Little Miss and I have been reading a lot of different books in the last couple of months.

We’ve read some picture books and a couple of chapter books.

We abandoned one of our chapter books – Soft Rain, which was a book about the Trail of Tears – part way through. It was a bit too heavy for Little Miss right now so we read it almost to the end but then I noticed there was a bit more tragedy than I felt Little Miss could handle at her age. We’ve decided we will try it again when she is older.

We were reading it as part of our history unit on Native American history.

If you think you might be interested in it for your older child or grandchildren, here is a quick description:

It all begins when Soft Rain’s teacher reads a letter stating that as of May 23, 1838, all Cherokee people are to leave their land and move to what many Cherokees called “the land of darkness”…the west. Soft Rain is confident that her family will not have to move, because they have just planted corn for the next harvest but soon thereafter, soldiers arrive to take nine-year-old Soft Rain and her mother to walk the Trail of Tears, leaving the rest of her family behind. 

Because Soft Rain knows some of the white man’s language, she soon learns that they must travel across rivers, valleys, and mountains. On the journey, she is forced to eat the white man’s food and sees many of her people die. Her courage and hope are restored when she is reunited with her father, a leader on the Trail, chosen to bring her people safely to their new land.

A book we did finish recently was In The Land of The Big Red Apple by Roger Lea MacBride. This book gave us a glimpse of life in the Ozarks (Missouri) during the 1890s through the eyes of Rose Wilder, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is a fictionalized account of Rose’s life as a child based on stories she told MacBride, her adopted son. I kept calling the book The Land of the Big Red Apple because the library covered part of the title with their labeling. Ooops.

It is part of a series of eight books about Rose’s life as she grew up, including her as an adult.

Description:

The third book in the Rose Years series, the story of the spirited daughter of the author of the beloved Little House series.

Eight going on nine, Rose Wilder is beginning to settle into her new life in Missouri, the Land of the Big Red Apple. Her father is building their farmhouse and she dreams of the day they’ll have their own bright crop to harvest. But before that can happen, she has a fierce ice storm to contend with and her first real Christmas in the Ozarks to enjoy.

We are now reading On The Other Side of the Hill, which is the book right after In The Land of the Big Red Apple.

Description:

The fourth book in the Rose Year series, the story of the spirited daughter of the author of the beloved Little House series. 

On The Other Side of the Hill continues the story of Rose, Laura, and Almanzo as the young Wilder family struggles to overcome a series of natural disasters that beset their little farm.

We had picked up The Little Town in the Ozarks, which is also part of the series, from the library at one point but we didn’t get a chance to read it and sent it back because I didn’t know when we would get to it. We will get it again later, probably this summer, now that we know we like the series.

I didn’t write down the names of all the picture books we signed out at the end of March and the beginning of April,l but we did read a few I remember, including a book about John Audobon called The Boy Who Drew Birds. This fit in nicely with our science unit on birds. We enjoyed learning how Audobon studied and drew birds even as a young child.

For picture books this week, we are reading, or have read:

The Umbrella by Jan Brett

This was a really cute book with amazing artwork. Little Miss didn’t want to read it at first but it turned out to be very creative and entertaining. It was the story of a young boy who went into the jungle to find animals but then . . . well, I won’t spoil the ending.

Verdi by Janell Cannon

This was a cute book about a snake accepting who he is becoming as he grows up and then who he becomes. It is very funny and entertaining and the artwork is beautiful.

Cubs First Winter by Rebecca Elliott

As I am writing this, we haven’t yet read this book but it looks so sweet so I’m excited to read it with her tomorrow.

And Little Miss picked Grumpy Monkey by Susan Long again.

This is a very creative book about a monkey who is grumpy and who decides that sometimes it is okay to be grumpy or sad as long as you aren’t mean to other people.

Little Miss also has two books to read on her own this week for Reading Time:

Backyard Wildlife: Wolves (by Blastoff Readers)

And

I Can Read: Paddington’s Prize Picture

Later this week we will be reading a book about Claude Monet as part of our Art unit on him, but I still have to go pick that one up.

What have you been reading with your kids or grandkids or just what are you reading?