Reading Report

I am feeling a huge sense of accomplishment this week because we finally finished reading Five Little Peppers. We have been working on it for several weeks, and we all enjoyed it. I normally read a chapter book out loud to my kids every day after school for my kindergartener’s homework. However, her reading skills are improving, so I am going to be doing less reading in order for her to do the reading herself. Yesterday, she read Green Eggs and Ham to us all by herself without any help. This is the first time she had picked up that book, so there is no way that she had memorized it. We were all pleasantly surprised by her ability.

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Written by Margaret Sidney

This is an old fashioned story about a family struggling to survive. The five children, the Peppers, range is ages from 11 to 4; and, they all must do their part to make ends meet. As a result, some of the children are working to earn money for the family and none of them are able to attend school. Their life is simple, but full of love and happiness.

This classic story is sweet and sad at the same time. My children were alarmed to hear that these kids had never had a birthday cake or received a Christmas gift, but were happy just the same. And although the writing style is a bit different than that of current authors, with long sentence and little punctuation, it still made a great read aloud. However, it may be a bit difficult for a young child to read on their own. I would certainly recommend it to anyone with lower elementary school children. It caused a lot of discussion within our family about poverty and simple pleasures.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

This is one of those books that may not appeal to everyone. It discusses troubling questions of everyday life and then uses cold hard data and statistics to discover the answers. Questions such as: “Why do drug dealers live with their moms?” and “What makes the perfect parent?”.  And, the answers are surprising and sobering. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and included a good bit of humor. And, best of all, it caused me think about the cultural concerns discussed in a new light.

If you are interested in learning more about this weekly reading report, click here. Or, to see a list of completed books, click on the Reading Report tab above.