Series | Recent Book Purchases (New)
No.1 - It's a series because I'm not crazy
I’m always on the hunt for classic and wholesome chapter books for my kids. My son is a voracious reader and keeping the books flowing is a challenge.
We use our library a lot… but there are so many beautiful, wholesome, and wonderful classics that will never be in the library catalogue or aren’t in print anymore - so they can be difficult to find in good condition and/or for a price I can afford.
I just recently learned about Purplehousepress.com and let me tell you…. that’s McDreamy….
As I wait for the books to arrive (the joy! the impatience!), I thought I’d share what I snagged:
We Were Tired of Living in a House
Author: Liesel Moak Skorpen & Doris Burn
“We were tired of living in a house.
So we packed a bag with
sweaters and socks and scarves
and mittens and woolen caps.
And we moved to a tree....”
So begins this whimsical tale of four small children, a dog and a cat who decided they were tired of living in a house. They try a tree, a pond, a cave and the seashore, but in each place something unusual happens to make them move on to the next place—and finally home.
Each appealing moment and every small detail are captured by Doris Burn's original drawings from 1969.”
The Christmas Compass
Author: Alta Halverson Seymour
“Ten-year-old Kaatje yearns for her older brother Karel's approval, but he acts like the boss treating Kaatje as if she's careless and incompetent. Karel has all the adventures too, going on sailing trips and entering races with his sailboat.
When Kaatje gets left behind on the way home from a school trip, she falls into a canal and gets fished out by a boy living on a canal barge. This leads to new friendships and exciting trips on the barge with his family.
Dive into this moving tale full of Dutch customs, family bonds, fun and adventure, ending with a traditional Dutch Christmas celebration. Don't miss out on the two brand-new Dutch recipes at the end, gingerbread cake and speculaas cookies, which both Kaatje and Karel enjoy!
Originally titled Kaatje and the Christmas Compass.”
The Christmas Camera
Author: Alta Halverson Seymour
“During an orienteering race, twelve-year-old Erik Dahlquist is lured off course to snap photos of a little wren on her nest. He loses his bearings until spotting a familiar building, the red hut on the cliff by the sea.
It’s Gunnar Eklund’s place. The reclusive old fisherman is said to not take kindly to trespassers. After a brief God Afton, the two strike up a friendship. Later, it turns out old Gunnar has good advice for Erik when his know-it-all cousin Bertil arrives from Stockholm to stay for the summer.
Join the Dahlquists and learn Swedish customs as they celebrate the holidays. There’s Midsummer’s Eve, crayfish fishing in August with a huge feast, culminating with St. Lucia Day and then Julafton.
This endearing read-aloud, of warm relationships between family and friends, is sure to become a favorite. Charming illustrations by Lorence F. Bjorklund.
Originally titled Erik and the Christmas Camera.”
Boy of the Pyramids
Author: Ruth Fosdick Jones
“The pictured wall of an Egyptian tomb supplied the inspiration for this unusual story, which takes place during the building of the Great Pyramid of Khufu more than 4,000 years ago. Kaffe and Sari, an Egyptian noble’s son and a slave girl from the nomadic Sand People, help solve a troublesome mystery and trap its culprit. All told against a colorfully detailed backdrop of ancient Egypt.”
Read Ruth Fosdick Jones' bio from the jacket of the 1952 edition of her book.
Illustrated by Dorothy Bayley Morse. Unabridged.
Copper-Toed Boots
Author: Marguerite de Angeli
“Ever since she was a little girl, Marguerite de Angeli loved her father's descriptions of the red leather-topped copper-toed boots he prized when he was a young boy in Lapeer, Michigan. She also treasured his tales of tradin' at the store and with his schoolmates, of a mischievous episode with a calf in the school house belfry, of carrying water for the elephants on circus day, of picnicking during blackberry time—the quaint happenings of a small American town during the 1870s.
And finally—almost as though the copper-toed boots had led the way—the story of Shad, his best friend Ash Tomlinson, the little dog Sammy, and their good times and mishaps through a Michigan summer just had to be written so that girls and boys of today could share in it with them.
Partly because Lapeer and its people are part of her own background, and partly because of her sure instinct for absorbing and recreating the feeling of family and community life, past or present, Marguerite de Angeli gave us in Copper-Toed Boots one of her most lovely and realistic American picture books.”
The Diamond in the Window
Author: Jane Langton & Eric Blegvad
“A pair of siblings, Eddy and Eleanor Hall, hunt for treasures as they try to save their ramshackle home from being repossessed by the bank. A piece of glass shaped like a diamond, embedded in an attic window, is the key to a series of dreams in which secrets are slowly revealed, and a way forward promised. The diamond’s refraction of light is the equivalent of the wardrobe crossing to Narnia, or the tornado express to Oz. The moonlight over Concord sifts through the diamond’s surfaces and the spell it casts interrupts the tedious worry of real life, ushering Eleanor and Eddy into elegant and shivery dream adventures of increasing peril.
#97 of the Top 100 Children’s Novels of all Time Poll (2012) by School Library Journal, even though out-of-print for decades!”
The Lion in the Box
Author: Marguerite de Angeli
“Recently widowed, Mama would only be able to provide a meager Christmas for her five small children. Even though Mama could only get work occasionally, the family was rich in love and affection.
The older girls did housework while Mama was away, and Lili looked after Ben and the baby, Sooch. On Christmas Eve, the family spent an anxious evening that turned into one of the most extraordinary and memorable Christmases of their lives.
This tale, set in the early 20th century, is highly recommended as a Christmas read-aloud.”
Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Let me know!
Wishing you the joy and the antipation of awaiting a book purchase, and good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. xx