The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. This was a reread in order to review information for a podcast recording on the relationship between reading and electronics. After a five year lapse, I found the research and examples to be even more compelling than when I first read this… Read More Books Finished in July, 2018
My summer self-indulgence has been to read a good number of children’s books. This is a refreshing breather in my busy season and helps me keep my balance. I have read several novels by old and beloved author friends of mine, some gems of theirs I have not read before. Hilda van Stockum, of course,… Read More Summer Goody: The Bantry Bay Series
My summer diversion this year is to look for unread titles by some of my favorite children’s authors. I came to know Gary D. Schmidt three years ago and devoured The Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, and Orbiting Jupiter in rapid succession, truly excited to read worthwhile young adult… Read More Summer Goody: Poetry for Young People, Robert Frost
The Tower by the Sea by Meindert DeJong I have written before about one of my all-time favorite children’s authors, Meindert DeJong, and try to pick up one of his titles now and then. Though The Wheel On the School and The House of Sixty Fathers are among my most beloved books, I am never disappointed in… Read More Summer Goody: The Tower by the Sea
Coriolanus by William Shakespeare. From the first scene, it is difficult not to make comparisons to today’s political climate. This play, if you are interested in the historical alignment for your children’s school studies, takes place in Rome’s days of the republic. If you are interested in it morally, it is a play about what… Read More Books Finished in May
This is the kind of question that apparently wakes mothers early in the morning, or keeps them up nights, since the following was sent to me at 5:50 a.m., the day my “Summer Reading” query was posted. I had asked, what questions do you have about keeping your kids reading through the summer: “I’m glad… Read More Can You Help Me With My Struggling Reader?
It’s time to stock the summer reading shelves for our kids so they can make use of those long, lazy days of summer ahead to travel places and meet people they never have before in the pages of books they don’t otherwise have time for during the school year. (I sincerely hope you have not… Read More Summer Reading Goodies
Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson. This account by a brilliant lawyer is riveting reading. My husband currently works in the criminal justice system and I am part of a team who visits our local jail monthly to bring hope and encouragement to local inmates , so I have a keen interest in those who are… Read More Books Finished in April, 2018
The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge. My favorite modern women’s author unfolded a pageant of characters as usual, this time in the historical setting of the British civil war. In typical Goudge fashion, her insight into the nature of man’s heart and how that produces the decisions and actions of the diverse characters is perceptive… Read More What I Read in March
{Please forgive the delay in posting this–it is Emily’s fault not Liz’s} This year is an encouraging year in the library. I do not think we have ever had so many member families who have continued to visit and plunder our shelves. There is always an initial enthusiasm each school year, but library visits generally… Read More What Liz Read January-February