Lulu: Emma & Reed's reads

I don't know why, but trying to read Emma this month was painfully slow for me. I felt like I was wading in words, and sometimes I felt like a new reader. It's been a long time since I've read Jane Austen, and I forgot how complex her sentence structure can be. I made it through the first two volumes of Emma, and then felt so frustrated that I stopped right there. Call me lazy, but I was tired of Emma's dad, and I was tired of Miss Bates, and I was tired of not being close to the ending, the outcome of which I already knew.

Ah, well. I did read one classic this month--Fahrenheit 451. (I posted about that already HERE) I feel guilty for not finishing Emma, but also annoyed that I don't want to finish it.

Reed and I finished The Wind in the Willows. We loved it, most especially Reed. Some of the language was a little sophisticated for him, but we both laughed quite a bit through the whole thing, and the general story wasn't lost to him. Our copy had beautiful illustrations, too. After we finished, I found that I didn't have anything that age-appropriate on my shelves for our next read, but decided to tide us over with just a taste of A Wrinkle in Time. I am surprised to say Reed is actually very interested! We're halfway through, and I don't yet feel like I need to put it aside. I forgot how much I love that series, so it has been fun for me to revisit. Next we have Danny, the Champion of the World.

Raehink: July Reading

Your reading assignment for July is to find something patriotic...you decide exactly what that means! It might mean reading about the founding of our nation or finding a biography of someone who contributed in a great way to our country. Or you could read a book about war. Or find some historical fiction set in the founding time frame. Or read a children's book with your kids that encourages them love their country. Just find something to read this month that will help you appreciate your freedoms that have been fought and paid for with men and women's lives.

I'll be reading about the marriage of John and Abigail Adams. Good luck on your choices.

Happy reading!

Lynness- June Classic

For my classic I read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Here's a summary from wikipedia in case you're not familiar with the basic storyline:

"The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is greatly impressed by Dorian's physical beauty and becomes strongly infatuated with him, believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode in his art. Talking in Basil's garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil's, and becomes enthralled by Lord Henry's world view. Espousing a new kind of hedonism, Lord Henry suggests that the only things worth pursuing in life are beauty and the fulfilment of the senses. Realizing that one day his beauty will fade, Dorian cries out, expressing his desire to sell his soul to ensure that the portrait Basil has painted of him would age rather than himself. Dorian's wish is fulfilled, subsequently plunging him into a series of debauched acts. The portrait serves as a reminder of the effect each act has upon his soul, with each sin being displayed as a disfigurement of his form, or through a sign of aging."

The 'rest of the story'...   In the end he is an addicted, paranoid, but still beautiful person with blood on his hands and many enemies.  He eventually attacks the portrait to rid himself of it and thus kills himself.

    It's one I've always thought about reading, since the idea intrigued me, but never did until now.  It's not very long and I read it online at Project Gutenberg.  I don't think I can say I enjoyed it, but it certainly gives one a lot to think about (mostly to disagree with).  It makes me wonder what Oscar Wilde himself believed as far as morality and the soul and art.  It's so different from The Importance of Being Earnest or The Happy Prince, which are the only other things I had ever read by him.  It makes me grateful for the gospel and living prophets as a moral anchor so that I am not "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; " (part of a Scripture Mastery!! Ephesians 4:14)  Lord Henry seems like the devil to me- or maybe the reverse- I can picture the devil as Lord Henry: suave, sophisticated, has an answer for everything, nothing is sacred or truly matters to him, and he knows just what to say to get you started in the wrong direction!  This is not to say that I believe Dorian Gray does not bear responsibility for his actions, but it makes for an extreme lesson on how friends influence you.

Abby: Book Recommendation for all y'all with sistuhs

I just emailed MY sisters about this (so some of you will see this twice), but had to write something about it here too.

Tonight I read a story to the girls called The Lemon Sisters by Andrea Cheng. Next time you're at the library, find it in the kid's section on the shelf. You can read it in 5 minutes. Very sweet.

It made me miss all of my sisters. But it also made me so grateful for them. It made me excited thinking about a family reunion next year. Making cookies in the kitchen with all my sistuhs. Kids under foot snitching dough.

Abby: Kids Reading

Lynness, I enjoyed reading about Isaiah and how he's grown to love a good book! I looked up the AR (accelerated reader for anyone who didn't know) level on Half Magic just wondering where he was at level-wise and I think it was a 5.2 or something. Awesome! Autumn reads anywhere from a Level 3 to Level 5. But lately that brings up an issue. She's a great reader but she's still only 7, going into 2nd grade. So the interest level is not up to the reading level. She can read fourth & fifth grade level books but some are not interesting to her while others are but go over her head on the content, the references made, the relationships within the books...know what I mean?

This is really for any of you with anything to say about this. :)

I love the AR website because it lists books based on Book Level (which is similar to Lexile rating) and Interest Level (K-3, 4-6, and 7+). SO...I'm weeding my way through a couple of gigantic 3rd and 4th grade level lists to find the LG (K-3) Interest levels thinking that'd be best. Is it?

She's in bed reading the Witches right now. Which (hah hah) is listed as a 4.7 BL and a MG (4-6) Interest Level.

I keep wanting to just let her read whatever she's interested in and in general I do. The glitch is that she doesn't really know what she's interested in. She'll read something if I suggest it. She'll find something and if she enjoys it, she'll ask for more like it. But when we go to the library, well, it must feel huge to a kid. I honestly think it overwhelms her.

So what do you guys think?

Lynness- Raising a reader

We had an enrichment this past week about raising great readers and
I just finished Jim Trelease's "Hey, Listen to This" (I am currently on
the wait list for his "Read Aloud Handbook," which has been recommended
to me more than once). I got some ideas for books I'd like to read with
Isaiah or even just for myself- some of them classics (albeit children's
classics) that I have never read, so maybe that would work for this
month's reading assignment.

Anyway, I think I've succeeded there. (Actually, the enrichment
turned out to be a 'preaching to the choir' kind of meeting, as it
usually does...) Isaiah's teacher let him bring home "Henry and the
Clubhouse" with the understanding that he bring it back. The last day
of school is tomorrow, so I guess she knows him pretty well- he started
it today at school and finished it here at home. Then he proceeded to
read the first 5 chapters of Edward Eager's "Half Magic" and then left
it (face down, opened to his page) to pick up "Henry and Beezus" from
our shelves and read some in that. Here's a picture of him engrossed in
"Half Magic."

He's becoming like me- a fast reader, oblivious to the world when in
a book. The only problem is that other kids (especially on the bus)
have called him a nerd. My high school was for "gifted and talented
students" from 16 counties and sometimes I wonder if it was worth the
extra time and stress, but one of the biggest positives about it was
that EVERYONE was a nerd to some degree, and it seemed that everyone was
well-read or liked to read. I heard a disturbing tidbit the other day
(not sure where or if the number is right, but it was a high
percentage)- it was that something like 75% of people never read another
complete book on their own after high school. Who knows if it's
accurate, but it's appalling, so I hope not! I'm glad we have the book
blog and that so many people in this wonderful family I married into are
avid readers.

Lynness- Quick report on May and June

Well, in May I read part of the Apocrypha, but didn't have time to
finish it before the month just about finished me off. BUT now the
painting and packing of things we won't need in the next few months is
done. Just in time, because pregnancy is catching up with me again (6.5
weeks left) and I'm exhausted every day by about 2pm. Seminary ended
last Friday, so hopefully sleeping in until 6am (!!) will help that. I
started reading "Waiting for Godot" for June, since I had it and had
never read it and it seems like it has become a classic, or at least
very influential. I read the first act and wasn't impressed, so I'm
looking for something else.