It's Friday

Okay everyone, just to clarify, the answer was "c; both of the above."

I'm not going to launch into full weekly review for various reasons, but I did want to submit reviews of two particularly delicious books we consumed this week.

The runner-up: William Shakespeare & the Globe, by Aliki. It's not always the case when we read nonfiction, but by the end Ian was glued (Eliza was sort of in and out). I suggested to him, with a twinkle in my eye, that we hop on a plane and go check out the Globe Theatre in London next weekend, and he seemed game. Sort of like my burning desire to go to Italy after reading all about Michelangelo. (My neighbors are taking their four kids to do that next week, by the way. For nine days. No. Not jealous AT ALL.) Anyway, the book is brilliantly illustrated, with real Shakespeare quotes throughout, and a nicely done modern tie-in, with a focus on the man who resurrected the Globe Theatre in our lifetime.

The Grand Prize winner: A delightful little book that I had never even heard of before (how did I miss this growing up?) called Twenty and Ten. Caroline took a LONG nap one day so our reading of the first chapter turned into greedy feasting on the entire book, all five or six chapters thereof. It's about some French refugee children during WWII, living under the care of a nun in the Alps, who shelter ten Jewish children from the Nazis who are hunting them down. With themes of courage and sacrifice and loyalty, this book is all that you hope for when you want to "show, don't tell" with your kiddos. When we finished, Ian went over to play with Oscar, and I heard him chattering about the plot, sort of giving him a gratuitous infomercial -- for a book! That I read to him! Yahoo! They begged to read it all over again the next day, in fact.

Speaking of reading aloud, in case you're wondering, yes, it's a nightmare when Caroline's awake. That's just the bald truth. Anne, Tracee, I know you know what I mean -- there's just no such thing as stringing three sentences together uninterrupted. You get so your child can be flooding the bathroom as she happily pours out "tea," as mine did this morning, and your older one says, "Mama, Caroline's getting water all over the floor," and you just grin and say, "Yes, I know," and think to yourself that the water bill will be high, but cheaper than preschool. I remember reading something on the famous-among-homeschoolers Susan Wise Bauer's website where she talks about sending her toddler to his bed with a dish of chocolate chips to keep him busy while she read to the older ones. Yup, entirely plausible. What, darling? You're emptying the contents of your rice box onto the patio? (true) You're stark naked and juggling steak knives in the kitchen? (not so much) But you're quiet and happy for a good 15 minutes? Excellent. Carry on!