Ten Alternative Mystery Series to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys

2 Oct

What child doesn’t love a good mystery? However, I have found in my own home and in conversations with other adults that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys series can sometimes be too intense and frightening for younger to tween children. Have you found that to be the case? Your child, who is independent, suddenly has a fear of going to brush their teeth alone at night or going to bed and you realize that it must be something they are reading or watching on tv. I’ve been there!

With the help of a few fellow mamas, I have compiled a list of 10 additional mystery book series that will not disappoint. Did you catch that word, series? That means if your children like the first book there are at least five more in each set! That is a win!

The first two series are for both boys and girls:

 

 

These are most likely enjoyed by your boys:

For the girls:

Series for beginner readers that both boys and girls will enjoy:

Do you have more series to add to this collection? Let me know in the comments below!

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Read Alouds to Celebrate the Fourth of July

1 Jul

My family had the chance to visit Pike’s Peak a few years ago during our Colorado vacation. It was a beautiful sight to behold the inspiration for the patriotic song, America the Beautiful. This week, as we celebrate the founding of our country and the men who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to give the gift of freedom to us, here are a few books to provide inspiration and education. Happy Fourth of July to you and yours!


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12 Books to Celebrate Dad

6 Jun

He’s the wrestle champion, BBQ extraordinaire, advice giver, spiritual leader, firm foundation, trend setter, bread winner, shoulder to cry on. Yes sir, I am talking about Dad! It’s June and time to celebrate the fathers in our life. Below are 12 books that highlight dads and the special place they hold in the family, and in their children’s hearts.

A few ideas for sharing this particular stack of books:

  •  place these in a book basket and encourage your older, literate children to read them to your younger children
  •  have this special stack set aside for dad to read aloud
  • snuggle in close with your children and read them aloud yourself

In my own community, there are several families who will endure this day as they remember the man no longer here. A dear friend of mine wrote a post several years ago about her own family’s experience with Father’s Day soon after the death of her husband. If this sounds like someone you know, please pass this post along. Also, read it for yourself to see how you can help a family during this holiday. While these book suggestions below may not meet the needs of a family in such a situation, I may have one recommendation. Why not grab a copy and read aloud a stack of books, or a book, that your children’s father loved reading to them? Or maybe you could read a portion of his favorite book. I think this would be a nice way to remember the man and honor his memory even while acknowledging the huge loss.

For the dads still present with us today, we can’t wait to celebrate you! Here are 12 books to get started:

Danny’s dad takes him on illegal excursions (pheasant poaching), but this is a fun father/son story that you and your children won’t forget!

 

What books would you add to this list? Happy Father’s Day!

 

 

 

 

Purchase my book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale, on Amazon.

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Classical Conversations Booklist Cycle 1: Ancient History

15 May

Welcome all Classical Conversation families! Additionally, welcome to homeschooling families that use this list to supplement their ancient history study!

A few notes about the arrangement of books in this post:

  1. This booklist is a tool and not a checklist! Please use it to supplement your morning time routines or studies of CC memory work.
  2. My family will not read all these books listed each week. Instead, this will be a reference list for me to utilize in weekly book selections and in chapter book read alouds.
  3. The pictured links in the twenty-four week lists are my top suggestions for families new to Classical Conversations or with first year, abecedarian, students. I wanted to make this easy for you!
  4. The books are arranged in alphabetical order per week first by picture books, and then chapter books.
  5. Please leave any additional suggestions your family enjoys in the comments below. Thank you!

*All links below are affiliate links.

Week 1:


How Many Animals Were on the Ark?
Cabinet of Curiosities: Collecting and Understanding the Wonders of the Natural World
Karl, Get Out of the Garden!: Carolus Linnaeus and the Naming of Everything
The Seven Days of Creation
The Real Story of the Creation
The Real Story of the Flood
Adam and His Kin: The Lost History of Their Lives and Times
How to Think Like a Scientist: Answering Questions by the Scientific Method

Week 2:


The Assyrian Empire’s Three Attempts to Rule the World : Ancient History of the World | Children’s Ancient History
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science
Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems

Week 3:


Something From Nothing
Snow in Jerusalem (Albert Whitman Prairie Books (Paperback))
The Bronze Bow

Week 4:


Hosni the Dreamer: An Arabian Tale
Pyramid
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Week 5:



Cleopatra
Exodus
Pagoo
Temple Cat
The Egyptian Cinderella
the How and Why Wonder Book of Sea Shells
Tutankhamun
Boy of the pyramids, a mystery of ancient Egypt;
The Golden Goblet (Newbery Library, Puffin)
Mara, Daughter of the Nile (Puffin Story Books)

Week 6:


Galileo and the Stargazers
The Hero and the Minotaur
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth
Archimedes and the Door of Science (Living History Library)
The Children’s Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy
The Children’s Homer (Audiobook)

Week 7:

Augustus Caesar’s World
Beyond the Desert Gate
The Bronze Bow
The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt (Dover Children’s Classics)

Week 8:


From Cone to Pine Tree (Start to Finish Second Series)
Gandhi
I is for India (World Alphabets)
Oh Say Can You Seed?: All About Flowering Plants (Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)
The King’s Chessboard (Picture Puffin Books)
The Story of Little Babaji

Week 9:



A Single Pebble: A Story of the Silk Road
Kites
Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China
Ruby’s Wish
The Curious Garden
The Empty Pot
The Magic Pillow
The Master Swordsman & the Magic Doorway: Two Legends from Ancient China
The Seven Chinese Brothers (Blue Ribbon Book)
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt
The House of Sixty Fathers
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze

Week 10:



Grandfather’s Journey
In the Eyes of the Cat: Japanese Poetry For All Seasons
A Tree Is Nice (Rise and Shine)(Science)
The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks (Picture Puffins)
Today And Today
My Side of the Mountain (Puffin Modern Classics)(Science)
Pocket Guide to the Outdoors: Based on My Side of the Mountain
The Big Wave (Deals with death and religion-Excellent book!)

Week 11:


The Reason for a Flower: A Book About Flowers, Pollen, and Seeds (Explore!)
This is Rome: A Children’s Classic
Polycarp of Smyrna (Heroes of the Faith)

Week 12:


Genghis Khan (Illustrated Biography)
Marco Polo

Week 13:


A Boy Named Giotto
Sam and Dave Dig a Hole (Irma S and James H Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (Awards))
Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa

Week 14:



Anna Hibiscus (Set in modern day Africa, but a beautiful and loveable story series that will charm your readers!)
Anna Hibiscus (The audiobook is equally beautiful!)
A Rock Can Be (Millbrook Picture Books)
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (Rise and Shine)
King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian
Masters of the Renaissance: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and more

Week 15:



Around the World in a Hundred Years: From Henry the Navigator to Magellan
To the Top! Climbing the World’s Highest Mountain (Step-Into-Reading, Step 5)

Week 16:


The Corn Grows Ripe (Puffin Newbery Library)

Week 17:



Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale (Picture Puffin)
Stories From Africa
A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story (Violent content that may be suitable for your older children; however, a lovely story of hope and restoration.)

Week 18:

Secrets in Stone : All About Maya Hieroglyphics

Week 19:



Adelita: A Mexican Cinderella Story (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Week 20:


Hallelujah Handel
The Snake Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series) (Geography)

Week 21:


Black Whiteness: Admiral Byrd Alone in the Antarctic (Science)

Week 22:


If You Were Me and Lived in…Peru: A Child’s Introduction to Cultures Around the World (Volume 12)
Lost City: The Discovery of Machu Picchu
My Name Is Gabriela/Me llamo Gabriela (Rise and Shine) (English, Multilingual and Spanish Edition)
Paddington (Geography)
Secret of the Andes (Puffin Book)

Week 23:


Chatter, Sing, Roar, Buzz: Poems about the Rain Forest (Poetry)
The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest
Victoria Goes to Brazil (Children Return to their Roots)

Week 24:

Additional Resources:

In studying ancient history, our children are exposed to many different religions and worldviews. A wonderful way to reinforce the Christian worldview within other cultural contexts and religions is through missionary biographies. Heroes Then and Now provide wonderful biographical accounts of missionaries in the countries we study in history and geography. If you are unfamiliar with this series, I would recommend this starter kit. It contains four missionaries in geographical locations we memorize this cycle and the fifth is Corey Ten Boom which you could use for geography;y and history study in Cycles 2 and 3.

You might also consider these two:

An action packed, science audio series we love in our home is Jonathon Park. Here is the first complete set; there are ten in all and we have enjoyed and learned so much from each and every one. This series reinforces the creation perspective and the effects of the world-wide flood.

Two excellent history resources that we used before include:


Story of the World, Volume 1 Publisher: Peace Hill Press (Audio Version)

For study of composers:

For a closer look at how children live in the countries found in our memory work this year consider this:

I am adding the Wilderking Trilogy by Jonathan Rogers after seeing a comment on the Classical Conversations Facebook Page that it is fantasy written allegorically to the life of King David. How exciting! So let’s say it fits shall we?  I have the first book already on my shelf and can’t wait to dive in. Also, listen to Sarah Mackenzie of the Read Aloud Revival speak with author, Jonathan Rogers about this series and his other works here.

Finally, this last book has been such a valuable resource not only in compiling this list, but in studying the world with our children on numerous occasions. If you don’t already own this book by Jamie Martin, you will want to add it to your library of books on books.

You can now purchase my book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale, on Amazon.

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Welcome Read Aloud Revival Listeners!

5 Feb

 

Hello and welcome! My name is Brooke and I am so grateful that you are visiting This Temporary Home. I imagine that many of you may be new here from the Read Aloud Revival Podcast. If so, thanks for stopping by! It was an honor and a dream come true to chat with Sarah about books in general and those highlighting orphans and celebrating adoption specifically. In case you are a regular reader of the blog, but haven’t had the chance to listen to the podcast, head here to listen to Episode 87. You’ll love Sarah!

In order for you to become better acquainted, I am going to give you a few quick links that will hopefully take you where you want to go.

First, check out the Welcome Page. There you will find a brief introduction and a little more about the why behind this blog.

Next, visit the Community Page. There you will find links to my favorite posts by topic. A bit down the page will be all the posts I have written on foster care and adoption over the years.

Third, I am sure that if you listened to the podcast, you may want to get your hands on the orphan adoption book list. I am linking to all the booklist posts here, but you can also join the mailing list to receive your beautiful free pdf download designed by my friend Kasia.

Seven Books That Encouraged Me Along Our Journey (here)

Fifteen Picture Books To Celebrate Your Adopted Child (here)

Twenty Chapter Books that Highlight Orphans and Celebrate Finding Home(here)

Ten Books for Teens to Highlight Orphans and Celebrate Finding Home (here)

Over 50 Books To Highlight Orphans and Celebrate Adoption (here)

Christmas Books that Highlight Orphans and Celebrate Adoption (here)

Finally, I mentioned on the podcast that you could download a free copy of my book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale. You can do that by popping your email in the text box below. It is a separate sign up from the booklist, so you will want to sign up for both. Or you can order a physical copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale on Amazon.

Well, that should be it for now. I am so very glad you stopped by! Please take a minute or two to familiarize yourself with the site, the book posts, and anything else that interests you. Then feel free to introduce yourself or leave any questions you might have either in the comments or by emailing me at Brooke@ThisTemporaryHome.com. I can’t wait to get to know you!

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Kickstarter Update: We Did It!

5 Feb

The entire Cooney Family would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the overwhelming support and encouragement that we received on our Thirty Balloons Kickstarter Campaign. In less than four days you enabled us to meet our goal! Way to go!

We will share news with you later this week about our stretch goals, but, for today, we celebrate! If you haven’t had a chance to preorder your physical copy of the book there is still time left. Our campaign runs until March 3rd, so please keep spreading the word. We want to share the message of adoption, hope, family, and reading aloud to children with as many people as possible. You can do that by sharing this link.

Thanks so much again,


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Building Strong Families

29 Jan

Shared experiences. This is perhaps the number one way to build strong families. These shared experiences can be over service opportunities, spiritual disciplines, sports, nature walks, hiking, hobbies, and, one of our favorite ways, that of sharing great books.

In making the list of over 50 books highlighting orphans and celebrating adoption, I may have mistakenly thought that I was building a list of books dealing with broken families. While that is true on the one hand, it is an inaccurate assumption on the other. Families involved in orphan and foster care are typically looking to share strong family values with the children they foster or adopt.

Many of the books I recommend indeed celebrate family. In championing adoption, we are ultimately championing family. Nearly all of the picture books celebrate finding home and a place of safety and acceptance. A few of the chapter books that immediately come to mind which celebrate strong families encountered within the story, even while beginning in brokenness are:

I recently read The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, and it is such a beautiful story, for one reason among many, in that it esteems a strong family relationship. Sometimes we read books and see ourselves in them, sometimes we read them and see relationships as we wish they were. For children in the foster system, this book would fall into the later category.

That is another reason why I am so excited about my new book, Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale. (Did you download your free copy yet?) It is a story about adoption, but it is simultaneously a story about a family wanting to add to their number, share the blessing of family that they have, and champion not only the cause of the orphan, but the power of family. How like God that he would join passions of my husband, to build strong families through counseling and biblical teaching, with our desire to adopt, and mine to write. This is the first time that I have looked at these three life goals and see them colliding as one.

The Kickstarter Campaign for Thirty Balloons is live! Click here to back our campaign and watch our video to learn more about the project. I can’t wait for you to preorder your copy, or copies, to share.

What are some of your favorite books that have strong families threaded within? I would love to read them too.

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A New Book to Carry With You

26 Jan

Sometimes I marvel which childhood bents will carry over to adulthood. For me, the love of a good book is probably foremost. So much so, that I remember on one occasion alphabetizing my home library. I must have been in third or fourth grade. Perhaps I also instituted a check-out operation, though for whom I cannot say.

The first book that clicked with me I checked out from my school library in the third grade. The name of the text has long eluded me. For years I looked in the same corner of the little school library for the book with the girl and the wagon wheel on the front only to be evaded. It is of little importance what the book was, or even its content. What matters is that the love of reading and learning was unlocked.

From that point on,  I was found digging through treasure troves of books. The hardcover, yellow-paged volumes were my favorite. Black Beauty (Dover Children’s Evergreen Classics), Little Women (Puffin in Bloom), The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew, Book 1), and Old Yeller (Perennial Classics) soon became reading companions which still hold honored places on my shelves.

Then there are those books, purchased brand new especially for, or by, me. Books like Charlotte’s Web, Where the Red Fern Grows, A Little Princess (Puffin in Bloom), Matilda, and The Little House (9 Volumes Set). What memories I have of transforming new books into old friends! The sight, smell, and touch of them take me back to the age and place I was when I first read them and they became a forever part of me.

Today, our home library exceeds the shelf space allotted. Now, as then, I continue to find searching for classic and modern volumes therapeutic.

Many childish ways I left behind, but the books I carried with me.

The books we read to our children and the books they find as faithful friends, read and reread as yearly rhythms, they will carry with them long after they themselves can be carried.

Today, I want to encourage you to add a new volume to your shelf.  A new book to turn into worn pages, and its contents into an old friend.

I have written a children’s picture book, illustrated by my oldest daughter, Emily, about our adoption journey of our youngest son. From our first meeting, through the months and months of holding onto hope and seeking his adoption, this story will encourage and inspire you as you wait on the happy endings in your own life.

Many of you have read posts over the years concerning our adoption and foster care journey. Now, you can read our adoption tale to the children in your life that will leave them inspired, asking questions, and perhaps ready to slay a few dragons of their own that stand in the way of them attaining their God-given dream. I hope you will!

I believe that real books read on the laps of parents and with loved ones are the best tools to introduce and reaffirm the magic of story and strengthen family bonds. That’s why I am excited that you can purchase your own copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale on Amazon. I am also offering a free pdf download for those who pop their email into the box below! I pray it is a book you will want to carry with you. Go ahead and download your copy now! Then head over to Amazon to order a copy of Thirty Balloons: An Adoption Tale to read with your family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Christmas Books to Round Out National Adoption Awareness Month

30 Nov

As we close the last day of National Adoption Awareness Month and turn our eyes towards Christmas, I propose a few more seasonal stories to warm your heart. Tales to remind us of great needs in the world and our abilities to make a change not for every child, but perhaps for just one.

My daughter and I have already listened to and are listening to again, The Christmas Doll. The older kids and I are nearly done with I Saw Three Ships, a new favorite from last year.  I can hardly wait to read aloud Holly and Ivy; a book that spurred me on two Christmases ago just after we met our youngest adopted son and were realizing this would be a long journey. Just how long, we had no idea! Finally, The Matchbox Girl is a beautifully illustrated, sorrowful tale that reminds me of our need to not pass people by. We must look to help in each situation as the Holy Spirit leads us and make a difference in the lives of children God puts in our path.

May you find these stories to be welcome addition to your holiday reading. If you like these, you might also like more of our Christmas favorites over here.

Happy reading and Merry Christmas!

 

 

*If you are reading this in your email head on over to the original post for the book links here.

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Five Easter Books for Your Preschooler

27 Mar

 photo (119)

One of the ways we prepare for Easter in our home is through Christ centered literature. While we love the signs and symbols of spring in the beautiful flowers and precious animals that are God’s gift to man within creation, we like to keep the central message the new life in Christ.

Christ laid down His life so that we could take up new life in Him.

The book links below are targeted for preschool through second grade learners. Perhaps you would like to check these out at your local library or purchase them at your favorite bookstore. Happy Easter and may your celebration be rooted in Him.

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Great to use with the Resurrection Eggs available at your local Christian bookstore.

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