I read the Newbery Medal Winner books every year as soon as they come out. For one thing, I like to see what is passing for great children’s literature by the world out there, and also because I love children’s lit – it is a great love in my life. Sometimes I am enchanted, but several of the Newbery winners of the last ten years have been something I would never have chosen. A few I would not recommend to anyone. (I will have to do another post on Newbery winners and the ones I liked and didn’t like.) This year’s winner Hello Universe was okay– meh— obviously a politically correct choice,  but not fantastic, at least in my opinion.   I read it back-to-back with another children’s book that I absolutely loved: The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathy Apelt. I mean it, brothers and sisters, I really loved that book!  (taking a tone from the book!)

True Blue Scouts was a National Book Award Finalist, but in my mind, it’s the best new children’s book I read this year. It’s a tall tale with all the elements I teach my students about tall tales:

• a larger-than-life, or superhuman, main character with a specific task,
• a problem that is solved in a humorous or outrageous way,
• exaggerated details that describe things larger than they really are, and
• characters who use everyday/folksy language.

I don’t want to say too much about the actual story because it is so very enchanting, something I think kids will really like, and I would like you to enjoy it as it unfolds.  But I will say this much about the it: two racoon scouts have to wake up the Sugar Man because some terrifically huge hogs are on their way to rip up the swamp. At the same time, a boy who lives next to the swamp is in danger of losing his home and the whole swamp to wily investors who want to turn it in a Gator World amusement park. The two stories collide in very funny and tall tale-ish ways. I loved it! It does have the modern theme of protecting the environment, but it is done in a lighthearted, non-obvious way–a way that really makes sense. No one wants the swamp to be ripped up by rogue hogs or destroyed by modern theme park developers!!

This is a great book to read aloud! And if you want something to listen to while driving in the car (to all your numerous activities, etc), I highly recommend the Audible version read by Lyle Lovett.

I wish I were on the Newbery Selection committee, ’cause they missed a good one!

WE have been busy this spring and have a batch of new titles to introduce.  As we previously announced, we are reprinting titles from the American Background Series (biographical fiction about Catholic heroes in American history).

So far we have these titles completed and on sale (you can read descriptions of them on our  Nature Study and History page:

The Friar and the Knight, Bartolome de Olmeda amd Cortez

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colonial Governor Thomas Dongan

 

Don Diego de Vargas, The Peaceful Conquistador

Henri deTonti and the Exploration of the Mississippi

Charles Carroll and the American Revolution

 

General Phil Sheridan and the UnionCavalry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chaplain in Gray, Abram Ryan, Poet Priest of the Confederacy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have two more in this series in production due out this summer.

 

 

Also, we have had this project on hold for a long time, but we have finally finished this charming reader by Emma Serl. In it, Serl compiles poetry and short stories about animals as well as provides non-fiction essays about each group of animals. Great for narration and fun reading.

 

 

Lastly, we have taken on two books by a homeschool dad about life in a big family on the farm – timeless humor!

The Adventures of Nathaniel B. Oakes

and the sequel

Never Squeeze a Honeybee, the continuing adventures of Nathaniel B. Oakes

 

Just-for-fun reading from Suzie Andres!

From the back cover: Have you ever kept a New Year’s Resolution? Elizabeth Benning hasn’t, but she’s determined that this will be her year. Like Elizabeth Bennet before her, Liz Benning doesn’t work, lives at home, and takes pride in her resourcefulness, but when she resolves on a yearlong project to be happier, it looks like her ambition has outrun her abilities…Enter a love interest more conniving than Wickham, a blonde cold enough to freeze out Caroline Bingley, and Elizabeth’s paradise project is heading for disaster. She’s never been so unhappy, but if she can discover which hero is straight out of her beloved Jane Austen, she might yet take the prize for happiest ever after.

Now available on this website CLICK HERE to go to the order page.

We are thrilled to be reprinting Homeschooling with Gentleness: A Catholic Discovers Unschooling by Suzie Andres, originally published by Christendom Press in 2004. For those who love A Little Way of Homeschooling, this book is a sure bet for your homeschool resource collection. Suzie discusses how she came to the gentle art of unschooling and what its implications are for Catholic families.