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This morning, our nearly 4-year-old son starts his first full week of pre-kindergarten (he had two introductory sessions last week, of an hour each). He’s got two years of nursery school under his belt already, so he’s an old hand at group learning environments. His sister, almost 7 and in second grade at the same school, had a similar early-education history. It’s safe to say my wife and I considered keeping them out of school about as much as we considered not feeding and clothing them.
Joanne Rendell, a New York City novelist and mother of a near-5-year-old, is taking a very different approach. She wrote last week on the Babble parenting site about a philosophy she and some other parents are adhering to: unschooling. Ms. Rendell’s son, Benny, by age would be starting Read more...
In this tale about the homeless, we meet 11-year-old Clay, a boy whose misfortune leads him to the streets of NY. His father abandoned him and his pregnant mother suddenly disappears, leaving Clay to fend for himself with only twenty-eight dollars and the clothes on his back. Clay meets two homeless men named Calvin and Buddy who befriend him and take him under their protective watch. But life on the streets is harsh as Clay soon finds out. Read more...
This book, based upon the author's own childhood experiences with a mischievous older brother named Tom is set in 1896 Adenville, UT. John D. tells the stories about Tom D. Read more...
If you want great historical fiction for younger children, The Matchlock Gun, which won the 1942 Newbery Medal, by Walter D. Edmonds, who also wrote the classic novel Drums Along the Mohawk, is it. Set in 1757, when New York was still a British colony during the French and Indian War, it tells the true story of ten-year-old Edward Van Alstyne, who lives with his father Teunis, mother Gertrude, and little sister Trudy, outside of Albany in upper New York. Read more...
While on vacation recently, I read all the books that I took with me, so I went out and purchased four children's books that I have been longing to read for a good while, including this one. Two of the presents that Omri received for his birthday were a small plastic Indian from his friend Patrick and an old medicine cupboard that his brother Gillon had found in the alley. Read more...
Nobody Owens is a lucky boy. Though a man known as "Jack" tragically murdered his family, he alone survived the attack. Being just a wee 18 mos old at the time, he wandered off into the night and into the graveyard. There he found a home, and some new guardians. They may be dead ones, but when the fleeting image of his slain mother pleads for his life, the dead couple Mr. and Mrs. Owens vow to take good care of the toddler they named Nobody (Bod for short). Read more...