Read-at-Home Mom Report: August 2024 Wrap-Up

August Favorites

This was my biggest reading month of the year because of the Sealey Challenge, for which I read one poetry collection every single day of the month. The first few favorites on my list are the best of the 31 poetry volumes I read.

Andalusian Hours: Poems from the Porch of Flannery O'Connor by Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
I was really skeptical about these sonnets written in the voice of Flannery O'Connor, and they completely blew me away. I teared up at the end of the book. This book is every Flannery fan's dream.  

Someone Somewhere Maybe by Sophie Diener
These poems reminded me of everything I like about my favorite YA novels. 

Goldenrod: Poems by Maggie Smith

There wasn't a word out of place in a single poem in this collection. 

In a Time of Distance: And Other Poems by Alexander McCall Smith
I thought I didn't like this author because his detective series didn't appeal to me, but these poems were so interesting and readable. 

Jupiter Rising by Gary D. Schmidt|
This sequel to Orbiting Jupiter is so emotional, and so satisfying. I'm convinced Gary D. Schmidt can't write a bad book.

Love in the Eternal City by Rebecca W. Martin
This is the Catholic romance novel of my dreams. It was an honor to be on the launch team.

Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter
This is my second book from this author, and the second one I gave five stars. There's some language but it didn't bother me. I loved the characters.

Mother to Mother: Spiritual and Practical Wisdom from the Cloister to the Home by Mary Elizabeth Cuff
I reviewed this for Catholic Mom. You can read what I loved about it in my review over there.

Going Short: An Invitation to Flash Fiction by Nancy Stohlman
This is one of the most inspiring writing craft books I've ever read. 

Sealey Challenge 

• Break Your Glass Slippers by Amanda Lovelace (2 stars)
• Ten Poems for Difficult Times by Roger Housden (4 stars)
• Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander (4 stars)
• Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye (5 stars)
• Pessimism for Beginners by Sophie Hannah (4 stars)
• Questions About Angels by Billy Collins (5 stars)
• How to Fly in Ten Thousand Easy Lessons by Barbara Kingsolver (4 stars)
• A Piece of Good News: Poems by Katie Peterson (4 stars)
• Summer Snow: New Poems by Robert Hass (3 stars)
• Dearly by Margaret Atwood (4 stars)
• Cautionary Verses by Hilaire Belloc (4 stars)
• Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer by Maya Angelou (4 stars)
• American Melancholy: Poems by Joyce Carol Oates (2 stars)
• You Are Only Just Beginning: Lessons for the Journey Ahead by Morgan Harper Nichols (4 stars)
• Some Things I Still Can't Tell You: Poems by Misha Collins (5 stars)
• Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins (5 stars)
• When the Pie Was Opened by Jean Little (4 stars)
• The sun and her flowers by Rupi Kaur (4 stars)
• The Knopf National Poetry Month Collection (4 stars)
• Love Poems by Pablo Neruda (4 stars)
• Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson (4 stars)
• Harbinger: Poems by Shelley Puhak (4 stars)
• Classic Poems for Girls by Naxos Junior Classics (3 stars)
• Classic Poems for Boys by Naxos Junior Classics (4 stars)
• Zoom Rooms: Poems by Mary Jo Salter (4 stars)
• Swimming Lessons: Poems by Lili Reinhart (4 stars)
• The Milk Hours by John James (4 stars)
  

Read-Aloud Books 

• Spider Sparrow by Dick King-Smith (4 stars)
• The Little Grey Men by BB (4 stars)
• Mystery at Witchend by Malcolm Saville (3 stars)

Series and Sequels 

• Beany Has a Secret Life (Beany Malone Book 5) by Lenora Mattingly Weber (3 stars)
• Plotting Summer (Falling for Summer Book 3) by Jess Heileman (4 stars)
• Beauty and the Beach (Falling for Summer Book 5) by Gracie Ruth Mitchell (5 stars)
• Rebel Summer (Falling for Summer Book 7) by Cindy Steel (3 stars)
• The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike Book 2) by Robert Galbraith (4 stars)

Stand-Alone Books

• Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (5 stars)
• The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life by Richard Russo (4 stars)
• Guilty Creatures: Sex, God, and Murder in Tallahassee, Florida by Mikita Brottman (4 stars)
• My Life Begins! by Patricia Maclachlan (5 stars)
  
• Stella & Marigold by Annie Barrows (3 stars)
• The Zebra's Great Escape by Katherine Rundell (3 stars)
• Not Nothing by Gayle Forman (4 stars, but parents should screen content)
• The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham (3 stars)
• Cue the Sun by Emily Nussbaum  (4 stars)
• Girls Who Burn by M.K. Pagano (4 stars)

Family Reading Lists 

M. (girl, 10 years, 9 months old)

• Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson 

C. (girl, 8 years, 11 months old)

• Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel by Katherine Binney Shippen
• Disaster at Johnstown: The Great Flood by Hildegarde Dolson
• The Story of Thomas Alva Edison by Enid Lamonte Meadowcroft
• Felicia the Critic by Ellen Conford
• The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis 

E. (girl, 6 years, 10 months old) 

• She is diligently working her way through Redwall, but not yet finished. 

R. (boy, 4 years, 5 months old)

Independently, he read these easy readers: 

• Harry by the Sea
• Frog and Toad 
• Dragons Love Tacos
• Chicken said Cluck
• Woodchuck
• What Have I Got?
• Let's Get Turtles 
• Seeds and More Seeds
• Benny's Animals
• Nate the Great 
• Happy Jack
• Terry and the Caterpillars
• Emmett's Pig
• Big Max 

He also looked at/listened to:  

• Mr. Men series by Roger Hargreaves 
• Mr. Putter and Tabby series by Cynthia Rylant 
• I Spy Fantasy by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick 
• The Foggy, Foggy Forest by Nick Sharatt 
• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin 

A. (girl, 4 years, 5 months, old)

Independently, she worked on sounding out the words in Rag. 

She also looked at/listened to:  

• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin 
• I Spy Fantasy by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick
• Picture My World by by Séverine Cordier (Illustrator), Cynthia Lacroix

My husband 

• Hill of Little Miracles by Valenti Angelo
• Spider Sparrow by Dick King-Smith 
• Paula by Marguerite Vance 
• Seeing Past Z: Nurturing the Imagination in a Fast-Forward World by Beth Kephart