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Everybody, I need book recommendations for where YOU live…
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I would love help from everyone here. Would you be willing to share one or two personal book recommendations about the area where you live?
I am compiling a living book resource list for books related to cities, states, regions, countries, events or biographies surrounding these places that will help families when they are preparing their children to travel to a destination.
For example, you are traveling to San Antonio, TX and would like to have a book list of great living literature to read with your children before you go.
I am using the library system, but I feel that personal recommendations are so much more valuable.
If you are willing to share, please tell the country, state or area the book represents along with the book title. — If you are feeling extra helpful, a one sentence summary would be great!
If you have traveled to a destination and have a book list you compiled yourself that you can share that would be amazing. My email address is amy(at)hsneighbor.com if you’d rather email.
Thanks SO Much!
Amy Davidson
Home Schoolers Home Exchange Neighborhood.
(Sonya, when I’m done, I will be sure to share my findings with you for your book finder)
What a great idea! It’s funny that you mentioned San Antonio, that’s where we are! The book that comes to my mind regarding San Antonio is “Voices of the Alamo” by Sherry Garland (the Alamo is pretty much THE main attraction here!). Garland speaks in the voices of 16 characters whose lives lead up to the present day. It is a very good book and all my children love reading it before we go visit the Alamo. 😀
Rachel
We live in East TN and one of the best children’s books that is specific to this area is called The Great Smoky Mountain Salamander Ball. Did you know that the Smoky Mountains is the salamander capital of the world??
If you know the FIAR (Five in a Row) and ever read/row The Salamander Room, this is a GREAT go-along.
Also, if you ever happen to visit this way, make sure you go to Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Smokies, they have rangers that will take you to the creek and hunt salamanders with you and your kids! It is awesome and so fun!! 🙂
Oh, here is a link for the book:
I use this all the time when trying to describe to people where I’m from (though it seems fewer and fewer are familiar with this classic) The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck for Bakersfield, CA (or just the central valley of CA in general) – one might be going through this area on a trip to see the giant sequoias of the Sequoia National Park or perhaps on their way to Yosemite.
Did you know that Mississippi is the only state to have an official state toy? It’s the teddy bear! Why? Read Holt and the Teddy Bear by Jim McCafferty and find out! Hurry, though. It may be going out of print.
Karen
I thought of a few more. Hope I can get the link to work:
Michael Shoulders 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi: a Mississippi Numbers Bookhttp://www.amazon.com/1-Mississippi-Numbers-Count-Across/dp/1585361887/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244137810&sr=1-8
The same author also wrote A Mississippi Alphabet Book.
Laurie Parker has some good titles on Mississippi (primarily), Louisiana, and Texas http://www.quailridge.com/parkerbooks.html
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for, but Mississippi’s best known writers were William Faulkner and Eudora Welty. Welty, especially, was excellent at getting the small-town Mississippi feel of the 1920s through 1950s.
Holt and the Teddy Bear is in print. http://www.pelicanpub.com. It also has lots of selections for Texas, Louisiana, and other Southern states.
Karen
Thank you so much for taking a minute to share these! They are just the types of books I’m looking for! Thanks so much for all your input! Keep them coming!
OK, I’m probably going overboard here, but check out this link (they may not all be living books):
http://www.highsmith.com/pdf/librarysparks/2009/lsp_may09_fnf_jan.pdf
Karen
My son just finished Mitt, the Michigan Mouse and really enjoyed it. The mouse travels all over the state. There are 4 in this series written by the same author. They are Minn from Minnesota , Mitt and Minn at the Wisconsin Cheese Jamboree, and one Mitt and Minn’s Illinois Adventure. But when I checked out the site ( http://www.mittenpress.com ) I noticed there are other authors who have written about other states.
We checked out the audiobook Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson the other day (we’re from GA, but I thought this applies). Personally I think my 4 year old reads with better inflection, but I digress, the story itself is pretty cute. It is a short fictional story based on a true story – there is a synopsis of the real story at the end of how a man took various fruit trees across the plains to Oregon and how the apple industry (apparently one of the biggest crops in OR) got started up there. I look forward to seeing this list when it’s finished!
Mine are not very fun or unusual. 🙁 We have a farm on the prairie in MN near Walnut Grove and Plum Creek, so On the Banks of Plum Creek works–or any prairie Little House book. Also, I lived in Eau Claire, WI so Caddie Woodlawn is what I read to cover that area. We are in Alabama right now and just finished The Sower’s Series book on George Washington Carver. It was an excellent book–we all loved it. 🙂
Well, we are going to South Dakota in a few weeks and I’ve compiled a couple of books to use with the kids. One is Old Sam, Dakota Trotter by Don Alonzo Taylor. This is a living book. Part of the Living History Library of Bethlehem Books. Another book we are enjoying is M is for Mount Rushmore, A South Dakota Alphabet. They have all the states in that series for anyone who is interested. We love those books. They are by Sleeping Bear Press.
Not a personal recommendation of titles read, but I thought I’d share this with you:
http://www.wholesomebookclub.org/WholesomeBookClubCatalogMay2009.pdf
-Kim
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