Wednesdays with Words: We Were Curious

We finished Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH last week.  While it wasn’t the favorite readaloud we’ve done, all of us did enjoy the book.  I was particularly interested in how the rats furthered their education.

The reading we did! We knew very little about the world, you see, and we were curious. We learned about astronomy, about electricity, biology and mathematics, about music and art. I even read quite a few books of poetry and got to like it pretty well.

But what I liked best was history. I read about the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans, and the Dark Ages, when the old civilizations fell apart and the only people who could read and write were the monks. They lived apart in monasteries. They led the simplest kind of lives, and studied and wrote; they grew their own food, built their own houses and furniture. They even made their own tools and their own paper. Reading about that, I began getting some ideas of how we might live. (pg 159)

We talked a lot about Mrs. Frisby and the Rats. One thing we talked about was how history is replete with lessons for those who would hear them – lessons that can help us see trends of failure, of power grabbing, and of success.  The rats knew history, how would they use it?

One last thing this week, please be educating yourselves on fair use and copyrights.  Sharing books this way has been a boon to my TBR pile and our conversations have been a blessing to me. I hope it has been for you as well!

What have you been reading this week?

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