Hand That Rocks the Cradle: 400 Classic Books for Children
We’re updating and revising our booklet Hand That Rocks the Cradle. It will have many more reviews and a different format.
It has been suggested that we include the following books on our list, but I’m not familiar with any of them and don’t have time right now to read them.
What is your opinion?
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Lottery by Rose Irene Hunt
The Victory Garden by Lee Kochenderfer
A Gathering of Days by Joan Blos
Soft Rain by Cornelia Cornelissen
This book has been one in my household from my younger days so I am glad to see this one being included.
This book is a journal that was kept by a New England 13 year-old girl named Catherine Cabot Hall.
She kept it over the course of two years and it tells of her daily life.
The journal was given to her by her father as a gift. Hopefully, this book will inspire children to keep journals of their own and record the events that take place in their own lives. What’s important here is that children find a place and a space that they can make uniquely theirs and that they find comfort.
Catherine Cabot Hall looked upon her journal as a dear and trusted friend. Children need to feel accepted and loved and feel that their words do matter and can make a difference.
Catherine was about 13 when she started her journal. From about 11 onward, children begin to see life from a more mature perspective and start asking the big questions of life and themselves. They start becoming sympathetic,compassionate and turn inward on a journey to find themselves and may welcome the gift of a journal so that they can keep stock of their lives, their emotions, their growth.
Maureen is writing about Gathering of Days. I’m sorry to disagree with her recommendation of this book.
It’s been some years since I read it, but as I recall, the girl disobeys her father, esteeming her own understanding over his in a situation that had the potential to threaten her safety… something about a man hiding in the woods and she goes to see him, I think…
Anyway, I gave it to our oldest daughter to read based upon the recommendation of others, and after she read it, I read it. I immediately got rid of it so the other children wouldn’t read it. It’s hard enough to teach children obedience!