More Organized: Kids' Bookshelf

Yeah, this bookshelf. It's been an accident waiting to happen for a couple of years now. Good thing the beds were there to support it! Oh, but it's stressed me out, especially since I'm always thinking about earthquakes. Well, we finally got to tackle it!

Aiden to the rescue (again)!

He unloaded all the books into Lyndsay's room and the hallway.

Took the bookcase apart and deposited the pieces into the trash. (YAY!!)

Conor got to see a lot of books he didn't know we had, or books he'd forgotten about.

Then Aiden set to work building the new bookcase, that I bought at IKEA (when I bought the shelf unit for the downstairs closet.)

And then I got the fun job of putting all the books back on. I love that job. For the first time in nearly 20 years, I put the boardbooks on the top shelf. Way too many memories, so there was no way I was getting rid of them, but they don't really get used these days. I have books, though, that Lyndsay and Dylan got for their first birthdays, or books that Dylan chewed, or books we read every single night to Conor. I cherish those books!

Not all of the books fit on this new bookcase, even though it's quite a bit bigger. That's because on the old bookcase, the first three shelves were stacked two layers deep. I want to get shorter bookcase units for the little alcove in our upstairs hallway. I have two more bookcases of children's books downstairs that I want to move up. Also, we're slowly making improvements to the room that used to be Adam's office, and Aiden will move in there to have his own room. When that happens, some of these books will move in there with him, which will free up some space.

I have so many of these books memorized. I've read them to each of my babies, over and over again. As we put the books on the shelves, we would begin quoting from them. Quite funny to see how much the kids have memorized too! ("Sheep on a jeep on a hill that's steep. Uh-oh! The jeep won't go!")

We love our books! Books make a house a home. And we're never lonely in a home with books!

As a sidenote, Conor showed me the castle he has been building on Minecraft. As he was giving me a tour of the inside, I got a thrill seeing that he had put bookcases of books in every room! Love that!

Conor's Moby Dick

 page source

Conor loves Moby Dick. Thanks to my homeschooling years, I have quite a collection of children's versions of classic literature, and one day when he was three or four, he brought me an illustrated story book of Moby Dick. I read it to him. He was totally into it. I can't even tell you how many times I've read that book to him. And he loves to recite the dramatic parts along with me, in his best seafaring voice: "Death! Death to Moby Dick!"

A few weeks ago, I decided to read him a more complex telling of the story, by Geraldine McCaughrean. He already knew the framework of the tale, but this added so much more detail and a few new characters. The vocabulary was rich, so from time to time I'd have to stop and explain, but he just wanted more and more. And when we finally got to the part, near the end, where Moby Dick makes his appearance, he could hardly stand the suspense, even knowing what would happen. 

The boy loves Moby Dick! 

A few days after we finished reading the book (which took us two weeks), I happened to find these simple directions for how to make a paper whale. Perfect! 

I called Conor over and we started folding. It was really fun, actually, and I'll admit that I made about eight of them! But they were white, and of course, Conor made one of his whales Moby Dick.

It was bound to happen.

See, there are all the harpoons still stuck in his side, and poor Ahab, who's about to be caught in the harpoon rope and dragged down into the ocean.

Conor wanted a whole family of whales.

And it was while he was playing with his pod, that he said something interesting. He said, "What if Moby Dick was actually the one seeking revenge?"

I asked him what he meant.

He continued, "Well, it's all about Ahab trying to get back at Moby Dick for taking his leg, but what if Moby Dick took his leg because Ahab and other whale hunters had killed his family and other whales? What if a whole bunch happened even before the story starts?"

I love this kid's mind, I tell you.

"What if Moby Dick is not really mean and evil? What if he's just trying to be a whale and is sick of being hunted and is just trying to defend himself?"

Yeah. What if?

"What if Moby Dick wasn't born mean, but he got that way because of being harpooned and chased and his family being killed?"

Well now, there's something to think about. What if Moby Dick wasn't born mean?

You can imagine the conversation that flowed from that opener. Bullies. Schoolyards. Tragedies the world over.

He listened to all of that and seemed to tuck it away somewhere precious. But his last question forced its way out:

"Someday you're going to read me the "real" Moby Dick, right?"

I'm gearing up. That whale's kind of growing on me, too.

A (Mostly) Fictional Summer

On May 1st, my first official day out of school, the only thing I wanted to do was read a story. Not a textbook or a drug guide. I wanted a good, take-me-to-another-place novel. I have a self-imposed rule that I don't read any books except school books during the semester, and I mostly followed it. Once I was out of school, I did have to study for my board exams, of course, and I did. (Passed! I'm officially an RN!) But I also had a wonderful time with books this summer. Here are the ones I liked best, meaning I gave them 4 or 5 stars. 

A mesmerizing story of a man and his wife who live isolated in a lighthouse off the coast of Australia. The wife has been unable to carry a child and has suffered several miscarriages. One day a small boat washes up on the shore of their rocky island and there is a baby inside with a dead man. The woman decides to keep the baby, against her husband's better judgment, and raise it as their own. There are tragic consequences as a result of this choice.

I love Anna Quindlen. I saw this book in the BYU Bookstore when I was there for Women's Conference around my birthday. It's a memoir about aging, and though it's more applicable to women turning 50 or 60 even, I love Quindlen's writing and her examination of a woman's life.

Dancing on Broken Glass profoundly affected me. It's about a marriage, a highly unconventional marriage. The husband has bi-polar disorder and the wife a family history of breast cancer. They already have so much stacked against them, but the powerful love between them helps them navigate unimaginable circumstances. It's a tear jerker, for sure, and it will leave you changed.

I LOVED this book. I have several books about books, and this one goes a bit further, teaching not only what books to read to children, but how to teach them to deconstruct stories and begin literature analysis. I took all of my summer reading choices for Conor from this book.

Gerald Lund is one of my favorite LDS authors, of both fiction and nonfiction. He is a masterful teacher, and this is the most complete book of understanding personal revelation I've ever read. It is richly illustrated with personal experiences and examples of the ways that the Lord reveals himself in our lives and answers our prayers.

This is a great one. A mother's memoir, and she's in a similar stage as I am (well, except that I have a few younger kids too), but it's about her process of parenting her son through high school and into college and how her life as a mother changes. All things I can relate to. I bought another book by this same author that I haven't read yet, but I like her voice.

My mother was the one who introduced me to this book of historical fiction about a woman named Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)who was tithed to the church at age 8 and expected to live the rest of her life as a handmaiden to a disturbed young nun named Jutta. But Hildegard had unique spiritual gifts of her own, and after the death of Jutta, Hildegard felt called to break free from her prison where she'd lived for over 30 years, and write of her visions of the divine. Very interesting.

I really, really enjoyed The Orchardist. This story takes place at the turn of the century in the Pacific Northwest. A man inherits an orchard after his mother dies, and once his sister disappears, he lives there by himself for years until one day two pregnant feral teenage girls sneak onto his property. Letting them into his life changes everything. Beautifully written.

The Aviator's Wife has been on my to-read list for a long time and after a friend read it and couldn't praise it highly enough, she loaned it to me and I scarfed it down. This is a great story. Historical fiction again, about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I love stories about strong women, and Anne is definitely that.

The two books I was most excited about this summer were the new releases from Jeannette Walls and Khaled Hosseini. I pre-ordered them back in February. They did not disappoint. In fact, The Silver Star may be one of the top 3 books of this year for me.

And the Mountains Echoed was not as emotionally gripping a story as A Thousand Splendid Suns, one of my all-time favorite books, but I love Hosseini's writing so much and I love the settings and the characters in his stories and how he weaves lives together over time and distance.

And then, The Book Thief. I've had this book in my collection for several years. I bought it for Lyndsay, I think. I've wanted to read it, but just haven't gotten around to it. Then it seemed like everyone around me was reading it and gushing over it, so I pulled it off the shelf. Yeah. An incredible story. It will make my Top 10 this year for sure. This is another one that will stay with you a long time.

It's been so enjoyable to read for pleasure again! I'm reading a few really good books now, and have lots more in The Pile. And I'm always taking suggestions. Here's to books!

Summer Reading with Conor

We haven't gone on any vacations this summer. In fact, Conor and I were in the house pretty much the entire month of July. I had put together a small summer-schooling program for him to keep his skills in tip-top shape, so he worked out of three workbooks each day: a Summer Bridge workbook, a handwriting book, and a math facts workbook. All together it required about thirty minutes of work at the table.

He practiced his piano. Well, theoretically. We were kind of hit-and-miss with this. (Why is it so hard for the piano teacher to sit down with her own children at the piano?)

Each day he read to me for thirty minutes, books he'd chosen from the library. Mostly Scooby Doo chapter books, which are a lot better than Ninjago readers, let me tell you. But he got to choose, and we kept a list of each book he read. He earns a small amount of money for each finished book. His reading has improved so, so much over the summer, just from diligent practice. I get a bit irked that kids don't do more reading in school, but that's a rant for another day. His teacher gave him this Judy Moody book as a gift at the end of the school year. It was over 200 pages, and I was wondering if he would take to it since the main character is a girl, but he read that whole thing to me! And I loved it! I was not familiar with the Judy Moody series, but I have to say, it was a very entertaining read. So, this one went onto his list.

Conor also began his own reading of the Book of Mormon with me this summer. We've read as a family his whole life, but with each of my children, I like to do a personal reading with them before they make the decision to be baptized, which happens at the age of 8. That's next summer for Conor, so each day we sit together and read a chapter or two, alternating verses. He is familiar with many of the stories. Other times, the reading is more difficult to understand. At those times, I encourage him to concentrate on how he feels as he reads, even when he might not understand everything. He is about halfway through 2 Nephi right now, so we're slowly plodding along. I love that precious time with him. 

And then, one of my favorite rituals with my children, Read Aloud. When young children are learning to read, they need practice, practice, practice. Some of that practice should be at, or maybe a bit below their current reading ability, just so they can perfect fluency and the flow of words in sentences. Some of that practice should be a stretch: unfamiliar words, more complex sentence structure. But reading at that stage can be a lot of work, and to keep children coming back for more, they need to still be immersed in the absolute joy of a good story, without all the effort. Read aloud is perfect for this, and it works for readers of all abilities, not just beginning readers. I have treasured the memories of reading books aloud over the years to each of my children, as my mother read to us. 

Here's what I read to Conor this summer: (We loved them all.)

The Witches, by Roald Dahl, was so much fun. Dylan was a huge Roald Dahl fan when he was younger. We have most of his books, but for some reason, I'd never read this one. Great fun. And maybe I got a little too into it because one day Conor said, "Um, could you maybe not do the voices? You're scaring me." Well, I mean, they are witches! No, the voices stayed. They had to! 

Some shorter reads: Sir Francis Drake: His Daring Deeds, and The Gilgamesh Trilogy, by Ludmila Zeman.

Babe: The Gallant Pig, the classic that inspired the movie. (Which we still need to watch.)

Mr. Popper's Penguins. I adore this story.

And Frindle, by Andrew Clements, which I'd never heard of, but read about in another book earlier this year. Interesting idea about how words come to be and what happens when a little boy decides he will invent a new word no matter what trouble it gets him into.

So, Conor has definitely had a word-filled summer! He's had plenty of play time too, no worries. Little bits each day add up to rich experiences with books. I want my children to have a love of books, always. It gets harder and harder for children to give books a chance when the allure and immediacy of movies, television, and video games are so tempting.

What have you read to your children lately? Any suggestions for me?

Helluo librorum????

(~an out-and-out bookworm?)
I used to think so! My goodness, I'm always surrounded by books, in every room of my house! I spend time every single day reading from at least one, but more likely two or three books. My true literary friend over at www.novembrance.blogspot.com is playing this book list game, so I thought I'd be a good sport and play along, but I'm only doing so with my tail between my legs. Some of these I am embarrassed to admit I haven't read. I guess the pile by my bed just got bigger!

Take a look and see which ones you’ve read. Then, if you’re a blogger, post it on your blog. If you play, leave me a comment so that I can come visit!
Here’s what you do:
* Bold the ones you’ve read.
* Italicize the ones you want to read.
* Leave in normal text the ones that don't interest you.
* Put in ALL CAPS those you haven’t heard of.
* Put a couple of asterisks by the ones you recommend.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)**
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)**
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)**
9. OUTLANDER (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)**
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)**
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)**
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)**
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)**
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)**
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)**
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)**
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)**
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)**
33. ATLAS SHRUGGED (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)**
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH (Ken Follett)
37. THEPOWER OF ONE (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. THE KITE RUNNER (Khaled Hosseini)
43. CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible **
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)**
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)**
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)**
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. FIFTH BUSINESS (Robertson Davies)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. CATCH-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’s Diary (Helen Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
73. SHOGUN (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson)**
76. THE SUMMER TREE (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. THE DIVINERS (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)**
81. NOT WANTED ON THE VOYAGE (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. REBECCA (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. WIZARD'S FIRST RULE (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)**
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. THE STONE DIARIES (Carol Shields)
89. BLINDNESS (Jose Saramago)
90. KANE AND ABEL (Jeffrey Archer)
91. IN THE SKIN OF A LION (Michael Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. THE OUTSIDERS (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)**
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)