What We Are Reading

It has been awhile since I did one of these.  Froggy's reading has changed lately.  We still check out lots of picture books from the library but the books she picks up over and over again are chapter books.  Her favorite for the moment is Betsy Tacy.  She received this book as a gift ages ago.  I tried to read it to her but she was not interested enough to retain memory from one session to the next.  Now she reads it by herself.  We only have the first in the series but I have requested the next couple from the library.

We are listening to the classic Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie.  This version answers so many of the things I did not understand or did not like about the Disney version.  The language is so rich and wonderful which also translate to complex. It made it challenging for Froggy to get into initially.  She loves it now though and is eager for it to continue.  There are times when we need to pause the story to explain some colloquialism or bit of behavior which was acceptable then but is no longer.  Froggy asked about the "red skins"  and who they are. She had never heard that term and it is not even the least offensive term they use.  It is truly scary at places but so far nothing truly tragic has happened. 

We also recently said goodbye to The Penderwicks having finished the third book.  It was sad to leave them.  It felt like an old friend moving away.

And yet we followed it up with an old favorite, The Circle of Magic, that has been waiting for Froggy to be ready.  Abba and I read the series together many many years ago and loved it.  We are already almost done with the second book (I told you it had been too long since I did a wrap up).  Each of the four books in the series focuses on one of the four children of the circle.  These books are perfect for our family read alouds because they are currently Froggy's "stretch" books.  About one week before Abba annouced we would be doing this series as our new family books, Froggy discovered them on her book shelf.  I helped her find the first one so she could start at the beginning.  The book got put aside quickly and I suspect based on her current enjoyment and interest, the reason was that it was too difficult.  We are struggling a bit with this series in that it presents some topics I had hoped Froggy would not be exposed to until later, mostly because it is poeople being mean.  Abba has over-ruled me and declared them OK since she has not expressed concern or discomfort.