concentration on her face, apparently oblivious to all else.

Finally, I asked her directly, “What [...]