What My Child is Reading - January 23, 2010

This was our week for finishing things up.

We read the last two of the germ books, that straggled in from the library:

Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie, which I read to the little ones, as a follow up to the television episode, we watched last week, by the same name. The book, and the show are very similar, but the little ones still enjoyed going through the story again. If you haven't checked out The Magic School Bus series with your children yet, then let me highly recommend it. These books are terrific, for backing up just about any scientific study you can imagine.

We also received in a Magic School Bus, chapter book entitled, The Giant Germ. My 12 year old read this one on his own, in a just because, sort of way. The reading level is below his age. I think Amazon says it's for ages 9-12, but it's pretty simply written. Still, judging from all the facts he's been spewing about germs, and viruses, I'd say he learned quite a lot.

We also finished up the last of our Hans Christian Andersen study, for the time being:

The older girls read one more retelling of The Little Mermaid, illustrated by Charles Santore, and claiming to be faithful to the original English translation of Hans Christian Andersen's story. The illustrations are by far the loveliest of all The Little Mermaids we've read. And, the girls did not seem to mind, that the mermaid lost her prince in the end, though they did mention, that they thought the mermaids should be wearing tops.

We left Naomi Lewis' adaptation of The Snow Queen unfinished, or at least the children did, I read to end, and can tell you it concludes quite nicely. The little ones just lost interest in the story, it was too long for them to stick with. And, the older children refused to read it, because it begins with the devil, and his demons. I will not say they completely rejected the book however, because everyone agreed the illustrations were beautiful, and intriguing. Even the older children spent some time flipping through the pages, admiring them.

Finally, we completed our mini earthquake study, with three books:

Earthquakes by Franklyn M. Branley, and illustrated by Megan Lloyd, which we found interesting, and informative, but a little too scary.

National Geographic's Jump Into Science: Earthquakes, by Ellen J. Prager, and illustrated by Susan Greenstein, was just excellent, with a nice mix of story book, science, and reassuring safety tips.

And, TIME For Kids: Earthquakes! They make the ground shake, by the editors of TIME for Kids with Barbara Collier. We always enjoy this series of books. They are factual, but fun, and presented in a very kid friendly format.

We have a Magic School Bus Earthquake book on reserve at the library as well, but it hasn't arrived in yet, so I guess it will be our straggler for next week.

In the meantime, you can find more reviews and recommendations of children's literature, at the What My Child is Reading link up hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

It's great to be a homeschooler.