Here’s what has been off the shelves and in our hands this week:

What I’m Reading
Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning, by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
I love this book. I educate my daughter (and myself, because honestly? I’ll never be “educated enough”) using the principles found in A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century. While that book is excellent at explaining the What and Why of TJEd, it falls short when it comes to How. Leadership Education helps to fill that gap. As we are gearing up for another school year, I’m reading it (again) and feeling both excited and inspired about where we are and where we are heading.

Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift
One great thing about classics is that they grow with you. When I first read this book years ago, I didn’t even know it was a satire. Now, having brushed up on my English history a bit, I’m finding the war between Lilliput and Blefuscu fascinating. I had no idea that Swift was really talking about the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants.
Gulliver’s Travels is a good story in it’s own right, but has far more to it than I knew. I’m looking forward to reading more.

Shiloh Season, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Newt decided that this would be a great pick for our mother/daughter book club (membership: 2). As soon as she finished, I was to read it and then we could discuss.
I was in the room, doing some work on my laptop, when Newt read the last page. She closed the cover, looked at me, and burst into tears.
It was so good, Mama! The ending was happy but sad at the same time and I really want to tell you about it, but I don’t want to spoil it. Well, I let her go ahead and tell me, but I won’t do the same for you.
However, I will tell you what we discussed.
Note: I don’t write out questions beforehand, but I do think a bit about what we could discuss as I read. Sometimes I jot down a few notes. The actual discussion happens organically, and quite often more questions come out of it. However, just for you, I have written out what we discussed in question form.

• Just like in the last book, Marty is carrying some heavy secrets.  How can secrets be a burden?  When should you tell?
• In what ways has having Shiloh changed Marty?  For the better?  For the worse?
• Is Marty trustworthy?  When you lose someone’s trust, how difficult is it to gain it back?
• What is a mentor?  Who are Marty’s mentors and what does he learn from them?
• Why is language important?  Are there times and places where improper grammar is okay?  Are there times and places where it isn’t?
• Marty wants to be a veterinarian.  Compare his father’s reaction to Doc Murphy’s.  Why did each react the way he did?  In your opinion, which was better?
• What is the best way to resolve a disagreement with someone?
• Describe Marty’s relationship with his sisters.  Is he a good brother?

What I’m Reading to Newt
Matilda Bone, by Karen Cushman
I love Karen Cushman. Newt and I studied medieval times for history last year, and really enjoyed Cushman’s The Midwife’s Apprentice. Matilda Bone revisits that time period. Abandoned by the stern and wealthy priest who raised her, Matilda becomes a reluctant servant to the local bonesetter. This new servile life is frustrating and unsettling to a girl who “knows Latin, French and some Greek, as well as reading writing and figuring…can name the three wise men, the seven deadly sins and a great many of the 133,306,668 Devils of Hell.” Yet Peg, the good natured (though illiterate!) bonesetter seems to be giving Matilda an education in matters even more important. I think there will be quite a lot for Newt and I to discuss as we read.

What Newt is Reading
Saving Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
This book is the last in the Shiloh series. I pulled this off the library shelf a few days ago and Newt practically tore it out of my hands, she was so anxious to read it. She’s been giving me a few updates as she reads and it sounds like it will be every bit as good as the first two.

Horses: How to Choose and Care for a Horse, by Laura S. Jeffrey
Let’s file this one firmly under “Wishful Thinking”.

What are you reading right now? Anything inspiring you?

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