Posted by Becca
Categories: All Ages, Historical Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Bears, Good Read Aloud, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House
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Laura Ingalls is a little girl who lives in the Big Woods of Wisconsin with her ma and pa and her sisters, Mary and baby Carrie. Laura has many fun adventures. She gets to go to a dance to celebrate sugaring time, see the new threshing machine, and, best of all, her pa tells stories in the evening.
This is a hard book to summarize because it doesn’t follow a plot line. It’s basically a story about life in the Big Woods in the late 1800’s. Little House in the Big Woods provides a good picture of this time period, as do the other books in the Little House series. Please note that while I marked this book for all ages, and all ages will enjoy it, it is written in a style best suited to younger readers. However, I think that I appreciate it more as an older reader.
Posted by Ruth
Categories: All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Incredibook!, Review
Tags:Animals, Dragons, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Kenneth Grahame, Quick Read
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The Boy isn’t surprised when a dragon moves in near the Downs. After all, he’s read lots of books and is quite knowledgable on the subject. He soon befriends the dragon, who is of the quieter sort, spending much of his time writing poetry. But when the townspeople discover the presence of the dragon, they immediately send for Saint George, pleading with him to fight and kill this monster who has been destructing their town. Of course, the dragon has done no such thing. And when the Boy warns him of the inevitable upcoming battle, he positively refuses to fight. Saint George can’t just up and leave without doing anything, and they both turn to the Boy to fabricate a solution.
A delightful little story! Although it’s not nearly as well known as The Wind in the Willows, I think it deserves equal recognition. Geared toward younger children, but enough to make any adult chuckle. Great fun all around.
Posted by Becca
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Good Read Aloud, Meindert DeJong, Out of Print, Quick Read
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Jon and Vestri are staying at their grandparent’s farm for summer vacation. While they are at the farm, their grandpa tells them about some puppies that are being given away. He sends Jon and Vestri to pick one, but their grandparents end up coming along, too. Because they are unwilling to separate the puppies, Jon, Vestri, and their grandparents take all three. The rest of the summer is fun for Jon and Vestri, until the final days of vacation come and they are faced with the fact that they will have to leave the puppies behind when they go back home.
Puppy Summer is a short book, but it is still a good one. I love how DeJong did the whole thing about the hat (which I couldn’t include in the review without giving away too much of the story). Puppy Summer is out of print.
Posted by Sarah
Categories: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Review, Younger Readers
Tags:Animals, Award Winner, Cats, Chickens, Dogs, Good Read Aloud, Horses, Patricia Maclachlan, Quick Read
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Out in the country of early America, Anna and Caleb’s father puts an ad in the newspaper for a wife. His previous wife died not long after Caleb’s birth. A woman named Sarah answers the ad and comes to live with them for a month for a trial period. But often she misses the sea, where she came from. Will Sarah stay, or will she return to the sea?
A somewhat simple, short story. I read Sarah, Plain and Tall in about an hour, if I remember correctly. This book might be a little better for people younger than me. It’s alright, but not my favorite. Oh, and Sarah, Plain and Tall is the beginning of a trilogy. There are two more books after this one.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: Non Fiction, Review, Younger Readers
Tags:Animals, Award Winner, Dogs, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Indians, raccoons, Sports, Sterling North
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Just another walk in the woods. A bag of cookies, his dog Wowser, and his good friend Oscar—what else could Sterling North want? Then Wowser finds a den-full of raccoon kits, and the boys decide to take them home. They can’t take them home without the mother, so they determine to catch the treed raccoon . . . with the aid of no more than a pocket knife and their jackets. The results are laughable. In the skirmish, the mother and three kits escape, but one of the kits isn’t quick enough. Sterling takes tiny Rascal home and obtains permission to keep him. Getting the permission isn’t hard, as his mother is dead, his older sisters are living away from the house, and his older brother is fighting in the war. His father lives in a world all his own, only occasionally taking time to be with his young son. He doesn’t mind the raccoon—or the canoe Sterling is building in the living room. Everything progresses wonderfully until Rascal develops a taste for sweet corn. The angry neighbors, robbed of their crops, demand that Rascal be kept in a cage. How can Sterling lock up a young, wild creature? Some tough decisions face him and he has to answer them.
I love this book. It is so interesting and enjoyable. Rascal is such a cute raccoon! Sterling North does a wonderful job of telling the story. There are so many adventures and characters. The memorable incidents with his older sister Theo’s missing engagement ring, the school bully, and the pie-eating contest. Very funny and memorable. Unfortunately, there are a few evolutionary references and, if I remember correctly, a mild bad word or two.
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