Category Archives: fiction

Summer Reading, Part II: Feelings and Classics

Picking up where we left off, it’s time to talk about what I assigned my new fourth grader to read this summer. I started the summer with just one book I wanted her to read, figuring one book plus the typing program I wanted her to do and the Italian language lessons she wanted to do (via Mango, free through the library!) would be plenty. But she asked for books and book projects so I obliged.

Feelings

Why feelings? Because tweens have a LOT of them. I worked through this book with my oldest the year I homeschooled the kids, which was also fourth grade. Truth be told, we haven’t quite finished but we’re almost through it. We read some together, she read some on her own, and she did the exercises in a notebook. I’m not sure whether it’s helped her, but it’s helped me understand what she thinks about and how she sees herself and that is useful info as a parent. At the very least it’s opened up some conversation. The book:

Classics

As a starting point, we got out the literature curriculum I used with my oldest when I homeschooled fourth grade and looked through the book list. We ended up with:

I had all kinds of activities we could’ve done, but we mostly didn’t. What we did do: she did some of the homeschool curriculum reading comprehension questions for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so I could gauge what she retained/understood, we (mostly she) made cabbage soup for dinner one night (like the Buckets ate for every meal), and she watched the movies for each book. I think there was some drawing of spiders and maybe Templeton the rat in there too. I had the idea of making donuts because it seems like everyone in Charlotte’s Web is eating donuts for breakfast all the time but we just ran out of summer before I had the energy envelope to do anything like that. We did have some informal conversations about the differences between the movies (particularly for Charlie and Chocolate Factory) and the books; Charlotte’s Web actually is very very close to the book.

Though I’ve seen both movies (the Gene Wilder as Wonka version, of course) many times, I’m not sure I had actually read either book all the way through so I welcomed the opportunity to do so. Then I learned a little about E. B. White (did you know he’s the same White as The Elements of Style?) and read The Trumpet of the Swan to myself in honor of his birthday (July 11). I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t as good as Charlotte’s Web or Stuart Little.

That was it. Next time we’re gonna talk about CHICKENS. UNUSUAL chickens…

Summer Reading, Part I: Ninjas (and some dinosaurs)

I grew up with summer reading assignments, which I especially remember in high school. My kids have had zero. Four kids, 10 years of school, zero summer reading. Makes me sad. So, I assigned my own! As our summer wraps up (my kids go back to school this week!, I’m sharing what we’ve read.

In truth, my kids read voraciously. It’s not that I needed to assign things to make them read. My husband is frequently telling me I’ve created monsters, and I giggle a little satisfied, evil laugh–the best kind of monsters! Every kid has a kindle (I got tired of sharing) and a reading light for their beds, and everyone gets reading time in bed every night. I have occasionally gotten a, “you know, Mom, so-and-so gets to watch TV in bed before going to sleep…” — not gonna happen. Anyway, my point: they read A LOT on their own.

So if I didn’t need to make them read, why assign reading? I had different goals for each kid and the books I (or they) chose reflected that. I’m going to do a multi-part (separate posts because I don’t have the stamina for long posts) run-down, by incoming grade level of the child:

Second Grader

My goal was basically to entertain him with something that would interest him but he wouldn’t have picked up himself, and that would allow for a variety of independent projects. I chose:

Did you guess he really likes ninjas? The actual book to my surprise only took him about 20 minutes to read, and I verified comprehension with some worksheets from the excellent teaching resources on the author’s “classroom adventures” site. The Fact Tracker is more dense, nonfiction and very detailed. It took longer to get through, broken up across a week or two. We also did (most of) a mini “research” project from the website materials. And plenty of crafts (stick ninjas, a paper samurai hat, and more). I based our activities loosely on the provided plans and if my son wanted to modify things, I usually let him–the goal was to read something he wouldn’t have picked up on his own, learn, be creative, and have fun. Oh, and there’s been LOTS of dressing up like a ninja, fighting like a ninja, trying to sneak around like a ninja, etc…

It’s an added bonus that he then decided to start the Magic Tree House series at the beginning. I think he read 22 of them before he lost interest, some from our shelf (we have a very incomplete set from when my oldest was into them maybe 9 or 10 years ago?) and kindle library checkouts.

We also got a used copy of an out-of-print dinosaur activity book, Triassic Terrors. It was… ok. Less of a hit with him but had some fun activities, including some game where you pop out the pieces and set them up. I think we have maybe two pages left undone? It was worth the $7 I paid for it on Thrift Books.

I’ll be back whenever energy allows with more of our summer reading fun!

Book Review – Calibration 74: Experimental Fiction That Sticks With You

Calibration 74: An Experimental Novella by [William F. Aicher]

It took me a while to figure out how to write this review because there’s just so much to think about packed into a relatively short book. I think I could read it over and over again and come away with something new each time. I’m going to try to focus on a few thoughts:

First, there are so many nuggets of truth, of wisdom scattered throughout the book. I could write a whole list of favorite quotes or lines I still think about. The book is a journey through the unnamed narrator’s mind as he searches, as he says in Calibration 42, for the answer to the ultimate question: “Life. The universe. Everything.” There are so many explorations of reality – what is reality? Is it perception? Is it mental? Not surprisingly since it was written during this pandemic, the book is so timely in a world where we’re increasingly living virtually, disconnected and yet hyperconnected.

Second, while it’s at times evocative of mental illness it’s not ABOUT mental illness. I identified with the narrator from the start, reflecting multiple times in early Calibrations that my stream of consciousness often mirrored his. At first this was comforting—maybe I’m not so strange after all!—but it eventually became slightly disturbing and I started to wonder whether I wanted to identify with this guy… I mean, there has to be something wrong with a guy who peeps in a woman’s window and boils skulls! I think, ultimately, that’s part of the exploration of reality, of humanity. Of how fine the line often is between being okay and not being okay.

Finally, I really liked that I never knew what to expect from the next Calibration. By the end of the book especially, it’s like reading a dream sequence. Things seamlessly change and morph in a completely nonsensical way that at the same time seems perfectly natural. Reading it felt like when you’re recounting a dream to someone – it all makes sense but then you say it out loud and you realize it makes no sense at all but it FELT like it made sense when you were in it. It’s trippy, but it works. Really well.

I didn’t know what to expect when I picked this up, but I was thoroughly pleased and impressed. It’s philosophical, edgy, and very different from anything else I’ve read. I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to read this book and will definitely look forward to Aicher’s upcoming work!

Thank you to William F. Aicher for gifting me a copy of this book! Get your copy here – you’ll be glad you did!

***** Five stars (and you know I don’t give those out lightly)