Another Jill Tomlinson story. And we enjoyed it even more than the last one.

I’m going to award this one five stars, because there is so much to talk about through it, especially issues relating to serving each other and growing up and taking responsibility.
(but it doesn’t come across as “preachy” – its just a good yarn)

At the end of this reading, I asked the children what they learnt from this book.

Apart from the gorilla information (that they eat bamboo and sticks, they don’t like getting wet, they make nests for sleeping and old gorillas get too heavy to sleep up a tree, the young are very small, the old get silver hairs on their backs), they picked up some of the “character” lessons:

• help each other
• be sorry when you have hurt someone
• be kind to animals
• help children younger than you…..and the elderly too….and I suppose you could help anyone for that matter
• catch someone if they’re falling out of a tree
• work with each other

L7 reminded us of the most important lesson:

“Bang your chest or a tree stump and roar if there’s danger.”

Another treasure of a book.
It’s an oldie (published in 1964) we picked up secondhand. Hardcover. Yellowed pages. Black-and-white line drawings. Musty-smelling.
It sat neglected on the shelf for a few years before I even opened it. And what a pity!
Trapped inside, unappreciated was a wonderful anthology of poems about creation, about childhood, about love, about God.

Accompanied by Margery Gill’s illustrations, this selection of poems, verses, hymns and carols draws on the very best, including such well-known writers as A.A. Milne, Alfred Tennyson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Isaac Watts, Charles and Mary Lamb, Eleanor Farjeon, Mrs C. F. Alexander (of all things bright and beautiful fame), Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter de la Mare, Robert Frost, Christina Rosetti, John Bunyan and that prolific writer whose sheer output I marvelled over as a child leafing through the pages of the hymn book, Anon.

Beverly Cleary possesses a knack for writing books that children love to read. Unfortunately the attraction with them is often an obnoxious character, one that tries out things that you wouldn’t dare to do or say in real life…and said character gets away with it. Many people are fine with this, but I’m not. I would prefer my kids, when they are young and impressionable, to be reading stuff that is going to encourage them towards what is right. None of them so far have needed help to be a smarty-pants;-) 

And along came Dear Mr Henshaw.

The lad writing TO Mr Henshaw is everything I just mentioned above. Rude, insolent, disrespectful, wise in his own eyes, easily angered. But we read it anyway!
Reading aloud as a family allowed us to discuss the attitudes that glared off the page at us. We were able to identify ourselves with different emotions, discuss our responses and consider ideals. We chatted through the book, watching the main character change and realise “the error of his ways”.
It was good to read this book WITH the children for another reason too; it deals with divorce, a concept some of them had not yet come across, and one that they openly questioned. We had one of those special parent-child moments in which I was pleased to be the one telling my kids about this something so dreadful they could hardly bear the weight of it.
The loneliness in this book was also heavy for the children. I guess being in a large family, they cannot imagine coming home to an empty house, waiting for Mum to turn up after work. They glimpsed momentarilly a different life, one lived by many kdis the world over. It made them more appreciative of *us*….although I think some of them don’t really believe there are children who sit alone for a few hours every day.

The *best* part of the book were the instructions about writing. Whilst didactic, it was in no way dull. What a wonderful way to learn about becoming a better writer! I’ve seen scraps of paper lying around the house with answers to some of Mr Henshaw’s questions – it has been hugely motivating to them (or maybe it was my promise to type up on their blog for them whatever they wrote on paper – either way, it was Henshaw-inspired).

What a delightful way to be introduced to the habits and habitat of penguins and their friends and foes in Antarctica. This is a short simple book, but in its few meticulously researched pages manages to pick up three stars! If this list was just for *young children*, I’d happily award it five stars, but while the older children didn’t mind listening to it, we wouldn’t choose it if we were just reading to double-digit-aged-children. It’s a must-read for the younger set, though, and it’s also a good book for beginning readers to tackle. Plus, it made us want to look out for other books by Jill Tomlinson.

by Hazel Krantz

Did you ever get one of those little sheets of Scholastic Book paper with descriptions and prices all over it and you were allowed to choose one that was 50 cents or less when you were at school? Do you remember the buzz of the books arriving in the classroom a few weeks later and everyone geting their order? I do. And one of my chosen books was 100 Pounds of Popcorn.

I still have my copy. And we read it in a couple of sittings this weekend. It was perhaps not quite as exciting as I remembered it to be;-) But the children seemed to enjoy it (even though I missed out the derogatory “Stupid!” – it bothered me way back when but I thought it might NOT bother my kids – rather, they just might consider it to be a fitting new title for their siblings – so I skipped it….didn’t ruin the story).

As an introduction to economics and business practice, it is an interesting read. More so than any textbook you might pick up, and probably more memorable!
Not worth five stars though. In fact, I’m not even sure I’d read it aloud again, so I guess that makes it a two-star book (although in my memory it should have been a three).

Now here’s a conundrum!

We have an eight-year-old-girl struggling to make the right choices in her difficult and many-times-unfair life. Remembering that this is a story, we can appreciate the author allowing her to make the right choice MOST of the time (in fact she’s pretty near to perfect!). In that, she provides an example worthy of following.

BUT……

(and I have to ask myself *why* the author did this)

There is an ongoing battle of whether to obey God or man. This is a massive issue for any eight-year-old to contend with, and I suspect it would be safe to say that in most cases, an eight-year-old’s understanding is not likely to be greater than her parents’. Perhaps if the author had chosen a black-and-white issue to centre this struggle on, she would have been on safer ground……but she chose the matter of *what is appropriate to read or play on the Sabbath*. Hardly a clear-cut issue. (In fact, I would go so far as to say Elsie was wrong……but she is portrayed as being “spiritual” for defending her faith even though it meant disobeying her father……..I wonder about the wisdom of such a message being given to young girls. That said, my own daughter is currently reading the book and we shall make a point of discussing this very observation).

Another little thing that children might have trouble understanding is that Elsie seems to be commended for not telling the truth – though it is couched in terms of her not being a tattler. There is a difference between tattling and withholding truth – this difference is obscured in the book.

Finally, I sensed seeds of legalism in the book. Every chapter was full of tension and wrongdoing – I guess life *can* be like that, but sometimes you can look at the roses and enjoy the sunsets and have a picnic without mishap. If I were writing the book, it would not have been so *dramatic*; there would have been interludes of things going right and Elsie having reason to rejoice other than just in suffering. But then, I’m one of those people who likes to think the glass is half full and who is saddened at what religion has done to God. In a small way, this book does a bit of a disservice to God. In other ways, it encourages children to talk to Him, to honour Him, to want to love and serve Him……it’s just that the messages might be a bit confusing to the children who read this book.