In our homeschool this week we started a year-long study of geography and cultures of the world. Our books this week were mostly about maps and globes and comparisons of world cultures and regions. We’ll be starting our travels in the Arctic and the Antarctic next week.

Books we read:
The Seven Continents by Wil Mara. (Rookie Read-about Geography)
Looking at Maps and Globes by Carmen Bredeson. (Rookie Read-about Geography)
Living in Polar Regions by Tea Benduhn. (Weekly Reader Life on the Edge)
The Whole World in Your Hands:Looking at Maps by Melvin and Gilda Berger.
Follow That Map! A First Book of Mapping Skills by Scot Ritchie.

Z-baby liked the last one best, Follow That Map!, probably because it had a story line and because I read it to her instead of having her read it herself. I thought all of them were adequate, information-wise, but not too terribly exciting or enticing. I’ll be working this summer and probably into the fall on a list of the BEST in primary/preschool level geography books and picture books set in countries around the world. What are you favorite around-the-world picture books?

Book links for today and this weekend:

Mother’s Day books your mom will actually like. by Kathleen Massara.

Christy Award nominees for 2011. Honoring and promoting excellence in Christian fiction. I’ve read exactly two of the books on the nomination list, She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell (Semicolon review here) and Crossing Oceans by Gina Holmes (Reviewed by Gautami Tripathy). I thought both of those novels were O.K. but not really anything to write home about.

Have you read any of the Christy Award nominees? Are there any that you highly recommend?