MamaWit Haven: Books We've Read April 2019

It's the beginning of May, which means it's time to share the books we've read in April! I have to be totally honest. My personal reading was sorely lacking this past month. I even had three books from the library that I had to return without reading because they sat and became overdue. With all the planning and activity swirling around in my home and family, I just haven't found a lot of extra time! And that's okay. Life will settle down again soon. Right? Ahem. Anyway, moving on...

This is a collaboration hosted by Ingrid from Mommy & Mia Homeschool Chronicles, April from The Simple Rugged Path, and Lee from Creative 2X Mom. Be sure to check out the playlist for this collaboration at the end of this post, to see what books other moms have read in April with their families.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures for every book, as some I had to return to the library before I could get them in the shots. But that's okay! Let's dive in to what we did read in the month of April.

Family Devotionals

I'll bet these are starting to look familiar!

Daily Light on the Daily Path, compiled by the Samuel Bagster Family. Our morning and evening family devotional that contains only selected scriptures and nothing else. This one will last all year long. I can count on one hand how many we've missed all this year so far. By now, the kids are really weirded out when we miss a reading!

Leading Little Ones to God, by Marian M. Schoolland. This is our bedtime devotional to read with the kiddos. They've really gotten into answering the simple questions after the reading, and they ask to read the Bible passage at the end instead of myself. I love that they're enjoying this so much! We will be done with this by the end of May.

Morning Reading with the Kiddos

We are continuing to read through The Book of Virtues, by William J. Bennett. The kiddos (and Mom!) are really enjoying all the different kinds of literature, as well as the character lessons that come along with the readings. I often get asked for "one more!"

We finished You Come, Too, by Robert Frost, in April. Both of my boys wanted more poetry, so we checked out this one by Scott Elledge, called Wider Than the Sky. This is an amazing collection of all different kind of poems from many different poets. I think this is our favorite book of poetry yet! Unfortunately, since it's an interlibrary loan, we don't get to renew it, so we will have to return it long before we finish it. I would love to buy it, but I will have to look around. There is a copy on Amazon for a little over $40, and I just can't justify it at the moment. I'm hoping to find something for a little bit of a better price than that!

How God Fix Jonah, by Lorenz Graham. This is a collection of Bible stories as they were orally passed down in Liberia. It is written so that when you read it aloud, you would say it how the storytellers in Liberia would actually speak it. This is probably our favorite book of the month! I love books that give us a glimpse into other peoples and cultures and how their perspective can be so different and yet so familiar at the same time.

We finally finished The Blue Fairy Book! Myself and the kiddos all enjoyed this collection of fairy tales edited by Andrew Lang. We also started The Red Fairy Book in the month of April.

Personal Reading

Personal reading? Not so much in April! I am in a year-long process of monthly readings out of The Life-giving Home, by Sally & Sarah Clarkson. But, I'm going to need to catch up in May. I'm sad to say, I didn't even touch this book in April.

School Reading

This is a book I did read in April, as pre-reading for my son. Black Hearts in Battersea, by Joan Aiken. This is the second book in The Wolves Chronicles. The book follows Simon, who we met in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, to London to study art. He finds himself wrapped up in a strange and dangerous mystery. This one really hooked my 13-year-old into wanting to read the rest of The Wolves Chronicles! I really enjoyed this one, too, it was hard to put down!

The Return of the Indian, by Lynne Reid Banks. This is the first sequel to The Indian in the Cupboard. After winning an award for writing about his adventures in the first book, Omri gets a hankering to see Little Bear again. So he gets out the key to the magic cupboard. My 10-year-old is really loving this series and going through it as quick as we can get the next book from the library!

Is That It???

I think that's it for the books we read in April! I really, really feel like I'm missing something. But I think it's just because for me, there's really not a lot there! I hope to be reading more in May!