Weekly book shelf, 9/10
There is no real theme to this week's book list. We are still finishing up our exploration of Antarctica, but have already started into prehistory by watching BBC's Walking With Monsters. So this week I'm just reviewing some of our old favorites—go-to books for Calvin that I saw him pick up at least once over the week.
What Calvin read to himself....
I wouldn't call The Little Train a story so much as a cute and simple explanation of train travel. We travel with Engineer Small as he pilots his train from the small town to the big city, carrying people, mail, and more. We see countryside, we deliver mail, we wait for larger trains to go by, which allows the reader to enjoy the use of the railroad signal system. There is no conflict, and while the story and illustrations are cute, they are neither specifically down-talk, nor are they childish in nature. Lois Lenski is a master of that art, one of the reasons why I really enjoy her work, even if it's a little dated.
Duck is sad that he can't lay an egg like all the other birds in the book (shown sitting on theirs) so he is very excited one day to find an egg which he takes on as his own. The other birds laugh at him—his egg is ugly!—and when their babies hatch they laugh some more because Duck's is still incubating. Then Duck's baby crocodile (because that's what the egg turns out to be) finally hatches and snaps at them all, forcing them to beat a hasty retreat. The illustrations in the book are darling, and it has some short cut pages to show the hatching of the chicks that a youngster will enjoy. The birds are a variety of species and their babies are well drawn to match. The Odd Egg is definitely cute, but because I am overly picky about seemingly moral tales in books I'm not fond of the "make fun of others and you'll get your head snapped off by a crocodile" ending to the story.
Franklin and his friends excitedly plan their costumes for the upcoming Halloween party. When the big day comes they are almost tricked into believing there is a real ghost in the haunted house! And Bear has to stay home sick with a cold, but all of his friends share their candy with him after the party. Franklin's Halloween is an enjoyable story without serious conflict, a good example of how a book can teach strong character traits (making his own costume, working together to figure out the ghost, sharing candy with Bear) without first showing the wrong way to do things. This isn't true about all of the Franklin books, but seems to describe all the early ones in the series. My guess is that popluarity is what changed things.
Calvin is just one chapter away from finishing The Secret Island and I am still pleased with The Boxcar Children as a series for him to read alone. The vocabulary and sentence structure is simple enough for him to read comfortably, but also pushes him to ask for explanations from time to time. Plus the story is simple, but it's also well written and contains a light mystery that is solved in the end. Some parents might be displeased with the class situation since the grandfather is wealthy, has personal staff, and some emphasis is put on his willingness to buy anything for the children that they need or want. But the children also rarely ask for anything and are giving and considerate with each other and with others. I think Calvin enjoys the books because the characters are well written and easy to enjoy.
What we read out loud...
We are two chapters from the end of The Secret Zoo.
And on my bookshelf...I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves. I'm still plugging away at Proust, and I'm waiting for an advanced copy novel that I'm supposed to read and review by next Thursday, but it failed to arrive as yet. Good luck with that.
Book reviews, Weekly book shelf | tagged children's fiction, youth fiction
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