What We’re Reading :: November

Mathematicians are People Too (I bought it used WAY cheaper than what Amazon has it listed for!)
Estes’ The Moffats (to replace our softcover)
Brown and Slobodkina’s The Little Fireman (I used to read this quirky book — by a dynamic-duo author-illustrator team! — to my bigs all the time when they were littles and finally found a copy!)
Folk Tales of New Zealand
Paul Klee, Art for Children
Butterflies and Moths (to add to our collection of hardcover Golden Guides)

I also seem to have gotten an inordinate number of books for the non-fiction shelves, which is wonderful…

Untermeyer’s This Singing World (a music book)
The Story Behind Popular Songs (sounded fun but I haven’t tried it out yet)
The First Book of Rhythms (apparently this is a bit difficult to find, but I got it for a couple dollars)
This is an Orchestra
The Story of Locks and the Epsteins’ The Story of Printing (both part of the same series — the latter is unavailable)
Mountain Climbing Trains
The First Book of the Early Settlers (famous naturalist-author, and the same illustrator as What People Wore!)
The Story of One Hundred Symphonic Favorites (lovely miniature hardcover, apparently one of a series of four — very fun!)
Read About the Postman (LOVE Louis Slobodkin!)
Musical Instruments (love the line drawings in this one)
More Eggs of Things and Ants are Fun (to replace our tattered copies)
Downes’ Adventures in Symphonic Music (on the recommendation of my friend Amanda)

For the American history shelf:
Alter’s Heroes in Blue and Gray (after last year’s Civil War reading, this was immediately snatched by my oldest son)
Hodges’ Columbus Sails (lovely illustrations)
Phelan’s The Burning of Washington
Gavian’s The American Story (a vintage text from the 40s)
Coolidge’s Men of Athens
Barnes and Wilson’s The War Between the States

Hofsinde’s Indian Picture Writing
What is a Fruit (we have others from this series)
More Heroes of Civilization

These two are part of our Term 2 studies for my Year 6 kids:

Graphic History of Architecture (informative eye candy)
Gladys Wynne’s Architecture (assigned by the PNEU)

A few for our California collection:

Leo Politi’s The Mission Bell (we love Song of the Swallows but I hadn’t seen this one!)
California: A Romantic Story for Young People (haven’t read it yet but couldn’t resist the title and that cover art!)
Cavalcade for California

The Second and Third Book of the Great Musicians (assigned by the PNEU)

This one did NOT come in the mail — it came via a local friend, who went to the big book sale in San Francisco, spotted five hardcover copies of Van Loon’s The Arts for a few dollars each and bought them all to distribute at our next study group meeting!  My kind of friend. 😉

The dust jacket was  bit tattered but still, such a fun little addition.

So, we’re heading into Christmas, also known as book-buying season…or at least book-buying with an excuse? 😉  I’m going to come back another time with books I’ll be gifting this year, but I’m wondering: what are you loving or gifting lately?