Family Reading Crate July 2018 Box Review

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Family Reading Crate is a monthly book box for the whole family from Build Your Library, a secular literature-based homeschool curriculum, that sends out 3-5 books based on the featured theme or topic. In addition to books for different levels of young readers, each box also includes a handpicked book just for parents, pertaining also to the box’s theme. It costs $26.99 per box plus $8 shipping.

FYI: Family Reading Crate is not yet a subscription – you must purchase it each month.

The box is filled with green squiggles!

Because Family Reading Crate cares, they mindfully packaged this box using eco-friendly materials.

This month’s theme is We Are Family!

Family Reading Crate box includes a booklet with ideas about this month’s featured books and the target ages.

It includes a special web link for you in the booklet that will direct you to a printable.

The booklet includes curious questions that help unravel the lessons you can learn from each story.

At the end of your book reading, you should be able to answer all the questions from each and every book.

They also provide book reviews to help parents get a good idea of what the story is about and how to navigate it when reading to their kids.

Everything in the box!

Of course, every book lover has a collectible bookmark and the box provided us three with different designs.

There are cute animal figures to accompany the kids reading activity.

The figures serve as the characters for one of the books. If you think you’ll need more animals, you can make popsicle stick animal puppets with your kids, another fun bonding activity for the whole family!

My Family Is A Zoo By K.A. Gerrard ($14.42)

Everyone in my family has a special friend!

My daddy has an elephant.
My grandma has a bunny.
My cousin has a kangaroo.
And me? I have a bear!

Pile in with the whole family–and more than a few of their favorite animals–for a special car ride. With loving hugs and furry cuddles on every page, and a heartwarming surprise from Mommy at the end, this is one family trip you won’t want to miss!

Having pets are like having additional family members, what if you have a zoo? Wow, that’s a big extended family!

The inside flap of the book cover doesn’t only give a peek at what the book is all about, it has some cute animal drawings too!

The book really stimulates the kids’ sense of sight. The illustrations are big and well detailed!

This would be a great read-aloud picture book for young listeners while holding the animal figures or puppets!

The book looks slightly damaged on top. I think most of the books in this box are remaindered.

As Brave As You By Jason Reynolds ($9.48)

Kirkus Award Finalist
Schneider Family Book Award Winner
Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires—literally—in this piercing middle grade novel by the winner of the Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award.

Genie’s summer is full of surprises. The first is that he and his big brother, Ernie, are leaving Brooklyn for the very first time to spend the summer with their grandparents all the way in Virginia—in the COUNTRY! The second surprise comes when Genie figures out that their grandfather is blind. Thunderstruck and—being a curious kid—Genie peppers Grandpop with questions about how he covers it so well (besides wearing way cool Ray-Bans).

How does he match his clothes? Know where to walk? Cook with a gas stove? Pour a glass of sweet tea without spilling it? Genie thinks Grandpop must be the bravest guy he’s ever known, but he starts to notice that his grandfather never leaves the house—as in NEVER. And when he finds the secret room that Grandpop is always disappearing into—a room so full of songbirds and plants that it’s almost as if it’s been pulled inside-out—he begins to wonder if his grandfather is really so brave after all.

Then Ernie lets him down in the bravery department. It’s his fourteenth birthday, and, Grandpop says to become a man, you have to learn how to shoot a gun. Genie thinks that is AWESOME until he realizes Ernie has no interest in learning how to shoot. None. Nada. Dumbfounded by Ernie’s reluctance, Genie is left to wonder—is bravery and becoming a man only about proving something, or is it just as important to own up to what you won’t do?

If you’re curious, or really have curious kids, this book will be perfect!

Going to the countryside, what are Genie’s expectations? This sounds interesting! And not to mention, this book is award-winning too!

Unlike most children’s books, this one stimulates the imagination as it doesn’t have any images or illustrations to accompany you while reading. This is another great book to read aloud for the whole family and I love the focus on the timely topic of masculinity.

Just Fly Away By Andrew McCarthy ($6.60)

New York Times Bestseller

“Ever wish that you could just fly away?”

When fifteen-year-old Lucy Willows discovers that her father has a child from a brief affair, an eight-year-old boy who lives in her own suburban New Jersey town, she begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her home and her life. How could Lucy’s father have betrayed the entire family? How could her mother forgive him? And why isn’t her sister rocked by the news the way Lucy is?

As her father’s secret becomes her own, Lucy grows more and more isolated from her friends, her family, and even her boyfriend, Simon, the one person she thought understood her. When Lucy escapes to Maine, the home of her mysteriously estranged grandfather, she finally begins to get to the bottom of her family’s secrets and lies.

Just Fly Away is a debut novel about family secrets, first love, the limits of forgiveness, and finding one’s way in the world from an award-winning writer, actor, and director.

It’s an angsty teen drama, and I don’t think at this point I can lend her this one, maybe after a few years.

It’s written in a first person’s POV too, and the book is all text.

The Two Family House By Lynda Cohen Loigman ($13.85)

Brooklyn, 1947: In the midst of a blizzard, in a two-family brownstone, two babies are born, minutes apart. The mothers are sisters by marriage: dutiful, quiet Rose, who wants nothing more than to please her difficult husband; and warm, generous Helen, the exhausted mother of four rambunctious boys who seem to need her less and less each day. Raising their families side by side, supporting one another, Rose and Helen share an impenetrable bond forged before and during that dramatic winter night.

When the storm passes, life seems to return to normal; but as the years progress, small cracks start to appear and the once deep friendship between the two women begins to unravel. No one knows why, and no one can stop it. One misguided choice; one moment of tragedy. Heartbreak wars with happiness and almost, but not quite, wins. Moving and evocative, Lynda Cohen Loigman’s debut novel The Two-Family House is a heart-wrenching, gripping multigenerational story, woven around the deepest of secrets.

For adults, they included this family-oriented read.

This is the kind of book that a sequel isn’t really needed as it never leaves anything for the reader to think about, rather, every question is answered. It’s still engrossing and well-written, but if I told you anything g about the major plot point you would know exactly what happens.

I like the curation of this box, as it has something for each age group, the kids, teens, adults, and for the whole family! The stories are inspiring, interesting, and really a great way to introduce reading to kids too. This is a great way to add new titles to our bookshelf that we’ll definitely love to read and to go back to. This box has been too teen heavy lately for my family though.

What do you think of this month’s box?

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