A 7QT Summer Reading Edition

Most folks like to post about their summer reading before it happens. As in, "Look at all these lovely books that I'm going to read this summer!" Those are awesome people. I'm happy if I'm able to look back on the season and say, "Hey look! I read something this summer!"

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But of course... having some guided inspiration never hurts when one is creating a to-read book list - especially if it's for the kiddos. So I was excited to stumble across Jamie C Martin's book: Give Your Child the World.

Amazon was out of stock for 10 days after you guys bought up ALL the copies of #giveyourchildtheworld 😍 But they finally have more - so go snag them now at 42% off: amzn.to/1OeVyWy (And thank you! ❤️)

A photo posted by Jamie C Martin (@jamie_cmartin) on Jul 10, 2016 at 7:03am PDT

It's a reference book with lists organized by age group and geographical region. To launch her book she and another blogger, Sarah MacKenzie (of Read Aloud Revival fame) are running a online/virtual book club where the only "responsibility" is to read one book from the region for the week. I jumped at joining the book club because:

1. This is the kind of responsibility I can handle!
2. It guarantees that I will have at least 1 book every week to read to the Spitfire that is not Maisy-related. #winning

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Multi-cultural week

So, when I said jump you may have thought I was just being all writer-y and stuff. (Cause I's is good at being writer-y). But no, I was so excited to get on board that even though I didn't yet have GYCTW, I looked on Instagram to see what other people were checking out, and then drove 20 miles to the only library that had these books... On the day before the library would be closed for a 3-day holiday weekend... 3 hours before closing time. No really. I wanted the books and I wanted to get started NOW.  It was the "Maps" book that I knew the wee girl would love, and I was right. She is very much into maps these days. She likes to draw maps leading people to dragon caves and she likes to look at maps and show people where Grammy and Poppy live...
"And this is Michigan." (She says as she points to Africa) "Grammy and Poppy live here."
(Yeah. We're still working on it...)
We had to return that book yesterday because it was due and someone else had reserved it (I'm guessing a fellow GYCTW-er), and for the first time the Spitfire almost refused to give it to the librarian. I guess we know what's on her birthday gift list this year...

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Africa week

This week was kind of a bust. I still didn't have GYCTW and Instagram wasn't being helpful. I found these 2 books on my own, and I thought they were awesome. But the only one I could get the little girl to sit through was "Imani's Moon". It was a sweet story of a little girl who gets teased by the other girls in the village for being small, but then she "rises" to do a very big thing. It has that magical element of literature that the author of Love in the Time of Cholera is also known for... what's that called again? (See. I'm very writer-y). Anyway. good book. And I loved the illustrations in "For You Are a Kenyan Child" but I couldn't get the Spitfire to read it. I'll try again another day...

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Europe week

Ah, Europe week... a.k.a. the week I caved and got a book with Maisy in it. I think the Spitfire was beginning to suspect that I was trying to #givemychildtheworld or something, so she started being very obstinate about her reading material. But I also lucked out with finding City Cat - cause if a book is not about maps, or Maisy, then it will still be read if it has a cat in it! This story is about a cat who follows an Italian family on their vacation around Europe. The illustrations are perfect, and while the prose is a little less-than perfect, we still really enjoyed it. Actually, I double-lucked out with this one because not only did City Cat have a cat in it, it also has a map of Europe in it! #winningagain

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Our #giveyourchildtheworld picks for North America week! Glad "ABC of Canada" was available as an eBook, or none of our selections would have been from @jamie_cmartin 's excellent book. A suggestion though? Future editions should definitely include "Migrant" by Maxine Trottier - a gorgeous book about a low German speaking, Mennonite migrant worker family that travel between Mexico and Canada each year. The story is told from the viewpoint of the youngest daughter who likens her life to that of different animals she sees... Very wistful and poetic... It's broadened my world as well!

A photo posted by Sara Rooney (@rooney.sara) on Jul 21, 2016 at 3:53pm PDT

Oddly, this week North America only includes Canada and the United States?? And even though I finally had a copy of GYCTW in my hands, absolutely none of the books in her list were available at our local library (though if I wanted to drive 10 miles south I could get most of them! #nothin'doin'). ABC of Canada was available as an ebook though. I also feel like I might have a golden touch with picking books on a whim, because I picked up Migrant and I have absolutely loved it. (The jury is still out for the Spitfire. At this point, though, what would you expect? #gottalovethatgirl #andhashtags #alwaysthehashtags )

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And that's it so far! Next week is Middle East Week, followed by Asia Week, Latin America Week, and Australia/Oceania/Polar Regions Week. These upcoming weeks are the most exciting for me, so I'll be sure to make some reservations at the library and save myself some gas money.

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As for myself? I'm still firmly situated in my non-fiction/memoir camp. It's cozy here. I like it. Here's what I'm reading/have read/will read:

Maybe I should say "have read, am reading, may read"?

What I find particularly awesome about this, is while grabbing the pictures of these books off Goodreads, I found this:

Look at that! AHEAD of schedule! #thatsafirst #oki'mdonewiththehashtags #promise

What about you? What are you reading this summer (to yourself... to your kids)?

Check out other good blogs to read over at This Ain't the Lyceum, and leave your recommendation there (if not here).