Books to Read

Amongst the numerous Magic Tree House books Miriam has consumed lately, she made time for two books that are not Magic Tree House. She liked them both so much she made the point to show them to me and tell me to read them. That's unusual. So, if you have any young voracious readers in your home--you might hand them these two books.

The Boy Who Saved Cleveland by James Cross Giblin is about frontier Cleveland and a terrible sickness that hit most of the people in the tiny settlement. The main character doesn't get sick when everyone else does so he takes on the sizable job of keeping everyone fed. I skimmed through this one and it's perfect for the six to eight year old crowd (and older--amazon had it pegged as grades 3-5, but I think that's pushing the upper limit). Miriam brought it to me and told me it was "great" and I should read it. When I asked her what it was about she said, "A boy who saved Cleveland." Then she made a small sound of disgust, "You should just read it."

We're still working on the ability to discuss books.

I picked up Anna on the Farm because it is by Mary Downing Hahn. She wrote the only ghost book I've liked, Wait Til Helen Comes. If you haven' read that one, you should. As for Anna, you should read it too. It is a book my siblings would all like as they tend to think in terms of "city slicker" and "country kid." Numerous contests come to mind . . .. Anyway, it is about a city girl who gets to visit her aunt and uncle for a summer. They live on a farm. I'm pretty sure you guessed that already. The hitch, or major plot element, is the boy Anna's aunt and uncle adopted. Anna doesn't like her new cousin at first, but throughout the book she learns to be a little less rigid in her ideas of behavior and she comes to appreciate her cousin. This is a good historical fiction in that it talks about the shift from girls wearing only dresses to occasionally wearing slacks and that sort of thing.

There you go. I'm sure there are other mothers out there that think finding books for the 6-8 year old crowd is akin to hunting for gold. So much has been written, so little is worth reading.

Happy hunting.

Both of these books are available through the Davis County Public Library System, in Utah.