A is for Autumn

A is for Autumn by Robert Maass is a fun alphabet book. If you like fall, alphabet books, or photographs, I recommend this book. The text is brief enough for a preschooler, yet engaging enough for an elementary aged child. It could even be used for older students learning English. Reading it more than once to different children didn't make me tire of the text. The photographs are enjoyable as well. My favorite pages in this alphabet book are for Q and Z. Q is for quilt, and Z is for zipper. What do you like about fall?

The Silver Sword

I read The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier over the weekend. It is a children's book that was published first in 1954, though the first time I heard of the book was in the last couple months. The story takes place in Europe during World War II. The story starts with a family-the mother, the father, and three children living in Warsaw. The father is sent off to a prison camp, the mother is arrested, and the three children are left to fend for themselves. The bulk of the story focuses on the three children Ruth, Edek, and Bronia, along with their friend Jan, trying to get to Switzerland from Warsaw to be reunited with their father. The book reminded me some of other children's novels about World War II like Twenty and Ten by Claire Bishop, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, and Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan. The difference is the characters in this book have very little direction from adults in their task. It is a story I would recommend reading. It would be a good book for a student studying World War II. It has also been reprinted under the title Escape from Warsaw.

A Sound Among the Trees

I finished this book, A Sound Among the Trees by Susan Meissner, yesterday. The novel has some rather distinct characters-Adelaide, Susannah, and Marielle. Adelaide and Marielle are in the present day, Susannah is Adelaide's great grandmother. Some people think that a ghost haunts Holly Oak, where Adelaide and Marielle now live, though neither of the residents are certain. The part that I enjoyed the most were Susannah's letters to her cousin in Maine. She wrote the letters from Virginia during the Civil War. The letters could have been a story in themselves. One thing I liked was how Meissner didn't intersperse the letters throughout the story. Instead she told much of Adelaide and Marielle's story, then put all the letters together in the middle, then ended with Adelaide and Marielle's story. If you haven't read any of Meissner's books yet, I would recommend this one.

One World, One Day

One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley is a book that I would recommend reading to any child. There are pictures of children from all over the world doing everyday things...eating breakfast, going to school and playing with friends. No matter where a child lives, he or she would be able to identify with the daily activities. It is simple, but could be used for any age because at the end there are more details telling exactly where the children in each picture was taken along with more details.

desert quilt

This is a quilt I made this summer for my friend who lives in the desert. If the quilt had stayed in Minnesota, I would have probably called it a fall quilt. The idea for the pattern was inspired by a quilt I saw on the movie Saving Sarah Cain. My first attempt to make a quilt with triangles like this resulted in a quilt top I gave to my sister and she finished. You can see it here.