This has been a week of endings to long stories. Just in time for the new year.
I'm glad to be finished with the Norse mythology for the time being. Neuschaefer's version is good but a little too Ragnarok-heavy, with a quite relentless emphasis on the prophecy of the seeress from the very beginning. It's not wrong, it's just heavy handed and kind of monotonous after awhile.
We both really enjoyed the Krenzer stories. The violence aspect of the Viking enterprise was tastefully and age-appropriately handled. The only raiding expeditions narrated involved the Vikings descending on two villages, at which point the villagers flee and the Vikings plunder. Defenses are mustered, but they arrive too late and the Vikings escape. That's all we get. The main characters, the two boys, are not described as being involved in any fighting. However, when the return of the expedition is narrated after a flash-forward, one of the older men to whom the boys were close has been killed, and there is quite a bit of emphasis on the mourning of the bereaved family.
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King has been one of my very favorite stories to experience with Jamie. It is just such a deep and rich tale, with so many levels and dimensions. And I'm thrilled that J's German is good enough such that he was able to understand almost everything. This afternoon after we finished reading it, I googled more illustrations and we discussed them at length. In every case he was able to identify and describe the relevant episode and point to lots of details:
2015
Total audio: 68.34 hours
Total video: 94.65 hours
Age 6.02.22
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