Stacking the Shelves #1

Thanks to Tynga from Tynga's Reviews for hosting Stacking the Shelves every week.

I say every week, but this is my first StS post so... anyways.

I've been kind of out of touch with book blogging the last couple of months. I know I've apologized for it before.. but I've been kind of out of touch with reading. And I'm not sure why. But I'm back. And I'm working on getting back in the swing of things so thanks for being patient with me.

Like I said in my last post, I've been babysitting my nieces for the last few weeks. The other day we went to Michael's (the craft store) for the makings for our Harry Potter themed day. Much to my surprise, I also snagged 4 books there. All for just $1. Of course I couldn't pass them up, especially being the books that they were.

I'm desperately trying to get my girls and my nieces to live reading so I couldn't help myself.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Johanna Spyri's classic story of a young orphan sent to live with her grumpy grandfather in the Swiss Alps is retold in it's entirety in this beautifully bound hardcover edition. Heidi has charmed and intrigued readers since it's original publication in 1880. Much more than a children's story, the narrative is also a lesson on the precarious nature of freedom, a luxury too often taken for granted. Heidi almost loses her liberty as she is ripped away from the tranquility of the mountains to tend to a sick cousin in the city. Happily, all's well that ends well, and the reader is left with only warm, fuzzy thoughts.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

In picturesque nineteenth-century New England, tomboyish Jo, beautiful Meg, fragile Beth, and romantic Amy come of age while their father is off to war.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

 A horse is a horse of course unless of course the horse is Black Beauty. Animal-loving children have been devoted to Black Beauty throughout this century, and no doubt will continue through the next.
Although Anna Sewell's classic paints a clear picture of turn-of-the-century London, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness.
Black Beauty tells the story of the horse's own long and varied life, from a well-born colt in a pleasant meadow to an elegant carriage horse for a gentleman to a painfully overworked cab horse.
Throughout, Sewell rails - in a gentle, 19th-century way - against animal maltreatment. Young readers will follow Black Beauty's fortunes, good and bad, with gentle masters as well as cruel. Children can easily make the leap from horse-human relationships to human-human relationships, and begin to understand how their own consideration of others may be a benefit to all.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

 Intended at first as a simple story of a boy's adventures in the Mississippi Valley-a sequel to Tom Sawyer-the book grew and matured under Twain's hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. More than a century after its publication, the critical debate over the symbolic significance of Huck's and Jim's voyage is still fresh, and it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor.

What did you all get this week?