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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 10 2010 at 4:50pm | IP Logged
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SuzanneG wrote:
| A Literary Education, by Catherine Levison. ".....shares her favorite resources for many areas of homeschooling, including math, poetry, art, science, literature and more. A smaller, simple resource. This would be a GREAT book to recommend to a mom who is new to home education with living books. It's not overwhelming at all, and has a great selection of living books of all different types. |
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You beat me to it, Suzanne!!! I was just coming to say how much I'm enjoying this little book! I came across a copy of it recently, and since I love Catherine Levison's other books I grabbed it. It's a really great little book. Suzanne's right - it's not overwhelming in its size or scope at all. Even with the smallness of its scope, the information offered about each book is so helpful. In addition to listing the resources (organized by subject matter), Catherine lists an independent reading level along with a very helpful summary of the book. I've already pulled it off my shelf to refer to a couple of times and I've only had this book a short time. A great addition to your collection of "books about books" and a really good starter reference.
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Erin
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| Posted: April 10 2010 at 11:54pm | IP Logged
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Suzanne
Thanks for adding these  I've never heard of either of them. 
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 12 2010 at 9:11am | IP Logged
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Ack, I just lost my whole post. I'll try again.
I love all these recommended. I would also say that the older editions are very helpful. So many of these books try to be "up-to-date" with in-print books, so the recommendations change. But older editions, like Books Children Love have some wonderful recommendations of books that can still be found in libraries or used book sales. An example for me is John Hawkinson books, recommended in an earlier edition -- I'm just loving finding his books on nature and painting and art.
I found an older edition of The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children edited by Eden Ross Lipson. I wouldn't recommend buying this book, as not everything you would agree, but I do think it's helpful to have the lists of books by categories to sort through. Sometimes you just need a little beginning to see a pattern.
It's silly, but I never really thought before on how one of my favorite and influential book on Children's literature growing up was a "book about books" but it is. Anthology of Children's Literature Edited by Johnson, Sickels, Sayers (first edition Johnson and Scott) is such a treasure. This is a thick volume that contained over 700 stories and poems, collections from various lands and literature and picture books. Growing up we had the 3rd revised edition and read it from cover-to-cover. Now I personally own first, 3rd, and 4th editions because even though the basic information doesn't change, the suggestions of authors and books does change over time.
The first edition has no illustrations, the 3rd and 4th editions have some b&w sketches by Fritz Eichenberg, but the 3rd edition has some gorgeous full color paintings by N. C. Wyeth.
Can't rave enough about this book. It's a tool for Mommy, but also a wonderful read-aloud and read-alone book for the children, all ages, as soon as they can manage to handle the unwieldly volume.
And my last recommendation is a Catholic book, small, rare, and out-of-print, called A Bibliography for Christian Formation in the Family by Mother Marie Aimee Carey, O.S.U., Deus Books, 1964. This provides recommendations of books and pamphlets for different areas, such as Bible, Marriage, Christian Parenting, Liturgy, Christian Culture, Children's Books, Lives of Saints, etc. Of course most are out-of-print, but just reading is interesting to see what was in print during those times for Catholic families.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Erin
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| Posted: July 22 2010 at 3:47am | IP Logged
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I've just picked up a new title from my library. Historical Fiction for Young Readers (Grades 4-8) by John T Gillespie only a recent publication, 2008, so most likely newer titles. I'll be interested to see if Mr Gillespie and I are 'on the same page' so to speak  I'll have to do a review for you when I've had a good delve.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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Erin
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I've been reading this book, it is verywell done. Some chapters are broken into time periods, some into geographical locations.
Example: Chapter Heading, Asia and Oceania
McCaughrean, Geraldine, The Kite Rider
Introduction A detailed background about the author, often mentioning other books written by author and brief comments about those books.
Historical Background Very detailed about the time period covered. I found this particularly interesting about Asian books as I don't know a great deal about Asian history.
Principal Characters.
Plot Synopsis very detailed usually 2 pages.
Passages for Booktalking
Themes and Subjects
At the back of the book are title and Subject Indexes.
Because Gillespie has written such long Plot Synopses there aren't as many books listed as some of the books we have already discussed, but he does mention other books by the authors, and as most titles are new and in print books, I'm interested. Many new titles I haven't heard of. I guess I hang out with OOP titles alot 
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
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JennGM
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Erin wrote:
| But he does mention other books by the authors, and as most titles are new and in print books, I'm interested. Many new titles I haven't heard of. I guess I hang out with OOP titles alot |
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So do I, Erin. So I'm interested, too! Thanks for the review.
I recently picked up A Critical History of Children's Literature; A Survey of Children's Books in English. My library had a discard for five cents. I got the revised version.
This is so well done, also. It covers early English literature up to the 60s, in different categories and different time periods. My only criticism is that I want a list of the books and authors he mentions, because I'm have to make copious notes to keep track. It's a goldmine of information.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Erin
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Mackfam wrote:
4) Reading the Saints: Lists of Catholic Books for Children plus Book Collecting Tips for the Home and School Library - by Janet McKenzie
- AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING!!! My favorite book for building a liturgical book library.
- Love that it includes OOP books! The author further indicates if an OOP book is relatively easy to find, which many are, or if the book is difficult to find.
- In print books are listed as well.
- The meat of the book are the booklists which are extensive!!!! They are arranged in two EXTREMELY HELPFUL WAYS:- Geographical Setting
- Chronological Order
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I received this book today  
Loving it; a humourous aside is she mentions the term, Bibliomaniac
I'm trying to decide if I am a Bibliomaniac or Bibliophile. My children are voting for the first. Must go and read some more
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Erin
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stellamaris
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One that I have used and really loved the books recommended in it is Catholic Authors 4 Sight Edition
It is an old anthology (1949), but some of the books are still available used; one or two are still in print. If you are a thrift shop/used bookstore browser, the Catholic suggestions in this book are gems.
Two that we have loved that we purchased because they were listed in this book are The Deer Cry (NOT "The Deer's Cry", which has a picture
of some hunky guy without a shirt on the cover  !)
(ETA: In starting to re-read this again, I would like to recommend this book for older teens, maybe 15+. When I read it aloud to my youngers, I will edit some sections. For example, the story begins with Patrick being taken away by ship into slavery. There is an attempted attack on a young woman, whom Patrick defends, and a pretty descriptive scene of her attacker being whipped as punishment. It is tastefully done, not overly explicit, but does raise the issue of this kind of violence against women. There are also descriptions, though limited, of Patrick's parents and of the young woman's parents being killed in battle. The young woman is later converted by Patrick. The book does deal with the conversion of a pagan land, so some pagan practices are of course mentioned, including an episode of attempted human sacrifice of a baby which Patrick stops. You should probably preview this; but it is a very excellent book showing the need of the Irish pagans for conversion and the great blessing that Patrick brought to them with the Gospel.)
and Blessed Friend of Youth: St. John Bosco.
ETA: Just re-read this one and it is as great as ever. In reading aloud to younger children, I did make a few adjustments to replace any out-dated or completely unfamiliar vocabulary as well as abridging the book (only slightly).
The selections listed in Catholic Authors are for about middle school and up, or can be read-alouds.
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Caroline
Wife to dh 30+ yrs,ds's 83,85,89,dd's 91,95,ds's 01,01,02,grammy to 4
Flowing Streams
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4Real Forums : Living Literature
Topic: What Books About Books Do You Have/Want?
