February 22, 2012

Another Fantastic Book Find

Maybe some of you have already discovered this treasure--I hope so. Candace Fleming wrote a fictional version of her mother's experience sending material aid to a family in Holland following WWII.

Boxes For Katje
starts with a young girl, Rosie, sending Katje a simple box through a children's humanitarian program. When Rosie receives the letter Katje send back, expressing her appreciation and disclosing a bit about how desperate her family is, Rosie and her mom decide to send a more generous box.

Katje writes back, prompting Rosie and her mom and many of their friends to send even more things to Holland, until finally, by the end of the story, Rosie's hometown basically adopts Katje's town and supports them through the brutal winter that followed the close of the war.

I cried. The pictures were fantastic. I loved watching the circle of concerned people grow as the two towns, an ocean apart, became more entwined. It is beautifully written and I loved it.

There is a program that allows you to send a box of supplies to someone in the world and track it. Maybe my friend Becky will chime in here with the name of the program. This book would be a great precursor to sending out one of those boxes for Christmas or a FHE on service or charity or love.

Even if all you do is check out the book and read it--do it! We happen to be talking about the Golden Rule at our house right now (because Mom needs more practice), so my kids made a lot of connections between the book and the golden rule.

Gold Star book for sure.

February 15, 2012

Fabulous Book


As I have mentioned before, my son, Cowen, is obsessed with George Washington. George Washington and Captain Moroni. Not bad heroes for a little boy to have.

We've read a lot of books about George Washington at our house, but recently Cowen brought the Jim Murphy book, The Crossing: How George Washington Saved the American Revolution, home from the library. It is fantastic.

Although the book is aimed for the upper-elementary crowd, my younger kids loved all 85 pages. The writing is larger than normal and there are lots of maps and illustrations, but it is still a good-sized book to read aloud. We started out reading a chapter a night, but then read the second half of the book in one sitting because none of us wanted to stop. It really is fantastic. Get it from the library and enjoy!!

PS--No, I am not re-entering the blogging world. I have never before existed at this level of busyness and I am not handling it as well as I could hope. Someday I will blog again full-time, but right now I am only blogging when there is a book too good to not share.