books

I frequently blog about books. Sometimes I do reviews, other times I just share a few thoughts inspired by the books. Sometimes I like to compare and contrast different books together, or explain about what homeschooling projects we used the book with. I have roughly grouped these according to the age level the books are meant to. Here are some of the books I’ve written about. You could also browse this topic specific rss feed.

* denotes author interview.

Picture Books

• A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
• Stories of Emily Dickinson
• What do we owe our fellow human? Ethics in children’s books.
  Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose by Dr. Seuss
  The Rescue Bunnies by Doreen Cronin
• Edward the Crazy Man by Marie Day
• Fox Talk by L.E.Carmichael *
• Pied Piper: Questions and themes from the stories:
  The Pied Piper of Hamelin retold by Diane Suire
  The Pied Piper of Hamelin retold and illustrated by Michèle Lemieux
• Swine Lake by James Marshall & Maurice Sendak
• magical sea adventures
  A Sea Wishing Day by Robert Heidbreder
  Jack and the Flumflum Tree by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts.
  The Legend of the Golden Snail by Graeme Base
• The Stamp Collector
• I Come From the Water by Vanita Oelschlager
• Busing Brewster by Richard Michelson
• Sockkids meet Lincoln
• Monstrousness is in the Eye of the Beholder
  Hilda and the Mad Scientist by Addie Adam
  Meaner than Meanest by Kevin Somers
• Caribou Song : Atihko Nikamon by Tomson Highway
• First Dog by J. Patrick Lewis and Beth Zappitello
• Greed and God in Children`s books
  Luba and the Wren by Patricia Polacco
  The Magic Fish by Freya Littledale
• Pedal It! How Bicycles are Changing the World by Michelle Mulder
• 999 Frogs Wake Up by Ken Kimura
• T is for Territories: A Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut Alphabet. Michael Kusugak
• Picture books about hobbies and collections
  Hannah’s Collections by Marthe Jocelyn
  Max’s Words by Kate Banks
  Insects Are My Life by Megan McDonald
  Rocks in his Head  by Carol Otis Hurst
• Children with wings and the community around, in children’s stories.
  Leonardo’s Dream by Hans DeBeer
  Icarus Swinebuckle by Michael Garland
• Charlie Cook’s Favorite Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
• Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb
• Stories for children about the Netherlands during WWII
  Blueberries for the Queen, by John Paterson
  The Greatest Skating Race, by Louise Bordon
  Brave Deeds: How one family saved many from the Nazis,  by Ann Alma
• Book Review: Charlie Sparrow and the Secret of Flight by David Anderson
• animals in our community and community in our children’s books
  Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth by Marie-Louise Gay
  Mischief in the Forest by  Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillian
• Books about Life in Northern Canada
  Kamik an Inuit Puppy Story by Donald Uluadluak and Qin Leng.
  When I was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton
  (also two chapter books, Fatty Legs and Stranger at Home by the same authors)
  The Delta is My Home by Tom McLeod and Mindy Willett
• What Squirrels Do by Hazel Nutt*
• Nonstandard units of measurement in children’s books
  Carry Me, Mama by Monica Devine
  A Second is a Hiccup: A Children’s Book of Time by Hazel Hutchins and Kady MacDonald Denton
• Homeschooling Topic of the Week: Afghanistan
  The Sky of Afghanistan, by Ana A. de Eulate and Sonja Wimmer
  The Lands, Peoples and Culture Series by Crabtree Publishing Company
• The Boy Who Dreamed to be With His Parents on Saipan by Bonnie Riza Ramos
• Top 5 Dragon Picture Books (for the overly-analytical parent to read with her children)
  Tell Me a Dragon by Jackie Morris
  The Dragons are Singing Tonight is a book of poems by Jack Prelutsky,
  If I Had a Dragon by Tom and Amanda Ellery
  Who Wants a Dragon by James Mayhew
  There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent
• Homeschooling Topic of the Week: The Arctic and Antarctic
  Poles Apart: Why Penguins and Polar Bears Will Never Be Neighbors by Elaine Scott
  The Kids Book of the Far North by Ann Love and Jane Drake
  The Long, Long, Journey The Godwit’s Amazing Migration by Sandra Markle and Mia Posada
  Magic Words illustrated by Mike Blanc
• Pansy at the Palace: A Beverly Hills Mystery, by Cynthia Bardes
• Adventures of Charlie Bubbles by Paul Carafotes
• Virtual Kids Book Club Post – Activities for two of David McPhail’s books
  Pig Pig Meets the Lion
  Waddles
• WWII and the idea that stories have a story behind them.
  The Journey that Saved Curious George by Louise Borden
  The Adventures of Herge written by Bocquet and Fromental (not a kids book)
  Pablo Picasso from the series Lives of the Artists.
• More Christmas Books
  A Northern Nativity, by William Kurelek
  Poems of Christmas, edited by Myra Colhn Livingston
• Tears for Nanertak by Skip Hofstrand
• Morris The Village Voice by Doris Rueger
• Ella the Pink Elephant: Her Life, Love and Fame by Doris Rueger
• Monkey Dog and Friends: Dragon in the Kitchen by Matt Belcher
• Annie’s Special Day by Clara Bowman-Jahn
• Before the Lion Became King. by Andrew Nana Osei-Agyemang
• Picture book Round Up
  Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth
  The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills
• Many Moons by James Thurber

Poetry Books

• Of Quarks, Quasars, and Other Quirks: Quizzical Poems for the Supersonic Age
• Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems by Kate Coombs
• Playing with the Poetry of Dennis Lee
• The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Chapter Books

• But they’ll judge me if…
  What Elephant by Geneviève Côté
  The House on Parchment Street by Patricia A. McKillip
• Melanie Bluelake’s Dream by Betty Dorison
• Jackanapes by Juliana Horath Ewing, illustrated by Randolph Caldecott
• Pied Piper: Questions and themes from the stories:
  Breath by Donna Jo Napoli
  What Happened in Hamelin by Gloria Skurzynski
  After Hamelin by Bill Richardson
  The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
•  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• The Wonderful O by James Thurber
• Chasing faint connections, impossibilities and transformations
  Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
  Penrose the Mathematical Cat
  Switching on the Night by Ray Bradbury
• Secret World of Og by Pierre Burton
• Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
• Ozma of Oz by Frank Baum
• Emerald City of Oz by Frank Baum
• Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Ghost Leopard by Lars Guignard *
• Zoe & Zak and the Yogi’s Curse by Lars Guignard
• Zoe & Zak and the Tiger Temple by Lars Guignard
• Racing the Moon by Alan Armstrong
• Resources about the Norman Conquest
  The Striped Ship by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
  The King’s Shadow by Elizabeth Alder
  The Bayeux Tapestry: The Story of the Norman Conquest
  1066 Queen Emma and the Vikings: The Woman Who Shaped the Events of 1066
• Cow-Pie Chronicles by James Butler *
• Shadows of the Past by Wendy Leighton-Porter *
• Dr. Fuddle and the Golden Baton by Warren Woodruff
• Princelings of the East by Jemima Prett *
• Lionel Learns the True Meaning of Christmas by Paul Hewlett *
• Shannen and the Dream for a School by Janet Wilson
• George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy Hawking and Stephen Hawking
• The Time and Space of Uncle Albert by Russel Stannard
• Farmer Guiles of Ham by Tolkien

Teen or Young Adult books:

• The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sarah Wilson *
• Bloodmark by Aurora Whittet*
• Rain is Not my Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Adult books:

• “If you Give a Gay Mouse a Cookie” by Art for a Democractic Society
• The Big Truck Went By by Jonathan Katz
• Three books on the origins of Christianity
  1) How Jesus Became Christian, by Barrie Wilson
  2) The Story of Q by Natasha Freedman
  3) The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon by Jonathan Reed and John Dominic Crossan
• The Amazing Monarch by Windle Turley
• Bess of Hardwick by Mary S. Lovell
• Hero’s Lot by Patrick W. Carr
• A Cast of Stones by Patrick W. Carr *
• Adventures of Unemployed Man by Origen, Erich and Golan
• Letters from Nuremburg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice by Senator Christopher J. Dodd
• Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skins: Diary of Chinese Factory Girl on Saipan. Told by Chu Yu Wang to Walt Goodridge
• Talking Right: How Conservatives turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-loving, Left-wing Freak Show.
• Robin Hood, by David Baldwin
• Paved With Good Intentions: Canada’s development NGOs from idealism to imperialism by Kikolas Barry-Shaw and Dru Oja Jay
• The Goodbye Baby: A Diary About Adoption by Elaine Pinkerton
• Daisy Between a Rock and a Hard Place is a short book written by Janis F. Kearney
• Hello, I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity by Hal Niedzviecki
• Cooking without Measuring by Rachel Wizenfeld
• The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer
• Two Amazing Interpretations of the Christmas Story
  Closer to the Real Christmas Story by Jared Burkholder
  The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narrative by Jane Schaberg
• Tales from a Child of the Enemy by Ursula Duba
• The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
• Relational bullying, aggression and being nice
  Little girls can be mean : four steps to bully-proof girls in the early grades by Michelle Anthony and Reyna Lindert
  Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls by Rachel Simmons
• Perspectives On Our Age by Jacques Ellul
• Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menance behind the Magick by Richard Abanes
• What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee

Books you should never ever read:

• The Aventures of Baylard Bearby Lucinda Sue Crosby
• Richard the Lionheart  by Tracy Kauffman
• Fast Food Vindication by Lisa Tillinger Johansen