Children's Book Monday - Island Boy

A Path Made Straight is hosting a "Children's Book Monday" that I am participating in again.

Title: Island Boy
Author: Barbara Cooney
Illustrator: Barbara Cooney

I enjoy a lot of Barbara Cooney books...sometimes she is only the illustrator - other times the author and illustrator.

This is a book that would be suitable for children about ages 5 and up. Due to the fact that there is a lot of text on each page, and the subject matter - it's a good read out loud book.

The story does deal with death. And just re-reading the book now has made ME all teary eyed. So you'd definitely want to pre-read it before reading it aloud to your children - to see if it's something that you think would be suitable for them. There are a lot of colorful, scenic pictures.

This is one of those books that is interesting for the parent reading the story and the children listening to it. A vital combination in my opinion!

Island Boy is the story of a boy who grows up on an island with his family. The island was vacant except for his family's home...a household filled with children. The mama was a homeschooler :)


The story continues with the boy - Matthais, growing older, working with his brothers and dad. Matthais' siblings grow up and leave the island and he alone is left with his parents. Eventually he is old enough to leave home and gets a job on a ship.

Matthais travels all over - to Boston, New York and the West Indies. After 15 years of being away from home - he cannot forget the island - and he says one day he'll return home. And he does.

He returns home with his new bride - and becomes the father of 3 little girls. His brothers encourage him to move to the mainland, thinking he cannot farm without any sons. But he refuses.

More times passes. Matthais' girls become young ladies and move away. Matthais and his wife continue living alone on the island. But soon - other people start building cottages on the island - and again family tries to convince Matthais and his wife to move away. He refuses.

Then Matthais' wife dies. Still he does not leave. Every summer his daughter Annie sends her son out to the island to live with him for the season. Then Annie's husband dies. Annie and her son move in with Matthais on the island.

One day the little boy says to his grandfather "I too shall be a sea captain when I grow up...and then I will come back and live on Tibbetts Island." "It is good to see the world beyond the bay...they you will know where your heart lies." replies Matthais. "I already know," said the little boy (also named Matthais).

One day grandpa Matthais goes out in his little boat and is never seen alive again.

"The people climbed the hill and crowded into the little farmhouse to pay their respects to the steadfast old man of Tibbetts Island. "A good man," young Matthais heard them say. "A good life."

Children's Book Monday - Dan Frontier Series

A Path Made Straight is hosting a "Children's Book Monday" that I am participating in again.

Title: Dan Frontier
Author: William Hurley
Illustrations: Jack Boyd



The book I have chosen, is a actually from a series of books called "Dan Frontier". At one time, this series of books was used in the reading classes at some elementary schools.

I was teaching my ds to read from the book "How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". We were nearing the end of the book and the stories in the book were becoming sillier and not holding a whole lot of interest for this mom. I decided to move on to something that would make my son WANT to improve his reading skills.

I found our first Dan Frontier book on eBay. The books come in different reading levels - but all follow a pioneer Davy Crockett/Daniel Boone type character that likes to hunt, fish, explore and fight with the Indians.

Since my 5 yr old LOVES Davy and Daniel - I knew these would be the books that would work best for him to practice his reading on. He loves the books! Even on the weekends he'll come to me and say "I want a reading lesson."

We've already read about 4 of the books and hope to find all of the books in the series.

The pages have colorful pictures and short sentences/paragraphs in the earlier books and longer text in the later books.

Children's Book Monday - We Help Mommy & We Help Daddy

A Path Made Straight is hosting a "Children's Book Monday" that I am participating in again.

Reading to our children is important. Reading GOOD books to our children is very important. These two books are very good books. I'd say these books for the most part, show the parental roles of Mother and Father in the traditional manner. Mom is a stay-at-home mom taking care of the children and doing the housework, baking etc. Dad goes off to work in the morning and does the fixing jobs around the house, outdoor work, chopping wood etc.

These are great toddler books - teaching children at a young age that everyone in the family is a helper and that even though they are little - they can help out...even if it's just getting dressed in the morning.

In "We Help Mommy" and "We Help Daddy" - a little girl and her brother go through a typical day and show all the ways they can help around the house.

We Help Mommy
We Help Daddy
Written by Jean Cushman
Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin

I know it's supposed to be a one book review - but these two books are more like a set.

In "We Help Mommy", the children begin the day helping mom by getting themselves dressed as much as they can, helping with breakfast, making the beds, cleaning house and on and on. At the end of the day, DADDY comes to tuck in the children and says thank you to the children for helping out.

In "We Help Daddy", the children go through a day helping dad with projects around the house - like handing him tools, pulling out weeds, washing the dog, cleaning the car etc. At the end of the day, MOMMY tucks the children into bed and says how pleased she is with their helping. And the children feel good about having been little helpers.

The illustrations in these two books are very sweet.

My children, 5 1/2 and 8 have outgrown these books, but I will be saving these books for when other little children visit or for my children to share someday with THEIR children.

Children's Book Monday - Mud Pies and Other Recipes

A Path Made Straight is hosting a "Children's Book Monday" that I decided to participate in.

Mud Pies and Other Recipes
Written by Marjorie Winslow
Illustrated by Erik Blegvad

You could consider this your daughter or son's, first cookbook. It is a cookbook for dolls and it contains ingredients that a child can easily find and costs no money at all.

Some might even consider these recipes exotic - but unfortunately most of them would probably make your child sick if they actually decided to eat them - so BEWARE!

I love this book. I bought it for my dd when she was about 4 yrs old. This cookbook allows your child to be creative, make a mess and experiment with a host of ingredients. Cleaning up is simple - get out the garden hose!

There are chapters on: appetizers, main dishes, beverages, suggested menus and more. The recipes are sweetly and simply named and the illustrations are black and white pen/ink drawings that very cute.



From the foreword "It is an outdoor cookbook, b/c dolls dote on mud, when properly prepared. They love the crunch of pine needles and the sweet feel of seaweed on the tongue. The market place, then, will be a forest or a sand dune or your own back yard....Doll cookery is not a very exacting art. The time it takes to cook a casserole depends upon how long your dolls are able to sit at table without falling over."




I love the recipe for assorted hors d'oeuvres:

"Take the cardboard from a freshly laundered shirt...glue 8 paper baking cups...this is the hors d'oeuvres tray. Into each cup place anything that comes to mind. Here are 8 examples...grass, clover, pine needles, small berries, flower petals, crushed dry leaves, minced twigs and gravel."

No little girl (or her doll!) should be without this quaint little book.

I found my copy of the book (copyright 1961) on eBay a few years ago. You may still be able to find a book there or one used through Amazon - it did not look like they currently had any new copies.