Read the World Summer Book Club ~ Africa



We joined the Read the World Summer Book Club last week. The book club is the brainchild of Sarah from Read Aloud Revival and Jamie from Simple Homeschool.  






Each week for 8 weeks, we will read about a certain region of the world. The goal of the book club is super simple, to read one book about that region. There is a book that ties in with the whole experience called "Give Your Child the World", but I don't have it yet. For now, I look over the weekly post (check out the post on Africa!) on Simple Homeschool and also select books from our awesome public library. 


The open book is The Village that Vanished, a powerful story about courage


We extended our Africa week over almost 3 weeks since I was away most of last week and we were waiting for books from the library that I had requested. We didn't mind at all. This week, we finished our last books on Africa and we will start North America. We are skipping Europe for now. I feel bad about it since I was born and raised there, but we can always go back later! 


Reading more about Africa while making pizzas, not an African food ;) 


Here are the books we read:


  • The Village that Vanished by Ann Grifalconi 
  • Africa: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know by Clive Gifford 
  • The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney
  • Hungry Planet (Egypt and Chad chapters) by Peter Menzel
  • Kenya (Country Explorers) by Sean McCollum
  • Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett
  • Africans Thought of It (Amazing Innovations) by Bathseba Opini
  • One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul
  • The Soccer Fence: a Story of Friendship, Hope and Apartheid in South Africa by Phil Bildner 
  • One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway 





I love including food from other cultures when we study different countries so we did that! I got a little lost from all the delicious choices on Global Table Adventure  at first, there are so many recipes I wanted to try! I did select 3 dishes: 





From the top to the bottom of photo: Tanzania Coconut Potato Soup,
Eritrean Spiced Bread, and Eritrean Lentil Stew 



We also played Mancala together, a strategy game from Ancient Africa. We have had this game for many years and I have played so many times but my kids always win against me! Still, I really enjoy it. You can see our board in the top photo. Our game came with 3 different rules, the Egyptian, Ethiopian, and Nigerian Rules.

I really appreciate the free printables and links that can be found on each week's post at Simple Homeschool as part of the Summer Book Club! You can visit this Africa week link to get a better idea. 




I printed the world map and Africa map. We taped them to the side of one of our bookshelves. Each time we read a book about an African country, we coloured it in. We will continue to do that as it is a great visual for us. 

I am also using the "My Global Book Log" to keep track of the books we read. I ran out of space so I am writing more on the back! I printed the recipes I cooked as well and will keep all these printables together. It will be nice to look back at the end of the summer and see the countries we read about with the book lists and the food we ate!

If you are interested in joining this free summer book club, check out this post for all the information: The Read the World Summer Book Club. 

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