Weekly book shelf, 3/21/14

This week in history: on to another religion! The birth of Islam is upon us (SOTW2 ch. 6)

Having just left Hindu and Buddhism behind, I thought it prudent to revisit some of our past religious discussions before delving right into Islam. A lot of this we did just by discussing, but we also revisited the Maestro's Story of Religion, which gives some background for the emergence of religion and individual religions. It's not as secular or scientific as I would like, but truly unbiased, scientific books about religion are hard to come by for Calvin's age or level of understanding. This is a pretty good one.

And The Usborne Book of World Religions is less a book on religious theory, and more a compendium of different religions. It's obviously not exhaustive, but it does a pretty good job of neutrally touching on the main religions, and even some of the more obscure ones as well.

More specifically, we picked up I Am Muslim from the "Religions of the World" collection (which we've used for many others along the way). These books are for very young readers. They're small, and each two page spread is one full page picture facing a couple of sentences about the religion in large, bold text. Although very short on words, every single word used goes to a sentence that is purposeful and informative. These books is that they are neutral and factual, plus they are devoid of any of the ridiculous eye-catching gimickry of most newer youth non-fiction.

And for a good book about Muhammad himself, we turned to Demi. Rich and inviting text paired with rich an inviting illustrations adds energy to this picture book bio. 

Science this week (this month, really) is just going to all be review of BFSU1. It's over 2 years of review, so I think that's fair.

And in literature this week...the kid was a reading machine. It's still cold out there, and we've been struggling with various colds and illnesses, so...reading.

His note-taking, review-writing book this week was From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. A girl and her brother run away from home and into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they become entangled in a mystery about a statue and its seller. I haven't read it, but Calvin reviewed it positively.

The Wolfling is a book he came across in the library sale room and picked up immediately upon seeing its author. Sterling North was the author of the memoir Rascal, which we read together earlier this year. He loved it, and I love that he remembered the author and followed him into other books that way. In this story a boy adopts a wolf hybrid and must convince his family and neighbors that the pet is not a problem. We did not discuss this story, but he read it twice this week, so I'd gues that either he enjoyed it, or he was puzzled by it and needed another trip through to work it out.

Similarly, he picked up The Dog Who Wouldn't Be based on authorship. He absolutely adored Mowat's Owl's in the Family and he seemed to enjoy this story just as well. This is the author's autobiographical story of his childhood in Canada. Entertaining and endearing, it probably brings to mind a bit of North's story in Rascal, but it's a lighter read—less poignant, more funny.

Lastly, Calvin started making his way through my dad's Hardy Boys legacy. I'd say he's about half way through at this point. When he finishes one, he immediately begins another.