Read-Aloud Thursday

This week we are reading Clovis, King of the Franks. This is another in the Biography from Ancient Civilizations series. Again, this is great content with nice visuals, but again it is a little dry like a giant encyclopedia entry. On the other hand, like the others in this series, it is divided into five chapters that are easy to in one day, so it lends itself well to being read over the course of a school week.

All said, have you ever tried to find a children's biography of Clovis? I think that this is it.

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week we are reading Who in the World Was the Acrobatic Empress? The Story of Theodora. It reads like a good picture book except that it has many more words than an actually picture book and it covers an actual historical figure. I have been very pleased! 

Read-Aloud Thursday

Just yesterday Duncan and I began reading Arabel's Raven. We are doing the I read a page then he reads a page route. I am excited to be sharing it with him, but we are not very good at completing books that we read in tandem, so we'll see how it goes. I really like the book, so I have high hopes.

Read-Aloud Thursday

Whew! This week we are trying to read Jesus by Demi. I have to say that of all the books I have read by Demi this is my least favorite. I guess she didn't want to offend anyone by abbreviating anything, so it is just many, many selections from the KJV Gospels arranged in chronological order. The pictures as always are lovely, but in order to finish this book in the timeframe that I have allowed I am doing the paraphrasing myself.

Read-Aloud Thursday

I have been out of pocket this past week, so I our here is our read-aloud from this week and last week. For October we are going with the Halloween-y theme of ravens.

Last week we read Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott.

Like many other Gerald McDermott books, this is a visually stunning folk tale. This one is a retelling of a Native American trickster myth that explains how Raven stole the sun and placed it in the sky for humans. We loved it!

This week we read The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe and illustrated by Ryan Price.

As we have discussed alliteration in MCT Music of the Hemispheres, this was a perfect time to read The Raven! 

Despite the comment by this reviewer on amazon, I do think that the images in this book clearly show the sorrow of the man at loosing his love, respect the words of the poem, and clarify the meaning especially for younger readers. Mei said that the man in the book reminded her of the old man in Disney's movie Up. The pictures must be pretty clear if a 10yo got it. 

The book is filled with pictures of Lenore and the raven is drawn as a sort of macabre shadow, so that you aren't sure if he is really there. In fact after-

And the lamplight o'er him streaming

throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow

that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted -

On the last page with the single word nevermore is a drawing of the man squatting on the floor scratching the shadow of the raven, but the way it is drawn it allows you to question if he is actually tracing his own shadow. This was a wonderful purchase that I plan to keep on my bookself for years to come.

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week we read Great Wall of China by Adele Richardson. It provided a fair amount of information, but it also provided tons of wonderful pictures!

I wish I had stuck to my original plan and covered the 2 chapters on ancient China from Gombrich's A Little History back to back. Alas, I did not. We had already talked a little about the Great Wall and Qin Shi Hwangdi when we covered Confucius, but this week we look at them again in more depth.

This book contains fabulous photos and enough information for a basic report, but it is set up in a 32 page, hardback, picture book layout. It was a really good book to read aloud side by side on the couch.

Read-Aloud Thursday: Hannibal

This week we are reading Hannibal by Robert Green. Alongside our whirlwind overview of Rome from Romulus and Remus through the Punic Wars, this book was just perfect. It has 5 chapters, so one can be read each day of the week. While it could certainly be used to write a report, the book is a good read and contains numerous pictures of paintings, sculpture, maps, and photos that add to the written information.

Read-Aloud Thursday

This is another good one from this series. You Wouldn't Want to Be in Alexander the Great's Army follows the military campaigns of Alexander from the perspective of foot soldier. It has all the sort of information that little boys love- soldiers freezing to death, starving to death, being trampled by elephants, etc. That said it doesn't give much information about Alexander.

We did read the page on Alexander the Great out of Usborne's Internet-linked History Encyclopedia and that helped. I had planned to read The Life and Times of Alexander the Great. However, I have almost lost my voice this week, so my throat just wasn't up for it.



I read/skimmed through it and I think Duncan would have enjoyed it. It gave some really good historical information about Alexander the Great.

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week I am reading The Life and Times of Confucius as our history read-aloud. It contains 5 short chapters, so it is easy to cover in a week. The vocabulary isn't your simple picture book vocabulary and it has nice little FYI sections with pictures at the end of each chapter. I like it enough that we will be using a couple of other ones, but it isn't beautiful. This book on Confucius fits the bill for Duncan, but it is definitely a library book that a middle school student could use to write a report IYKWIM.

Read-Aloud Thursday

Yes, yes, I know that it is Friday morning, but I had no time to blog yesterday until after midnight when I arrived home from my moms meeting. So, here I am on Friday morning.

You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete!

This isn't one of my favorites from this series: it just isn't as engaging for a 7yo boy as some of the others. It presents the basic information, but it isn't as silly/ laugh-out-loud entertaining or as eewww/ gross as some of the titles. Also, based on the presentation of the information in the book, a better title would be If You Are A Poor Male Athenian Child, Athletics May Be a Way to Recognition.

Read-Aloud Thursday

This year in order to help my second grader better connect with what he is learning most of our read-aloud Thursday books will be tied to our history lessons. This week we are studying ancient Persia, so imagine my delight when I found a comic book version of a selection from the Shahnameh.

Rostam: Tales from the Shahnameh is a wonderful visual introduction to the story that still manages to capture the elements of an epic. There is the flawed hero living and fighting for what he believes to be right, but caught in a web of love between himself and his country, himself and a woman, and the love for him from the child he doesn't know he has. Then, of course, the web is made more complex by the treachery of another who wants more power for himself. This is like the tales of King Arthur, but from a rich, foreign culture that many children don't have the opportunity to know. Good stuff!

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week we read In Search of Knossos: The Quest for the Minotaur's Labyrinth. It is very difficult to find children's books that cover Mediterranean history prior to the Greeks, so I was delighted that the library had this book on the shelf. It is full of information. However, for those bothered by nudity be aware that this information includes depictions of bare-chested women.

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week, while we read about ancient Mesopotamia in Gombrich's Little History, we have read You Wouldn't Want to Be a Sumerian Slave!.

The You Wouldn't Want to Be series is entertaining history information with really fun drawings. We will be using a number of these books this year. My second grader isn't particularly interested in history and I am hopeful that a few of these thrown into the mix will make history more enjoyable/ accessible for him.

Last week we read You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder and it was a nice addition to our week in ancient Egypt.

Read-Aloud Thursday

This week we read Saint George and the Dragon by Geraldine McCaughrean. I have had this version for years. My oldest had it when he was little. He wanted it, because he liked the illustration of the dragon. Margaret Hodges version seems to be the popular one these days. The illustrations in the McCaughrean version are less cutesy/ pretty than the illustrations in the Hodges book. By this I mean that, although the illustrations in the McCaughrean version are still stylized, they are more graphic art than cartoon-like. As a visual for this particular story, I prefer the graphic art look.

As for the story, it is not an ambitious attempt at simplifying Spenser like Hodges. It is just a simple version of the story of St. George. Omitting religious detail, it basically reads like a standard knight saves the princess story.

I admit this isn't a stellar review, but the dragon illustrated by Nicki Palin in the McCaughrean story is unique and IMHO more visually interesting in the context of the story of St. George than the dragon illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman in the Hodges version. I really do enjoy Hyman's work, but in this one instance I just prefer the other dragon.

Well, this is a rambling post, so I'll stop now.

Read-Aloud Thursday

Since The Canterbury Tales were mentioned in our history reading, today we read Chanticleer and the Fox. This is an adaption of the "Nun's Priest's Tale." I think I like Geraldine McCaughrean's adaption better, but Barbara Cooney's illustrations more than make up for it. They tell the story so clearly that you hardly need the words. It is a lovely introduction to Chaucer for very young children!

(As a side note- This doesn't bother me, but I hear it often and thought I should mention it here. The rooster has 7 wives. I mean really- have you ever been to a farm that only had 1 chicken? Also, how else would Brother John, the priest who is telling the story, refer to the rooster's hens?)

Read-Aloud Thursday

Yeah, this is a little belated, but it was in response to the snowfall we received last week. However, since his birthday is February 9th, maybe it is just as appropriate now as last week. Snowflake Bentley is a Caldecott winner and the wood block illustrations certainly capture the story's words and era. Also, Wilson Bentley and his brother were homeschooled!


The Story of a Castle is a wordless picture book that chronicles a "typical English castle" from about 1170 to about 1970. Before the pictures begin there is a page with a little timeline and a brief explanation of the pictures. Each long, two-page spread has a half page in the middle that can be flipped back and forth to change the scene in the larger two page spread. The paintings are fabulous, but be aware that the two-page spread of Cromwell's Roundhead troops sacking the castle may be disturbing to sensitive children. All things considered this was a good addition to our week's history study.

Read-Aloud Thursday

Today we read Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans again. Paris holds a special significance for our family. Three and a half years ago we went to Europe. It is the only time that I have met my in-laws and so the only time Duncan has seen his paternal grandparents in person. Duncan barely remembers the trip, but we have great pictures in Paris in front of many of the same landmarks beautifully illustrated in Madeline. So, we read Madeline and looked at pictures of his Aziz, what Duncan calls his grandmother, holding a little sleeping Duncan at the base of the Eiffel Tower and other good memories.

Hey, Mom, isn't that the bridge Madeline climbed on?

Read-Aloud Thursday

Today we read Tico and the Golden Wings by Leo Lionni. Of course, the illustrations are fabulous Lionni drawings, but the story is also fabulous. Although this is another book that feels sort of like an Aesop fable, from it you can draw much more than one pithy little aphorism. The themes in Tico emcompass kindness, desire, giving, and individuality. Whoa, that's a lot for a little picture book and Lionni manages to cover all this without that didactic feeling that makes children roll their eyes!

Read-Aloud Thursday

The read-aloud this week is Sylvester and Magic Pebble by William Steig. We have been reading Aesop this year and the tale of Sylvester has the same feel. If it had a little moral, it would be something like this-

If you give a silly ass a wish, he is sure to make a silly one.

An Aesop fable would have ended right there with the donkey making a silly wish, but William Steig continues on to have the donkey's parents inadvertently correct the situation. The book ends happily with the parents and the little donkey snuggled together on their couch. At this point, the moral could be-

A loving family is a content family that has no need for wishes.

Read-Aloud Thursday

In Owl Moon by Jane Yolen a young child goes out "owling" with his father. It is a lovely story and the pictures are outstanding in their interpretation.