Category: Book Lovers Community

by Deborah Nourse Lattimore In a couple of other reviews of books I've used for introducing children to the topic of ancient manuscripts, I listed The Sailor Who Captured the Sea as a beautiful illustration resource. It is truly lovely.In her prologue, Deborah Nourse Lattimore briefly describes the Book of Kells. As is fitting for … Continue reading The Sailor Who Captured the Sea

“Excited and delighted by her first success [a play called “Duke Roderigo”], Louisa worked away in the little room, writing more and more dramas of the same sort. So many plots came crowding to her brain that from plays she overflowed into stories of the same grandiloquent sort. They were cut out, as the boots … Continue reading Invincible Louisa

Monday Morning School was the perfect excuse to read 101 Dalmatians again. Though the story-line was fuzzy in my memory, not so the nostalgia for the days home alone, missing school because of a cold; couch, blanket, box of Kleenex, reading and rereading this sweet tale. Because the feeling of reading this one stuck with … Continue reading 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

Laura Amy Schlitz I recently came across Princess Cora and the Crocodile by Laura Amy Schlitz in my search for easy chapter books for my daughter. She is in first grade and loves reading, but is rather picky about content. I needed something that would appeal to a girl, but something with a sense of … Continue reading Princess Cora and the Crocodile

By Don Robb Illustrated by AnneSmith I have plenty of books in my library on the history of the English language, most of which include bits of history about the alphabet. But, when I wanted to use a different approach with my spelling students, I decided to take them as far back as possible into … Continue reading Ox, House, Stick: The History of our Alphabet

by Bruce Robertson Once again I get to teach a group of children something of the history of ancient manuscripts and the art of illumination. In my review of The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane, I noted that my favorite resource for the subject is Marguerite Makes a Book. Robertson’s story outlines the process of … Continue reading Marguerite Makes a Book

Charles Paul May seems to have written a dozen or so informational books for children in the 1960s and 70s, but not even Wikipedia knows anything about him now. Left by Themselves was originally titled Stranger in the Storm. In this book, May is still teaching, but by means of a short work of fiction. … Continue reading Left by Themselves by Charles Paul May