From T. A. Barron’s

The Lost Years of Merlin

 “Stories may not be real in the same way as this poultice, my son, but they are real nonetheless!  Real enough to help me live.  And work.  And find the meaning in hidden in every dream, every leaf, every drop of dew.”

I have always been a compulsive reader.  Before I could read I pretended I could.  Although I don’t remember learning to read, I do remember my older brother coming home from school with a book and reading it.  I asked  my mother when I could read, she counseled me to be patient, and told me that when I went to school I would learn, so I pretended.  When I finally learned how I read and read and read.

I love sharing books with children and their parents.  There is something so wonderful about suggesting a book and then, the next day rejoicing with that child as they rush into the library to tell me it is the BEST book they have ever read.   Reading a book and reliving the story with someone else is a bonding connection.

As I was finishing the book my from  Book Club  this month, A HOMEMADE LIFE, by Molly Wizenberg, I sat at the table eating lunch and wondered as I was reading what I loved as much as Molly loved cooking.  It is obvious, reading!  I never eat alone without something to read, and when I sit down if my book isn’t near, I have to search for it or a magazine, or the newspaper, before I can begin my solitary meal.  There are times like tonight, when my husband has a book too and we read and eat together.  I remember my mother explaining to me time and time again that reading at the dinner table was impolite, and that I must put my book down.  So many rushed meals.

Like my Book Club friend Bonnie, I reward myself for doing laundry, house cleaning, or any task by rationing chapters like a yummy treat.  Vacuum, read a chapter, fold the laundry, read a chapter.  You get the idea. 

This blog is really two fold, first to give my grandchildren book suggestions and sometimes their parents too, to keep the “bonding connection” with them and all the children who read what I have read and then give me suggestions of books I need to read!   The other goal is to suggest books that are coherent with my values.  Young Adult literature especially has changed and is ever more risque, coarse, and graphic.  The critical journals praise and recommend titles I’ve purchased and then pulled from the collection after receiving and reading them.  I do believe in reading widely, but I am a Grandma, and from the safety of the position I use the title “Grandma” when I talk with parents and children about appropriate books. 

And so I make a beginning.  This year I will post quotes and a short description of books for children the ages of my grandchildren,  from pre-schoolers to high school students.

There is a site you can access for information about book levels. I've added a link on the blog.    The Renaissance Learning company has many products, one is Accelerated Reader a web based reading program.  Many of your children may use the program in school, but the site is helpful to give you an idea of reading levels  for books and a little about the book.  User friendly!   http://www.arbookfind.com/ 

Last fall my niece Rachel asked if I had a recommendation for her ten  year old Tess.  The assigned genre was Historical Fiction.  To say I did is an understatement.  I gave her a list of some of my favorites.  Historical Fiction may very well  be my favorite genre.  This list is general and very short, but I love all these books.  Anna Myers, on  of the authors on the list visited our school several times, she is witty and wry and can entertain 300 Middle Schoolers.  Need I say more.  Her books are riveting and exciting and what better way to learn history!

Here is the list: 

Avi, 1937-. Escape from home / Book #1 / Series: Beyond the western sea. New York : Orchard Books, c1996. (Grandma lu says:  this is the first of two in the series and Maura and her brother are brave and inventive and survivors.)

Driven from their impoverished Irish village, fifteen-year-old Maura and her younger brother meet their landlord's runaway son in Liverpool while all three wait for a ship to America.

Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, not Buddy. New York : Delacorte Press, c1999. (Grandma lu says:  A story of the great depression that takes place outside the dust bowl, and Bud’s journey is unforgettable.)

Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie. The Canada geese quilt. New York : Dell, 1992, c1989. (Grandma lu says:  A bittersweet story and the making a of a quilt, a cozy read.)

Worried that the coming of a new baby and her grandmother's serious illness will change the warm familiar life on her family's Vermont farm, ten-year-old Ariel combines her artistic talent with her grandmother's knowledge to make a very special quilt.

lages, Ellen. The green glass sea. New York : Viking, 2006. (Grandma lu says:  Moms, you need to read this book too.  One of the most interesting stories of the making of the atom bomb.  It is so fascinating to see the characters' herculean efforts to win the race to produce the bomb, and then understanding settle as they comprehend what it means.)

  .

While her father works on the Manhattan Project, eleven-year-old gadget lover and outcast Dewey Kerrigan lives in Los Alamos Camp, and becomes friends with Suze, another young girl who is shunned by her peers.

Myers, Anna. Assassin. New York : Walker ;, 2005.  (Grandma lu says:  A cautionary tale as Belle becomes infatuated with John Wilkes Booth (think Johnny Depp, he was that popular) and the results are tragic.)

In alternating passages, a young White House seamstress named Bella and the actor John Wilkes Booth describe the events that lead to the latter's assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Myers, Anna. Graveyard girl. New York : Walker, 1995. (Grandma lu says:  Sad scary times, and makes me think of the pandemics that are forecast for our times.)

During the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis in 1878, twelve-year-old Eli and Addie, a young child he befriends, struggle to survive with the help of Addie's ghost-mother and a girl who works at the busy graveyard.

Myers, Anna. Hoggee. Pbk. ed. New York : Walker, 2007, c2004.( Grandma lu says:  Anna Myers creates another character we love and live with as he makes choices and works on the Erie Canal.  Sang the song all my life, had never really read anything about it. )

Always overshadowed by his competitive older brother, especially in their work as mule drivers on the Erie Canal, fourteen-year-old Howard finally finds the courage to pursue his dreams of becoming an educator after he learns about sign language and teaches it to his deaf friend in nineteenth-century New York State.

Myers, Anna. Red-dirt Jessie. New York : Puffin Books, 1997, c1992.  (Grandma lu says:  This story again reveals how much children know and how much responsibility they have when families are suffering.)

Jessie, a young girl living in the Oklahoma dust bowl during the Depression, tries to tame a wild dog and help her father recover from a nervous breakdown.

Osborne, Mary Pope. Adaline Falling Star. 1st ed. New York : Scholastic Press, 2000. (Grandma lu says”  Adaline is tenacious and fearless and takes action.  Kit Carson’s daughter! )

Feeling abandoned by her deceased Arapaho mother and her explorer father, Adaline Falling Star runs away from the prejudiced cousins with whom she is staying and comes close to death in the wilderness, with only a mongrel dog for company.

Paterson, Katherine. Jip : his story. 1st ed. New York : Lodestar Books, c1996. (Grandma lu says:  Katherine Paterson, (A Bridge to Terabithia) is an author whose heart is always in the right place.  Jip is alone, and unknown but his courage and kindness keep him safe. )

While living on a Vermont poor farm during 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his identity and that of his mother and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.

Peck, Richard, 1934-. Fair weather : a novel. New York : Dial Books, c2001. ( Grandma lu says:  Richard Peck’s first books were about contemporary teenage issues.  They are excellent books, but his later work is humorous and delightful and this is one of several.  Rosie and her family will make you smile, Aunt Euterpe will make you laugh.)

In 1893, thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World's Columbian Exposition which, along with an encounter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for everyone.

Then this week Lucy was learning about snow and when she wasn't sledding she was drawing snow flakes. 

While I was visiting the library I happened to pick up a book I think she might like:

Snowflake Bentley 

 A biography of a self-taught scientist who photographed thousands of individual snowflakes in order to study their unique formations. (Grandma lu says:  This story of a boy who loved snow and grew up to be the first to photograph snowflakes is an inspiration for all of us to follow our dreams.)

A little while ago Tommy called for a mystery recommendation, he's the one in the middle, white tee shirt.  Aren't those a great group of cousins?

and this is the book I suggested: 

Room One a Mystery or Two

Ted Hammond, the only sixth grader in his small Nebraska town's one-room schoolhouse, searches for clues to the disappearance of a homeless family. (Grandma lu says: More about this author later, one of the most widely read in our library.)

And finally Kate:

 Just began ballet today and her teacher tells her mother she is so naturally gifted she'd like to move her up a class. I've been watching Kate dance through life forever and here is a book all my dancing girls will love:

My Mamma Has a Dancing Heart

A ballet dancer recalls how she and her mother would welcome each season with a dance outdoors. (Grandma lu says:  Dancing with your children is the best memory you can make!)

More to come and Keep Reading! 

If you need a reading suggestion, send me an email.  I'd love to suggest a book.