Growing up on the coast of North Carolina as a young girl, you can bet I spent a lot of school time studying the details of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. I remember being eerily fascinated by the story–I even imagined myself heading to the Outer Banks and being the one to ultimately solve the mystery!
Little did I know back then that one day this story would reappear in my life–through one of my closest friends, author Caroline Starr Rose.
Her newly released novel-in-verse, Blue Birds (for ages 10 and up), takes a story of forbidden friendship and places it right in the middle of one of the greatest mysteries in history:
“It’s 1587 and twelve-year-old Alis has made the long journey with her parents from England to help settle the New World, the land christened Virginia in honor of the Queen. And Alis couldn’t be happier. While the streets of London were crowded and dirty, this new land, with its trees and birds and sky, calls to Alis. Here she feels free. But the land, the island Roanoke, is also inhabited by the Roanoke tribe and tensions between them and the English are running high, soon turning deadly.
Amid the strife, Alis meets and befriends Kimi, a Roanoke girl about her age. Though the two don’t even speak the same language, these girls form a special bond as close as sisters, willing to risk everything for the other. Finally, Alis must make an impossible choice when her family resolves to leave the island and bloodshed behind.“
I was beyond blown away when I found out that Caroline had chosen to dedicate this book to me. (As in, ugly cry at the dining table blown away!)
Since this is unlikely to ever happen again, I’m documenting it here as proof!
An interview with the author (& my dear friend), Caroline Starr Rose:
1. What inspired you to write this book?
In 2008 I was teaching fifth-grade social studies. We’d gotten to those textbook paragraphs about England’s first colony in the Americas. Reading about the Lost Colony of Roanoke along with my students, I remembered the fascination I’d felt the first time I encountered the story: 117 missing people. The word CROATOAN the only clue left behind.
Coincidentally, our most recent Scholastic book order had several Roanoke books available. I bought copies and peppered my students with the things I was learning. While I didn’t think about writing Blue Birds until a few years later, I can point back to this time as the book’s beginning.
2. Why did you decide to write this book as a novel in verse?
With my first novel, May B., I like to say verse is something that happened to me. Writing in a format I knew virtually nothing about wasn’t planned. But structurally it best served May’s solitude and the stark Kansas frontier. The verse became the most honest way I could access May’s life and her world.
In writing Blue Birds, I chose verse deliberately. For a genre like historical fiction, which is often viewed as distant or hard to understand, verse becomes a beautiful fit. It strips away the unnecessary and gives readers an intimate picture of a book’s central characters.
3. How did you go about your research and how long did it take to write the novel?
Photo of Fort Raleigh by Jasperdo
I always start my work by reading children’s non-fiction. These books give a great overview of an era while I’m in my exploratory phase. Oftentimes they include bibliographies that point me toward scholarly works and first-hand accounts, where I can dig deeper.
I use the Internet somewhat (the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site was a great resource, as was the Coastal Carolina Indian Center), but I really prefer buying used books and marking them up. I also keep a notebook for each project. It’s full of questions, notes, quotes, ideas, maps, and early character sketches.
I started my research for Blue Birds in 2010 and sent the manuscript to my agent in February 2013. It sold quickly, just a few weeks later (this is very atypical for me). My editor and I finished our work together in fall 2014.
4. What other books would you recommend to homeschooling parents looking to create a unit study of The Lost Colony/this time period in US History?
  |
  |
  |
  |
Non-fiction:
- The Lost Colony of Roanoke — Jean Fritz (ages 7-10)
- Roanoke: The Lost Colony–An Unsolved Mystery from History — Jane Yolen (ages 6-10)*
- The Mystery of the Roanoke Colony — Xavier W. Niz (graphic history format) (ages 8-14)
- Roanoke: The Mystery Of The Lost Colony — Lee Miller (ages 9-12)*
Fiction:
  |
  |
- The Summer of Lost and Found — Rebecca Behrens (ages 8-12) …coming spring 2016
- Sabotaged (The Missing, Book 3) — Margaret Peterson Haddix (ages 8-12)
- Roanoke: A Novel of the Lost Colony — Sonia Levitin (ages 12 and up)
* These are the two books I found in the Scholastic book order in my teaching days
Also check out the Fort Raleigh Junior Ranger Program, which can be completed without having to visit the site.
5. How can we nurture a deeper love for poetry in our homeschools?
Caroline doing a reading from Blue Birds at its launch party
Oh, I love this question! Because poets use line and stanza breaks to communicate (as well as words), I feel like it’s helpful to both see and hear poetry. But please don’t let this stop you from sharing poetry with your children in a more informal way.
My love of poetry started with A.A. Milne. Hearing and then reciting his words, I could feel the rhythm, rhyme, and repetition that is such a mainstay in his style. Poetry’s word play and its similarity to music were the things that fired me up as a girl.
Share all sorts of poetry with your children. Let it be playful, joyful, fun.
What the pros have to say about Blue Birds:
“Composed in varying formats, the descriptive and finely crafted poems reveal the similarities the two girls share, from loved ones lost to hatred between the English and the Roanoke to a desire for peace… Fans of Karen Hesse and the author’s May B. (2012) will delight in this offering.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A memorable account of a friendship that transcends culture and prejudice.”—Publishers Weekly
Weekend homeschool links
Oh! I was fascinated by Roanoke when I came across it in the Story of the World with my kids. I don’t remember having heard of it before, but Canadian history was more of a focus in my education. The next time we go through that period, I’d love to focus on Roanoke more, it is such a haunting story.
The last book I read to my kids was The Great Alexander the Greater, last night. We are finishing up an Ancient Greece unit. But my very favourite author is A.A. Milne and we read his poetry together often!
My daughter was up before everyone else this morning so we cuddled on the couch and read Eloise Takes a Bawth. It is rawther her favourite right now.
Now I’m itching to pull down Milne, or cummings, or my dog eared EBB. Hopefully I can at least sneak in a few pages before the daily circus starts.
We just finished reading The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles and LOVED it. Currently, we are reading Dr. Dolittle- again, LOVE! I would really enjoy reading Blue Birds. This year at our homeschool co-op, I’ve been teaching American history and our entire class was fascinated by the colony of Roanoke. Thanks for the offer!
We just finished reading Ida B. by Katherine Hannigan and we have started Dragonspell by Donita K. Paul.
The most recent book I’ve read aloud to my children is The Ether by Laurice E. Molinari
Kela Nellums’s latest post: Saturday Ease: Construction and Re-Directs
We just finished reading “Johnny Tremain” aloud; I was surprised how much the littler kids in our family (4 and 7) liked it! We’ve studied American History this year and would love to read this!
The Lost Colony of Roanoke is one of those questions on my list of things to ask in Heaven (as if it will matter!); it is so fascinating!
We just started re-reading The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink – nothing deep but certainly delightful!
The last book I read to my kids was Stuart Little.
Julie Malecki’s latest post: On mysteries of history and friendship (with a giveaway!)
The last book I read aloud to my daughter is The Nutcracker, she loves for me to read it over and over again
Hello, we just finished reading Johnny Tremain as part of our history.
Thank you so much!
We just eased into chapter books and completed Milly Molly Mandy. Adorable little book.
We’re reading the Bible, Farmer Boy, and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey right now.
We just finished Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. We started with Tolkien’s version, but we switched to Michael Morpurgo’s beautifully illustrated version to especially capture the attention of our younger children. We have a range of ages from infant to teenager.
We’d love a copy of the book!
We just finished reading My Name is Asher Lev.
Thanks!
Preparing for our upcoming family vacation to South Dakota (including DeSmet!) we just finished By the Shores of Silver Lake.
The Foot Book in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday month.
Denise’s latest post: Spring Printables for Preschool – 1st Grade
We are reading Vinegar Boy with Easter and Pharaoh’s Daughter with History.
We are reading aloud Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising sequence. We just finished Over Sea, Under Stone, and are in the midst of The Dark Is Rising right now.
We just finished George Muller and David Livingstone in the Christian Heroes: Then and Now Series by Janet & Geoff Benge. Thanks for the giveaway. I’ve always been intrigued by the lost colony.
We are reading The Wheel on the School.
Our most recent read aloud (other than our history or science books) was Swiss Family Robinson!
Jocelyn’s latest post: Crazy, Fun Filled Week!
We love in NC and would love to read this and make a field trip to the OBX! Last book I read to my daughter… A chapter of Harry potter and the order of the Phoenix.
Last night I read If You Give A Pig A Pancake with our 4 year old.
Our 6 yr old and I just finished The Adventures of Lily Lapp and are reading #2 in this series.
Our 11 yr old and I just finished The Chronicles of Narnia and are currently reading The Hobbit together.
Our 13 year old and I are currently reading The Westing Game (she has finished it and is waiting for me so we can talk about it 🙂 )
And I’m currently reading Farmer Boy out loud at the dinner table to all four children (I finished the first book in the Little House series about 2 weeks ago).
We are currently reading Narnia to our 3 oldest.
We read a LOT together! Over the past few months, we have read through Chuck Black’s Kingdom Series and the Knights of Arrethtrae series and loved, loved, loved them! So much material for discussion there. Our last two books were Brady by Jean Fritz and an old reprint, Mark Manning’s Mission by Horatio Alger. Both are excellent!
Thank you for sharing these here. You make them all sound like something I can’t wait to get my hands on!
We have lots of favorites…just finished The Wizard of Oz and now we’re working through the Beatrix Potter books…even my 11 year-old enjoys them. Last night was The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher 🙂
We just finished Black Beauty…we love reading aloud around here!
We recently finished “Owls in the Family,” and are re-starting the Narnia series with “The Magician’s Nephew.”
We just finished reading Professor Diggins Dragons. And a number of picture books I won’t try to list but a favorite is ‘if you want to see a whale’ such a lovely poem. It is national poetry month isn’t it?
Thank you both 🙂
http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Diggins-Dragons-Felice-Holman/dp/B000PAMFZS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427720433&sr=8-1&keywords=professor+diggin%27s+dragons
we are currently reading Peter Pan (the original)!!
My 7 year old daughter and I ahve been reading aloud By the Shores of Silver Lake. 🙂
We are currently reading aloud The Green Ember by S.D. Smith. It is a newly published book as well and absolutely wonderful!
We recently finished Too Much Salt & Pepper by Sam Campbell.
This book looks fascinating; I’ll be checking out this event in history soon!
Wendy’s latest post: embroider smarter: get the most out of your sulky sticky fabri-solvy scraps
We just finished reading our beloved Trumpet of the Swan and haven’t settled on a new read aloud just yet…I have to admit that I don’t know the mystery of Roanoke, so I’m off to research it now! Who doesn’t love a history mystery??
debbie’s latest post: a wednesday hike
We are currently reading the Beatrix Potter collection. Thanks!
We are working our way through the Chronicles of Narnia, and are on The Silver Chair. It is so fun to revisit a series I loved so much growing up! This book also looks intriguing, and I’m looking forward to checking it out.
I am reading Little Women with my oldest and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator with my boys. Looks like a beautiful book!
We are currently reading “Carry on Mr. Bowditch” for school.
The Lost Colony has always fascinated me. There is an outdoor production in Manteo, NC that does a play about The Lost Colony, it’s very well done.
The last read aloud I did with my boys was The Bears of Hemlock Mountain.
My son and I just finished Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson. We could not put the book down and did not want it to end. Prior, we have engulfed ourselves in the Colonization Era and delved into books such as The Sign of the Beaver; If You Lived in Colonial Times; The Courage of Sarah Noble, and way too many others to list. We will be visiting Virginia this spring or summer and glide over the NC border. Hope to read Blue Birds before our expedition.
Barbara Acerbo’s latest post: On mysteries of history and friendship (with a giveaway!)
Sounds like a wonderful read. We are constantly reading out loud – it’s my favorite time with my boys. We just read Merlin and the Dragons and are starting on White Fur Flying. Love all the other books readers have shared too.
Oh! I love this! We are finishing up two books right now: Old Mother West Wind & Detectives in Togas. We have all fallen in love with historical fiction through Sonlight readers. Blue Bird should be on Sonlight’s list! I’m bummed we learned very little about Roanoke on our first US History tour – your post has inspired me to to learn more!!
We are currently reading “The Green Ember” by S.D. Smith, which we affectionately call ‘the bunny book.’ My two school age children and I have become real history lovers over the past few years, so I am very interested in “Blue Birds.” I actually heard about it somewhere else and it is already on our reading list!
I’m reading Nathan Hale’s One Dead Spy to my 5YO — he’s not quite reading, but the graphic novel is keeping his interest and he’s learning about the American Revolution. It’s a great series!
We read and loved the Viking Quest series! This new books sounds wonderful!
We just finished reading the boxcar children.
Since the first time I read a post on Blue Birds, I have been trying to get my hands on a copy. My daughter and I have read verse novels by Sharon Creech and loved it. We are in South Africa and perhaps therefore my attempts at getting a copy have failed.
The most recent book we read was The Green Ember by S D Smith.
We just finished reading Justin Morgan had a Horse by Henry.
We’ve just recently started The Green Ember. The last book that I read though was a picture book about volcanos. It wasn’t fascinating enough to remember the title though.
Just read “Oh the Thinks You Can Think” by Dr. Seuss with my one year old, but my 10 year old daughter would love this book!
Karen Baughman’s latest post: Free Indeed!
We are reading 3rd book of the Little a House series – The Farmer Boy. thank you!
We’re in the middle of Little House on the Prairie right now – working our way through the series. 🙂
King Arthur and the knights of the round table.
We are currently reading Viking Ships at Sunrise (Magic Tree House). I didn’t read through all of the comments (so maybe it was mentioned already) but if you ever get to actually GO to Roanoke Island, they do a fantastic outdoor play called The Lost Colony all summer. Really fascinating!
I have always been fascinated by this mystery…can’t wait to read the book! The current read-aloud in our house is First Test, from the Protector of the Small series. Before that it was The Saga of Eric the Viking.
We just studied this time period so I would love to win! Today we started “Carry On, Mr. Bowditch”.
We are reading Tucker’s Countryside (Cricket in Times square sequel) in the morning and These Happy Golden Years book from the little house series at night.
We love reading aloud. We are now reading “Little Women”. We loved reading the “Little House” series, “Secret Garden” , “Anne of Green Gables”, “The Christmas Carol” among many others. We always have at least one book going aloud. Thanks for the opportunity to have this lovely book.
We just finished Children of Summer, great read for the kids!
I just finished “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” with my twin 5 year olds.
We just finished The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Speare, and are beginning In the Land of the Big Red Apple, by Roger Lea MacBride.
We are reading Bud, Not Buddy.
Great giveaway! We love reading aloud! It’s a bit tricky to pick something my three oldest will ALL like and enjoy – they range from 9 to 4 yrs old. So we usually have a couple that we read at the same time and rotate between them rotate! We just finished Frindle and we’re currently reading Trumpet of the Swan, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Half Magic.
Little House in the Big Woods by Wilder! Thanks for a chance to win!! 🙂
Trumpet of the swan by e.b. White.
We are currently reading Stowaway by Karen Hesse (and just finished Captain’s Dog by Roland Smith). Regardless if we win or not, we are definitely buying Blue Birds. 🙂
We just read Elijah of Buxton and are now reading Island of the Blue Dolphins. BTW, I absolutely LOVE the cover of Blue Birds. It is enchantingly charming!!!
We just finished The Littles Go to School and are also listening to Farmer Boy (little house series). 🙂
We’re currently reading aloud the 100th anniversary edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum. We are all loving it!
Sarah M
Sarah M’s latest post: What I Read in March
The Long Winter
We’re currently reading The Borrowers!
We’re currently reading “Stuart Little” and the first book in the Boxcar Children series.
This looks wonderful! I love when a book like this draws us in to do even more research and learning on a topic. Congrats!
The Magician`s Nephew
Currently, Treasure Island and one of the Boxcar Children books. Thx!
We are currently reading “The Secret Garden”, we read it evey Spring at nap time. 🙂
This book sounds so interesting, thanks for the chance! My boys and I are currently reading ‘Ereth’s Birthday’ by Avi.
Gwynyth’s latest post: a welcome wagon of sorts.
We are reading Little House in the Big Woods
We are reading the Bronze Bow.
We are currently reading “Daniel Boone: Frontiersman”which my boys and I are fascinated with.
What a GREAT giveaway! We’ve just read The Saturdays!
Danna’s latest post: Mom School!
We just finished “A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt.”
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
We are reading “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator” and both kids are really into it!
We’re currently reading Island of the Blue Dolphins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at bedtime.
We’re currently reading Charlotte’s Web!
We’ve just finished The Silver Chair. We love read alouds! This is the first I’ve heard about this mysterious colony but both my 10yo and Iove historical mysteries. Looking forward to finding out more 🙂
Whole Grain Bread Making by Peter Reinhart
What a great giveaway! I’m pinning this post as a resource so we can study these people later.
Our last read aloud was Beowulf for Children. We all loved it!
We are currently reading To Kill a Mockingbird and Mathemagic with our two oldest (age 13 and 10) and Big House in the Little Woods with our youngest (age 4).
We just finished All On A Mountain Day by Aileen Fisher. This book documented a June day in the Rocky Mountains. Each chapter starts the day over with a different animal’s life. Their lives intertwine and the last chapter does an excellent job summarizing the end of the day, recapping all of the different animals. I’d highly recommend!
Thanks for the chance at the giveaway!
The books we are reading with our children is Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems and On the Banks of Plum Creek.
I’m really not familiar with the Lost Roanoke colony. I have 7 year old boy who says he “doesn’t like history”, but a mystery like this might interest him!
We are currently listening to “Poems Every Child Should Know” (free classic audiobook from LibroVox.com, version read by Kara Shallenberg). Great poetry, with nice littel snippet before for most on why the poem was chosen for the collection (often because some particular child really liked it 🙂 ).
Gwen @ ButtercupsBabies.com’s latest post: Finally, a good use for Jello: Homemade Jello Playdough
Just finished up the second Anne of Green Gables book {Anne of Avonlea?} with my 11yo dd, reading Swiss Family Robinson to my boys…
I’m Malala!
Currently reading the third book in the Magic Thief series, and I have my eye on Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH next (because the book is nothing like the movie). I want to get the Ralph Moody books, but the prospect of reading the last chapter of Little Britches aloud is daunting.
Kessie’s latest post: How to write romance – resources
We just finished reading my son’s first chapter book (he’s almost 3) — The Mouse and the Motorcycle.
We are currently reading Freddy Goes To Florida.
We just finished Viking Quest Book 3. I can’t wait to read this one!
We finished the first Harry Potter and at my younger daughter’s (6) request, we have started an American Girl novel that came with her new doll. One that she saved up and paid for herself.
We finished On the Banks of Plum Creek recently. And we are slowly reading through Imitate Their Faith. We love reading poetry together though, from the really silly, to the serene, my kids love listening and reading it.
Judith Lloy’s latest post: Meanwhile…
We are currently reading our way through The Chronicles of Narnia!
Thanks for sharing this inspiring reminder about poetry… It’s the right time in New Zealand to plant daffodils and every year we read Wordsworth’s lovely poem about them as they begin to bloom. We have just finished the first book in Enid Blyton’s series The Famous Five : Five on a Treasure Island
We have been reading the Little House on the Prairie series. My oldest is 5 (almost 6) and she has really enjoyed it!
Thanks for the opportunity to win such a fabulous book! 🙂 We are currently all being read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland via the library audiobook app. Even mama enjoys being read to. 😉 Prior to this we listened to Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
We’re currently reading both The Green Ember and Ramona the Brave!
Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvelous Medicine. We’ve done less reading aloud as my kids have gotten older, would like to do more as a family.
Reading The Girl in Hyacinth Blue with my 10th grade son. Edie
We are in the middle of reading Prince Caspian. We started the Narnia series last January and hope to finish them all in a two year period!
Eunice B.’s latest post: Knotty PDF pattern by cheekyandchoccy
We haven’t progressed beyond long-ish picture books with my 2 and 4 year olds so I think the last book I read aloud to them was Amelia Bedilia! 🙂
LauraB’s latest post: March Sewing: Flowers and a Heart for a Special Baby
One of the last books I read to my children was “I am a Bunny” by Ole Risom. It’s one of our favorites. Although my children are still young, I’d still love to have this book for my library for the future
We’re currently reading Robinson Crusoe…one of a million classics that I seemed to have bypassed in my own public schooling. 🙁 Yeah for second chances!
I am currently reading Little House on the Prairie to my kids. I love reading to them!
We are currently reading Treasure Island aloud and it is NOT an easy book to read aloud. We need something with less pirate slang for our next choice 🙂
We’re reading through Matilda right now and just finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
What a neat story — and I’m just blown away by the idea of a (kids’, historical fiction, no less!) novel in verse! How fantastic.
Here we just finished The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and we’re starting up Prince Caspian. 🙂
We just finished Sign of the Beaver and before that Island of the Blue Dolphins. We loved both of them…
A biography: Who Was Neil Armstrong?
Charlotte’s Web…my 5 year old LOVES it! We cherish books in our home. Thanks for the giveaway!
We just finished reading “Fiddlestrings” by Marguerite De Angeli. We liked it, but not nearly as much as her book “The Door in the Wall.”
We read The Berenstain Bears series, titled Bully
We are currently finishing reading Andrew Peterson’s The Warden and the Wolf King, the final book in The Wingfeathersaga Saga.
We are currently reading Caddie Woodlawn!
I just downloaded Caroline’s book Blue Birds from our library over the weekend for my daughter! I love her interview here. The most recent read aloud for our family was Flat Stanley. It was a bit young for our 8 year old, but our 6 year old was completely enthralled!
In honor of the warmer temperatures, we read “And Then It’s Spring”.
The Interrupted Tale by Maryrose Wood (book 4 in the Incorrigible Children series) — so, so good! Book 5 comes out in May and we will be all over it! Thank you for the giveaway. 🙂
We are currently reading Treasure Island together!
We just finished The Long Winter via audio book. We thought it was appropriate for our weather the last few months.
We just finished reading The Magician’s Nephew.
Our last read aloud was actually an audio-aloud. 🙂 The Mysterious Benedict Society.
We’ve recently read The Courage of Sarah Noble and are now working our way through the Little House series.
Our last read aloud was Tirzah by Lucille Travis. I’m so excited for the opportunity to win this book. Read aloud time is one of my favorite aspects of homeschooling!
Tiffany’s latest post: Kindergarten at Home: 5 Tips for Teaching Your Little Learner
We just completed “Gone With the Wind”!
We have finished the first two books in the Narnia set and half way through book number three, The Horse and His Boy.
My daughter and I loved May B.! Can’t wait to read Blue Birds as well. We are currently reading Farmer Boy….having recently finished Little House in the Big Woods.
The Willoughby’s was the last book we read and we are just starting Bud, Not Buddy.
This has got me intrigued…fascinating idea!!! Love the artwork on the cover too. We have recently read or are reading Wayside School is Falling Down, Pippi Longstocking, and Great Expectations. Oh, and the Clementine books.
We just finished “The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland” but are currently reading “Little House in the Big Woods”! This book looks beautiful!
We have completed 2 books together: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Sign of the Beaver..oh! Make that 3….for fun, Tales of a4 th grade Nothing
We just finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We read Tom Sawyer before that.
My husband has been reading the Ralph Moody books to my daughter. The first one is “Little Britches”. She is reading “King of the Wind”. We have loved the stories where the children are taken into or influenced by the lives of the native people. “Indian Captive” and “The Sign of the Beaver” are two examples that we love.
We just finished reading The Trumpet of the Swan. I’m reading May B. now and loving it!
We just finished reading The Complete Works of Beatrix Potter. Loved it!
We are reading “Peter Rabbit and Eleven other Favorite Tales”.
We are currently on the first of the Little House books! So excited to read them all (it’s my first time too!) and my kids are loving it.
Wes re currently reading Farmer Boy in the Little House series
We just finished reading aloud Caddie Woodlawn and both my 9 yo. girl and 11 yo. boy loved it.
We just finished Follow My Leader.
This book looks like a wonderful book to read to my kids! Among the various ones we’re reading for school right now, our favorite is The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong.
Last week we finished To Kill A Mockingbird, and we are currently reading Poppy & Rye by Avi.
The most recent is The Big Green Pocketbook, currently reading Rupert the Wrong Word Pirate
Oh, I am so excited about this give away! My library doesn’t have it yet! I looked it up about a week ago. Right now we are reading, “The Jungle Book,” aloud and also a, “Minnie and Moo,” book.
Sharon’s latest post: Lessons Learned the Hard Way- Foraging!
What a giveaway! Most recently I’m reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic and Who Was Abraham Lincoln. Thanks for the offer!
This looks like such a fun book! We are currently reading Snow Treasure and Little House in the Big Woods for our read alouds.
I’m currently reading Charlotte’s Web to my kiddos. This afternoon, for the first time, my son said, “keep reading!”
We are reading Anne of Green Gables for everyone, and The Adventures of Grandfather Frog for our youngest 🙂
The last book I read to my daughters was There Is a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems. Not exactly classic fiction, but my 5-year-old belly laughed through the whole thing which was good enough for me!
Heather’s latest post: Dan and Louie
We are always reading books in our house! The most recent was Mary Poppins
We just finished Swiss Family Robinson and are currently reading Tuck Everlasting. We read aloud every day and it’s my 10 year old son’s favorite subject.
We are reading Pioneer Girl Growing up on the Prairie by Andrea Warren.
Little Princess!
This morning , I read “The Blessing Cup” and “Clara and Davie” both by Patricia Polacco to my son. Lately, we have enjoyed several of her stories which are usually built around true stories-wonderful, worthwhile picture books.
The last book my girls (age 10 and 11) and I read was Little Women.
Our latest is The Wheel on the School. I had no idea my six-year-old boy would be so into it! 🙂
I am currently reading (to my girls), Heroes of Faith; John Newton – Author of “Amazing Grace”. 🙂
Margarete’s latest post: Slow Start
We are currently reading Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Kimberly Bulcken Root.
Last night I read from an Usborne book One Hundred Illustrated Stories, “Tom Thumb”
We just finished Prince Caspian of the Chronicles of Narnia Series.
Hay there, I am not sure if this is international or not… but we are reading our way through: The Once and Future King by E.B. White.
se7en’s latest post: Do Your Kids Wear Sunglasses? Hood 4 Tried Out a Pair of O-V Optics Sunnies…
I remember the story of Roanoke from growing up in Virginia! I hope we win the book so I can read it with my children and then share it with others.
Hi Jamie! I have been following your blog for 3 years now, and was super excited to read that you grew up on the NC coast. I grew up in Cape Carteret, NC and was equally fascinated with the Lost Colony… still am! 🙂 I would love love love to read this book to my children. Thank you so much for the giveaway and the interview. We are currently reading aloud, ‘Monster in the Green Hollows’ by Andrew Peterson from the Wingfeather Saga.
We are currently reading aloud Little House on the Prairie and not long finished Little House in the Big Woods. Classic Stories 🙂 Her book sounds fantastic!
Alyssa Peck’s latest post: Easter: Thoughts and things we love
We are in the middle of Danny, Champion of the World by Roald Dahl.
I have six children and still read aloud to four of them, so I’m not sure what I last finished reading aloud! Probably “All of a Kind Family”, although I’m not sure if we finished that on the day before or the day after “Little Britches”. At the moment, I’m reading “Man of the Family” to two of the children, and “On the Banks of Plum Creek” to two others, as well as any and all picture books that the four-year-old brings me.
Sheila’s latest post: Advent 2014, week four
We just finished The Happy Hollisters and are currently reading Matilda.