Our Family Bookshelf
Here's what we're reading around here.

Cathy: Heartbreaking and riveting (although simplistic). Unbelievable.

David: The director of the British Museum discusses the incredibly
important objects the museum owns and why they changed history.

Carver: Science fiction buff that he is, this book is part of a series
he is thoroughly enjoying.

Lily: Nothing. (sigh)

Zinabu: Reluctantly reading a chapter book series after finishing the
Spiderwick Chronicles and mourning that fact that I won't let him read the next
Harry Potter book until next year. 

Book Review
Where have I been? Let me tell you... yesterday was 80 degrees and I was not about to waste all that lovely weather sitting in front of a computer. Plus the usual laundry and bills and errands. However, I have a great wrap up of our vacation and a book review for you, so here we go.

Vacation Day 5: we drove home. Yep. That's it. And we were so glad to get home. Car trips are wonderful, but sometimes the very best part is when you pull up to your house at the very end.

I recently read this book to Zinabu:

The book takes place in Chad, and the children build their school before starting lessons. It's a simple picture book suitable for all ages. We loved it, especially the part where the kids use a large pointing stick to point out letters on the blackboard. We have video of Z doing the very same thing at his orphanage school. At the end of the book, Z especially enjoyed the map of Africa. He loves maps. He had a lot of questions about why the kids didn't have a school to begin with. Why they were all in the same class. Why they were learning the alphabet. I completely loved the simple, colorful pictures and the story from another culture's perspective. Highly recommended for everyone!

Google Comes Through
Sometimes Google isn't my friend. Here are a few topics I've researched that more or less led me to the brink of insanity: dyslexia, headaches, lumps on collarbones, certificate of citizenship, giardia, dog training, french cooking, how to reinstall your printer, and rabbits. Google is going to send me to an early grave.

But this time Google came through. I was looking for Jane Potter, the co-author of African American Who Were First. And I found her. Then, through a bit of finagling with a writer's group, I sent an email that I asked to be forwarded to her. Guess what? She wrote back!

She and I have been exchanging emails this past week, and she is so happy to know that her book is changing our lives. Turns out African American Who Were First is out of print, but she also wrote African American Firsts: Famous, Little-Known and Unsung Triumphs of Blacks in America. In 2002 she wrote a new version of the book. A completely updated and expanded versions, still called African American Firsts, with Obama on the cover was published in 2009. It has lots more people and photographs, so you can bet we'll be purchasing that one for our permanent library.

Joan was also kind enough to ask for my children's names so that she can personally write a note to each of them. How cool is that?

My introverted personality does not often go out on a limb, but this is the perfect example of why I should and should do it more often. The world is at my doorstep, and I just need to reach out and grasp it.