Weekly book shelf, monthly edition: September

This is the last monthly edition. Probably. Because we will be traveling for the last two weeks of September we are putting the start of our classical, scheduled learning on hold until the first week of October. These first two weeks of September we are using to review past topics and make a plan for the rest of the year.

With that in mind, September was a month of rediscovering old favorites as we cleaned off shelves and reorganized for the coming scheduled year. All of these are rereads, which means he must have really loved them the first time to pick them up again.

Peter Pan and Wendy is not the Disney movie, and although it is sprinkled with a few similar faux pas that reflect the era of its composition, this story has its place. If nothing else, it's a good jumping off point for discussing the evolution of prejudices everywhere, but it's also a really imaginative and beautiful story. Plus it's written with challenging and rich language.

Ginger Pye is simple and sweet. A dog, some sweet kids, the dog gets stolen, chaos ensues. Simple and sweet.

The One and Only Ivan is a beautifully written story—one of the better children's novels to come out of our current era. The story of a caged gorilla and his friends and their efforts to help a baby elephant who has been added to their caged ranks, this is a book that will tug at the heart strings. It's also a social commentary on animal rights. A good one. Calvin rereads this one regularly.

Another regular revisit for Calvin, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is full of fantastic word play and hilarity that challenges a young reader to think, while making them laugh.