What I Read: May 2025

May hits hard, doesn't it?

Even though we manage to escape 90% or more of the end-of-the-year shenanigans by sheer fact that I am the teacher and school administrator around here and I refuse to plan any of that… May still hit hard. Everyone is itching for the energy and freedom of summer, but there’s still a lot to do between now and then, including a garden to plant (but it’s in!).

This year, we also for some reason added in a camping trip for Scott, his parents, and the kids, immediately followed by both Arthur & Tennyson being baptized at church. It was a joy and a delight, and also we should have planned it for a different month when it wasn’t also Confirmation Sunday — note to self — which meant chaos after the service in trying to get pictures and take family back to our house while an entire other church service was starting on our heels.

I find that trying to prep for summer while still having to live May is hard, too. When is the best week to register for swim? Why does every summer camp have the weirdest start and end times? Am I allowed to take a year off of volunteering for VBS if both of my kids are finally old enough… or since I have to drive them there and pick them up anyway, should I just stay and serve?

These are the real hard-hitting questions, ladies and gentleman.

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Here’s What I Read in May:

The Weather Detective {nonfiction}

by Peter Wohlleben

Last month, I reviewed The Secret World of Weather and said I was reading this one as a follow up. As I suspected, Secret World is better. It’s more all-encompassing. This book, The Weather Detective, felt like it was more aimed at a home gardener, and the information felt very garden-specific. Still, a decent read — just not on the heels of the other. I’d definitely get it from the library first to see if its worth adding to your own collection.

This same author wrote The Hidden Life of Trees which I read several years ago and truly think about regularly, so maybe this was just a case of the follow-up not having as much steam behind it as the first book.

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Maybe, Maybe Marisol Rainey {middle grade fiction // audiobook}

by Erin Entrada Kelly

This was a shorter audiobook, about 1.5 hours that the kids and I listened to as we ran errands a couple of days. This was a quiet story, showing how Marisol worked through her anxiety so that she could live more fully alongside her friends and family. Marisol is quirky and quiet in the best way, and the I loved that the book really talked through how her anxiety caused conflict in her life, and how she worked to resolve it. We’ll definitely work through the rest of the series, too.

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The Inquisitor's Tale, or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog {young adult historical fiction}

by Adam Gidwitz; Illuminated by Hatem Aly

This book stunned me, in all the best ways. I plucked it off the library shelf at random, intrigued by the title, the look, the fact that it was “illuminated” and not just illustrated. It’s a perfect YA blend of adventure, history, culture, religion, and friendship. The story follows William, a mixed-race monk who towers over everyone; Jacob, a Jew living in a time where the State was explicitly Christian; and Jeanne, a girl who hails from a town punished for worshipping a dog they believe is a saint. The three meet up in a semi-fictional version of 1242 AD, a world where author Gidwitz takes real historical figures like Louis IX and wraps them up in legends and tales and sets them into his own magical storyline, framed in a series of tales told at an inn, very Canterbury-inspired. This English/History major was delighted from beginning to end.

The book features some violence, thought nothing gratuitous, and directly discusses the hostilities between Jews, Christians, and Muslims of the time. I think this could make an excellent book club pick for the 10-14 age group. I’m going to be recommending it left and right for years to come, and I can’t wait to share it with my own kids in a couple of years. The ending had me in tears — the good kind.

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I’m about two-thirds of the way through Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. It’s a hefty book that explores the historical, social, and political forces that surrounded families like the Ingalls and the Wilders, and how those forces in that moment in time may have shaped Laura specifically into the person she became. I’ll finish it up soon and let you know how it goes in next month’s newsletter!

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What I’m Reading with the Kids:

A new Kate DiCamillo series came out, so of course we had to pick up the first book and read it right away. After reading everything she’s written, I can’t say this is her best work. Still, it’s a good beginning, and I’m interested to see where the series goes next.

Reader Catie recommend An Eye for Color: The Story of Josef Albers and the kids and I loved it! It’s a picture book about the artist and his revolutionary task of spending 20+ years painting squares in different colors to see how color interacted. I’d be interested in reading Albers’s own work, Interaction of Color, sometime.

I can’t remember if I shared Maddie & Mabel yet — it’s an adorable early reader series. I think we found it a little late for Arthur’s reading journey, but we’ll for sure be checking them out as Tennyson reaches their level. Good early readers are hard! I keep intending to make a list of the ones we’ve (I’ve) actually enjoyed. Let me know if that would be something you’d like to see?

We raced through The Magician’s Nephew and the kids immediately asked to start The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. We read as many as three chapters a night because they begged to know what happened next!

We also listened to The Story of Dr. Dolittle on audio as one of our Ambleside Free Reads, and we’ll begin Along Came a Dog soon, which isn’t available on audio and costs over $50 to buy a used copy, so we’ve checked it out from the library. Our Logic of English cirriculuum also recommended Rickshaw Girl, so we’re going to see if we can squeeze that one in before vacation. I really enjoyed Mitali Perkins’s You Bring the Distant Near for a YA audience several years ago, so I have high hopes for this one.

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What I’m Reading Next:

I’ve got Habits of the Household and Better than the Movies and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle all on my radar… too many books, not enough time!

What are you reading right now? Hit “reply” and tell me!