Picture Books
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Wetland walk
We went to the beaver pond to investigate the beaver-gnawed tree we’ve been observing and found it felled. At several points they have already removed branches and carried them away, and they’ve begun…
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Seed speculations
It seems like an odd time of year to be thinking about seeds. It began over the weekend, when my husband got to thinking about God’s provision of seed-bearing plants very early in…
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The Invention of Hugo Cabret
The girls and I finished The Invention of Hugo Cabret early last week. Now three years old, this story — which I’m going to call an experimental novel — won a Caldecott in…
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Read Aloud Thursday: It’s a Butterfly’s Life
Believe it or not, we’ve been reading The Burgess Bird Book faithfully every day since I posted on it on July 28. We’ve also made a few forays into others works as well,…
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Hummingbird Art
We’re fond of hummingbirds around here. As I mentioned in this post, the sight of them is not uncommon, but it invariably makes us blurt in sudden stage whispers, “Sh! Hummer!” Then we…
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Read Aloud Thursday: Trees
We’ve enjoyed three amazing books about trees this week. Ancient Ones: The World of the Old Growth Douglas Fir is a beautifully illustrated, calligraphied, wonderfully informative book by Barbara Bash. The detail is…
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Winged Steeds, Mockingbirds and British Chieftains: Read-Aloud Thursday
It’s been awhile since I participated in a Read-Aloud Thursday, but we’re partaking of our usual eclectic reading repast around here. I’ll start with picture books and move up through the ranks in…
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You Are Special
The title has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, doesn’t it? But this remains a book with a “special” place in my heart. I bought it for my oldest, now 10, when she…
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Math Read-Alouds
Carol wrote recently about String, Straight-Edge, and Shadow: The Story of Geometry and the idea of a story about a mathematical concept seemed like a great idea. We’re mostly book geeks around here,…
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Eight Days
A picture book about a child trapped under the rubble of an earthquake? It would take a rare writer to accomplish such a feat. Edwidge Danticat does it. Eight Days uses very simple…