Indians of Pennsylvania

Indians of Pennsylvania

Lucille Wallower 1965

I found this little gem at the used bookshop a few years ago. It's in pretty rough shape and was obviously used by a school, but has lots of neat information in an easy to read elementary format.

Not too far from us the Wissahickon Valley Watershed sometimes offers a family educational day about the Lenni Lanape Indians that used to live in the area. We went once and the kids learned to shoot a bow and arrow, saw the different food the Indians ate and a woman of Lenni Lenape heritage came and demonstrated how they dressed and their customs. It was a neat program.

This book also has ideas for things you could make or try. It's a nice instructional tool as well as an interesting read.

Timelines Food Feasts, Cooks and Kitchens

Since next week we'll all be preoccupied with food, here's a great book all about it!

Food:  Feasts, Cooks and Kitchens

Richard Tames

designed by David Salariya 1994

It starts at the beginning and follows various ancient cultures around the world up to the present day. You'll learn about the methods of growing crops, the types of food ingredients available in different regions, cooking styles, and how spices and sugar shaped politics and nations.  Filled with information, we never get tired of looking at books like this.

(Madeleine said they learned about Roman fish sauce in her Latin class- it doesn't look that appetizing to me!)

Merrily Comes Our Harvest In

Merrily Comes Our Harvest In

selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins 1978

illustrations by Ben Shecter

If you're looking for poems about Thanksgiving, here's the book for you. There are rhyming poems, silly poems, ones about food and being thankful.

Other Thanksgiving books:

Over the River and Through the Woods

N.C. Wyeth's Pilgrims

A Thanksgiving Story

The First Thanksgiving

The Pilgrims and Me

Mind Your Manners

Our Country's First Ladies

Our Country's First Ladies

Ann Bausum

This is a really fascinating book about the First Ladies. Each page has a beautiful portrait and in-depth biographical information. Not all Presidents had wives while they were in office so often a niece or friend or daughter-in law filled in as hostess. It starts with Martha Washington (naturally) and ends with Laura Bush. While so much attention is given to learning about the Presidents, I really loved reading about the women who were also in the white house, sometimes behind the scenes and sometimes right out front.

Madeleine had to learn all the presidents this year for her history class so it was neat to put their lives in a familial context. And it was quite interesting to see the role of a First Lady change through out the course of history.

That Terrible Halloween Night

Losing power during Hurricane Sandy has been part fun adventure, part annoying inconvenience!  Just got word that our township has even postponed Halloween until Saturday.  

That Terrible Halloween Night

James Stevenson 1980

This book always makes me chuckle.  It's Halloween night and two kids want to scare their grandpa.  But grandpa doesn't scare easy all because of that one Halloween Night he survived years ago.  He tells them the story (more ridiculous than scary) and the amusing ending will strike a chord with any grownup.

Edgar Allan Poe

No October reading would be complete without Edgar Allan Poe.  I went through a fierce Poe faze when I was in high school.  I read all of his stories and poems (my best friend even gave me the big blue bound 'complete works' that still sits on my bookcase).  So it's no surprise that we took advantage of an early school dismissal to visit the Brandywine River museum where they were hosting a special exhibition-  "Picturing Poe:  Illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's Stories and Poems".  Some of the artwork is amazing (the detailed black ink drawings of Harry Clarke were my favorite).  The show is up until November and I definitely recommend seeing it if you're in the area.

(exhibition catalogue)

Along with a paperback collection of stories (with a particularly attractive cover), we also have this collection of poems with dark and beautiful illustrations (the original of this book was on display at the Brandywine).

The illustrated Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe

art by Edmund Dulac (reprint 2001)

Edgar Allen Poe:  An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories

Harry Lee Poe 2008

For biographical information (and Poe has a pretty sordid life history) this book has all sorts of pull out notes and pictures and tidbits. I love the over all design, artwork and layout of this book- I felt like it really kept to the spirit of Poe's era and works.