Weekly Book List

I am so behind my schedule when it comes to posting, but I figure it's not too late to post some books that we read last week. Here goes.

Mom: Nothing new. Mostly reading the Book of Mormon (I have five days left to meet the challenge,) and lots of blogs! I started reading Born on a Blue Day about autism spectrum disorder, but I'm not very far into it right now.

Dad: Still working on Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card. It's the third in the Ender's series.

Kimball: Great Illustrated Classics Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. This adaptation kept his interest well enough that he read it in one sitting. I can't wait for him to be ready to read some of these classics in their original form.

Great Illustrated Classics Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Another book devoured in about an hour and a half. And he's read it before.

DK Eyewitness Early Humans. This was picked out to correspond with our history lessons and he loved it. Kimball always love non fiction, and definitely enjoys the format and layout of the DK Eyewitness books.

Henry: One Halloween Night by Mark Teague. We've checked this one out before, but Henry brought it home from the school library and read it aloud to me this time. Very fun book (although admittedly more fun at Halloween time.)

Family Read Alouds: We finished A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Twelfth: The Penultimate Peril. We immediately raced to the library and picked up the last book in the series. We have been listening to these on audio CD (they are read by Tim Curry, an actor whom I really enjoy anyway,) and were disappointed to find that the library didn't have this one on CD. So, we brought home the last book to read aloud. We'll report on it soon.

The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens. Henry got this one at the school book fair and it was pretty adorable. The grounhogs find a tennis ball in their colony and everyone fights over the bright green fuzz. They have to learn to come together in order to save the colony.

Alberto the Dancing Alligator by Richard Waring. Great for kids who love alligators, dancing, or reading about kids with unusual pets. Somewhat silly storyline, but that is fun for kids this age. Not my favorite book of the week, but the kids obviously loved it since I read it many times, and there was nothing objectionable about it.
Gorilla, Gorilla by Jeanne Willis. I actually thought the story line was rather stupid, but the kids enjoyed this. And in the end, you might say that the moral is to not judge people based on preconceived notions or what they look like. This is another book that I read over and over and over.
Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox. This was probably my favorite picture book of the week. The rhymes were clever, the twist on the story was unexpected, and we all laughed over the silliness. It didn't matter that I have a bunch of boys, they loved this book. (Don't tell their dad!:)

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. Classic story about a man who shuts little children out of his garden, which then decides to be winter year-round. Only when he opens his heart and his garden to the children does spring come--and joy into his life. There is a Christ figure in the book as well, although I felt like that could have been developed more, but who am I to criticize Oscar Wilde?

There were more, but these were the preferred books this week when I polled everyone. Go check them out at your local library!