Recommended Reading and a Freebie

Every so often I get a large box of books from an editor I work for. Sometimes I get to review them, sometimes she tells me they are copies of books they already have and since she knows I have two little kiddos, she wonders if they would enjoy them.  The afternoons when they arrive, Hadley, Harper and I spend a good chunk of the rest of the day in the living room reading, the books and packing peanuts sprawled and scattered all over the floor.

The stories Eerdmanns publishes are some of my favorites, and recently I wrote a review of a book called The Herd Boy by Nicky Daly. You can read it here.  The girls love the story because it’s about a little boy who takes care of sheep in a village in Africa, and his days are filled with adventure and curiosity. I love the story because it’s a lovely example of how to write Creative Nonfiction for children; something I’m becoming increasingly interested in.  Though he is not the main character, Daly is writing about Nelson Mandela, specifically, the sorts of things in his childhood that prepared him to be President.  I think her choice to make the main character just “a regular boy” was clever.  That way, we are not following the footsteps of somebody who will soon be famous and powerful; we are following somebody who is doing what “a regular child” does: playing, wondering, learning. She choose to tell the truth, but she did it in a way that lets us see ourselves in the main character.  I hope someday my writing does that.

And to ring in 2014, I’m posting a reading worksheet I made for Hadley from a first grade newsletter she brought home from school recently.  I took the objectives the teachers are teaching them and tried to make a fun, casual sort of worksheet for her to complete when she does her silent reading. You can print one off for yourself (well, for your kids,) here: silent reading journal.

Thanks for reading! Happy 2014.