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Book Talk

French Kids Eat Everything

February 18, 2013 by amanda Leave a Comment

After reading several heated threads about this book, I decided that I needed to read it ASAP. I have to say that I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, and it has given me new insight into cultural beliefs about food that are decidedly American (but I thought were universal.)

As the longer title suggests, this book is about a family who moved to France, revolutionized the way their family ate, cured their picky eaters, stopped snacking, and then ultimately moved back to North America and realized that it was much harder to maintain when you’re outside of the French culture.

First, let me say that this is not the same author who wrote French Women Don’t Get Fat. That’s a whole different lady, making a whole different point.

This author, Karen Le Billon, married a Frenchman and decided that it’d be fun to go live in France for a year. At first, it was hard for her to adjust to the way of life in France. She was one of the few people at the supermarket. The locals shopped at their local fresh market that was held downtown. At the market downtown, you tell the vendor which day/meal you plan on eating a particular food, and they pick the perfect item for that timing. It is a slow process, and very personalized.

As she adjusted to the ways of shopping, she also learned that the French approach food education with their children completely differently. They encourage the kids to view new foods as exciting, rather than scary, and expect for kids to need to try foods many times to develop a taste for it. They don’t snack, as that makes the child less hungry for real food at the meals. They also view mealtimes as a special occasion (with most people still going home for hot lunches, their biggest meal), and eating on the go is a big no-no.

The author also learns first-hand that school lunches are a whole different beast in France. There is only one option, the kids sit at tables with tablecloths and real silverware. The meal is a traditional 4-course meal, with a cheese course and everything, and there is NO personalizing the meal. The idea is that if you are given good food, you should eat it. They view the idea of giving kids a choice in what they eat as stunting — leading to having an adult population who is still picky like toddlers.

One thing that I didn’t expect, but really appreciated, is that the author is coming from a background of what she considers attachment parenting (although it is bordering on permissive), and she has no desire to adopt the parts of French culture that are far from AP, including the appalling low breastfeeding rate in France. I didn’t feel like she took an overly rosy view of French culture, but I did like how she took the things that worked and found ways to use them in her life, both in France and when they returned to North America.

I think this book is well worth the read. It has yummy recipes in the back, including a killer mousse au chocolat that we made. Her descriptions of how food is approached in France were really eye-opening for me, and have changed the way we approach mealtimes. Definitely check it out if you get the chance. 🙂

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National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia

January 27, 2013 by amanda Leave a Comment

Well, not every book can be a winner.

My kids LOOOOOVE animal encyclopedias. They read them like novels. We were at Barnes and Noble a few days ago when my kids found the National Geographic Animal Encyclopedia and begged us to buy it. We ended up surprising them with it later. Tonight I asked my son how it is, and he said, “It is nice, but a lot of the pictures are wrong.”

We sat down, and he showed me a picture of a Ground Squirrel that was labeled as a Prairie Dog. I agreed with him that it was a Ground Squirrel, but a fairly innocent mistake. Next he showed me a picture of a King Vulture that said it was an Andean Condor. There was definitely no mistaking that one. Next he showed me this page:

Red Ant?
Red Ant?

Erm, yeah… That’s pretty bad.

He went back to reading, and just a second later noticed that the Sea Nettle was labeled as an Urchin, and the Urchin as a Sea Nettle. I’m sure he’ll find more mistakes as he continues to read it.

What a bummer. I expected them to have better editors at National Geographic. 🙁 If your kids want an animal encyclopedia, I definitely recommend on passing on this one.

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Cliques, Hicks, and Ugly Sticks

February 4, 2012 by amanda Leave a Comment

While browsing to see which book I might want to review next, Cliques, Hicks, and Ugly Sticks by K.D. McCrite immediately caught my eye. It is the second book of “The Confessions of April Grace” series, although I didn’t realize that until I finished the book.

The story is told by April Grace, an 11-year-old in Arkansas in 1986. April Grace is starting junior high and her world seems to be falling apart. The new school year starts and one of her best friends is now snotty and mean to her at school, boys are starting to notice her (which makes her uncomfortable), and then her parents drop the bombshell that they have a new baby on the way. The book follows April Grace’s life through the first half of her school year as she tries to adjust to all of the changes in her life.

Reading this book was fun. I smiled at the descriptions of life in the 80’s. April Grace’s character has a great blend of innocence and spunk that translates well for the tween crowd. I think my daughter will really relate to her. I’m going to get the first book of the series and I plan on reading them aloud with my kids.

This book is published by Thomas Nelson, but the Christian message is very subtle in it and I think it would be an appropriate book regardless of a person’s faith. The overall tone of the book is positive without being syrupy. I’d definitely recommend this book and I look forward to checking out the rest of the series.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Friday Favorites

January 27, 2012 by amanda 3 Comments

What have you been enjoying this week? Here are a few of our favorites:

Favorite Non-Fiction Children’s Author:
Nic Bishop

We just discovered Nic Bishop’s books, and we have been LOVING the gorgeous photography and interesting facts. For instance, I didn’t even know about the osmeterium (a smelly organ that black swallowtail butterflies use to defend themselves by wiping on attackers) until I read his book on butterflies and moths. Each of his books is beautiful in it’s own way, and I recommend them very highly.

Favorite nerdy video:
Doodling in Math: Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant

This is such a great way to show the relevance of math, and it is really fun to watch. My whole family enjoyed viewing it and discussing the math behind each of the three parts.

Favorite laptop cover:

Source: etsy.com via HippieMommy on Pinterest

I’ve been hunting around for the perfect cover for my little laptop, and I fell in love with this one instantly.

Favorite workout:
Zumba, of course!

As many of you know, I really love Zumba classes. This week I signed up to take the instructor training. It is a little (OK, totally) outside of my comfort zone in some areas, but it seems perfectly natural in other ways. I taught cheerleading when I was younger, so hopefully those skills will transfer! I’m sure I’ll be scared to death to start, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. I saw this pin earlier, and it sums up my feelings:

Source: nbp.org via HippieMommy on Pinterest

Favorite song for working out:
Shake, Senora by Pitbull w/ T. Pain and Sean Paul

I love dancing to this song in Zumba. My classes have each done different choreography than what is shown in this video, but I’d definitely take this instructor’s class too. 🙂 It looks fun!

Favorite knitting pattern:
Deep Blue Sea Shark Mittens

How cute are these? They include a pattern for a shark bite victim, which is great too. My kids are in love with them.

Favorite recipe:
Elana’s Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, I know… I’m not the biggest fan of agave nectar either, but these cookies are soooo good. No one ever guesses they’re gluten-free, casein-free and sugar-free. I’ve been all three of those things (gf/cf/sf) for the past 2 1/2 weeks or so, and I’m feeling awesome. The inflammation that I was dealing with in my knees is totally gone, as are my random low-level headaches. I should’ve done this a long time ago.

I hope you enjoy a few of our favorite things from this week! What have you been up to?

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Filed Under: Book Talk, Knitting, Thoughts

Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall

January 13, 2012 by amanda 1 Comment

One of the reasons that I love reading autobiographies is because I believe strongly in Charlotte Mason’s teaching that “autobiographies… often lift the veil, for the writer may make free with himself.” Even though this book isn’t the kind of book I normally discuss on here, I find it really interesting to read other people’s stories and learn from them. I thought some of you might like it too 🙂

I picked up this book with no expectations. Aside from the press attention that occurred during the trial of Warren Jeffs, I knew very little about the FLDS or Elissa Wall.

This book taught me many things about the FLDS sect. Before reading this, I didn’t realize that the “prophet” had such power over the everyday lives of the members of their community. As Walls says early on in the book, “The prophet decides when two people should marry, when families can form, and when families that are not working are to be reorganized.”

She also describes how,

It was common practice to expel men… all that is required is for the prophet or someone acting at his direction to say: “You have lost your priesthood.” The significance of this is enormous for believers, as it creates a culture of fear. If a husband loses his priesthood, his family is literally no longer his. In addition, he has to leave his land and home because his home is owned by the FLDS Church and controlled by the priesthood. Faithful wives and children will accept these decisions and wait to be reassigned to another man.

Elissa’s story helped me to better understand the mindset of someone in the FLDS. I’ve never understand why polygamy was so central to the faith of those in the FLDS. Wall’s explanation of how a man must have three wives in order to attain the highest level of heaven was really eye-opening. This “need” to have at least three wives drives men to do what they can to please to prophet and show how faithful they are. This is the only way that they may have at least 3 wives assigned to them and not have their wives ever taken away. Removal of their wives (and subsequent reassigning of their families to new men) causes men to lose their place in heaven.

In this book, Elissa is honest about what her life in a polygamous family was like. There were parts that were great and parts that they tried to hide. I’ve seen interviews with women who live in plural marriages, but reading it from a child’s point of view was enlightening. It is clear that Elissa really loves her family and that she feels that her mother and father were trying to do their best to walk the line between taking care of their families and doing what they felt they needed to do to ensure them all a place in heaven.

Reading about the psychological impact of cultural conditioning was both sad and fascinating. Many of the teachings were strange and contradictory, but they were accepted. One such is example is that “Warren preached that when a family remarried to another man, God changed their blood and DNA to match that of the priesthood man they now belonged to. If we did not have worthy blood running through our veins, we could not gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven.” Pretty crazy, no?

I saw that other reviewers criticized Elissa because she could come across as immature or unable to take responsibility. It did not come across that way to me. On the contrary, I read it as a book written by a woman who is still young, still finding herself, and still in the midst of healing. I thought that she tried to be honest about her shortcomings. I think that she shared a lot of her flaws and that they made her story more credible rather than less.

I enjoyed reading this book. My one complaint is that I wish that they would’ve made the authorship more clear. I finished the book wondering how many of the words were from Elissa and how many were from her co-author. On GoodReads, Elissa’s name is listed first, but the Kindle edition has her co-author, Lisa Pulitzer first. The book is written as a first-hand account, but the listing of Lisa Pulitzer first makes me wonder how much was reconstructed by her.

Overall, I’m glad that I read this book. It was far less graphic than I expected, and I think she did a good job of explaining her side of the story.

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The Biggest Bear and other picture books for older children

January 12, 2012 by amanda 4 Comments

The kids and I have been working our ways through both the Newbery and Caldecott medal and honors lists as part of the #nerdbery and #nerdcott challenges. We’ve already found dozens of new books to love. Sometimes we all agree, and sometimes our reviews are mixed.

Today I’d like to share our opinions on The Biggest Bear, Snow White, and Baboushka and the Three Kings. Each of these books had strong points and weaknesses. My 7-year-old and I had different opinions about The Biggest Bear, so I’ve also included her review here.

The Biggest Bear

My review:
I was really excited when I first picked up The Biggest Bear. The illustrations are beautiful and instantly caught my eye. Despite this first impression, I was a little disappointed once I started reading. The story really shows it’s age. There are many parts of the book that could seem shocking to young kids, particularly those who live a suburban or urban life.

The story follows a young boy who wishes to shoot and kill the biggest bear. He goes into the woods with his gun, but he finds a cub rather than a large bear. Instead of killing the cub, he feeds it and brings home. As the bear grows, he starts to cause mischief, and the boy tries unsuccessfully to lose the bear. The point comes when he must kill the bear. Right before the bear is shot, the bear becomes afraid and runs into a trap. This trap was set by men at the zoo, who are thrilled to welcome the bear into their exhibit. The story ends with everyone happy about the bear going to the zoo.

This book is so gorgeous, but the content is probably a bit above the level of the average picture book reader. Parents who wish to avoid images of children with guns will want to skip this book. I was very disappointed that the consequences of the boy’s choice to feed the bear are never explored. I think this was a missed opportunity. It seems to end on a happy note and the boy’s actions are not questioned.

On a positive note: This book fueled good conversation with my older kids. I initially started reading it with my 1 1/2 year-old (who was drawn to the beautiful illustrations of the boy and the bear), but I decided to bail and distract her once we came to the part where the boy was taking the bear out to be shot.

My 7-year-old daughter’s review:
I like this book. It is a story of a boy who adopts a bear. The pictures are very realistic. I wish that I could draw that well! I thought it was really funny when the bear swam for 2 miles and didn’t get very wet. I like that the bear doesn’t get shot and gets put in the zoo.


Snow White
Also as part of the Nerdcott challenge, we recently read Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by the Brother’s Grimm. There are many editions of this book, and several have won awards. We decided to poke through a few of them and see what we thought.

One edition particularly caught my eye. It was illustrated by Tina Schart Hyman. She won the Caldecott Medal for Saint George and the Dragon, which is another family favorite and an Ambleside Year 1 selection. This particular retelling of Snow White is darker than most, and I wouldn’t recommend it for younger children. If your kids are a bit older and enjoy classical tales, I think this is a great book.


Baboushka and the Three Kings

And, finally, a book that differs in pretty much every way from the previous two. Baboushka and the Three Kings is a story with very simple illustrations, but it would be appropriate for any age. It is far shorter than the previous two books, and toddlers should have no problem sitting through it. It would be a great read-along with young kids around Christmastime when you are discussing traditions in different parts of the world.


I’d love to hear your opinion on these picture books or any others that you’ve read. Some of the other books that we’ve all recently enjoyed include Sam, Bangs and Moonshine, The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle, Hide and Seek Fog and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. How about you?

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Filed Under: Book Talk, Homeschool, Our Book Diet

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