Lunchtime Visitor

Three gems from the library

Three recent and wonderful finds:  Achilles was loved by Number Six who has recently finished the real thing and attests to its accuracy--and it comes with an audio CD!



The Story of Silk fascinated me--I realized I knew next to nothing about silk! Plus wonderful photographs throughout. It is told in the first person by National Geographic Magazine photographer. A winner of a book!




The last one is also by National Geographic and its a wonderful collection of animal poetry. If you have at home, like I do, both animal lovers and poetry lovers, this book will be greatly enjoyed!

How to Draw Pets

How to Draw Pets by by Mark Bergin, 2011 Powerkids.

This is a good book! I am always on the lookout at the library for how-to-draw books, and this is a winner. The drawings are at the same time realistic and academic, and directions are easy to follow. Pets included dogs, mice,hamsters, cats, lizards, parrots , rabbits and more. Our own Number Seven drew the two pictures below using the book.

Gifts From The Gods

Gifts From the Gods by Lise Lunge-Larsen, illustrated by Gareth Hinds, 2011 Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

I picked a new Mythology picture book at the library that we are all enjoying!  The stories are told in delightful, uncomplicated language and the illustrations are fun and expressive. The text explains how we inherited the many words from ancient mythology into our western culture and language. Very interesting, I recommend it! This nice picture book will be very useful as a read-aloud in a young Latin Club!

From the publisher: Ancient names come to rich and fascinating life in this lavishly illustrated gift book for mythology fans and word lovers.Did you know that “museums” were initially temples built to worship the nine muses, the goddesses of the arts? That “Janus” was the god of the doorways and hallways, and we have named our janitors after him?Where did these words — and other words, such as chaos, genius, nemesis, panic, echo, and narcissus — come from? From the ancient stories of the Greeks — stories that rang so true and wise that the names of the characters have survived for centuries as words we use every day. The brief stories here not only impart the subtle wisdom of these ancient tales, but make us understand the words, and our own world, more deeply.

Irena's Jar of Secrets

Irena's Jars of Secrets by Marcia Vaughan, illustrated by Ron Mazellan, 2011 Lee& Low Books. 


I first heard about Irena Sendler from my sister Marta, but the film starring Anna Paquin is still to become available on Netflix. Then I picked up a children's book about her, and now here is another one. It is beautiful, and the courageous story is beautifully told and illustrated. Irena, singlehandedly, and courageously, saved the life of hundreds of Jewish children in Poland during WWII. You can read a little about her here.

A Picture Book about J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien by Alexandra and John Wallner, 2011 Holiday House.

I had seen it on the library catalog while it was still on order... and picked it up yesterday.  The author and illustrator pair have done many children's picture books together, including the nice "Picture Book of..." American history series.

 The interesting and wonderful thing about Tolkien's life isn't easy to tell in a book for kids, because they were the things living inside his heart: his intelligence and discipline, his hard work, his love and dedication to his wife and children, his faith. This picture book tells the life of the renowned author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and it was a life of sorrows, and very ordinary. I like their imaginative way to tell it, illustrated as a progressive board game and populated by his fictional characters. While I may not love the style of the illustrations, the overall effect was sweet. This book can tell a child that a very "regular" life can amount to great things, and that a good writer need not have an exciting and adventurous life.

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature

Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature, by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011.


A nice find at the library! I love picture books that bring forth mathematics concepts to children in beautiful ways. This is a very nice picture book for young readers that explore the concept of spirals present in the natural world. Wonderfully illustrated, and written in simple, poetic language. On the two last pages the author offers more information on the subject and explains the basic mathematics behind each one. This will be very useful for an elementary school child who will be attracted by the book and want to know a little more. 

Two clever Picture Books!

 A Filth of Starlings and A Drove of Bullocks by Patrick George, May 2011

I loved Portuguese collective nouns as a child in Brazil, and have been intrigued and amused by them in English. These two new pictures books I found at the library offer a fun array of animal collective nouns! These books bring the fun of words and the visual satisfaction of art all in one package. The clever, imaginative illustrations reveal the words as visual puns: the dolphins in a "pod" of dolphins are listening to their iPods, and the the hogs in their "parcel" are... wrapped as parcels and ready to ship!  

Don't miss them!

Picture Book of the Week

Out of Sight by Pitaus & Gervais, 2011 Chronicle Books 

Number Seven has enjoyed this new title from the library immensely, opening the  creative windows and learning all sorts of interesting new animal information. Large format, great art, a winner!

The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux

The Secret Cave, Discovering Lascaux, by Emily Arnold McCully, 2010 Farrar Straus Giroux, NY.

Emily Arnold McCully's books, both written and illustrated by her, tell fascinating true stories that are appealing to readers of any age. This one tells the story of the boys who found the famous cave paintings at Lascaux, France.

Two new picture books at the library

Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow, retold by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by E. B. Lewis, 201o Orchard Books

Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow retells the classic story of Robin Hood and his men in the Sherwood Forest... the oversize format and colorful watercolors bring the well-known story to life, adding some details from the original sources. The Author's Note at the end of the book explains little about the origins and sources of the classic tale.

Shadow by Suzy Lee, 2010 Chronicle Books

Who hasn't had fun with shadow play as a child? When my parents projected slides my siblings and I loved the 'blank' breaks--it was time for shadow play! This wordless book can take you back to when your imagination could run free... until dinner time that is.

Looking for good children's books?

Akimbo and the Elephants, Akimbo and the Lions, Akimbo and the Crocodile Man, Akimbo and the Snakes, Akimbo and the Baboons, by Alexander McCall Smith, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, Bloomsbury USA Childrens' Books, 2005-2008

This series for young readers, written by my favorite contemporary author, has all Husband and I look for in a children's book:

-excellent writing
-interesting story
-active, forward pace
-realistic character development and a setting that is foreign and fascinating
-and finally a virtuous protagonist

During a recent illness Number Seven and I spent a fair amount of time on the couch, and we took turns reading aloud three volumes of this series. I just requested the two others from our Inter Library Loan. A children's book is a winner when the teens and adults in the house stop to listen to the story. No juvenile fluff here, but interesting plots that appeal to anyone. Akimbo is the sweet, but courageous and clever young son of an African park ranger. Helping his dad, and armed with his noble soul and courage and determination, he is able to find adventure and ways to help others in each of the stories.

The illustrations are wonderful! We stopped at each illustrated page and made comments about how good they were. I am including one here that shows the amount of expression on young Akimbo's face as he tells the head ranger of what he just discovered...

Alexander McCall Smith, the author, grew up in Africa and returns there each year. He knows what he is writing about, and you can sense from his writing that in his heart there lives a deep love and admiration for Africa. I highly recommend this series for anyone looking for a good children's series!

Two True Stories

I know, I know, it has been a while since I posted one! But we have been bringing new gems from the library nevertheless! The girls now are the ones reminding me to post about them. I selected, among their favorites, two picture books connected by the fact that they all retell true stories!

Come See the Earth Turn, The Story of Leon Foucault, by Lori Mortensen, illustrations by Raul Allen, 2010 Tricycle Press.

The kids remember admiring the Foucault Pendulum when we visited Thomas Aquinas College, and this picture book tells the story of the dedicated scientist! TAC is one of the few places that has one, in their gorgeous Albertus Magnus Science Hall, and Wikipedia has an interesting list of all of the Foucault pendulums in the world.

Calico Dorsey, Mail Dog of the Mining Caps by Susan Lendroth with illustrations by Adam Gustavson , 2010 Tricycle Press.

The illustrations of Dorsey alone are worth the book! What a cute, good dog! Our history studies just covered the California gold rush so this book came to enrich our homework! I am not sure there was ever another official US Mail dog, but if you read this book you too will fall in love with this good dog!

Three books from other cultures

The first one, The Road the Bethlehem by Elizabeth Laird, is from the ancient Christian traditions in Ethiopia. The pictures are exactly like the ones Husband brought from his two trips to that country! Next is a fable-like tale from India, Cloud-Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, and beautifully illustrated. The last one, Biblioburro, a True Story from Colombia by Jeannette Winter, tells of a still-current story of a man who volunteers to bring culture to remote places in Colombia. All delightful and telling us about the richness and the universal values of goodness, beauty and justice in far away cultures...

Picture Book of the Week

Brother Wolf, Sister Sparrow by Eric Kimmel, Holiday House, NY, 2003

I found this while looking for more Brendan the Navigator stories for history class. It is a delightful book about animals and saints stories.

This Amazon customer review says it very well:

Saint Francis' "Sermon to the Birds" precedes the stories. Though we are not birds, in a way it prepares us, the readers, for the wonder and mystery that is to follow. The stories are quite interesting. Each tale ends with an informative tidbit about the Saint. For example, "Saint Notburga is the patron saint of poor
farmers and hired servants. Her feast day is September 14. Her emblem is the sickle."
John Winch has made two types of illustrations in this book. Before each tale there is an intriguing representation of an artifact representing the Saint. One looks like a painting on wood, one looks like a small statue, another looks like a coin. These gray illustrations also mention the country and rough dates that the Saint lived. I like these symbolic illustrations even more than the colorful acrylic folk paintings that plainly detail the stories.
The verso mentions that "The author's principal source for this book is Butler's Lives of the Saints (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1956)."
The author's note is brief and explains what makes a person a saint and the canonization process. The author concludes, "This process does not make a person a saint. Only God can do that. Through canonization, the church recognizes what God has already done."

Summer Birds and Seeds of Change

Summer Birds, The Butterflies of Maria Merian by Margarita Engle, pictures by Julie Paschkis, 2010 Henry Holt, NY.

If the cover of this sweet book reminds you of another illustrated picture book featured here, you are correct. The delightful book on the architecture of Gaudi entitled Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi was illustrated by the same Julie Paschkis. This book is about a girl whom I had never heard about. Read about her and discover a young, hard working and artistic scientific mind! And a world traveler too, in a time when women barely went beyond the village parish church.

Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson, illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler, 2010 Lee & Low Books, NY.

Another book I'd like to mention today is Seeds of Change, the third picture book I mention hereabout the Nobel Prize winner, Benedictine College graduate, who started a huge tree-planting movement in Kenya, her homeland.

Bag in the Wind by Ted Kooser

Bag in the Wind by Ted Kooser, illustrated by Barry Root, 2010 Candlewick Press

If someone could grab a plastic bag flying in the wind and turn it into a nice picture book, that would be United States Poet Laureate (2004-2006) Ted Kooser. He takes the readers along the plastic bag's many reuses showing some human generosity and creativity in the process. Ted Kooser's poetry has been enjoyed by our family since our Nebraska days and his prose for children is equally charming.

Don Matteo, priest-detective TV series on DVD

Don Matteo, Italian production for television, 1999-2000. Read about it on Ignatius Press page and the positive customer reviews on Amazon.

Does anyone remember the Trinity movies? My family loved those when I was a teenager... I remember Mother laughing so much. Terence Hill was the main actor of those Western films, and he is back as a good Catholic priest in Don Matteo. Our whole family has been watching one episode at a time and we love it!

The priest has a funny housekeeper, and two policemen-sidekicks who make my kids laugh out loud! Together, and with Don Matteo's loving heart, good Catholic morals and excellent detective skills, they solve various interesting murder mysteries. Last night we watched Murder in the Library, where Don Matteo is called to Rome to solve a murder of a scripture scholar, all filmed in the Vatican!

This is an Italian production and it is not dubbed, but the subtitles are well-done and my kids can handle them well. We were all saying Italian expressions by the end of the show! Enjoy! Available from Ignatius Press, Amazon or Netflix.

Off Like the Wind

Off Like the Wind, The First Ride of The Pony Express by Michael P. Spradlin, paintings by Layne Johnson, 2010 Walker & Co. NY.

The Pony Express is a fascinating chapter of our history, and this book makes it very interesting indeed. Journal-like text, historically accurate information, illustrated with wonderful full-page paintings. This book is for anyone! I loved it, the young girls loved it and I caught my 16 1/2 yr old reading it as well!

For Good Measure by Ken Robbins

For Good Measure: The Ways We Say How Much, How Far, How Heavy, How Big, How Old by Ken Robbins, Roaring Book Press, New York, 2o10

Do you know why a pound is abbreviated lb? Or how long is a fathom? Or a furlong? Where do their names come from? What about how many acres does a section cover? How about how heavy is a dram? Or how long does an eon last?

Our eleven year old loved this interesting and clever new picture book, and so did I. It is illustrated with very nice photographs.

Also, it does talk about that international system Americans have become allergic to, and purposely ignore, and yet will eventually have to come terms with: the Metric System. But only briefly, since an explanation of the metric is, to the customary system, as the distance from the earth to the moon is when compared to the distance from the earth to the sun.

Just had to say that. The Brazilian (and metric) side of me.