Alexandra is in a homeschool book club at our local library this year. They are reading the Texas Bluebonnet nominees for 2008/2009. Then, in January, every child in Texas who has read at least 5 of these books gets to vote on them.
The first book we started (and just finished) is a LARGE book called Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. This is a wonderful story and the book itself is different than I've ever read. The book is about 550 pages long! But, there are TONS of 2-page spread pictures. In fact, sometimes you go through about 40 pages of pictures in a row! And, I just love the illustrations. I copied a few in my own book (like the one above).
We have loved learning about automata - mechanial figures like the one in the video below. I can't believe how detailed these machines from 1800's were - and there aren't any computer chips in them!
Here are some great sites you might want to visit if you read this book:
- The official site of Hugo Cabret
- Scholastic's Hugo Cabret site with great games, etc.
- Another blog, Cabinet of Wonders, with a post with quite a few videos of automaton
- And, I hope to try this out - a free, printable paper "automata" of a sheep - there are also a few others on this site
This video is of the author, Brian Selznick, and the automata that he used as inspiration for this book.
We loved the Invention of Hugo Cabret here too, back in March...I even did a post too:
ReplyDeletehttp://canadianhomelearning.blogspot.com/2008/03/invention-of-hugo-cabret.html
if you want to see!
take care,