RE: Read for the Heart

Hot off the press from Apologia is a book by Sarah Clarkson called Read from the Heart.  This book is designed to be a literature resource, encouraging families to delve into the wonderful world of fine books.  Clarkson begins by describing her own passion for reading literature, and how her early world was shaped by books.  Next she addressees  the decline in literacy in America, and sites research  linking reading  to income, health and job success.  Sobering when you consider that the average 15-24 year old spends only 7-10 minutes reading and 2.5 hours watching TV.  Clarkson sums up her intro by explaining why she has chosen the books in the chapters to follow and some resources for finding them.

From here forward Read from the Heart is a comprehensive list of authors and books with fairly detailed descriptions of her selections.   Additionally, she makes recommendations for other titles by the author if the book peaked the interest of the reader.  The selections begin with picture books followed by:  The Golden Age of Classics, Children's Fiction, Fairy Tales and Fantasy, History and Biography, Spiritual Reading for Children, Poetry, and finally Music, Art and Nature.   The final section of the book is a quick reference guide which has lists of Caldecott and Newbery  Medal winners, G A Henty, Landmark,  and Trailblazer books.

This is an excellent go to resource particularly if you are using a literature approach to learning, and if you want your children reading quality, wholesome literature.   One could quickly put together a reading list and probably get a good deal of them from the local library.   This books can be purchased from the Apologia web site for $17, it is also available at Amazon.

http://www.apologia.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=12