The Water Horse, by Dick King-Smith

No we didn't watch the movie (I'm sure you know us better than that) but our youth librarian recommended the book for after Charlotte's Web. The book is no longer than Charlotte's Web and has some of the same vocabulary stretching tendencies, and we had a great time imagining up a water horse. We flew through this one as quickly as we flew through Charlotte, broken up by some side activities again. This time we did a lot of map perusing, getting a handle on Scotland and its many lochs. We also talked about Scottish culture and about the time period in which the book was written. Overall I didn't love this one as much as Charlotte, but they can't all be favorites and Calvin enjoyed it immensely.

Calvin gives the book two thumbs up, and my only real disappointment with it is the edition—I'd rather have found one without full page color ensembles of pictures from the movie. Here is Calvin's own summary, and a picture of the water horse rising up out of the water. It is a cute story.