Rae: July Read

Hai Konnichiwa from the land of the Rising Sun. Mim and I have been discussing a suitable topic for our non-fiction assignment for July. I am posting this a bit early this month since we are on our way to Hiroshima very early tomorrow morn.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to find a non-fiction book that relates in some way to your present locale. You may choose any type of book within non-fiction i.e. biography, children's, straight history, business, arts, etc. Just make sure that whatever book you choose is non-fiction and relates in some way to an event, location, or person in your city or state.

Have some fun with this assignment. Your options are quite wide open. Abby, in Florida, could choose to read about the making of Epcot Center, the space program, Seminole Indians, or a famous person from Florida. Liz could choose to read about the Alamo, the arts in Texas, or anything else that has to do with the great state of Texas. Lulu could find a bio on a church history character, read about the Pony Express, or the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Lynness could make her selection patriotic with her locale. You get the idea. I hope.

You may make this as dry and boring or as entertaining as you wish. Your topic does not need to be historical, either. It can easily be a contemporary issue as long as it relates in some way to the place where you live. I have tried to narrow down the topic but give you lots of leeway as to subject matter. Have fun and include kidlets if you so desire.

We are so enjoying the lovely land of Japan. We are already halfway through our month (it has gone by FAST) and are looking forward to the things we have yet to see. The people are so gracious and kind. We have been doing a lot of reading about Japan and can see both the good and the bad within the society. We are so glad that we came.

Yesterday, Blake took us to a Japanese mall to get heavy rain gear (a typhoon is off the coast of Okinawa...). We saw two places that appeared at first to be childrens' stores. But they weren't. Everything in them....coats, sweaters, underwear, diapers, frilly dresses, hats, shoes, strollers, jewelry and personal flotation devices...were for DOGS! Many of the Japanese choose not to have children and so they lavish their affection and yen on little dogs. We saw some in strollers where infants should have been. It was a bit creepy! Just had to share.

Happy local reading!