Jexium Island
Have you ever had that "brain itch" experience: when there is something just hanging on to the edge of your memory and you can almost see it, but not quite -- it stays just out of focus and out of reach. It's on the tip of your tongue and drives you crazy. Unfortunately, this is an all too common experience for us. Just this evening we were enjoying dinner with friends and we hit on an old Crash Test Dummies song and for the life of us we couldn't get it out. We all gave our best bad impressions of the lead singers deep voice.
It got me (Aaron) scratching again at one of my favourite childhood books. My sixth grade teacher at Parkdale Elementary School, Vance Bryant, had read it to our homeroom class in the mid-eighties. It was this incredible story of kidnapped children being sent to live on an island in the mid Atlantic, forced to mine Jexium. Without any adults, the kids were left to build their own society and discover the mystery of how they had come to the myst shrouded island. It was unlike any story I had ever heard, or read, before. I've often looked for it in used book stores and libraries, but was never fully sure of the title or author. Tonight, after our Crash Test Dummies experience, I decided to google my best guesses at the title and stumbled upon it about 25 years later. It is one book from my childhood that I would love to read with our children. I was shocked to discover that it was only published and printed once back in 1957. I can't believe that it may one day disappear.
Do you have any favourite children's books that you hope will remain for other generations to read. Any favourite books that you think children should be reading. We'd love to read your comments and suggests!
Hi to all the Kennys,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you are growing readers there. As a retired school teacher, I commend you. I expect that you are familiar with The Narnia Series by C S Lewis. If not I recommend them highly. A book "I would die for you" by Brent & Deanna Higgins about their 15 yr old son should be required reading by every teenager. It is on our WMS reading list this year.
Blessings,Shirley Gamble CNBC
Hi Shirley,
ReplyDeleteWe are all avid readers here, and yes, C.S. Lewis is one of our favourite authors. We all have favourites within the Narnia series, but The Horse and His Boy, is my personal choice.
We've never read "I would Die for You", so thank you for the recommendation!
We appreciate your encouragement and your comments.
Blessings, the five Kennys
Wow, it's so hard to predict what will hold the interest of the next generation, but I'm betting on these for a start. I took a walk in my library (middle school) this morning and jotted some notes down. I'd be pleased to send any of these to you with someone going Nairobi way. (Anything marked with a * is a Canadian author. I can say that the Canadian children's authors can hold their own with any others these days!)
ReplyDeleteHistorical Canadian fiction
* My Story series (various authors)- slanted toward boys
*Eric Walters - anything at all
* Dear Canada series - diary format, for girls
*Deborah Ellis's The Breadwinner series - life in Afghanistan for a family during the Taliban
years
*Christopher Paul Curtis - lives in Canada, but writes about the black American experience, mainly, with gentle humour and joy, while confronting historical realities
Kathryn Lasky - Guardians of Ga'hoole series
(barn owl colony, includes magical elements)
Rick Riordan - The Olympians series
* Kenneth Oppel - Silverwing series - fabulous, again an owl colony; even better, his Skybreaker series
*Shane Peacock - The Boy Sherlock Holmes series
Caroline Lawrence - The Roman Mysteries - fun, educational (a British TV series apparently, too)
Christopher Paolini- Eragon series - dragons and magic
It's wonderful you're nurturing the love of reading and books in your family!
Ramona Matthews
P.S. - I know you folks know the Ramona books. I love them too!
Wow Ramona! Great list of reading suggestions!
ReplyDeleteWe hope other parents are following along with this list of suggested reading. One of my favourite authors in Elementary school was Gordon Korman of "Bruno & Boots"; "No Coins Please"; and that vintage.
Thanks so much!
A&E
If you can find them, and that's not easy, Margot Benary-Isbert's The Ark, Rowan Farm,and The Long Way Home. I also enjoyed Susan Coolidge's Katie series-most of which were in print into the fifties.
ReplyDeleteI read Jexium Island, too, as a child. Ten plus years ago I searched for it on the internet and found one or two references. Today, you can buy it used from all sorts of people.
ReplyDeleteI also read Willard Price adventure books. One was about a scientist who, as best as I can remember it, had some kind of brain problem that was cured when he was hit in the head by a rock in the cone of a volcano.