I love when we have our Shalom Reader's Club Day!!
I love it!
Shalom Reader's Club is a book club created by Central Plains Mennonite Conference where "adult leaders help children age 4 through 8th grade select and read books from
a book list specifically created to reflect core Christian values of peace and justice from an Anabaptist Mennonite perspective. A child who reads seven books and “reports” on two of them will earn a free gift."
**Note: participants must be from a Central Plains Mennonite Conference church. I am raving about this program but not intending to promote it to my readers for the benefit of a free book. I AM going to encourage you to print off the book list and check out some of these amazing books but the free gift books (due to budgetary concerns) can only be awarded to children from one of the churches in our Central Plains Conference. ***
I LOVE THIS PROGRAM!!
Of course since I am a homeschooler I do make it a LITTLE bit more challenging for my kids. I decided this was a PERFECT opportunity for us to try out journaling and dictation. So we read the book, they drew a picture and then they needed to tell me a summary of the book and then tell me the main lesson of the book. They then wrote one or both of these on their paper and shared them with their father.
In years' past I was the coordinator for our church plant. I would take the
book list and order 50 books spanning all the age groups. (50 is the maximum check out number.) I would then bring these to church the Sunday of our Annual Meeting, a babysitter would come and read the books to the younger kids while the older kids would snag a book and find a corner to read. The kids would draw a picture and tell the sitter about their art work and by the time our annual meeting was finished most of the kids were three-quarters of the way toward receiving a new book of their choice.
What made this so fun is that I then took home the milk crate filled with 50 books which we dove into and devoured for another several weeks!
This year, Hubby and I were not in attendance at that Annual Meeting as that was the time when the congregation needed to discuss 'The Transition" as we stepped out of leadership and as they searched for another pastor. There were only a couple of kids (from the same family) who were interested in doing the program and so they made other arrangements. :(
So, this year our family was on our own to do this super fun project. After three years we are already familiar with many of the books on the list. When I requested the books from our library consortium, I focused on books that we had not read before and we found some winners!
Below I will list the books we checked out, along with a couple of bonus books that we grew to love (and own) over the past several years. I will post a summary and if it made a big impression upon us I will share that with you as well. The books are posted in the order that I grabbed them out of the library box...... there is no hidden meaning to the order in which they are listed. :)
From Amazon: Minna and her classmates have been asked by their teacher, Mrs. Bloom, to work on a Kindness Project. Mrs. Bloom wants them to do and draw and share an act of kindness. Minna and her family do lots of kind things, but Minna can’t decide which one is right for her project. Then she starts writing and drawing and cutting—and an idea for a paper quilt picturing many acts of kindness begins to take shape!
I LOVED this book and was a bit sad when neither of the boys chose it for their free book!! Gracie LOVED the pictures and the sweet story showing how EASY it is to do kind things for others was powerful.
From Amazon: Anna is the child of Mennonites from Mexico, who have come north to harvest fruit and vegetables. Sometimes she feels like a bird, flying north in the spring and south in the fall, sometimes like a jackrabbit in an abandoned burrow, since her family occupies an empty farmhouse near the fields, sometimes like a kitten, as she shares a bed with her sisters . . . But above all Anna wonders what it would be like to be a tree rooted deeply in the earth, watching the seasons come and go, instead of being like a "feather in the wind."
Of all the books we checked out, this was my least favorite. It did educate some on Migrant workers and I had heard about Mennonite Migrant workers from Mexico who speak German and are Canadian Citizens, but I am left unclear if they are still traveling as migrant workers. The back cover is VERY PREACHY about how we ought treat Migrant workers with compassion. Honestly, I have not made up my mind as to how I feel about Migrant workers.
What made this my least favorite book of our stash are these two things:
1- The similes and metaphors are not easily understood by my children. The pictures were kind of pretty but I'm not sure they really *got* the inner meanings behind the words in this book.
2- We work REALLY REALLY HARD in our house to be content with what we have, with the circumstances we are given, with the challenges we face and with the tasks we are given and must do even if they are not enjoyed. Now, I have never lived the life of the character in this book and I can surely be understanding of the sentiments of feeling like she is different kinds of animals and then wishing that she were other kinds of animals. Yet, this book felt VERY whiny to me. I look at Mennonite History, Martyrs Mirror, Mennonite Hymns and the Bible stories that spurred on the early Mennonites during the persecution history has handed them and I do not see the (to me whiny) attitudes displayed in this book. I do not wish for my children to reflect these ideas and so I was VERY relieved when neither of the boys chose this one for their book. I might have had to tell them "no".
From Amazon: When relief workers bring used clothing to a refugee camp in Pakistan, ten-year-old Lina is thrilled when she finds a sandal that fits her foot perfectly - until she sees that another girl has the matching shoe. But soon Lina and Feroza meet and decide that it is better to share the sandals than for each to wear only one. As they go about their routines - washing clothes in the river, waiting in line for water, and watching for their names to appear on the list to go to America - the girls discover the true meaning of friendship and sacrifice. This book honors the experiences of refugee children around the world, whose daily existence is marked by uncertainty and fear. Warm colors and bold brush strokes are the perfect complement to this story of courage and hope.
This book is powerful! We do not hide war and it's devastation from our children.... although we do not watch scenes of fighting and explosions on the television news either. We talk about areas in the war that are fighting and we talk about refuges. This book gave pictures to those talks. There is nothing graphic in this book. It is a sweet story about two girls who are living in a much more dire situation than most of us can even begin to fathom. They become friends and in the end they had me crying. I have met several refuges from different areas of the world and this book enlightens the reader just a wee little bit into what that might look like.
At one point in time I needed to educate my boys because they kept referring to the camps in the pictures as "back then." They received a small mini-lecture on how thankful we need to always be because the pictures in the book can be found in several places in the world RIGHT NOW as we read this book.
This was a harder book but one that profoundly touched me.
From Amazon: Through the story of a little boy named Felix, this charming book explains to children how being kind not only helps others, it helps them, too.
I was very happy that Abram wanted this to be his free book! We read this one last year. I get tired of psycho-babble books written to children but I think THIS BOOK helps ME as much as it helps them. I hope it becomes a book we read every now and then to help us remember that when we are helpful and kind to others it doesn't just make them feel
From Amazon: After the barn and windmill burn on an Amish family's farm, Samuel Stulzfoot is summoned with plans for a new barn, and a strong community allegiance is shown in how quickly the neighbors respond in the aftermath of the destruction.
This book is your typical Amish Barn Raising Story. I love the values it displays and I love how the expert and most respected elder leans upon the main character who is not too little but not big enough! What surprised me more is that this is the book Otto chose for his free book. When I asked him why he stated he "just really likes the way those people live, it's more simple but they don't seem to be sad or like they are missing anything."
From Amazon: "A gentle text and innovative artwork depict a pivotal summer in a boy's life when he and his family leave their Texas home for farm work in Iowa. One morning, while his parents pick corn, Tomás visits the imposing town library and meets a kindly librarian who gently coaxes him inside. Throughout the hot days thereafter, she offers Tomás cool drinks of water and adventurous escapes into books; on slow days he teaches her Spanish until it's time to return home to Texas: 'I have a sad word to teach you today. The word is adiós. It means good-bye.' . . . While young readers and future librarians will find this an inspiring tale, the end note gives it a real kick: the story is based on an actual migrant worker [Tomás Rivera] who became chancellor of a university--where the library now bears his name."--Publishers Weekly
This book offered some educational moments. Because we homeschool we rarely see children coming into and out of the schools. We adults sometimes see migrant workers but my children are just starting to learn that there are kids out there NOT like them. This book was educational to my kids but it also enchanted the boys because they are both just starting to really grasp the power of stories in those dusty paper things called books. My kids love adventures and they love their librarians. This book pulled them in from many angels.
From Amazon: Mr. Rabbit’s new neighbors are Otters. OTTERS!
But he doesn’t know anything about otters. Will they get along? Will they be friends?
Just treat otters the same way you’d like them to treat you, advises Mr. Owl.
This one we own. It was a gift from a grandparent and it offers many practical suggestions about how to meet and treat new people. The illustrations are amusing as well.
From Amazon: It was the perfect summer. That is, until Jeremy Ross moved into the house down the street and became neighborhood enemy number one. Luckily Dad had a surefire way to get rid of enemies: Enemy Pie. But part of the secret recipe is spending an entire day playing with the enemy!
In this funny yet endearing story, one little boy learns an effective recipes for turning your best enemy into your best friend. Accompanied by charming illustrations, Enemy Pie serves up a sweet lesson in the difficulties and ultimate rewards of making new friends.
WE LOVE THIS BOOK TOO! It was a free book choice last year and gets read often. I love how sneaky the father is. A great display of how FATHERS ARE ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT, a trait not seen too often in children's books.
From Amazon: For as long as any letter could remember, Vowels and Consonants had been enemies.
U without N? Q without U? Mpssh! you say. Yet once, long ago, P's and Q's minded their p's and q's, and though U and I deserved not one iota of respect. For their part, Vowels knew only that the dot on the youngest i was far moe important than the most capital W.
And so they came to wage a fierce war to prove who were the better letters. But as S's outflank E's and O's surround H's, an enemy of all the alphabet appears on the horizon--one which neither Vowels or Consonants can conquer alone.
In this hilarious look at the hidden life of letters, Priscilla and Whitney Turner reveal how sworn enemies become allies and discovered what you and I now take for granted: that the pen is mightier than the sword.
WE LOVE THIS BOOK! It is actually the second book chosen last year!
I encourage you to click on the book list link (here) and check out some of the wonderful books they have listed. Please note the free books are only for children who are members of churches within our regional area of our denomination (Central Plains Mennonite Conference) but you are absolutely welcome to look and and print off the book list. Reading books is often free if you have access to a good library. I encourage you to check out some of these books today!
3- Today we took a field trip to visit a historic watch tower on top of a very steep hill in a nearby town. My kids have wanted to climb to the top of the tower for a very long time but it is closed from October until May. I needed some pictures take of me in a dress for a review and so I thought we could do the field trip and Otto could help take pictures of me. It worked quite well. Oh, but Gracie threw a fit as we entered the tower. We were the only ones within miles and so I ended up taking her to the van with all the doors and windows open so that she could rest with her blankie in the shaded, breezy van. 
