In Part I, Jaime shares with us the story of her own global family, coming together from four different continents. She gives us many simple but effective ways to invite the world into our own homes. And she challenges us to embrace a good story as a powerful way to enlarge our hearts and minds.
In a lengthy Part II, Jaime shares a feast of stories. The generous book list is conveniently sorted by region (Multicultural, Africa, Europe, Asia, Middle East, North America, Latin America, and finally Australia, Oceania, and the Polar Regions). Within the regional lists, she further sorts the books into target age ranges (4-6, 6-8, 8-10, and 10-12). A quick review accompanies each book selection.
The Index section is particularly helpful with an index each for authors, country/region, and titles, as well as a historical index with books sorted chronologically!
As I perused the book lists, I spied many favorite titles but also many that are new to me. I look forward to discovering new family favorites.
Jaime and Sarah Mackenzie of Read-Aloud Revival have teamed up to create the Read the World Summer Book Club for those of us interested in joining others on the journey. Kids and parents are encouraged to read one book a week, one region a week. The book club is in its second week, so don’t delay! Enjoy weekly themed recipes and videos at Simple Homeschool and enter to win prizes!
Suffering is opposition to the present moment and demand for the next moment. Suffering is having this but wanting that. Suffering is the search for the next thing. Suffering is the mental roaming we do for what might be.
Suffering, for instance, is trying to read something brilliant, while wondering about something better.
I find myself in a time of waiting right now in certain facets of my life, and this project was birthed out of that—being present with waiting, present with solitude. These paintings are marking time, and they are also calling out beauty where you might not expect it—in the extremely ordinary.
"A dictator has to be a demagogue; a man like Mussolini cannot be ashamed to shout. He cannot afford to be a mere gentleman. His whole power depends on convincing the populace that he knows what he wants, and wants it badly."
The human voice is my favorite instrument, and reading aloud is important in ways that I can hardly express. Ordinary and ancient magic: breath and sound and time, weaving a narrative. And whether it’s a story of return, Mole to his home, or a story of grand adventure, Marie-Laure and her Uncle Etienne with Jules Verne on the Nautilus, to begin aloud together, especially a longer work, always involves both risk and promise—the risk of interruption, broken narrative, and the promise that the reading will always be shared, requiring patience and fidelity, when, like Marie-Laure, we are tempted to read on alone.
Let me add one more point on this score: The failure to recognize male distinctness leads to a marginalization of femininity. I just read a sample reading from a 2011, fourth grade National literacy test about a girl wrestler named Daisy. A story for fourth grade boys about a girl wrestler? Why don’t boys enjoy reading?
"Lewis points out that there is always some crisis, some alarm that demands our attention; there are always a million and one things more important than reading Homer. Yet we continue to read Homer because we are not creatures whose behavior is solely guided by a crabbed criterion of usefulness. We are creatures made in the image of a Creator who makes things that He does not need, things that are not of use to Him. As we imitate His excess, we play music and recite poetry and tell stories... We should not be ashamed of the uselessness of the liberal arts, for making what we do not need, and doing what we have no ordinary use for, is part of the glory of being made in the image of the infinitely creative God."
Christian theology is rich and creative and full of imagination, that's broad enough to take up residence among all kinds of human cultures. It contains within itself the idea that art exists as a good unto itself, not just a utilitarian vehicle for messages. (In the Greek, the Bible calls humans "poems" -- I love that.) There is no reason Christian movies can't take the time to become good art. Each one that fails leaves me furious.
"I just couldn't see myself going home — next thing you know, they're in the kitchen trying to cook their own food and burn the place down," Rowland says. "Even though they wasn't our family, they were kind of like our family for this short period of time."
Yes, I realize it is the day before Thanksgiving. I’m so thankful for our relaxing Thanksgiving celebrations at my parents’ house just down the road. I’m making my traditional Orange Cream Souffle (mousse-like jell-o dessert) and baking Swedish Limpa (bread) today in preparation. I’m also taking pictures of my best friend’s kids this afternoon when we’ve finished with a few school lessons.
BUT, this is also the weekend for pulling all our Christmas books off the shelf! I cannot wait. I look forward to the Christmas books more than the decorating and music.
I noticed with excitement that two of my favorite out-of-print Christmas books are available used on Amazon for reasonable prices right at this moment (they’ve often been available only at much higher prices!). Snatch them up before they’re gone!
[It’s October, which means you’ll be seeing 31 Days of ________ series popping up all over the blog world. I’ve never attempted a 31 Days series in all my 8 1/2 years of blogging, so this is a new experience for me. Let’s see if I have the perseverance…]
Several years ago, I was introduced to the idea of a parent-child literary analysis book club by the inspiring book Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids, and the Bond of Reading. After my first read-through, I was itching to begin my own book club, but I felt deeply my lack of experience with literary analysis. Sure, I could try to reproduce the fascinating discussions laid out in Deconstructing Penguins, with the specific books recommended by the authors, but I simply didn’t possess the confidence.
Some time later (a little over four years ago, to be exact), I had the opportunity to sit through a practicum using the Teaching the Classics DVDs and Syllabus. A fire was lit. I finally had universal literary analysis tools that could be used to discuss any piece of literature, from simple picture books to Hamlet.
Armed with these new tools from Teaching the Classics and the “book as mystery” concept from Deconstructing Penguins, my sister and I launched our very own Book Detectives parent-child book club with 12 kids (ages 5-10) and 10 parents. [You can read about our first meeting here.]
We all learned together by trusting the process and discussing books with each other. We started with picture books and then began to throw a few simple chapter books in the mix. I’ve shared some of our discussions here on the blog. [Scroll down to read the early discussions.]
Since then, I’ve led various Book Detectives groups, with various kids at various ages in various quantities, and they have all been a blast! I’ve discovered that picture books are magic, an accessible portal into the world of literary analysis for any age. I have been astounded at what I’ve learned from a focused look at simple books such as Brave Irene or The Real Thief, even if I had read them numerous times before.
Honey for a Teen’s Heart is an excellent resource for discussing books with teens, including worldview questions that can be asked of any piece of literature.
Sarah then asked me to do a video master class (over an hour of video!) on leading a Book Detectives group, and that can be found at the Read-Aloud Revival Membership Site along with a plethora of other master classes and read-aloud goodness such as author events, podcast extras, printable resources and quickstart guides, and more.
And now, for the next 29 Days, I will be sharing literary analysis notes and plot charts for Book Detectives, a book a day.
I am not an expert at literary analysis, and there is no official answer key, but I hope my notes will encourage you all to start your own Book Detectives groups! The last day of the series will be reserved for final thoughts and a list of all the book post links.
Stick around, put on your detective hats, and let’s uncover some book mysteries together!
If you haven’t, you are missing out! In the podcast, Sarah, author of Teaching from Rest, chats with a wide range of guests about creating a family culture around books and reading aloud. You can listen to talks with Andrew Pudewa, Tsh Oxenreider, Jim Weiss, [cough] me [cough], and many others.
This week, Sarah is launching the Read-Aloud Membership Site with benefits such as podcast transcripts, cheat sheets, worksheet pages, live author events, video workshops, and more!
Speaking of video workshops…
If you join the Read-Aloud Membership Site, you will be able to watch me talk for over an hour (broken down into six shorter videos) about creating a parent and child book club!
I haven’t had the courage to watch the whole thing [what is it about watching myself on video that freaks me out?], so if you watch it, report back and let me know what you think. [ha!] Some of you who know me in real life already put up with my non-stop talking, so this may not seem like much of a benefit, but…
Really, can one spend too much time talking about books? I don’t think so. Go check it out!
The boys and I read about the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror in The Story of the World yesterday (which, of course, prompted all sorts of CC history sentence songs and connections, including the realization that George Washington became president the same year the French Revolution began).
Can you think of any other book that has such famous first and last lines?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”
Just typing those words gives me the chills.
The metaphors and picturesque language in A Tale of Two Cities are exquisite. It is a tale of redemption that rivals Les Miserables. And it is my favorite Dickens novel.
So I decided to read it aloud to the boys. I don’t know how far we’ll get, but I want them to hear the words. They are capable of reading so much on their own, I want to read something together that will challenge them. Something we can spend time on and discuss. [The boys have listened to A Tale of Two Cities retold by Jim Weiss, so they know the basic story line.]
I read the opening passage:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…
My boys read five of the original chapter book series by Michael Bond (first published in 1958), beginning with A Bear Called Paddington, and Lola is enjoying the audio book performed by Stephen Fry. I think a plush Paddington Bear may find his way into her stocking this Christmas.
I noticed with excitement that two of my favorite out-of-print Christmas books are available used on Amazon for reasonable prices right at this moment (they’ve often been available only at much higher prices!). Snatch them up before they’re gone!
Sarah has also started a Read-Aloud Revival podcast with guests such as Andrew Pudewa, Jim Weiss, Tsh Oxenreider, Adam Andrews (author of Teaching the Classics), and Lawrence Goldstone (author of Deconstructing Penguins).
I was deeply honored (and a tiny bit overwhelmed and intimidated by the company!) when Sarah asked me if I would be willing to participate in her podcast. You all know I can’t turn down a chance to talk about books!
It slays me that summer is coming to a close. Truly. But it makes sense to wrap up our August reading lists in preparation for a new focus in the next few weeks. (You can read July’s book post at this link.)
Let’s start with Levi.
[He reads so many shorter books, and re-reads so many, that I only get a smattering of the new ones on his list. I’ve never known a kid to inhale books like this.]
Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald (I also read this one and enjoyed it. This novel blends Renaissance Art/Raphael, WWII, and Monuments Men, which is a great combination, but there are a couple little objectionable things that I didn’t care for so I didn’t have Luke read it. I think I prefer Blue Balliett’s books.)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens [I proposed this one as a challenge. He made it about a third of the way through and was floundering, so I told him to set it aside. No reason to slog through it. He’ll enjoy it in a few years.]
The Hunger Games Trilogy [He had been begging to read this trilogy, and I finally caved. But I’m holding out on the movies for, like, forever.]
[He’s currently working his way through the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. I think we’ll have to re-watch the movie version, Alex Rider - Operation Stormbreaker.]
Book Detectives read and discussed The Boy Who Held Back the Sea this month. I’ll try to share details in a separate post.
Listening:
We’ve been listening often to poetry songs by Ted Jacobs. A Child's Garden of Songs and Back to the Garden are all Robert Louis Stevenson poems and The Days Gone By: Songs of the American Poets features poetry by Edgar Allan Poe (my two favorite songs in the collection), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Emily Dickinson, and more. Don’t tell my boys that it isn’t cool to sing along to these…
I think that about wraps up our summer reading! What was your favorite book of the summer?
This list could have been 1,000+ books long. So many wonderful history, historical fiction, and literature books are available for American history. Picture books, easy chapter books, chapter books, reference books… It was a daunting task to put together a book list for this time period. I have tried to whittle down the selections to a few favorites, but stay tuned for our monthly book lists as we go through our year. And know that this list is by no means exhaustive. Check your library for books available on the topics.
Our family will be covering world history from 1600 to present over the course of the next year (through next summer), but I am listing just American history-related resources in this post, especially for those wanting a list to correspond to the Classical Conversations Cycle 3 history memory work. (A few titles are not specifically American history, but related to the events such as WWII.)
Jefferson’s Truths by Michael Clay Thompson (a fantastic exploration of the history, philosophy, structure, grammar, vocabulary, and context of the Declaration of Independence)
by Marcia Williams (historical fiction, scrapbook style from the perspective of a 10 year-old boy)
(workbook) 
by Marguerite Henry