Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Thoughts on: Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell

This was another book about animals from an animals point of view. My kids seem to like these ones!

In Black Beauty (which my 6-year-old has named her new black kitten), we read about Black Beauty's experiences throughout his lifetime. A lot of the people were really mean, which led to some good discussions about the proper way to care for and treat animals. And some of the book was quite sad when he was taken away, treated badly, or another horse died.

I'm not sure if any of us really enjoyed this book a whole lot, but I guess I'm glad we read it.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Thoughts on: The Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann David Wyss

This book was suggested by my husband. He loves the old Disney movie version of this story, and thought the kids would really enjoy the book. The one we checked out was an illustrated version, and I'm not sure it was really the entire story. I need to check out a non-illustrated version and read it to myself to see if it's any different!

Nonethelss, it was still a fun book to read outloud. My 6-year-old's imagination went wild with thought of being shipwrecked on an island and encountering all the fun animals the Robinson's saw on their island! My 3-year-old had nightmares about some of the animal encounter's, though. And my 6-year-old was a little confused why they killed so many animals that they saw, too. It led to some good discussions and was overall a fun story, despite all the animal killing!