You might have seen this post earlier today and then it disappear. I had set it to post thinking I would write it over the weekend, but it didn't happen. : )
Thanks to a prompt from Amy @ Hope is the Word, I read To Kill a Mockingbird
a few weeks ago. This is the first time that I had read the book and, truthfully, knew very little about it other that I thought it had to do with segregation in the south. This book was excellent and will definitely be required reading for my girls as they get older. I can't say that I loved the book ... this isn't one that falls into the same category as my Betsy-Tacy books or Anne of Green Gables series ... it is deep and well-written and worth the time and thought that I had to expend to get through it. (Hopefully that makes sense.) : )I honestly don't know what to write that doesn't give away spoilers if you haven't read the book. It didn't end like I expected it to. The story does involve the trial of a black man in the rural south, and I assumed that in the name of justice he would be proven innocent. Not so. In fact, it doesn't go well for him at all. However, the trial and the stories surrounding it are key elements in the growth and maturation of the main characters in the Finch family - lawyer Atticus, and his two children Jem and Scout.
I had hoped to watch the movie version
of this book, but it has been delayed via Netflix for several weeks now ... I'm guessing the anniversary of the book has prompted a resurgence in popularity for watching the movie! It's still on my to-do list one of these days.Thanks, Amy, for hosting this challenge and for getting me to read a book that had just been gathering dust on my shelves. : )
This post is linked over at Amy's challenge and at Five Minutes for Books classics challenge for this quarter.
by Andrew Peterson. My husband has gotten on an Andrew Peterson music kick and recently ordered book one in his Wingfeather saga series. (We had a copy of 
. This was written by the author of 
, which is an excellent resource for books for children and some thoughts behind establishing a love a reading. I managed to stay up until after 11 p.m. (a minor miracle) reading this book, and am looking forward to scanning through it again with paper and pen to make notes of authors and titles to add to an already long to-be-read list.
hitting the movie theaters in August, and the 
set to re-release on DVD in August as well, I decided that would be a good choice for us. (I'm not planning on taking the girls to this one in the theater - we'll wait for DVD - but I am planning a fun family movie night with the first movie hopefully this weekend now that we've finished the book). Anyway...
e is based upon a book of short stories called 
. They were written by Christianna Brand, and illustrated by her brother Edward Ardizzone. These stories were based on ones that their grandmother told her and her siblings when they were young ... the biography I read suggested that these were the stories that grandma told when her grandchildren were being particularly naughty.
was sent to me by Kregal Publications in a bundle of Christmas books last winter and is woefully behind a review post. (My apologies to Kregal for forgetting about it!)
is one that I have seen on multiple book lists, but have never picked up before now. Love the beautiful drawings through out the book as you get a glimpse of how the animals live throughout the different months of the year. I'll be looking for more books by the Provensens to read with the girls. (Amy @ Hope is the Word just 
is a sweet story by Cynthia Rylant. The relatives from Virginia drive all day and all night to come for a summer visit. The house is crowded, there are people sleeping on top of each other but they wouldn't want it any other way. It's family and the visit is over all too soon.
explores the fun and memories of a summer family reunion and the childlike delight of catching fireflies on a summer evening. Loved this one. It really captured the beauty of family and the heritage of passing on traditions and stories and memories of those gone before.
by Joan W. Blos was a quick and very interesting book and one that I was glad to try out.
Catherine Hall is a young girl that lived in the 1800's. A few months before her fourteenth birthday, she is given a journal and decides to chronicle her days. Some entries are brief and some are lengthly, but I definitely feel like I got a glimpse of what life would have been like for a young girl back then. (To put this is perspective, Catherine's teen years were almost 40 years before Laura Ingalls Wilder was born). These days have the beginnings of anti-slavery rumblings and it affects even Catherine's life in New Hampshire as she and her friends assist a runaway slave.
by Karen Cushman, which was the 1996 Newberry Medal Winner. This book was a little tougher to read but didn't make it any less interesting. This is the story of a young girl, abandoned and alone, and found sleeping in a dung pile by the local midwife. I wouldn't say it was out of pity, but the midwife takes her home and gives her odd jobs here and there to do in exchange for a small bit of food and a place to sleep. However, that doesn't mean her life gets any easier. The midwife is fairly abusive and, in fact, this girl doesn't even have a name (or is given one) until about halfway through the book. Apparently she's not deemed important enough to have one or to even find out what it is.
Lastly, I read my first Caldecott Medal Winner this month - 
by Ed Young. Lon Po Po is the story of Red Riding Hood, told using Chinese children and using Chinese panel art to illustrate the story. In this version, instead of Red Riding Hood heading out to meet the wolf on her way to grandmother's house, the wolf comes to three sisters, Shang, Tao, and Paotze. Against the stern warning of their mother, they let the wolf into their house and eventually realize that it isn't their grandmother come to visit but a wolf! The children are able to escape the wolf's clutches and he meets an unfortuate end and all ends well.
