Reading Catholic

Reading Catholic and catholic

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts, Vol. 3: The Good Books for Kids Edition

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If I had a nickel for every time that friends have asked me for book suggestions, I would have … well, a lot of nickels.

But I do feel bad that I don’t often have an organized list. Often, perfectionism gets in the way–I want to share the best ten, or twenty, or hundred, books for kids, all color-coded and age-appropriate.  And –surprise!–those lists don’t write themselves.

So to get started, here is one list, very random. Because it is quite random, I’m making it part of the “random thoughts” series.

This is actually the list from one of the early years that my daughters and I hosted a Girls Book Group  at our house.   Even though they were read as part of a “girls” group, all these books are totally appropriate and would be enjoyed by both boys and girls–yes, even Baby Island and The Penderwicks.  Many times, if you like the book we read, you will often enjoy other works by the same author.

Feel free to share some of your favorites in the comments!

Andrew Clements is really the gold standard author when it comes to “school stories.”    Just a few weeks ago, one of my kids brought home a book from the “new book” section, and we both gave up on reading it after a few chapters.  As I said, “It’s like someone trying to write like Andrew Clements but not succeeding.”

Frindle is possibly his best, but I have some other Clements favorites, and (a few) that are not-so-favorite.  I’ll try to do a post on great Clements books soon.

Understood Betsy is one of my favorite books of all time.  We own multiple hard copies, and I have it in Kindle format and audio CD format. This is great to read-aloud to your children, just so you don’t miss out on how terrific this book is in every way.

When we read Understood Betsy for Girls Book Group, we made applesauce and butter, and the girls did virtually all the work themselves.  Wonderful.

 

All of Rumer Godden’s books are tinged with melancholy, but they are so worthwhile.  I’m not sure why I chose The Doll’s House rather than, say, The Kitchen Madonna.  I think it may have been one of the few in-print Godden books for kids at the time.  I think we made homemade dollhouse furniture as the girls do in the book.

Carol Ryrie Brink is amazing–I can’t think of any of her books that I do love and begin laughing and quoting when I call to mind a title. Baby Island is hilarious and improbable and so, so funny-two sisters who like to “borrow” babies are shipwrecked on a desert island with four babies.  I just now noticed it’s available on Kindle, and even though I can probably recite entire passages of it, it’s likely I will order a Kindle version at some point.

The Toothpaste Millionaire is the only Jean Merrill book I’ve enjoyed, but it’s really fun and worth reading, especially for an entrepreneurial-minded kid.

The Penderwicks is practically perfect in every way, a series that’s a worthy successor and homage to such fun old classics by authors such as E. Nesbit and Edward Eager.  There have been three so far in the series, and I was expecting the fourth to be published this spring, but it looks like it’s not coming out until 2015.  So hard to wait!

I am biased since I know author/adaptor Nancy Carpentier Brown in real life.  She actually visited our Girls Book Group and spoke with the girls about writing, G.K. Chesterton, and life in general, a memory we all cherish.  But it really is a great introduction for young people to Chesterton’s mystery series.

I love Jean Fritz, and The Cabin Faced West is one of her many terrific books.  I can’t recall why I chose this one in particular, but it mixes fiction and history so well you don’t realize how much you are learning about the Revolutionary time period.  She will be 99 later this year, and she is still writing! Wow.

Many, many more books to come, and future posts can be found under the “books for kids” category.  I will also try to make a tab of great kids books for easier “finding.”  Thanks for your patience as I get through these.

A note from me: this post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click through to Amazon from any of the links, and order a book (s), I receive a small amount.  It doesn’t change your cost, but helps support this blog.

Random Thoughts, Volume 2

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Last weekend, I was on a two-night campout with my younger daughter’s American Heritage Girls troop.  And truly, I had a great time.  I would say so even if my whole family, children included, did not read my blog.

But, to be honest, before this, I used to say to people, “You know, the closest I get to camping is Hampton Inn.”  I love the outdoors, but I really like to come home to my own bed, or a Hampton Inn.  Some of you will know what I mean.

Even though I was officially having fun, after the first restless night with lots of little girls tossing and turning and needing to go use the latrine, I was pretty tapped out during a lull on Saturday afternoon.  So I might have hiked the half-mile to the minivan to take refuge for a little bit of quiet and non-outdoors.  I am sooo glad that I did.  That’s because I caught the very end of The Moth Radio hour. I generally stay away from The Moth, as I generally find it a more pretentious and annoying version of This American Life.  While I love and find   so Catholic and catholic, so many of the stories on TAL, it can also occasionally veer into the annoying category.

So my first random thought is to share this and invite you to take a few minutes to listen to “Before Fergus,”  Lynn Ferguson’s story of when she was pregnant at an “advanced maternal age.”  Listen if for no other reason than to hear her Scottish brogue.  Lovely.  Sitting there listening to it, and having a few minutes of quiet, was just enough to help me get back to several dozen energetic girls, the campfire, and sleeping in a bunk.

More randomness:

Do our Kids Get Off Too Easy? –Alfie Kohn, The New York Times.I found his book Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes

that I read many, many years ago, utterly fascinating, and it really informed how I parent, I think because I was parented this way, without my parents having the benefit of such a book.  “Other researchers, meanwhile, have shown that high self-esteem is beneficial, but that even more desirable is unconditional self-esteem: a solid core of belief in yourself, an abiding sense that you’re competent and worthwhile — even when you screw up or fall short.”

Always Hungry? Here’s Why–The New York Times “If this hypothesis (that “rapidly digestible carbs” are the cause of hunger & weight gain) turns out to be correct, it will have immediate implications for public health. It would mean that the decades-long focus on calorie restriction was destined to fail for most people. Information about calorie content would remain relevant, not as a strategy for weight loss, but rather to help people avoid eating too much highly processed food loaded with rapidly digesting carbohydrates. But obesity treatment would more appropriately focus on diet quality rather than calorie quantity.”

The ‘Casket Catechesis’ of John Paul II–National Catholic Register.  Not new but read-worthy.  A man inspired to start a simple casket business after seeing the casket of John Paul II. “I hope that Marian Caskets is a part of this spiritual awakening, where death is accepted but where it won’t have the last word. That’s what the casket catechesis of soon-to-be St. John Paul II is all about: facing reality with humility, acknowledging our sins and asking for God’s mercy.”

18 Reasons Why This Skeptical Pediatrician Came to Love Homeschooling Dr. Kathleen Berchelmann, Aleteia.  My brother sent me this article and I found it really interesting and well-argued.  I still felt a little exhausted just reading about this family’s schedule though!  Neat connection: Kathleen attended the 2012 Behold Conference.  I got to meet her but not spend much time with her.

Who Gets to Graduate? –Paul Tough, The New York Times magazine.  Helping the most-at-risk kids to graduate.  I haven’t finished this one yet, but I find it fascinating, and want my teens to read.

What have you read or listening to randomly this week?

Haphazard Random Thoughts

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We have a family joke that whenever Mom (that would be me) says, “I have a random thought,” everyone runs screaming, because it’s usually followed by, “… we should clean out the garage” or ” or some other maybe-not-too-pleasant thing that will happen since I am Mom and moms are all-powerful.  That’s not really how it works, but I love that my husband and kids enjoy making fun of me in a cute way.

So, I keep sharing articles and various other links on Facebook or (less often) Twitter, and then when I want to find them, I have to scroll back through my own feed to find them.  And my husband often (very often) shares articles via e-mail with me, and sometimes I get to them, and share them.  But it’s all haphazard.

The “haphazard” way I read and share online isn’t going to change, but there will be a post here every so often with a random assortment of links that have had me thinking and pondering, or that moved me in some way.

I don’t have a catchy name for this yet–thus, the “Haphazard Random Thoughts.”  But I want to get this started.   Any thoughts for a good name are welcome here.

So burdened last week with the news out of Harvard, and I was unbelievably glad when it was all over, saying prayers of thanksgiving at Mass & Adoration on Tuesday:

“Holy Hour in Reparation for Acts Committed Against the Eucharist”

and some follow-up:

“Describer of Planned Black Mass-Guess How He Died?” Elizabeth Scalia at The Anchoress. I was all set for this to be sad, and then it wasn’t.  Praise God.

“Satan: A Small Skirmish Won, but the Battle Goes On.” –Thomas MacDonald. “And while we do this, we must remember that the battleground of Satan is within us as well. As Solzhenitsyn wrote, the line separating good and evil passes right through every human heart. I’d rather not lose a single soul to Hell. Not one. Not even the soul of my worst enemy.”

“The Problem with Confidence” –David Brooks, The New York Times. Sometimes my husband e-mails me articles, and then when he tells me about them in person, and sends me back to my neglected in-box to read them, I know it must be very good.  This one was, and there is almost too much good to quote. “The person with the confidence mind-set is like the painfully self-conscious person at a dinner party who asks, “How am I coming across?” The person with an instrumentalist mind-set is serving a craft and asks “What does this specific job require?”

 

“Tolstoy and Miss Daisy,” Frank Bruni, The New York Times.  I cried at this one, and this was one I shared with my husband first, and then I forgot to share on Facebook and Twitter and to tag all my siblings and their kids.  “They were proof, these two, that a family can pass its painstakingly nurtured closeness down through the generations, and that there comes a moment when the values impressed on the youngest members of the brood — the values imposed on them, really — become the values they actually elect.”

“Running  Back from Hell” by Christine Fennessy, Runner’s World.  I read this in the paper version back when it arrived in our mailbox–Runner’s World is one of my favorite magazine subscriptions.  Many (not all) of the long articles in Runner’s World are top-notch.  This was one recent standout.  How running is helping soldiers manage and overcome PTSD.

And let’s throw in a recipe for good measure:

“Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp Bars” Deb Perlman, The Smitten Kitchen. Our garden is producing lots of rhubarb this years from ancient plants we inherited when we bought our old house 20 years ago. I am looking for new recipes to try. I adapted this from another recipe of hers (I didn’t want “crispy” bars in any way–just yummy) and we cannot stop eating this one.