What's in MY Book Basket?

AFRICA!!

At Christmastime, we decided to forgo a battery of gifts for ourselves and give to others in much greater need.  We started with anonymous giving to our neighbors and church family, who shared their deep financial needs with us in conversation, and tied things up internationally by sponsoring two children through Compassion International.

I'm not boasting here: I mean, we have few resources ourselves, comparatively, living on a single income in the uber-expensive Californian hills adjacent San Francisco.  But, this is where God has planted us, for now, and we are content.  Purely, it is out of this contentment and gratefulness for all that our family had endured and survived over the past few years that we gave and continue to give.  

All this being said, I think it's important that my kids learn about the countries in which their sponsored child lives.  Thankfully, they delightfully agree, and since we're all suffering from a bit of Spring Fever here, we cut back a wee bit on our formal studies and picked up a boatload of library books with which to journey to Africa for the next month or so:

Books

Akimbo and the Lions;

Akimbo and the Baboons;

Akimbo and the Snakes;

Akimbo and the Crocodile Man;

Akimbo and the Elephants; all written by Alexander McCall Smith--my son ate these books up, wanting more, but, alas! there are no others!!

Mogo, the Third Warthog, by Donna Jo Napoli ((reading this aloud))

The Dogon of West Africa, by Christine Cornell

The Girl and the Elephant, by Nicole de Cock

Koi and the Kola Nuts, by Brian Gleeson

Little Elephant's Trunk, by Hazel Lincoln

The Song of Six Birds, by Rene Deetlefs

Africa for Kids, by Harvey Croze

Look What Came from Africa, by Miles Harvey

Africa, by Yvonne Ayo

Nelson Mandela's favorite African Tales

Africa, by David Peterson

Life in Ancient Africa, by Hazel Richardson

Home Now, by Leslie Beake

Lions; and Zebras, by Catherine Ipcizade

Elephants, by Kleinhenz Meltzer

Meercats, by Jodi Sullivan Rake

Cheetahs; Giraffes; and Leopards, by Deborah Nuzzolo

Here Is Africa, by Madeleine Dunphy

DVD/Movies

African American Heritage

Modern African Art & Artisans

A Far Off Place

Duma -- my son cannot wait to see this one; he says Akimbo took a grown lion, which he had since a young cub, on a journey to return it to the wild, too!!

Music

Putumayo Kids Presents African Dreamland

Funny, I was trying to introduce only a few books at a time this week, but when I pulled them out to take a pic, like a good bloggy-gal, my eldest two babes declared they had already read through most of them in only the past few days--nothing like being hungry for Africa!!  Fortunately, the library has many, many more books.  Bring on the dirty looks, we're about to have a homeschool hold-shelf extravaganza!!

So, does anyone else suffer with the fev-ah in Spring?  Do you ever just jump ship and do something new for sweet diversion?  Do you too get dirty looks from librarians every time you approach the holds' shelf?

For more book bins through which to rifle, check out The Happy Housewife.