Book Sharing Monday - picture books featuring Korea

We're slowly making our way around the Eastern Hemisphere, and I've especially enjoyed supplementing Core 5 with picture books for the six-year-old.  Here are the books we've found for this week's study of Korea:

The Green Frogs--a Korean Folktale, retold by Yumi Heo

The Firekeeper's Son, written by Linda Sue Park with illustrations by Julie Downing

Bee-bim Bop! written by Linda Sue Park with illustrations by Ho Baek Lee

Behind the Mask, by Yangsook Choi

The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi

The Have a Good Day Cafe, by Frances Park and Ginger Park with illustrations by Katherine Potter

Count Your Way through Korea, by Jim Haskins with illustrations by Dennis Hockerman

In addition, the older two have read or are reading these books by Linda Sue Park:

 

A Single Shard
The Kite Fighters
SeeSaw Girl
When My Name Was Keoko


Jazz gives A Single Shard high marks, and is starting When My Name Was Keoko tomorrow.  JaneG. admits that The Kite Fighters was a good story, even if it was about two boys.  She's reading SeeSaw Girl now.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.  Stop by and find some new books to enjoy and share what caught your eye this week!

Book blurb: Crunch

Crunch by Leslie Connor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love books in which kids find the inner strength to accomplish monumental tasks, and this one really knocks it out of the park.  The author's writing style and the closeness of the relationship between the siblings in the story reminded me quite a bit of Madeleine L'Engle, even though Crunch is firmly rooted in the Real World.  I passed this book right off to my eldest, and I'm looking forward to reading other books by this author.


View all my reviews

Book review: Rival

Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the peek into the minds of serious young vocalists!  The competition in their musical and romantic lives makes this book a fast, emotionally engaging read, and the author does a great job of differentiating between the two main characters' voices when they take it in turns to narrate the story.  I didn't want the story to end, and can't wait for this author's next book!


Rival comes out February 15, 2011 but is available for pre-order at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rival-Sara-Bennett...


View all my reviews

One other quick note: the recommended age from the publisher is "12 and up."  Due to mature content I would push that lower age limit up to 14.

Winter reads

I've come across a wealth of new book titles to check out from a variety of sources.  The Cybils finalists were announced on January 1st, so a big chunk of my library queue was suddenly overtaken by many of the books listed there.  And many book publishing or blogging sites have listed or asked for lists of readers' favorites from 2010 or even from the previous decade.

The stack of books beside me as a type includes

YA:

I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan (finished just this morning; a well written, emotionally engaging story, IMO)
Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers (read this afternoon; not my usual fare--disturbing story of high school "mean girl"; hard to feel sympathy for protagonist)
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healy
Plain Kate by Erin Bow
The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate (author of Fallen and Torment)

Middle grade:


The Emerald Tablet by P.J. Hoover
The Shadow Hunt by Katherine Langrish
The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter
The Dead Boys by Royce Buckingham
The Magnificent 12 - The Call by Michael Grant
Crunch by Leslie Connor

Mystery:

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
The Sting of Justice - a Mystery of Medieval Ireland by Cora Harrison


In my queue but not on hand yet:

The Wind-Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Doctor Who: The Clockwise Man by Justin Richards
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke (wow, is this ever a tome--782 pages!)

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
The Shadows by Jacqueline West
Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World by Mary Pipher

A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley (pub. date: February 8)

Next on my list of things-to-do-that-might-actually-result-in-a-blog-post: go through my reading history in my library account and pull out *my* favorite reads from the past year.


Happy reading!

Note to self. . .

December giveaway at SecularHomeschool.com

Head on over and check it out!  A Blogging 101 course is the December giveaway on SecularHomeschool.com, one of my favorite places to visit online.

Merriest of winters holidays to you all.

Book Sharing Monday - some favorite Christmas reads

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, by L. Frank Baum.  The author of The Wizard of Oz has written a fantastical story about a baby raised by wood-nymphs and elves in the Forest of Burzee--that baby eventually grows up to be the jolly man in red.  We have two versions, one with Baum's original text and one with the tale somewhat abbreviated and lushly illustrated by Charles Santore.  Both are worth reading.  The text is available as a free Kindle book at Amazon and in many different electronic formats at Project Gutenberg.

One that I've bought but haven't brought out yet (it's going "in" tomorrow's advent calendar, not that it will actually fit!) is Richard Scarry's Best Christmas Book Ever!  My two youngest are big Richard Scarry fans, and have enjoyed Watch Your Step, Mr. Rabbit! to Cars and Trucks and Things that Go and many others.  Jazz was a big fan when he was younger, too, and can still be caught hanging around when a Richard Scarry book is being read aloud.

And finally, a book that I haven't yet bought but am sorely tempted to include when ordering Christmas presents is Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas, by Julia Rawlinson.  Fletcher and the Falling Leaves is an all-time favorite autumn book in our house, and this latest tale of a little fox and his experiences with the seasons looks equally charming.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.

Favorite Holiday Music No. 15 - Irving Berlin

Still waiting for our snow to arrive.

For those of you who, like me, can't get enough holiday music, Amazon is giving out free mp3s of one holiday song per day until Christmas.  Yesterday's (Dec. 2--there are a couple of hours left for those of you that are west of here) was by the Indigo Girls.  For some reason December 1st's freebie is still available, though I've never heard of the band (though that's not saying a lot, as I mostly listen to Sting and classical music).

Poetry Friday: Mary Oliver, again

White Eyes
by Mary Oliver

In winter

    all the singing is in

         the tops of the trees

             where the wind-bird

with its white eyes

    shoves and pushes

         among the branches.

             Like any of us

he wants to go to sleep,

    but he's restless—

         he has an idea,

             and slowly it unfolds

from under his beating wings

    as long as he stays awake.

         But his big, round music, after all,

             is too breathy to last.

Read the rest here.

Poetry Friday is being hosted today at Check It Out.  Enjoy!

Book Sharing Monday - Too Many Turkeys

As big fans of Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White and Megan Lloyd, we were thrilled to learn that the same author/illustrator pair had a new book out in time for Thanksgiving!  Too Many Turkeys is just as captivating a story, and one of my children declared she liked it even more than Too Many Pumpkins.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.  Stop by to see some great selections from children's books, or post about a book that caught your eye and join the fun!

My weekend looks like this--

--dress rehearsal for this:



then rush home for a birthday party for my baby who will be SIX, and then back out the next day for the actual concert.

The music is the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, an amazing piece of choral music that I am so jazzed to have had the opportunity to sing.  Above is one of my favorite movements of the lengthy work, and below is one of my other favorites.  Sung here by the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Holiday Stress Reliever

Need help getting into the holiday spirit?

Book Sharing Monday - Where's the Dragon?

Where's the Dragon? by Jason Hook and illustrated by Richard Hook

J.J. picked this one up at one of the (four) libraries we visit.  A charming book with the added challenge of finding all of the hidden dragons at the end, this title will delight young squires of both genders.  My almost-six-year-old and nine-year-old were both enthralled from start to finish while reading, and then from finish while dragon "hunting"!


Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.  Stop by and see what's caught the eye of discriminating families worldwide!