Book choices for June!

A quick poll this time for June's reading:

1. The Tempest - Shakespeare
Prospero, sorcerer and rightful Duke of Milan, along with his daughter Miranda, has lived on an island for many years since his position was usurped by his brother Antonio. Then, as Antonio's ship passes near the island one day, Prospero conjures up a terrible storm...This play, combining elements of both tragedy and comedy, is believed by some to be the last Shakespeare wrote on his own, as well as one of his most fascinating works. The Signet edition also features an overview of Shakespeare's life and times, commentary by William Strachey, Montaigne, and others, and a stage and screen history, among other special content.

2. The Story of the Trapp Family Singers - Maria Augusta Trapp
With nearly 1,500 Broadway performances, six Tony Awards, more than three million albums sold, and five Academy Awards, The Sound of Music, based on the lives of Maria, the baron, and their singing children, is as familiar to most of us as our own family history. But much about the real-life woman and her family was left untold.
Here, Baroness Maria Augusta Trapp tells in her own beautiful, simple words the extraordinary story of her romance with the baron, their escape from Nazi-occupied Austria, and their life in America.

3. How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting - Mei-Ling Hopgood
A tour of global practices that will inspire American parents to expand their horizons (and geographical borders) and learn that there’s more than one way to diaper a baby.

Mei-Ling Hopgood, a first-time mom from suburban Michigan—now living in Buenos Aires—was shocked that Argentine parents allow their children to stay up until all hours of the night. Could there really be social and developmental advantages to this custom? Driven by a journalist’s curiosity and a new mother’s desperation for answers, Hopgood embarked on a journey to learn how other cultures approach the challenges all parents face: bedtimes, potty training, feeding, teaching, and more.

Options for May

Kirsten's choices for May!  Take a look:

 

False Prince by Jennifer A Nielsen 

 

(Goodreads synopsis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12432220-the-false-prince?from_search=true)

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

 

(Goodreads synopsis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104189.Same_Kind_of_Different_as_Me?from_search=true)

 

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

 

(Gooreads sysnopsis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37435.The_Secret_Life_of_Bees?from_search=true)

Choices for April

The theme:  books my 11-year-old might like to read.

Summer of the Monkeys, Wilson Rawls -- by the author of Where the Red Fern Grows.  I adore this book.  There is a review here.

Enchanted Runner, Kimberley Griffiths Little -- I have not read this one yet but it got great reviews and sounds really interesting.

Wonder, R.J. Palacio -- I recently read this one and am trying to get said 11-year-old to read it because it's really worth it.  Reviews here.

For March: Carolyn's choice

The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
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From Amazon.com:

     "It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," Milo laments. "[T]here's nothing for me to do, nowhere I'd care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing." This bored, bored young protagonist who can't see the point to anything is knocked out of his glum humdrum by the sudden and curious appearance of a tollbooth in his bedroom. Since Milo has absolutely nothing better to do, he dusts off his toy car, pays the toll, and drives through. What ensues is a journey of mythic proportions, during which Milo encounters countless odd characters who are anything but dull.

     Norton Juster received (and continues to receive) enormous praise for this original, witty, and oftentimes hilarious novel, first published in 1961. In an introductory "Appreciation" written by Maurice Sendak for the 35th anniversary edition, he states, "The Phantom Tollbooth leaps, soars, and abounds in right notes all over the place, as any proper masterpiece must." Indeed.

     As Milo heads toward Dictionopolis he meets with the Whether Man ("for after all it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be"), passes through The Doldrums (populated by Lethargarians), and picks up a watchdog named Tock (who has a giant alarm clock for a body). The brilliant satire and double entendre intensifies in the Word Market, where after a brief scuffle with Officer Short Shrift, Milo and Tock set off toward the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the twin Princesses, Rhyme and Reason. Anyone with an appreciation for language, irony, or Alice in Wonderland-style adventure will adore this book for years on end. (Ages 8 and up)

February Reading

Ashley's book choices for February:

* The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

* The Sword in the Stone T.H. White

 

* The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis

Book Choices for January

Here are Camille's choices for reading in January:

*  Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

*  Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
 

*  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Book Choices for Nov and Dec!

Two months in one!

From Sara for November:

The Distant Hours, Kate Morton
The Goose Girl, Shannon Hale
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles Mann

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And from Corinne for December:

The theme is books I haven't read yet that Disney made into life-action movies:

     Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers:  a magical nanny helps out a family that's disconnected (movie is being remade)
     Toby Tyler, or 10 Weeks With The Circus, James Otis (available on Kindle for free!): a boy runs away from home to join an old-time circus
     Pollyanna, Eleanor Porter: an orphaned girl with a sunshiny attitude changes her town