Fun with Roman Numerals by David A.Adler, illustrated by Edward Miller III

Now that I'm on the hunt for picture books for the older set, this caught my eye..

Fun with Roman Numerals

I don't think my kids will be overjoyed to see it but I do think they will be interested. And it is interesting! Surely knowing roman numerals is a useful skill to have? And maybe if I try to fill their heads with useful knowledge, it will squeeze out some of the Pokemon rubbish currently residing there.
P.S. We read this last night and it was excellent. A crystal clear explanation that left us all fluent.

Alpha by Isabelle Arsenault

The funny thing about alphabet books is that they are traditionally for babies and toddlers, who are years away from wanting or needing to know about their A, B, C's. And then if you do look at them with school age kids, the font will be different to what they are learning at school or the words used to illustrate the letters aren't phonetic or the C isn't a hard one. They do not work as a teaching tool. But that doesn't mean they can't be a fantastic read. I definitely have a soft spot for alphabet books, which is lucky as every illustrator who is popular at all seems to do one. My favourite is Paul Thurlby's Alphabet. I have two copies, one on the shelf and one on the wall facing my younger three boys beds.

I know, you could say they will grow out of it, but I don't care. It's just beautiful art and hopefully they will never grow out of that. Bruno Munari's ABC is one I have often wanted to get but never did and Alpha is my latest purchase. The excuse I used to get it was that it was for older kids insofar as each letter is written using the NATO phonetic alphabet. You know, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, with each illustrated so, so beautifully. I do love it but have a feeling it could be a bit too aimed at hipster parents. Its dangerously cool, to be honest. However, it is quite fun going through it and seeing which letters we know and which we don't and It would be FANTASTIC pasted onto boards like the one pictured above. The letters are opposite the illustrations though, (fifty two pages!) so you would need a very big bedroom. 

Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart

I'm hosting my book club this month, so I get to pick our next read. So, I haven't read this yet but I'm really not sure if I can wait until our meeting. I know, you can't tell a book by its cover, but if you could, this one would be great, right?

Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfield

This is one of those books that I really want my boys to read. Written (originally in German) in 1956, set in Roman times, full of good clean fun and absolutely NO SCREENS. So needless to say, when I purchased it for our holidays I was not feeling very hopeful. I've bought quite a few cloth bound beautifully reproduced classics that got rave reviews on Amazon from people who read them as kids to have them tried and swiftly rejected by my boys. Anyhoo, they all read and loved this one. Ideally for aged eight and up, Dectectives in Togas would be a great addition to any classroom library. Mystery of the Roman Ransom by the same author looks good too.