Sadako and the Paper Cranes

A couple days after finishing Homeless Bird we picked up a My Father's World recommended book called Sadako and the Paper Cranes. This was a small chapter book that we started and finished all within about 45 minutes. The girls would not let me put it down.

Sadako and the Paper Cranes is set in Japan and is a touching story about a young girl who has leukemia from fallout from the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. This is the story of her belief in a tradition that says if a sick person folds 1,000 origami paper cranes they will become well. It is a simple story that is an easy read (I believe the grade level on this book is 2nd-6th grade) and made me shed a few tears at the end.

Homeless Bird

Last week we finished another read aloud. The book we read, which is a National Book Award recipient, was called "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan. We started reading this book while we were studying India. WONDERFUL book. I wondered if it was going to be too "old" for the younger children but they both enjoyed it.

This book is just loaded with true facts about the Indian culture and if you have daughters it will give them a pretty honest look at what life as a Brahamin girl would look like. Kohly is just 13 when her marriage is arranged and she is forced to become married to Hari. As if marrying at the age of 13 is not enough, she must reside with the groom's family and shortly discovers that her husband is very sickly. Hari is so sick that Koly is quickly made a widow and must continue living with his family. Eventually her father in law passes away making her "Sass" a widow as well. The two widows travel together to live with the brother of Sass. During their travels they must stop in the city of Vrindavan, the city of widows, where Koly is left alone on the streets.

This book is a sweet story of hardship, relationship conflicts, achievement and perseverance. There was only one small part of the book (literally 2 pages at most) that I chose to skip over. Koly gets mixed up with a girl who does drugs. Although my 11 year old would be at the age to hear about a topic like that, my 7 year old and 5 year old are not, so I just omitted it and it did not alter the story for them.

All of my girls liked this book, as did their mom! While searching for a photo for this entry I discovered a site about the author, Gloria Whelan, which provides information about the inspiration of the story and factual information that would be useful if you have no knowledge about the Indian customs. In addition, I discovered a free study guide for the book. Of course I discovered it AFTER we completed the book.

The Treasures of Weatherby

Books...Ever since I was a young girl, I have loved a good book. My girls have always loved being read to. I have several photos of Sissy as a toddler with PILES of books around her sitting on the floor leafing through the pages. As Sissy has gotten older she has not been really good about reading books to herself that are her age level. She consistently chooses books that are below her grade level and I think a lot of that is her reading confidence. This year for school I have been requiring her to read books that I leaf through and determine if they are at her level. One book she read was "The Great Escape" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. She really enjoyed it, so she asked me to get her another by the same author. That is when I found "The Treasures of Weatherby".

When Sissy sat down to read it she said it was "too hard" (which I will admit FOR HER, there were some words that she would not be able to read on her own, but this does not mean that would be so for all 5th graders, she seems to be a bit behind in reading). I thought it sounded like a good book so I decided to do it as a read aloud with all the girls. We are just about done (just 2 chapters left) and the girls LOVE it! It is really a great book.

I have found that many newer authors are writing books about topics that I do not would think are appropriate for my kids to read. I really want to stay away from topics dealing with witchcraft, ghosts, occults, bad language, etc. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a book review site that is similar to the great movie review site, screenit.com. So, I thought I'd start by reviewing some of the books we read together. Sadly, I am not really great at finishing read alouds. We get distracted and the book sits for so long we end up giving up (like The Cricket in Times Square that we started this summer).

It is my goal to be better about read alouds. Especially since my girls have been captivated by the last two that I have finished. BUT, here is the catch. If you have any great book titles to suggest for me, please leave a comment so as to help me find some appropriate books to read to my 5th, 2nd and kindergartners. I'll review them if we finish them and hopefully together we can help other parents find some GREAT, age appropriate books for their children to read to themselves or to read aloud together.

*****

The Treasures of Weatherby follows a home schooled 12 year old (Harleigh the Fourth) through an adventure to prevent a thief from stealing the family treasure. The family treasure is hidden somewhere in the HUGE family home that was built generations ago. Harleigh is wandering the grounds outside the mansion when he meets a friend, Allegra, who proves to bring adventure to Harleigh's otherwise boring life.

This book had my children captivated. I would read a couple chapters and say, "Ok, time to stop" and it was almost always met with, "NO! One more please?" Even by the kindergartners! The author uses great descriptions and my 2nd grader frequently said, "I can see it happening in my head". Great use of vocabulary was used as well. At one point a character does say, "Oh my G*d".

On my quest to find another book by the author I noticed quite a list! While reading through many of the titles and descriptions the books are fantasy books dealing with ghosts, the occult, magic so I'm passing on many of them but there were a couple that did not seem to follow that route. I'm sure virtually any child would enjoy The Treasures of Weatherby.