I snagged this beautiful Easter book at my public library right before its closure. I’m so glad I did. A gorgeous Easter book!

 

This one was for my Hero class. I read it 19 years ago when pregnant with my 18-year-old. It’s always a great one to revisit, as it is so full of gems. I’ve written about Corrie here and a related book about her, here, (In My Father’s House).

 

 

Here are the books we’ve been enjoying for March and April of 2020, most of which was spent social distancing.

Connor Boyack probably didn’t know that his newest book, pictured just above, published in 2020, would be so prophetic so soon, what with government shutting down “nonessential businesses” in March 2020. We are reading one of the Tuttle Twins books a day and then we will play the Tuttle Twins card game at the end of our Tuttle Twins marathon. If you don’t anything about the Tuttle Twins books, go here to learn more. They are books for children to teach principles of liberty. Each on is based on a classic book on liberty for adults, written by liberty lovers like F.A. Hayek, John Taylor Gatto, or C. Edward Griffin.

 

 

Remember when I said that when we read all of the picture books I got from the public library right before the lockdown that I had a stash of picture books in deep storage to fall back on with Bugsy? Well, the one pictured just above is one of them. I have the whole series of ValueTales, sitting on a shelf, that seems like it’s in deep storage because my ten-year-old ignores it whenever he goes by, likes it part of the furniture. So now we are diving in, having read the one above and the one below so far this month.

 

 

 

I accessed this picture book above from this site, storylineonline.com. It features celebrities reading books aloud. A fun source when you can’t find any fresh-to-you picture books in your house. This was before I remembered the ValueTales collection on my shelf in our schoolroom. The one below I found in Scribd. I just adore the author, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and all her works.

 

We finally finished this one below in Scribd, on audio. We listened to it on the way to Utah when we took one of my sons to the MTC for his mission to Argentina. That was fall of 2016. Now that two of my kiddos have been taking the Georgics scholar project for LEMI I felt it was time for them to listen to it again, with its central message of farming self-reliance. I just love Cherry Jones’ narrations she did for HarperAudio for all of the Little House books, along with Paul Woodiel’s fiddle music. The Scribd platform uses all of those HarperAudio editions. Get a 60 day free trial here. It’s so cool that I can access all the Little House book on my phone, anytime I want, for a flat fee of $8.99 a month. No need to buy the CDs and remember to move them from the home to the car, and then car back to the home.

 

 

The one below is also on audio in Scribd, to replace what we finished above, to be played while the kiddos do dishes when I’m not available to read aloud to them. I first heard about this book on the readaloudrevival.com podcast.

 

We finished the one below with our homeschool friends after listening to a chapter each weekday morning (sans Thursdays) for what seemed like ages (February and March). Another great “Georgics” book! It has such a wonderful theme of community interdependence.

Now we are listening to the one below to replace the one above that we finished. My sister raves about it over here on her blog (scroll down to Title #6 in her list). A completely original story! Even Kate DiCamillo is talking about it!

Two of my kiddos finished the one below for their Georgics class. Definitely a winner! I remember listening to it on audio with my older kiddos. Caddie is just so delightful! I love that the book is based on the author’s ancestor.

We read a chapter or two of this day when the kids do lunch kitchen clean-up. It’s a great collection of stories about mathematicians. I love that it includes women mathematicians. I loved math in junior high and high school and hope to pass on the love of it to all my children.

I’ll never forget the Saturday night I finished the one below, listening to the audiobook version in Scribd as I decorated my dining and living rooms for spring. A completely fascinating view of Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The dialogue is fictionalized. I really don’t know how much of the passive-aggressive picture that’s painted of Laura in this book that I believe. Nevertheless, it’s so interesting to learn from this book that without Rose mentoring her mother in the writing process, we would not have the Little House books.

 

My friend Olivia told me about this book below. Another audiobook I’m enjoying in scribd. 

This next one I’m listening for my Hero Project class. It’s about the resistance movement against Nazi Germany in Denmark. It’s also in Scribd.

Then, at night, when I need something gentle and soothing, I turn to Audible and listen to the one below. It’s taken me awhile because I just listen to it a little at a time. It’s a memoir of motherhood. Slow and easy-going, great for my perimenopausal mother self as I approach the season the author talks about in about 8 years (complete empty nesterhood. My youngest is 10 so it’s a ways off.) It does have a few swear words so listen with earbuds.

After I get in bed and need something really peaceful and religious, I use my phone’s light to read the following. Also in the morning after I read my scriptures. It was a hand-me-down book tucked in a huge box from my husband’s cousin years ago. A total treasure of a book! It teaches you how to build your faith in miracles and how to pray to bring miracles in your life. I am getting many epiphanies from it.

What are you reading/listening to? I’d love to hear! Please comment in the comments below.