This week has seemed to speed by for some reason. I can’t believe it’s Saturday, but I’m glad it is. This has been a difficult week in many ways because my children have been succumbing one by one to some kind of respiratory flu. The last few days I’ve been serenaded by a chorus of coughing. On Wednesday night I ended up at the hospital with my three-year-old. Thank God for modern medicine. He was soon breathing comfortably again.

Thank God also for my Kindle. I have it loaded with a lot of children’s books including the entire Beatrix Potter series. We read a lot of books, and when my mouth was tired of reading he was content to look at various picture books. Once the medication kicked in but before we were allowed to leave the Kindle kept a restless-feeling-better little boy happily occupied.

With all the sickness this week I wanted some lighter reading. Since I recently watched “Emma” with my oldest daughter I decided to read Mr.  Knightley’s Diary by Amanda Grange. As far as I know, she has done diary’s for seven male characters in the Jane Austen books. She has captured the spirit of Jane Austen well. It’s fun to read the story from the perspective of the hero. One of my favourite things about Emma’s story in Amanda Grange’s book {SPOILER ALERT} is that she gave Miss Bates a husband. A new man moves to Highbury. He’s been a widower for some years and still loves his wife. However, he soon sees Miss Bates as his wife’s equal and slowly his affection is transferred from his dead wife to Miss Bates. I have always enjoyed the character of Miss Bates so I was very excited to see this happily ever after ending for her.

 

16-year-old daughter – Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. This is her current favourite. We both think this is a book everybody should read preferably before they watch the movie. I’m also including a trailer to the movie. We’re looking forward to seeing this when it comes out on dvd.

 

 

14-year-old son – Days of Terror by Barbara Smucker. This book takes place in 1917 and after and follows a Mennonite Russian Ukranian family as they survive the revolution and decide to journey to North Amercia where they can live in peace.

 

12-year-old son – Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins

 10-year-old daughter – The Candymakers by Wendy Mass. I haven’t read this yet, but my children assure me it’s similar to “The Mysterious Benedict Society” which I enjoy so I would like this too. I’ll probably try it sometime soon.

 8-year-old daughter – The Secret of Cliff Castle by Enid Blyton. We love Enid Blyton adventure stories and have lots on our shelf. Recently we came across a good deal on several 3-in-1 volumes of her stories so we stocked up. We’ve been giving them out as rewards and for some new reading for long road trips.

 

6-year-old son – Margaret Pumphrey’s Pilgrim Stories. This is a chapter book about the Pilgrims for ages 6-8. We are enjoying reading this together.

 

3-year-old son – Spot by Eric Hill. Lately Ethan’s been enjoying anything Spot. We have this giant treasury that you see below, and it is in absolute tatters. One of the stories is about Spot visiting a friend in the hospital. We had read it the day before Ethan had to go to the hospital which was nice because I could remind him of things from the book while we were there.

 21-month-old son – anything Beatrix Potter. To be honest he doesn’t “read” them much. Mostly he loves to carry them around in stacks. I read somewhere that Beatrix Potter insisted on the small format for little hands. Jonah surely agrees with her. Sometimes he piles up too big of a stack though and then he is so sad and needs help to carry them. He loves to carefully stack them up and then look at them one by one. Compared to the overall time he spends with them, I would say that only about 10% is spent in actual reading – the rest is stacking and carrying. I figure though that they’re instilling a love of books in him so it’s all good.

 

 So now it’s your turn. What have you and your family been reading this week?