Amy Sharony 3/4/18 Amy Sharony 3/4/18

Reading Challenge Readalouds: Great Epistolary Novels

This week, I am focusing on one of my very favorite things: novels written in letters.

Are you participating in the 2018 Reading Challenge? Someone suggested on Facebook that it would be fun to have a list of recommendations for some of the different categories, so I thought I would occasionally dedicate a Readaloud of the Week post to some ideas for a Reading Challenge category. This week, I am focusing on one of my very favorite things: novels written in letters. I’ve tried to note approximate-ish reading levels, but if you’re reading these out loud, that’s probably less important.

UNUSUAL CHICKENS FOR THE EXCEPTIONAL POULTRY FARMER by Kelly Jones

Sophie’s not super-excited to pack up and move from Los Angeles to the farm her family inherited from her late uncle, but her interest is piqued when she discovers a very unusual chicken in the backyard. Through her correspondence with Agnes at Redwood Farm Supply, Sophie discovers that her late Uncle Jim had a fondness for chickens with unusual abilities and decides that maybe she’ll follow in his poultry-raising footsteps. Told through letters — to Agnes, but also to her late and beloved abuela, her late uncle (she’s not expecting to hear back from him, of course), and her friends in L.A. who never seem to write back — this is a delightfully Roald Dahl-ish book with a charming heroine and a fun story. (Middle grades)

DADDY-LONG-LEGS by Jean Webster

This is an old-fashioned book starring a plucky orphan who goes off to college and ends up getting married at the end, so if that’s not your family’s jam, feel free to skip ahead. Jerusha Abbott has grown up in an orphan asylum, and when a mysterious benefactor pays to send her off to college — so long as she promises to keep him apprised of her academic progress through monthly letters. Jerusha — now nicknamed Judy — blooms at school and in her increasingly confident letters. Always clever and spunky, now she really has a chance to shine. It’s a pleasure to read as she discovers her sense of self, finds new friends, and has a really lovely adventure for the first time in her life. (Middle grades/Young adult)

DEAR MR. HENSHAW by Beverly Cleary

Sixth grader Leigh Botts writes his favorite author for a school assignment, but when Mr. Henshaw writes back, Leigh is inspired to write many more letters, discovering that writing gives him a place to deal with his feelings about being bullied at lunchtime, dealing with his parents’ separation, and finding a place for himself in a new town. Cleary is pitch-perfect here, showing us Leigh’s emotional growth without resolving everything with a neat bow. (Middle grades)

ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS by Sharon Creech

Mary Lou’s summer homework is to read The Odyssey and keep a journal. She’s not particularly thrilled about either one but finds herself enjoying both more than she suspected, as her journal gives her a place to puzzle through the summer’s mysteries: her best friend’s brain-sucking crush on an older boy, a friendship of her own with a cute boy from her class, and the appearance of her impossible-to-define cousin Carl Ray, who comes with a mystery of his own. (Middle grades)

THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENTS by Jaclyn Moriarty

Suzanne has often lamented Moriarty’s lack of U.S. popularity since her YA novels are so much fun to read, and this book of hers is chock full of letter-writing goodness. Emily, Lydia, and Cassie have signed up for a pen pal program with boys who attend their town’s rival high school, a project that kicks off a year of pranks, secrets, dares, and discoveries. (Young adult)

LETTERS FROM CAMP and REGARDING THE FOUNTAIN: A TALE, IN LETTERS, OF LIARS AND LEAKS by Kate Klise, illustrated by M. Sarah Klise

These two books come from the same author-illustrator team and use the same epistolary technique to tell their stories, so I am lumping them together. In Letters from Camp, campers at a camp for squabbling siblings discover that the famous siblings in charge may be hiding something. In Regarding the Fountain, a middle school’s effort to commission a new drinking fountain when the old one cracks leads to unexpected drama. In both, hilarity frequently ensues. (Elementary)

ELLA MINNOW PEA by Mark Dunn

This one’s an epistolary novel and a lipogram, you guys! If you are a fellow word nerd, you will adore this, so I am recommending it in this list even though it actually gets kind of hard to read aloud in places — mostly because the fictional South Carolina town in which it is set starts banning letters of the alphabet as they fall of the aging statue of their town’s namesake, (also fictional) pangram coiner Nevin Nollop. In fact, the town’s language totalitarianism pushes the limits of reason, and it’s up to young Ella to fight for freedom of speech. (Young adult)

THE JOLLY POSTMAN by Janet Ahlberg, illustrated by Allan Ahlberg

You actually get to open the letters and take them out of their envelopes when you’re reading this playful picture book, which follows a postman as he delivers the mail to the fairy tale characters along his route. (Elementary)

LETTERS OF A WOMAN HOMESTEADER by Elinore Pruitt Stewart

These letters aren’t fictional, but they read like a novel: In 1909, widowed Elinore Pruitt Stewart and her young daughter set off for Wyoming to stake their claim on a ranch. In her chatty letters back to an old friend in Denver, Pruitt Stewart recounts her adventures camping out in the wild, planning a spontaneous wedding for a fellow settler who hasn’t seen his bride-to-be for a quarter of a century, delivering babies for her neighbors and her cows, cooking campfire breakfasts, and always taking the time to pause and soak in the magic of landscape around her. She’s plucky and positive and perpetually interested in everything around her. (She’s also a Southern woman in 1909, so be prepared for some very apparent racism to casually pop up.) (Young adult)

SORCERY AND CECELIA by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

We have already raved about this book so many times, but the letters cousins Kate and Cecelia write each other during Kate’s first London season are too delightful not to include in this list. Kate and Cecelia inhabit a Jane Austen-ish England, with gowns, balls, and plenty of complicated social land mines to navigate — and, as it happens, there’s also magic. As Kate and Cecelia get pulled into separate magical conspiracies, they keep each other updated with action-packed letters — only to realize that their separate adventures may actually be connected after all. (Young adult)

CATHERINE, CALLED BIRDY by Karen Cushman

It’s problematic, of course, to pretend that we can understand what might have gone on in the head 14th century girl, but Cushman makes a solid effort here, and this novel — which takes the form of Catherine’s journal — paints a fascinating (and well researched) picture of medieval life. Catherine doesn’t have a lot of agency: She’s going to have to do what her father says, including marrying the man he’s picked out for her, however much she might rebel against the idea in her diary. That rebelling feels a little anachronistic, but I’m not sure a middle grades reader would be able to identify with Catherine at all without it so I think it’s an understandable conceit. If you’re studying the Middle Ages any time soon, you will definitely want to have this one on your list. (Middle grades)

THE IDES OF MARCH by Thornton Wilder

If you are interested in Roman history, you will be over the moon to discover this fictional collection of letters set during the end of Julius Caesar’s life. (A life, you remember, that will be ended by assassination in the Roman Senate on the Ides of March.) The letters, from Caesar, his friends, his family, his Egyptian mistress Cleopatra, his friends, and his enemies, paint a picture of Rome on the brink of civil war. The details of everyday life in ancient Rome are fascinating. And since we know where all of this is leading, there’s a sense of inevitability as Caesar alternately pushes his advantage and tries to compromise in the name of peace. Definitely recommended for high school ancient history. (Young adult)

ANNE OF WINDY POPLARS by L.M. Montgomery

This one isn’t a full epistolary novel — there are narrative sections, too — but Anne’s adventures teaching at a girls’ school in a very clannish town are so funny and charming that if you’re an Anne of Green Gables fan, you won’t want to miss them. (Middle grades/Young adult)

Amy Sharony 3/2/18 Amy Sharony 3/2/18

New Books Roundup: February 2018

A charming middle grades mystery and a gender-bending take on Oliver Twist are highlights in this month's new releases.

As part of my resolution to do a better job keeping up with reviewing new books in 2018, I’m going to dedicate one Friday each month to rounding up interesting new books you might spot on your library’s “new releases” shelf.

OLIVIA TWIST by Lorie Langdon

OK, so just go with it: Oliver Twist is actually a girl, who’s pretended to be a boy because her old nurse warned her the world was no safe place for a pretty girl. When she’s picked up for stealing and serendipitously reunited with her upper class family, Olivia happily adjusts to having enough to eat and a safe place to sleep, but she still pulls on her old cap to help street urchins who, like she once was, are struggling to make it on the London streets. She also does a little thieving to keep the family budget going strong. Then, one night at a party, she runs into the Artful Dodger, all grown up and posing as an Irish lord. He knows there’s something familiar about Olivia, but he doesn’t connect the elegant young lady with the little boy who used to run with his gang. Sparks fly, but there’s plenty of danger lurking in the shadows for Olivia and Dodger both.

I mean, either this is your kind of book and you have already stopped reading this and gone to put it on your library hold list, or this is not your kind of book and you are rolling your eyes at the premise. I’m firmly in the pro camp, but I realize that camp is a fluffy, sometimes silly place that doesn’t always come with redeeming literary value. This book is fun, but it runs on its premise (which is, let's be honest, pretty delightful) and doesn’t have much to offer beyond that. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think if you fit the very specific niche group of people who love Dickens, fan fiction, and YA, you, too, will find it a fun, frothy delight that doesn’t change your life but definitely makes you happy other people are out in the world thinking about things like this.

A SIDE OF SABOTAGE by C.M. Surrisi

This is the third book in the Quinnie Boyd mystery series for middle grade readers, but it was the first one I read and I didn’t feel like I was missing any major plot points. (I’m excited to check out The Maypop Kidnapping and Vampires on the Run, the first two books in the series.)

With middle grade mysteries, you’re always walking kind of a fine line, I think: You want action and adventure, but you don’t want terrible things that keep you up at night to pop up at the end of every chapter. A Side of Sabotage is safely in the mild camp, but it has enough suspense to keep you hooked without too much kids-in-peril action. Set in coastal Maine, the detective-in-resident is the 14-year-old daughter of the town sheriff and the owner of Gusty’s, the town’s hot-spot coffee shop. Her dad’s cafe is getting some competition this summer, thanks to a hipster chef from Boston who has set up a swanky eatery down the road. When weird things start happening at Gusty’s, Quinnie immediately suspects the new restaurant in town and makes up her mind to figure out what’s really going on.

I love a mystery with meddling kids, and this one definitely fits the bill. The detective work is more nuanced than, say, Nancy Drew and more action-packed than, say, Encyclopedia Brown — there are clues that you can follow along with Quinnie and her friends. A middle grades mystery usually depends at least a little on parents being absent or unconvinced there’s a problem, and there’s definitely some of that here, but it doesn’t read as particularly neglectful. Quinnie’s parents are busy, and there’s no real reason to suspect that the problems at Gusty’s are more than unfortunate coincidences. Quinnie and her friends are nice, normal kids who enjoy hanging out together, and they don’t feel like generic “types,” which is one of my middle grade detective novel pet peeves. All in all, I found this charming, and it made me want to go back to Maine this summer.

I STOP SOMEWHERE by T.E. Carter

This book is very buzzy, and it’s probably just me, but I just don’t get it. Disclaimer: I have a teenage daughter, so books about (kinda spoiler but not really since it’s the whole premise of the book) bad things happening to teenage girls have to get over a pretty steep threshold for me to appreciate them. That could be the problem. Or it could be that I am just so, so, so tired of these kinds of stories in general, where we spend our time falling in love with young women who end up being victims of male violence. This is the same reason I can’t watch Westworld or The Handmaid’s Tale — it feels like these stories ultimately end up seeing things through the same lens they are supposed to be critiquing. Really, I could be the problem here.

Sort of like The Lovely Bones (which, come to think of it, also didn't work for me), I Stop Somewhere is a coming-of-age story set in a young woman’s afterlife. Ellie was brutally attacked and murdered, and now her spirit lingers in the empty suburban house where her attackers hid her body, watching them assault (but not murder) a series of other young women. At the same time, Ellie’s remembering her life, which was mostly lonely and confusing, where the best thing she could hope for was just not to be noticed. There’s some talk about the power women have inside them and some watery sort of less-unhappy endings for some of the side characters, but the book never stops feeling bleak. Maybe there’s some stuff to unpack here about rape culture and invisible girls, but I think there are other books that do this better.

It wasn’t for me. Obviously. If you read it, treat it like it’s plastered with trigger warnings about every kind of sexual abuse and violence, and if it works for you, please tell me what I’m missing.

TESS OF THE ROAD by Rachel Hartman

I really dig the Seraphina books, which manage to be feminist, inclusive, and nonbinary, and have dragons. This is, loosely, the third book in Seraphina’s world, focusing not on the part-dragon protagonist of the previous two books but on her all-human half-sister Tess.

I did find the premise of the book — which is that Tess is persona non grata with her family and polite society because she’s had a baby out of wedlock — frustrating, and even though the bulk of the book is about how Tess transcends this narrow definition of womanhood and even though Seraphina totally avoids most of those misogynist tropes, the set-up kept me from falling in love with this entry in the series. (I think, like a lot of people right now, I am just genuinely fed up with this treatment of women. Honestly, Rachel Hartman is clearly fed up with this treatment of women, too, and that’s part of the point of this book.)

When Tess disguises herself as a boy and sets out on her own, she’s expecting to wallow in her solitude. Instead, she finds herself on a series of adventures on the hunt for a legendary serpent, posing as a priest, working as a laborer, and thwarting robbers. As she makes the journey, she slowly works through the bitterness of her past, finally recognizing that she has spent most of her life taking responsibility for things that are not her fault and that the standards to which her world has held her are damaging and destructive. Ultimately, Tess grapples with her relationship with shame, and by the end of the novel, she’s shed a lot of her anger and bitterness as she’s discovered her own sense of self and purpose. This is definitely a novel of the #metoo movement, and a good one, and if that’s on your reading list right now, I can recommend Tess of the Road enthusiastically. If you need to put it on your TBR list for later, though, I think that’s OK, too.

Amy Sharony 2/28/18 Amy Sharony 2/28/18

Library Chicken :: Suzanne and Amy’s Favorite Reads in February

Suzanne and Amy pick their favorite reads of February, including a couple of short story collections, an unexpected dose of chick lit, a cozy British family story, and more.

February wasn't the most exciting reading month for Amy or Suzanne, but there were a few notable high points.

Suzanne's Picks

100 YEARS OF THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES edited by Lorrie Moore and Heidi Pitlor

The annual Best American Short Stories anthology series began publishing in 1915, and to celebrate the 100-year anniversary in 2015, current series editor Heidi Pitlor and guest editor Lorrie Moore chose over 700 pages of great stories to make up this collection. Beginning in 1917 with an Edna Ferber story and continuing until 2014 with Lauren Groff, a broad range of American authors throughout the century is covered. And I found waaaaaay too many people to put on my to-read list.

GET IN TROUBLE: STORIES by Kelly Link

Kelly Link had been on my to-read list for several years, and now that I’ve finally read her work I want to track down all the authors and critics and fellow readers who recommended her and say, “Yes, I know you TOLD me to read her, but why didn’t you MAKE me?” Her weird-fantastical stories hit the sweet spot for me and the story “Secret Identity” (from this collection) is going on the list for my next short story class with tweens and teens.

ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE by Gail Honeyman

For this, the only novel on my best-February-reads list (which reflects the amount of short fiction I’ve been reading lately) I had to wait on the hold list for quite a while, but once I began reading it I realized that it was not what I had expected. The effusive blurbs and reviews had led me to anticipate a sweet, quirky story about a younger (or older) woman who transforms a somewhat lonely life by finding friends (and perhaps romance) and creating an extended if unusual family-of-choice. I LOVE books like that (read Elinor Lipman for some good examples) but a few pages into this one I was thinking that this particular Eleanor had a lot more problems (and was a lot more annoying) than I would have thought. As it turns out, she has a very dark backstory, which is revealed over the course of the book (though never in detail), making her transformation more about survival than superficial change. Once I adjusted my expectations, I raced through to the end of the book, and I will definitely be picking up Honeyman’s next novel.

THE ART OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY: AN ANTHOLOGY FROM THE CLASSICAL ERA TO THE PRESENT edited by Phillip Lopate

I enjoy essay collections and this thick volume (published in 1995) goes all the way back to Seneca, Plutarch, and Montaigne to explore the beginnings of the “personal essay.” I was a little surprised that I actually preferred the older authors to the most of the modern ones (Edward Hoagland, Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, etc) included here and, as usual, I have a whole new stack of names to add to my to-read list (as if it needed to get any longer).

Amy's Picks

I didn’t get in a lot of fun reading this month, so I only have a few books I can rave about for our February book picks.

THE NAKED OLYMPICS: THE TRUE STORY OF THE ANCIENT GAMES by Tony Perrottet

Obviously this was a theme pick, but it was a surprisingly fun read anyway. It’s a good cross between a scholarly study (Perrottet uses a great mix of primary sources, including a Greek Handbook for a Sports Coach that I now have on my personal TBR list) and an entertaining expose (bacchanal tents and nude workouts!). I picked it up thinking it would be fun to read with the kids, and that did not prove to be the case — it was a little raunchier than I anticipated. But it was a fun read for me, and it has allowed me to make many nerdy comments when the Olympics commenters get annoying, so it’s on the list!

SAFFY’S ANGEL by Hillary McKay

I love books about big, messy families who have tea and make art at the kitchen table, so I was thrilled to discover this book about the Casson family (and even more thrilled that it’s the start of a whole series!). Mom Eve is a working artist who keeps the family functional by taking care of the house (at least in theory), the kids, and the family finances, while perpetually absent artist-artist dad Bill lives the high life in London, popping back just long enough for the family to make a show of waving goodbye to him from all the windows of their rattly old house. There are four children, all named for paint colors: Caddie (Cadmium Gold), the oldest who is not quite ready to launch; Saffy (Saffron); Indigo, the only boy; and baby Rose. In this first book, Saffy discovers that she’s actually Eve’s niece, adopted when Eve’s twin sister died in Italy. This makes her feel both weirdly more connected to and weirdly alienated from her adopted brothers and sisters, so that she ventures down the street to make friends with another girl who feels similarly isolated. Together, Saffy and her new friend Sarah hatch a scheme to get to Italy to visit the town where Saffy lived with her mom. This book is the best kind of comfort food reading for me.

PHILIP K. DICK’S ELECTRIC DREAMS

I have not made time yet to watch Amazon’s new Philip K. Dick series, but I couldn’t resist the urge to revisit the short stories that comprise the new series. Most of them I have probably read before — I had a whole obsessive Philip K. Dick period when I discovered Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep — but I didn’t remember them vividly enough to spoil the fun of reading them. I especially appreciated the dark, political overtones of “The Hanging Stranger” and the shifting notion of reality in “Exhibition Piece.” Now I just have to find time to watch the show!

Maggie Martin 2/26/18 Maggie Martin 2/26/18

The Problem with Writing as a Punishment

When you use writing as a form of punishment, every writing assignment can make kids feel like they're in the homeschool version of detention.

the problem with writing as a form of punishment

When your kids misbehave, what punishments do you use? I’m guessing that you don’t punish them with ice cream or a new toy. You probably don’t offer to bake cupcakes with them or have a family movie night. That wouldn’t make any sense, would it? I mean, why in the world would you reward bad behavior with something fun? When our kids make poor choices, we parents hand down punishments or consequences that we hope will cause our children to reflect on what they’ve done, that might lead them to remedy their wrongs, that will improve the chances of them making a better choice next time.

Sometimes well-intentioned parents try to correct laziness or transgressions with writing assignments. Whether it’s the classic “I will not…” sentence copied over and over, spelling words copied many times beyond any real learning purpose, or an apologetic reflection letter, I’d like to encourage you to reconsider using writing as a punishment.

The thing is that if you use writing as a punishment, all writing assignments will feel like punishment to your child. And that’s not what writing should feel like. It should feel yummy like ice cream, stimulating like a new toy, challenging like baking, and fun like family movie night. Kids are smart. They know that if we use something as a punishment, it must be because it’s something we find distasteful. If writing is used as a punishment, without ever uttering the words, we are teaching children that writing is undesirable, that’s it’s something to be avoided.

I’m no parenting expert. I’m bumbling through this thing just like we all are. I do know, though, that if we want our kids to feel good about writing and feel good about themselves about writers, we have to leave writing out of the discipline mix and choose some other consequence that will get everyone back on the right path.

We tend to do unto our children what was done unto us, but I think that most of us in the homeschooling community would agree that just because something has always been done, it isn’t necessarily for the best. Let’s leave writing as punishment where it belongs — in the past.

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MAGGIE MARTIN writes about empowering kids to be enthusiastic readers and skilled writers at thelanguageartscoach.com. She frequently stays up way too late reading, but she rarely regrets it.

Shelli Bond Pabis 2/25/18 Shelli Bond Pabis 2/25/18

Readaloud of the Week: Blood on the River: James Town 1607

The earliest days of U.S. history come to life in this readaloud about the James Town settlement of 1607.

BLOOD ON THE RIVER: JAMES TOWN 1607 by Elisa Carbone

Blood on the River: James Town 1607 by Elisa Carbone is a young adult historical fiction account of the first permanent English settlement in North America. I read the book to my 11- and 8-year-old boys, and though they felt the beginning chapters were a little slow, they eventually got into the story and wanted me to keep reading. As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book.

The story is told from the perspective of Samuel Collier, a young orphan boy who was almost destined to live his life in the streets of London. He got a second chance when he was assigned a job aboard the Susan Constant as page to Captain John Smith. Now he has to make his way in the New World, and what he needs to do to survive there will be much different from what he’s learned about living on the streets. He soon finds out that he’ll need to get along with others whether he likes it or not. He’s also going to need to learn the language of the Algonquian Indians.

Carbone does an excellent job of relating the major events of the James Town settlement in an appropriate way for young adults without sugarcoating the hardships or atrocities that took place. I especially appreciated how she clearly defined the characteristics of a good leader, which is a good lesson for children. She begins each chapter with a quote from a primary source, which allows kids to hear snippets of eyewitness accounts.

If you feel your child is very sensitive, you may want to read this book first, but most children will probably find the story fascinating. Since the book is fiction, the historical account should be read with a skeptical eye, but it may spark an interest in early American history, and that’s always a win.

Amy Sharony 2/23/18 Amy Sharony 2/23/18

Stuff We Like :: 2.23.17

Harry Potter in Scots, more reasons to love Adam Rippon, enjoying art when you can't like the artist, obsessing a little too much over the correct reading order of Madeleine L'Engle's books, and more stuff we like.

Ugh, I think I caught Suzanne’s bug. All I want to do is curl up in bed with a cup of tea and my copy of Emily Climbs, so this may be a cold medicine-fueled edition of Stuff We Like.

What’s happening at home/school/life

Suzanne’s Library Chicken roundup for this week includes some short stories I can’t wait to get my hands on.

Sometimes, you want to do something good for the world but you also don’t want to change out of your pajamas. This list is great for those times.

I was thrilled to discover this middle grades biography of civil rights activist Dr. Betty Shabazz.

One year ago: It felt like the right time for a Watergate unit study. (Also: Shelli took on a homeschool project just for her, and we decided to be OK with being OK.)

Two years ago: Lisa embraces the (all-too-rare) sounds of silence. (Plus: A peek back at our homeschool — apparently note-taking was a big project at the time.)

Three years ago: Lisa adapts to life with a child who tends to see the negative side first.

Four years ago: Way more than you ever wanted to know about me, including why I describe our homeschool philosophy as “Classical, Dude style.”

The links I liked

There’s a Scots translation of Harry Potter, and it is DELIGHTFUL.

Adam Rippon has definitely been a highlight of this year’s Olympics for me, and I got a little choked up reading this essay by a 30-something gay man about what it means to have an openly gay U.S. athlete competing in the Olympics.

Why is it not surprising that being a woman is a major risk factor for anxiety?

I first ran into this problem some years ago with Woody Allen, and I still don’t have a good answer: What happens to art when the artist turns out to be a terrible person?

Yes, yes, and yes: Alexander Chee on writing for love AND money. (Because writers have bills to pay, too, you know? And writing — like creating homeschool curricula or taking photos or anything else we’re tempted to source for free — has value that deserves to be appreciated.)

What I’m reading and watching

I am continuing my Pre-Wrinkle in Time readathon, and I am currently working my way through the Austin books to loop back around to book five of the time quintet. For me, the Austin family starts with the two Christmas books (The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas and A Full House: An Austin Family Christmas, both of which are sweet but ultimately kind of meh for me but which must be read before Meet the Austins because THAT IS THE CORRECT WAY), and I have to read the short story “The Anti-Muffins,” which was cut from Meet the Austins, as soon as I finish Meet the Austins. I apparently have a lot of strong feelings about this subject.

I watched the first season of Agent Carter and loved it but never managed to get around to the second season, for some reason. I am watching it now, and I once again wish I could be as cool as Peggy Carter on her worst day.

What’s happening in our homeschool

We’re still on our super-chill Olympics schedule and I’m fighting off what is definitely-not-the-flu, so we haven’t been doing a lot of hands-on homeschooling this week. One thing that breaks always remind me is that our family does better when we have a schedule — as long as we have our wake-up readalouds and afternoon tea time, the days go smoothly. If we don’t have those things to structure the days, by the middle of the week, everyone’s a little grumpy and stressed. Happily, even on breaks, it’s easy to make sure we anchor the days with those little rituals, and an occasional day off-schedule always feels like a bit of a treat.

Suzanne Rezelman 2/21/18 Suzanne Rezelman 2/21/18

Library Chicken Update :: 2.21.18

Even the flu can't keep Suzanne from short stories, bookish memoirs, surprisingly intense popular fiction, and a little Vonnegut.

Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!

Well, it all had to come crashing down sooner or later. I’ve been on a bit of a book bender for the past couple of months, but I could only juggle two full library cards’ worth of books for so long (as per usual, please don’t mention the two cards thing to my local branch), and as we all know, in Library Chicken the house (i.e., the library) always wins. I don’t want to discuss the ‘returned books’ score (which you can find at the end of this update) except to note that I had THE FLU last week so I’m blaming everything on that. (If you happen to see my husband out and about and he claims that I had a bad cold, not the flu, tells him that you DON’T BELIEVE HIS LIES and it DOESN’T MATTER that when everyone else in the house got sick they were only down for a couple of days because maybe they just had a cold but I had the REAL ACTUAL FLU. Also please remind him to get more Tang at the grocery store because I am a child of the 70s and 80s and I know for a fact that Tang and Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup — served side by side, not mixed together because that would be stupid and gross — make up an all-powerful healing potion and my recovery is entirely due to their miraculous effects.)

Anyway, thank goodness that’s all over and I’m sure I’ll never have such a large Library Chicken crash ever again, and pay no attention to the rumbling and creaking noises coming from the large remaining stacks of library books clustered around my bed because I’m sure that’s completely normal and totally not an ominous foreshadowing of the future.

BOOKMARKED: READING MY WAY FROM HOLLYWOOD TO BROOKLYN by Wendy W. Fairey

MY LIFE WITH BOB: FLAWED HEROINE KEEPS BOOK OF BOOKS, PLOT ENSUES by Pamela Paul

Two reading memoirs from two interesting women. Wendy Fairey, a professor of English literature, is the daughter of Sheila Graham, known in her time both for being a gossip columnist during Hollywood’s “Golden Age” and for being in a relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald during his final years in California. As a child, Fairey first learned to love books by browsing through the library of classic novels that Fitzgerald had given to her mother long ago. Fairey tells the story of her life as it parallels some of her all-time favorite books, including David Copperfield, To the Lighthouse, and Howard’s End. In comparison, Pamela Paul did not grow up in a household that valued reading, and often felt that she could never get enough books to satisfy her. As a high schooler, she started keeping a list of books read — the Book of Books, aka Bob — and this memoir reflects back on her life through Bob and the books that meant the most to her at particular times. Paul is only a couple of years younger than I am, so her list of favorite books in childhood looks very familiar, but beyond the voracious reading I don’t think she and I have much in common. Except, that is, for our joint all-consuming hatred of George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman, a book that I was tricked into reading years ago when it kept showing up on lists of favorite humorous books (in Paul’s case, a boyfriend made her read it). Flashman merits a chapter in her memoir, in which she exposes it for the racist, wildly misogynistic mess that it is, and Paul will always have a special place in my heart for that alone.

(LC Score: +1 ½, Bookmarked returned overdue)

THE ART OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY: AN ANTHOLOGY FROM THE CLASSICAL ERA TO THE PRESENT edited by Phillip Lopate

I enjoy essay collections and this thick volume (published in 1995) goes all the way back to Seneca, Plutarch, and Montaigne to explore the beginnings of the “personal essay.” I was a little surprised that I actually preferred the older authors to the most of the modern ones (Edward Hoagland, Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, etc.) included here and I have a whole new stack of names to add to my to-read list (as if it needed to get any longer). (Challenge Accepted: “an essay anthology” from the Read Harder 2018 challenge)

(LC Score: +½, returned overdue)

THE OXFORD BOOK OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY GHOST STORIES edited by Michael Cox

ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S SPELLBINDERS IN SUSPENSE

More short stories! I’ve read several Oxford anthologies at this point and they generally do a good solid job of rounding up a collection of quality stories from (mostly) familiar authors. This 1996 collection takes us from 1910 (E. Nesbit) to 1994 (Jane Gardam), with the likes of Angela Carter, Penelope Lively, and Fay Weldon making appearances along the way. The Alfred Hitchcock collection is one of dozens of short grab-bag anthologies published under Hitchcock’s name in the 60s and 70s for young readers (I certainly gobbled up my share of these from the children’s section of my hometown library). I picked this one up because it had a particular story that we’re going to do in our homeschool class this semester, but beyond that it’s a little bit like buying a lottery ticket and waiting to see what you’re going to get. This one includes a Dorothy Sayers’ standalone mystery, Daphne Du Maurier’s “The Birds” (the inspiration for the film), and a cute little mystery involving a Saint Bernard and starring a husband-and-wife team of amateur sleuths from an author I’d never heard of (but I’ve already ordered a used copy of the first book in their out-of-print series, so I’ll let you know how that goes).

(LC Score: +2)

GET IN TROUBLE: STORIES by Kelly Link

VAMPIRES IN THE LEMON GROVE by Karen Russell

SELF-HELP by Lorrie Moore

Of course, short story anthologies inevitably lead me to authors that I want to read more of, which is how I found my way to these three collections. I’ve been hearing about Kelly Link as a talented writer of bizarre and fantastical short fiction for years, and now that I’ve finally read her work I want to track down all the authors and critics and fellow readers who recommended her and say, “Yes, I know you TOLD me to read her, but why didn’t you MAKE me?” I expect I’ll be reading my way through her backlist in the very near future. I had read (and enjoyed) Karen Russell’s novel, Swamplandia!, a few years ago, so I was not surprised that I enjoyed this collection of strange and melancholy tales, about topics ranging from Japanese women literally morphing into silkworms to U.S. Presidents reincarnated as farm horses to, yes, vampires in a lemon grove. Lorrie Moore’s Self-Help doesn’t have the fantastical elements of the other two collections, but she still manages to create her own mini-worlds in this short collection, explaining (among other things) “How to Talk to Your Mother” and “How to Become a Writer.” Each of these short collections is an entertaining and memorable read.

(LC Score: +2, Get in Trouble and Vampires returned overdue)

ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE by Gail Honeyman

I was on the hold list for a while waiting for this buzzy book, but once I began reading it I realized that it was not what I had expected. The effusive blurbs and reviews had led me to anticipate a sweet, quirky story about a younger (or older) woman who transforms a somewhat lonely life by finding friends (and perhaps romance) and creating an extended if unusual family-of-choice. I LOVE books like that (read Elinor Lipman for some good examples) but a few pages into this one I was thinking that Eleanor has got a lot more problems (and can be a lot more annoying) than I would have thought. As it turns out, she has a very dark backstory, which is revealed over the course of the book (though never in detail), making her transformation more about survival than superficial change. Once I adjusted my expectations, I raced through to the end of the book, and I will definitely be picking up Honeyman’s next novel.

(LC Score: +1)

PLAYER PIANO by Kurt Vonnegut

Somehow I missed Vonnegut as a younger reader. I’m not sure how. As a committed reader of science fiction I was always seeing his name as one of our “respectable” sf writers (a category of two, as I recall, consisting only of Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury), but I just never got around to reading anything by him beyond a few famous stories like “Harrison Bergeron.” It’s past time for me to remedy that, so I’ve begun with his first novel, Player Piano, set in a near-future world where managers and engineers rule the world in the name of greater efficiency and greater profits, and most of humanity has been mechanized out of a job. (It’s an Ayn-Randian utopia written as a Vonnegut dystopia.) Vonnegut’s writing drew me in right from the very beginning, though the world that he builds is not very complete or believable. More upsetting was the realization that Vonnegut’s world, at least in this novel, is almost completely free of women (except as wife-accessories) and people of color; essentially it felt like a novel written by a white man for white men about white men screwing over other white men, which made it a little hard for me to get into. I generally think of Vonnegut as a compassionate and deeply humane man, ahead of his time, so perhaps my expectations were a little too high when it comes to his treatment of issues around sexism and racism. That said, I’m looking forward to continuing my Vonnegut odyssey.

(LC Score: +1)

GRATUITOUS EPILOGUE by Andrea K. Host

IN ARCADIA by Andrea K. Host

Books 4 and 5 in the Touchstone trilogy (just go with it), a self-published science fiction YA series. The trilogy that preceded these “extra” works, about an Australian teenager named Cass who finds herself suddenly in another world where she is fortunately rescued by super-hot teenage psychic space ninjas, was a very fun read and I have to love any author who dares to title her work Gratuitous Epilogue. As foreshadowed, the fourth entry in the series has very little plot, instead devoting itself to Cass’s happily-ever-after life of weddings, babies, and home decor. In Arcadia switches narrators to follow Cass’s mom, newly immigrated to Cass’s world, and her romance with the older leader and mentor of the previously mentioned super-hot psychic space ninjas. I’m not much of a romance novel reader, so I may have skimmed here and there, but both “extras” are entertaining and fun reads, in part because Cass and her mom are both huge science-fiction/fantasy/gaming/anime nerds and references to all things nerdy and wonderful abound.

(LC Score: 0, read on Kindle)

RETURNED UNREAD: LC Score -25

Library Chicken Score for 2/21/18: -17

Running Score: -5

On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:

VANESSA BELL by Frances Spalding (more girl who reads Woolf and Woolf-adjacent reading)
HOW TO READ A BOOK: THE CLASSIC GUIDE TO INTELLIGENT READING by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren (better late than never, right?)
NECESSITY by Jo Walton (final book in the Thessaly trilogy — yes I know this was on here before but I MEAN IT this time)
PUZZLE FOR PLAYERS by Patrick Quentin (first book in that husband-and-wife sleuth series - fingers crossed that it’s good!)

Amy Sharony 2/19/18 Amy Sharony 2/19/18

Volunteer Projects for Homeschoolers: Little Ways to Make the World a Better Place

Easy volunteer projects your family can do together make community service part of your everyday homeschool life.

Many of us have become more politically active than ever before over the past year, but activism doesn’t always have to mean protests and petitions. These everyday actions can have a positive impact that benefits your whole community and let you see how your good deeds benefit real people.

CLEAN IT OUT

Organize your pantry, and donate extras and duplicates to a food bank. (Check the expiration dates!)
Clean up your room, and collect outgrown shoes and clothes to donate to a family shelter.
Sort through your books, and donate outgrown or unloved titles to a homeschool
group library.
Collect old sport equipment to donate to your parks and recreation department.
Offer to help an older neighbor rake leaves or mow the lawn.

SHARE YOUR TALENTS

Drop off your artwork at a senior center.
Organize a board game day for younger kids at a homeschool group.
Volunteer to read to kids at your library.
Write a thank-you note to someone who has encouraged or inspired you.

GET ORGANIZED

Start a food drive for a food pantry through a homeschool group.
Put on a talent show with a group of friends to raise money for a cause you believe in.
Get a group of friends together to assemble care kits for homeless people. (Include snacks, hygiene items, water, socks, and a list of local resources.)
Organize a lemonade stand or bake sale to raise money for a charity.
Put together a toy drive for kids stuck in the hospital.
Visit a local animal shelter to help socialize animals waiting for adoption.

PROTECT THE PLANET

Plant a bee garden on your patio or in the backyard.
Use your allowance to buy a reusable water bottle.
Sew or knit reusable grocery bags, and donate them.

This list is excerpted from “You Can Make a Difference,” a feature in the winter 2017 issue of HSL.

Amy Sharony 2/18/18 Amy Sharony 2/18/18

Readaloud of the Week: Betty Before X

A lovely coming of age story about a girl who would grow up to become a key player in the civil rights movement.

BETTY BEFORE X by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renee Watson

Eleven-year-old Betty doesn’t know she’s going to grow up to be a famous civil rights activist. All she knows is that when she’s in church, listening to speakers like Paul Robeson and Thurgood Marshall, the world makes much more sense. Life is not easy for a Black girl in 1940s Detroit, and Betty struggles to find a sense of self in a world where she’s always second-best because of the color of her skin. Suspicious that even her own mother didn’t really want her, Betty slowly finds her own voice through the voices of people speaking up for social justice.

Ilyasah Shabazz wrote this book about four formative years in her mother’s life, when the woman who would become Dr. Betty Shabazz was still Betty Dean Sanders at the very beginning of the civil rights movement that would define so much of the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Shabazz gently fictionalizes her mother’s story to create a cohesive narrative, so this book might not line up point for point with a more mature biography of Shabazz — what it does, and does particularly well, is capture the spirit of a girl who grew up feeling less-than and not-quite-good-enough who realizes that no one should ever have to feel that way because of the color of her skin.

It’s especially interesting to read about the Housewives’ League, a civil rights organization created by a woman to boycott businesses that didn’t hire Black people. People may not respond to arguments about right and wrong, but they pay attention when you “hurt them in their pocket,” the organizer Mrs. Malloy explains to young Betty. When we’re studying civil rights, it’s easy to get swept up in the big national moments (the Montgomery bus boycotts, the march on Washington), but small, unsung communities of people were fighting the same fight in cities and towns across the United States. It’s also nice that Shabazz paints a nuanced picture of what Black Americans wanted civil rights to look like — they didn’t all have the same vision, and as Betty listens to arguments and discussions she’s a little too young to completely understand yet, we can appreciate how complicated confronting systemic racism can be. It’s not hard to make connections between those conversations and some of the discussions happening on Facebook and Twitter today.

(And don’t be fooled by the cover: This book tackles some of the really tough parts of the civil rights movement, including an incident around a lynching. It’s definitely most appropriate for middle grades and up.)

Ultimately, this is a lovely coming of age story about a girl who would become a key player in the civil rights movement, both before and after her husband Malcolm X was assassinated.

You may also enjoy: X: A Novel (also by Shabazz), a biography of Betty’s husband Malcolm X

Amy Sharony 2/16/18 Amy Sharony 2/16/18

Stuff We Like :: 2.16.17

Killer fashion (literally), how to do a better job navigating the situation if you find yourself in a Broadway musical, a little love for the world's rule followers, and more stuff we like.

There are a lot of reasons that I love homeschooling, but not having to be afraid that my kids will get shot by a crazed gunman at their school should not be one of them. I don’t understand how this keeps happening, and nothing changes.

What’s happening at home/school/life?

Suzanne has some reading suggestions for those midwinter days when you just want to wallow in the cold, dreary, grayness of it all.

Plan a Black History Month field trip — or an anytime field trip! — to one of these great museums.

Our readaloud of the week may clue you in to our weekend plans.

One year ago: We tracked down biographies of some awesome women for Black History Month. (Also: tips for grading essays in your homeschool and how an earlier bedtime can boost your homeschool happiness.)

Two years ago: Rebecca reviewed a critical thinking curriculum that’s great for improving family dinner conversation.

Three years ago: Why boredom is an important part of learning

Four years ago: This magazine would not even exist without the wonderful Shelli.