HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 17, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/17/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Great Gilly Hopkins is $1.99. This middle grades classic takes a difficult, depressing story — of a girl in foster care who years to be reunited with her mom — and resists the urge to wrap it up with a traditional happy ending. That doesn’t make it any less warm or funny, though.
Bone Gap is $1.99. Booklist says, “'In Ruby's refined and delicately crafty hand, reality and fantasy don't fall neatly into place. She compellingly muddles the two together right through to the end. Even then, after she reveals many secrets, magic still seems to linger in the real parts of Bone Gap, and the magical elements retain their frightening reality. Wonder, beauty, imperfection, cruelty, love, and pain are all inextricably linked but bewitchingly so.'' For high school.
Still on sale
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is $2.99. There’s so much to love about Douglas Adams’ galaxy-hopping novel that it’s hard to know where to start: Arthur Dent accidentally hitches a ride on a passing spaceship just before the Earth is destroyed to make room for an intergalactic superhighway — and as the last Earthling, sets off with his alien buddy, a trouble-making galactic leader, a girl he once tried to date, and a depressed robot to explore the universe.
Tuck Everlasting is $3.99. This one’s almost never on sale, but Babbitt’s story about the possibilities and costs of eternal life is always a profound read that leaves you with lots of talk about.
Breaking Stalin’s Nose is $3.99. This was one of our Readaloud of the Week picks: “Eugene Yelchin wanted to illuminate a piece of history that we don’t often get to read about in U.S. classrooms: the fear and horror that people in Stalin’s Soviet Union had to live with every day. Because Sasha’s only 10 years old, his understanding of what’s actually happening in his country develops along with the reader’s, and it’s a great book to launch discussions of propaganda, politics, and fake news.”
The Game of Silence is $2.74. Shelli loves this series about an Ojibwe girl navigating changes during U.S. westward migration: “The book opens with Omakayas standing on the shore of her home, an island in Lake Superior. In the far distance, she sees strange people approaching. Once they arrive, her family finds that these people are Anishinabeg people too. (We call them the Ojibwe or Chippewa people now.) They are haggard, hungry, and some of them have lost members of their family. Among them is a baby boy who has lost his parents, and now he becomes Omakayas’s new baby brother. These people are refugees who have been pushed out of their homes by the chimookomanag, or white people, and as the story unfolds, Omakayas’s family realizes that they, too, must leave their homes.”
The Iron King is $1.99. Lately I’ve been recommending Julie Kagawa to people who want something fantastic to follow up the Percy Jackson series. Like Percy, Meghan has her world upended when she discovers — on the 16th birthday — that she’s the daughter of a mortal mother and a faery king father. In this first book, Meghan discovers the truth about herself when she ventures in the dangerous world of faery to find her little brother, who’s been swapped for a changeling.
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 16, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/16/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
This sale is for the audiobook—the ebook isn’t on sale. The Audible version of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda is $2.95. This YA charmer was the inspiration for the movie Love, Simon — I read it because all my students kept raving about it, and they were right: It’s a wonderful celebration of being brave enough to accept yourself for who you are. The audiobook is read by Michael Crouch, who does a great job balancing teenage angst and tenderness.
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
Still on sale
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is $2.99. There’s so much to love about Douglas Adams’ galaxy-hopping novel that it’s hard to know where to start: Arthur Dent accidentally hitches a ride on a passing spaceship just before the Earth is destroyed to make room for an intergalactic superhighway — and as the last Earthling, sets off with his alien buddy, a trouble-making galactic leader, a girl he once tried to date, and a depressed robot to explore the universe.
Tuck Everlasting is $3.99. This one’s almost never on sale, but Babbitt’s story about the possibilities and costs of eternal life is always a profound read that leaves you with lots of talk about.
Breaking Stalin’s Nose is $3.99. This was one of our Readaloud of the Week picks: “Eugene Yelchin wanted to illuminate a piece of history that we don’t often get to read about in U.S. classrooms: the fear and horror that people in Stalin’s Soviet Union had to live with every day. Because Sasha’s only 10 years old, his understanding of what’s actually happening in his country develops along with the reader’s, and it’s a great book to launch discussions of propaganda, politics, and fake news.”
The Game of Silence is $2.74. Shelli loves this series about an Ojibwe girl navigating changes during U.S. westward migration: “The book opens with Omakayas standing on the shore of her home, an island in Lake Superior. In the far distance, she sees strange people approaching. Once they arrive, her family finds that these people are Anishinabeg people too. (We call them the Ojibwe or Chippewa people now.) They are haggard, hungry, and some of them have lost members of their family. Among them is a baby boy who has lost his parents, and now he becomes Omakayas’s new baby brother. These people are refugees who have been pushed out of their homes by the chimookomanag, or white people, and as the story unfolds, Omakayas’s family realizes that they, too, must leave their homes.”
The Iron King is $1.99. Lately I’ve been recommending Julie Kagawa to people who want something fantastic to follow up the Percy Jackson series. Like Percy, Meghan has her world upended when she discovers — on the 16th birthday — that she’s the daughter of a mortal mother and a faery king father. In this first book, Meghan discovers the truth about herself when she ventures in the dangerous world of faery to find her little brother, who’s been swapped for a changeling.
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 15, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/15/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown isn’t technically a kid’s book, but I loved this biography of the brilliant — and brilliantly subversive — children’s book author so much that I have to let you know it’s only $2.99 right now.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is $2.99. There’s so much to love about Douglas Adams’ galaxy-hopping novel that it’s hard to know where to start: Arthur Dent accidentally hitches a ride on a passing spaceship just before the Earth is destroyed to make room for an intergalactic superhighway — and as the last Earthling, sets off with his alien buddy, a trouble-making galactic leader, a girl he once tried to date, and a depressed robot to explore the universe.
Still on sale
Tuck Everlasting is $3.99. This one’s almost never on sale, but Babbitt’s story about the possibilities and costs of eternal life is always a profound read that leaves you with lots of talk about.
Breaking Stalin’s Nose is $3.99. This was one of our Readaloud of the Week picks: “Eugene Yelchin wanted to illuminate a piece of history that we don’t often get to read about in U.S. classrooms: the fear and horror that people in Stalin’s Soviet Union had to live with every day. Because Sasha’s only 10 years old, his understanding of what’s actually happening in his country develops along with the reader’s, and it’s a great book to launch discussions of propaganda, politics, and fake news.”
The Game of Silence is $2.74. Shelli loves this series about an Ojibwe girl navigating changes during U.S. westward migration: “The book opens with Omakayas standing on the shore of her home, an island in Lake Superior. In the far distance, she sees strange people approaching. Once they arrive, her family finds that these people are Anishinabeg people too. (We call them the Ojibwe or Chippewa people now.) They are haggard, hungry, and some of them have lost members of their family. Among them is a baby boy who has lost his parents, and now he becomes Omakayas’s new baby brother. These people are refugees who have been pushed out of their homes by the chimookomanag, or white people, and as the story unfolds, Omakayas’s family realizes that they, too, must leave their homes.”
The Iron King is $1.99. Lately I’ve been recommending Julie Kagawa to people who want something fantastic to follow up the Percy Jackson series. Like Percy, Meghan has her world upended when she discovers — on the 16th birthday — that she’s the daughter of a mortal mother and a faery king father. In this first book, Meghan discovers the truth about herself when she ventures in the dangerous world of faery to find her little brother, who’s been swapped for a changeling.
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
Amy’s Library Chicken :: 10.15.18
Vampire bonding stories, middle grades mysteries, U.S. history, and more in this week’s Library Chicken roundup, brought to you by Amy.
Filling in for Suzanne is no easy task! I have to admit, I’ve read a few extra books this week just so I don’t have to be embarrassed not to keep up with the Book Nerd.
These Truths by Jill Lepore
Next year I’m teaching U.S. history and literature and I usually enjoy Jill Lepore, so I was thrilled to pick this up. Reading it was harder than I expected because Lepore’s central question — Has this country lived up to the Truths (political equality, natural rights, sovereignty of the people) on which it was founded? — feels particularly salient in today’s political climate, and Lepore brings us right up to the present day (the last chapter is called America, Disrupted). I always love Lepore’s ability to humanize history through the stories of individual people, and this book is full of people like Margaret Chase Smith and Mary Lease who are left out of other history books. No one volume book of U.S. history is going to feel totally comprehensive, but this one’s a good start. I liked it.
(LC score: +1)
American Indians in U.S. History by Roger L. Nichols
I picked this up for my U.S. history research, too, and I can recommend it if you’re looking for a Native American history textbook to add to your U.S. history studies. Nichols starts in pre-colonial America and traces Native American history through the creation and dominance of the United States and all the way into the 21st century. It’s a clear, chronological account of Native American history in the United States, and I really appreciate that Nichols tried to balance European and U.S history sources with tribal accounts.
(LC score: +1)
The Bookshop Girl by Sylvia Bishop
The problem with this book is that I kept expecting it to be more than a light, pleasant story, and it’s not. If you’re not waiting for the deeper impact, I think this is a charming little middle grades book: Property Jones (so-named because she was abandoned in the Lost Property box at a bookstore) has found a happy home with the family who own that ragtag little bookshop. When they win the Montgomery Book Emporium — the world’s greatest bookstore — the whole family is thrilled. But the bookstore turns out to be more like a curse than a gift, and Property must save the day. That’s pretty much the whole story, but it’s a pretty charming story if you know that’s what you’re getting going in.
(LC score: +0, advance copy)
The Guggenheim Mystery by Robin Stevens
Robin Stevens wrote this as the sequel to Siobhan Dowd’s lovely The London Eye Mystery, and her after-note about Dowd (who died in 2007) is a tear-jerker. I love Stevens (her Murder Most Unladylike series is a family favorite here), but she’s really channeling Dowd in this book, telling this story, just as the London Eye mystery is told, through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy with Asperger’s. This time, Ted and Kat travel to New York, where their cousin Salim has moved so his mom can work at the Guggenheim Museum there. When a smoke bomb goes off and a Kandinsky painting is stolen in the confusion, Salim’s mom is the chief suspect — and Ted teams up with Salim and Kat to clear her name. I really loved this — it’s maybe a little less suspenseful than The London Eye Mystery, but it’s a well-paced, interesting mystery that turns on Ted’s unique understanding of the world.
(LC: +0, advance copy)
Wicked Nix by Lena Coakley
I am always sold on the idea of Lena Coakley’s books, but they never seem to come together in a way that works for me. Mischievous fairy Nix is determined to do his fairy queen proud by keeping humans out of the forest, and he’s very good at playing tricks. But there’s more than just Nix’s mischief at play, and someone may be playing a much darker trick. So many people loved this book, so I must be missing something, but it just felt unsatisfying to me. The big twist was obvious early on, so I wanted something more to come from it, but it never did. The illustrations were gorgeous, though.
(LC: +0, advance copy)
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
I’m reading this with my daughter as part of our vampires and feminism literature seminar — I read it some years ago, maybe even when she was still a baby, but I didn’t remember much about it. I’m glad we read it together. Rae’s world is full of Others — demons, weres, and monsters — but the vampires are the most dangerous. When she’s captured by a band of vampires, she thinks her ordinary days of baking at her stepdad’s coffee shop are over forever — and they are, but not the way she expected. Instead of making her dinner, the vampires turn her over to a vampire who is also their prisoner, and Rae and her fellow prisoner form an unexpected alliance that just may have the power to change the world. There’s tons of stuff going on in this YA novel — and while, yes, OK, it is a little Buffy-ish in all the right ways, it’s worth reading on its own merits. Our seminar is off to a great start!
(LC: +0, from my shelves)
This Week: +2
Running Score: +5
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 14, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/14/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
A Wizard of Earthsea is $2.99. From our what to read if you loved the Narnia books list: “A Wizard of Earthsea is the first book in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy. With its Taoist ethics, feminist sensibility, and nuanced world building, Earthsea is a worthy follow-up to the Narnia books for older readers.”
Still on sale
Tuck Everlasting is $3.99. This one’s almost never on sale, but Babbitt’s story about the possibilities and costs of eternal life is always a profound read that leaves you with lots of talk about.
Breaking Stalin’s Nose is $3.99. This was one of our Readaloud of the Week picks: “Eugene Yelchin wanted to illuminate a piece of history that we don’t often get to read about in U.S. classrooms: the fear and horror that people in Stalin’s Soviet Union had to live with every day. Because Sasha’s only 10 years old, his understanding of what’s actually happening in his country develops along with the reader’s, and it’s a great book to launch discussions of propaganda, politics, and fake news.”
The Game of Silence is $2.74. Shelli loves this series about an Ojibwe girl navigating changes during U.S. westward migration: “The book opens with Omakayas standing on the shore of her home, an island in Lake Superior. In the far distance, she sees strange people approaching. Once they arrive, her family finds that these people are Anishinabeg people too. (We call them the Ojibwe or Chippewa people now.) They are haggard, hungry, and some of them have lost members of their family. Among them is a baby boy who has lost his parents, and now he becomes Omakayas’s new baby brother. These people are refugees who have been pushed out of their homes by the chimookomanag, or white people, and as the story unfolds, Omakayas’s family realizes that they, too, must leave their homes.”
The Miracle of Dunkirk is $1.99 — and a steal for that Dunkirk unit study you’ve got planned for when you get to WWII. (I’d add Connie Willis’s Blackout, too — and All Clear because you can’t read one without the other.)
The Iron King is $1.99. Lately I’ve been recommending Julie Kagawa to people who want something fantastic to follow up the Percy Jackson series. Like Percy, Meghan has her world upended when she discovers — on the 16th birthday — that she’s the daughter of a mortal mother and a faery king father. In this first book, Meghan discovers the truth about herself when she ventures in the dangerous world of faery to find her little brother, who’s been swapped for a changeling.
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 13, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/13/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Still on sale
Tuck Everlasting is $3.99. This one’s almost never on sale, but Babbitt’s story about the possibilities and costs of eternal life is always a profound read that leaves you with lots of talk about.
Breaking Stalin’s Nose is $3.99. This was one of our Readaloud of the Week picks: “Eugene Yelchin wanted to illuminate a piece of history that we don’t often get to read about in U.S. classrooms: the fear and horror that people in Stalin’s Soviet Union had to live with every day. Because Sasha’s only 10 years old, his understanding of what’s actually happening in his country develops along with the reader’s, and it’s a great book to launch discussions of propaganda, politics, and fake news.”
The Game of Silence is $2.74. Shelli loves this series about an Ojibwe girl navigating changes during U.S. westward migration: “The book opens with Omakayas standing on the shore of her home, an island in Lake Superior. In the far distance, she sees strange people approaching. Once they arrive, her family finds that these people are Anishinabeg people too. (We call them the Ojibwe or Chippewa people now.) They are haggard, hungry, and some of them have lost members of their family. Among them is a baby boy who has lost his parents, and now he becomes Omakayas’s new baby brother. These people are refugees who have been pushed out of their homes by the chimookomanag, or white people, and as the story unfolds, Omakayas’s family realizes that they, too, must leave their homes.”
The Miracle of Dunkirk is $1.99 — and a steal for that Dunkirk unit study you’ve got planned for when you get to WWII. (I’d add Connie Willis’s Blackout, too — and All Clear because you can’t read one without the other.)
The Iron King is $1.99. Lately I’ve been recommending Julie Kagawa to people who want something fantastic to follow up the Percy Jackson series. Like Percy, Meghan has her world upended when she discovers — on the 16th birthday — that she’s the daughter of a mortal mother and a faery king father. In this first book, Meghan discovers the truth about herself when she ventures in the dangerous world of faery to find her little brother, who’s been swapped for a changeling.
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 12, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/12/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Tuck Everlasting is $3.99. This one’s almost never on sale, but Babbitt’s story about the possibilities and costs of eternal life is always a profound read that leaves you with lots of talk about.
Breaking Stalin’s Nose is $3.99. This was one of our Readaloud of the Week picks: “Eugene Yelchin wanted to illuminate a piece of history that we don’t often get to read about in U.S. classrooms: the fear and horror that people in Stalin’s Soviet Union had to live with every day. Because Sasha’s only 10 years old, his understanding of what’s actually happening in his country develops along with the reader’s, and it’s a great book to launch discussions of propaganda, politics, and fake news.”
The Game of Silence is $2.74. Shelli loves this series about an Ojibwe girl navigating changes during U.S. westward migration: “The book opens with Omakayas standing on the shore of her home, an island in Lake Superior. In the far distance, she sees strange people approaching. Once they arrive, her family finds that these people are Anishinabeg people too. (We call them the Ojibwe or Chippewa people now.) They are haggard, hungry, and some of them have lost members of their family. Among them is a baby boy who has lost his parents, and now he becomes Omakayas’s new baby brother. These people are refugees who have been pushed out of their homes by the chimookomanag, or white people, and as the story unfolds, Omakayas’s family realizes that they, too, must leave their homes.”
The Miracle of Dunkirk is $1.99 — and a steal for that Dunkirk unit study you’ve got planned for when you get to WWII. (I’d add Connie Willis’s Blackout, too — and All Clear because you can’t read one without the other.)
Still on sale
The Iron King is $1.99. Lately I’ve been recommending Julie Kagawa to people who want something fantastic to follow up the Percy Jackson series. Like Percy, Meghan has her world upended when she discovers — on the 16th birthday — that she’s the daughter of a mortal mother and a faery king father. In this first book, Meghan discovers the truth about herself when she ventures in the dangerous world of faery to find her little brother, who’s been swapped for a changeling.
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
Stuff We Like :: 10.12.18
Children’s book protagonists grow up (with bonus Matilda!), lots of knitting, great Halloween readaloud ideas, and more stuff we like.
It’s so crazy to think that my daughter is a junior this year — we’re logging college visits, flagging schools in Colleges That Change Lives, and trying to make the most of every single minute. When we started homeschooling, she was in second grade, and I definitely didn’t think we’d keep doing it all through high school. Now I can’t imagine what else we would have done — this has been so exactly the right fit for her and for us. But I’m glad her brother is still several years behind her.
What’s Happening at home/school/life
Our nerdy Halloween costume Pinterest board, 5 spooky writing exercises for your little monsters
Amy’s Library Chicken score creeps up with middle grades horror, YA superhero romance, and some old-school comfort books.
one year ago: Is it possible to homeschool and be a working mom? Also: 6 curriculum shopping tips that will help you make the most of your budget
two years ago: Shelli’s daily routine. Plus: A citizen science project that’s all about bugs
three years ago: Studying the solar system. Also: The introvert’s guide to making homeschool friends
four years ago: How to talk about homeschooling so that people will listen
Links I Liked
I think this is part of why I’ve struggled so much with the last couple of weeks: The cruelty is intentional. It’s the point. And if that’s true — where do we go from there?
… Maybe to our favorite children’s book heroes, whose imagined futures seem happily bright. (Peter’s is so perfect!)
Similarly: Mara Wilson on Matilda at 30. They are both perfect, too. And of course Matilda would be a librarian! Don’t all librarians have super powers?
And finally: You may have already seen this Helm’s Deep battle scene made out of Legos, but it is too amazing not to share.
What’s making me happy
I wish I could write a thank-you letter to the my-size Dansko wearer who donates shoes to my local thrift shop because now I get to wear these.
The new Doctor Who
This shawl I’m knitting for part of a Twin Peaks themed birthday present
This sweater I’m knitting for my daughter in this yarn
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 11, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/11/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Iron King is $1.99. Lately I’ve been recommending Julie Kagawa to people who want something fantastic to follow up the Percy Jackson series. Like Percy, Meghan has her world upended when she discovers — on the 16th birthday — that she’s the daughter of a mortal mother and a faery king father. In this first book, Meghan discovers the truth about herself when she ventures in the dangerous world of faery to find her little brother, who’s been swapped for a changeling.
Still on sale
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time is $1.99. Think of this fun book as a jumping-off point for further history studies: What’s the deal with Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? Though there’s some sensationalism in the telling, these historical mysteries really are interesting—and may be just the ticket for a history-reluctant kid who needs a hook to pull her in.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 9, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/9/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Still on sale
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time is $1.99. Think of this fun book as a jumping-off point for further history studies: What’s the deal with Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? Though there’s some sensationalism in the telling, these historical mysteries really are interesting—and may be just the ticket for a history-reluctant kid who needs a hook to pull her in.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 8, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/8/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Strange the Dreamer is $2.99. School Library Journal said it better than I can: “There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.”
Still on sale
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is $1.99. From our high school Native American history reading list: “Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is at the top of our essential reading list for good reason: Brown’s incisive, authoritative account of the systematic 19th century destruction of Native American populations by the United States illuminates the perspective of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes who lived through it. This is not an easy book to read, but it’s an important one.”
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time is $1.99. Think of this fun book as a jumping-off point for further history studies: What’s the deal with Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? Though there’s some sensationalism in the telling, these historical mysteries really are interesting—and may be just the ticket for a history-reluctant kid who needs a hook to pull her in.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
Amy’s Library Chicken :: 10.7.18
This week’s library chicken is heavy on comfort reading, plus a little middle grades horror, some snarky steampunk, and a little YA superhero romance.
My best friend and I have had to keep reminding each other these last couple of weeks that the good that can come out of terrible things is change. I have the poem “The Place Where We Are Right” by Yehuda Amichai taped over my desk, and I read these lines over and over again:
The place where we are right
is hard and trampled
like a yard.
But doubts and loves
dig up the world
like a mole, a plough.
Which is a longish and perhaps overly abstract introduction to a reading list, but my reading life has been compromised by my emotional life. I find myself avoiding hard books — books that are emotionally complicated — in favor of objective history or comforting books that I can count on to leave me in a good space. I have a giant stack of books that I really want to read that I just can’t seem to read right now.
The Blue Castle by L.M.Montgomery
I have read this so many times I have stopped counting, but it is one of my go-to comfort books. If you’ve only read Montgomery’s Anne books, this one may surprise you: Valancy Stirling is an old maid who has lived all 29 years of her life under the thumb of her controlling family. Valancy isn’t particularly smart or pretty or interesting, and she’s not a particularly pleasant person to be around either — her internal monologues are all recountings of minor insults and injuries that she’s piled up over the years. She’s well on her way to being a bitter, unhappy old woman — until a trip to a specialist informs her that she’s not likely to get much older. Valancy decided to shake up her life completely, and the results are so satisfying.
(LC score: +0, read it on my Kindle)
The Supervillain and Me by Danielle Banas
This is pure frothy fun if you’re into that kind of thing: Abby knows all about the superhero/secret identity thing because her brother is the Red Comet, but she’s not prepared to start crushing on the town’s new vigilante supervillain, even though he does (literally) swoop in and save her from a dire situation. A lot of the twists are a bit predictable (sometimes the bad guys are really the good guys!), but there’s also a lot of good stuff going on, especially Abby’s developing realization that literal superpowers aren’t the only way to be a hero. If this sounds like the kind of thing you’d enjoy, it probably is — and it’s probably a little smarter and funnier than you expected, which is always a nice plus.
(LC score: +0, advance reader copy)
The Darkdeep by Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs
This seems to have gotten good reviews, so take my review with a grain of salt, but I didn’t love this: It’s supposed to be a spooky, atmospheric cautionary tale about secrets and desire set on a mysterious houseboat in a mysterious cove. People are comparing it to Stranger Things, but other than the fact that it’s a horror story about a group of kids, I don’t see the connection. It definitely checked the boxes for middle grades scary, but there were long stretches where it was scary without being exciting, which — for me — equalled boring. I think this might be a hit with some middle grades readers who like thrills and chills, but it doesn’t feel like a book that will end up with a permanent spot on library shelves, if that makes sense. Or I could be crazy and totally missing the (creepy haunted) boat. I don’t know — I’m reading through other people’s reviews, and I feel like I just didn't get it.
(LC score: +0, advance reader copy)
The Inventors at No. 8 by A.M. Morgen
Now this middle grades book I found delightful. George, the third Lord of Devonshire, is the unluckiest boy in London — but that may be about to change, thanks to his new neighbor, the young Ada Lovelace. (This is a digression, but I love how the world has rediscovered the awesomeness of Ada Lovelace over the past five years. Yay for feminist historians!) George and Ada set off in Ada’s flying machine — along with the son of an infamous pirate and a pet orangutan — to change George’s luck and — maybe — the world. Think of it as a steampunk-y Lemony Snicket-y quest story, and settle in for a fun ride.
(LC score: +0, advance reader copy)
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
I’ve been meaning to read this in the hopes that it would turn out to be my much-needed new murder mystery fix, and it definitely wasn’t that. (It’s not a murder mystery at all — did I just dream that it was supposed to be a mystery?) It was a good read, though — it’s more of a series of character studies set in an English village whose superficial bucolic charm is underlaid with class tensions, family squabbles, and marital discord. It’s definitely not a bit Harry Potter-ish, which isn’t really surprising considering the subject matter, but Rowling is a good writer with an eye for detail, and there’s a lot to unpack here. I think I would have liked it more if I had known going in that it wasn’t actually a mystery — though if I had known that, I probably wouldn’t have read it!
(LC score: +1)
How Lovely the Ruins: Inspirational Poems and Words for Difficult Times edited by Annie Chagnot and Emi Ikkanda
I find poetry infinitely comforting these days (obviously, since I can’t stop turning back to it), and this book was particularly balm-ish for my soul. It’s a lovely collection with a few classics and some lesser-known poems, like Denise Levertov’s “For the New Year, 1981:”
Please take
this grain of a grain of hope
so that mine won’t shrink.
Please share your fragment
so that yours will grow.
(LC score: +1)
This Week: +2
Running Score: +3
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 7, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/7/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Killers of the Flower Moon is $2.99. From our best Native American books for high school roundup: “David Grann uncovers a particularly dark chapter of U.S. history in Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. In the 1920s, the Osage Indian reservation be- came an unexpected boom town when oil was discovered on reservation land— the Osage became the richest people per capita in the world. Then, someone started killing them off, one by one. One of the FBI’s first major investigations, the Osage murders exposed a sinister conspiracy that still feels shocking almost a century later.”
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is $1.99. Also from our high school Native American history reading list: “Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is at the top of our essential reading list for good reason: Brown’s incisive, authoritative account of the systematic 19th century destruction of Native American populations by the United States illuminates the perspective of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes who lived through it. This is not an easy book to read, but it’s an important one.”
Still on sale
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
Chancellorsville is $1.99 — and if you’ve been looking for a hyper-focused account of one Civil War battle for your high school U.S. History class, I can recommend this one. (And not just me — Library Journal called it a “tour de force in military history.”)
History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time is $1.99. Think of this fun book as a jumping-off point for further history studies: What’s the deal with Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? Though there’s some sensationalism in the telling, these historical mysteries really are interesting—and may be just the ticket for a history-reluctant kid who needs a hook to pull her in.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 6, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/6/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Sunshine is $1.99. If you, like me, have a sweet spot for vampire stories with plucky heroines, you will appreciate this totally YA novel about a baker in a post-apocalyptic world who harnesses her own power to fend off the vampiric threat to her hometown.
Chancellorsville is $1.99 — and if you’ve been looking for a hyper-focused account of one Civil War battle for your high school U.S. History class, I can recommend this one. (And not just me — Library Journal called it a “tour de force in military history.”)
Still on sale
History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time is $1.99. Think of this fun book as a jumping-off point for further history studies: What’s the deal with Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? Though there’s some sensationalism in the telling, these historical mysteries really are interesting—and may be just the ticket for a history-reluctant kid who needs a hook to pull her in.
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 5, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/5/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time is $1.99. Think of this fun book as a jumping-off point for further history studies: What’s the deal with Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? Though there’s some sensationalism in the telling, these historical mysteries really are interesting—and may be just the ticket for a history-reluctant kid who needs a hook to pull her in.
Still on sale
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
Stuff We Like :: 10.5.18
New words for your favorite dictionary, an award for books that should have been recognized sooner (and a worthy winner!), ideas for your high school reading list, and more stuff we like.
The beginning of October always seems like it should be fall — but it never actually feels like fall in Atlanta. We may have to run away to the mountains for a little while this weekend.
What’s happening at home/school/life
It’s that time of year when we’re up to our ears in getting the fall issue done!
Rebecca loved Michael Clay Thompson grammar — it’s one of those programs that can really inspire a kid who loves words and language.
I’m filling in for Suzanne in Library Chicken, and while I lack her BookNerd style, I am hoping this will inspire me to make some happier reading choices. (More misses than hits for me this week!)
There have been some awesome Kindle deals lately. (My son was thrilled to snag a copy of Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab for his Kindle—now we can do dangerous experiments on the go.)
one year ago: Halloween always makes me want to reread The Dollhouse Murders. Plus: Shelli’s totally simple strategy to homeschool preschool
two years ago: Great books for developing an everyday writing habit. Plus: Why you should start a family walking habit
three years ago: Rebecca reviewed History Odyssey.
The Links I Liked
You’re registered to vote, right? It’s almost totally painless — and so important.
TL;DR , hangry, and bingeable are among the new words headed to a Merriam-Webster near you. (My spellcheck is definitely not ready.)
The Phoenix Award recognizes great books that missed out on awards when they were first published, which is such a brilliant idea. And this year’s winner — The Birchbark House — totally deserves the belated honor. Am I the only one who thinks it’s interesting this book is being recognized so soon after the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was renamed? I’m happy to have The Birchbark House shelved right beside Little House in the Big Woods in our homeschool room. For me, this is what feels right — not letting go of problematic books I loved but acknowledging their problems, identifying their context, and finding the voices that they leave out.
So many good ideas for your high school reading list. (Yes, please to Octavia Butler!)
Relevant to my interests: William Faulkner was a terrible postman.
What’s making me happy
The way my dog comes and sits on my lap while I am typing
The awesome Locke and Hobbes essays students using our curriculum have written this fall
Tofu bowls with kimchi fried rice from the restaurant on my way home
The Cat Returns, which is just the kind of weird animated movie we always love
Vertigo, which I get to nerd out over with my students this week
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 4, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/4/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Coraline The Graphic Novel is $1.99. If you are in the market for a spooky Halloween graphic novel, Gaiman’s now-classic about a girl who discovers another — darker — world behind a secret door in her new apartment is hard to beat.
Still on sale
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 3, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/3/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Fifth Season is $2.99. I have to confess that I read this book to be polite because Suzanne kept talking about how great Jemisin is, and I was BLOWN AWAY. The three interconnected narratives tell the story of a world where the earth’s power can be harnessed by a much-feared and heavily controlled group of people, but the gorgeous language, complex plotting, and subtle characters make this an extraordinary piece of literature.
Still on sale
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is $2.99. Auxier’s weird Gothic-fantasy mash-ups aren’t for everyone, but they’re definitely for me, and this story about a blind orphan who steals a box of magical eyes and ends up on a fantastic quest is delightful.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
Absalom, Absalom! is $2.99. Faulkner’s story of the dark legacy of slavery and the question of what it means to be human convinced Suzanne that Faulkner was worth a read. I am totally biased by my own Faulkner love, but this is one of his best, I think. For high school.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches is $1.99. More for teens and parents than younger readers, Audre Lorde tackles racism, sexism, homophobia, and other-ing in all its forms. The New York Times says: “Lorde's works will be important to those truly interested in growing up sensitive, intelligent, and aware.”
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 2, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/2/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Nightmares! is $2.99. Just in time for Halloween, this just-scary-enough middle grades story pits a group of kids against their biggest fears as nightmares start to invade the everyday world.
Sarah, Plain and Tall is $1.99. This Newbery winner’s likable characters and evocative descriptions on life on the 19th century prairie make it a great historical fiction addition to your homeschool library.
Still on sale
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is $2.99. Auxier’s weird Gothic-fantasy mash-ups aren’t for everyone, but they’re definitely for me, and this story about a blind orphan who steals a box of magical eyes and ends up on a fantastic quest is delightful.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
Absalom, Absalom! is $2.99. Faulkner’s story of the dark legacy of slavery and the question of what it means to be human convinced Suzanne that Faulkner was worth a read. I am totally biased by my own Faulkner love, but this is one of his best, I think. For high school.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches is $1.99. More for teens and parents than younger readers, Audre Lorde tackles racism, sexism, homophobia, and other-ing in all its forms. The New York Times says: “Lorde's works will be important to those truly interested in growing up sensitive, intelligent, and aware.”
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for October 1, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 10/1/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Ancillary Justice is $2.99. Sci-fi fan Suzanne put this trilogy kick-off on her best books of the year list and we talked about it on the podcast. This is old-fashioned science fiction in the traditional sense, but it also plays with notions of identity, gender, and responsibility in ways that are interesting (and satisfyingly resolved in the book!) for a non-hardcore sci-fi fan.
Olivia Twist is $1.99. From Amy’s review: “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.”
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab: A Mystery with Electromagnets, Burglar Alarms, and Other Gadgets You Can Build Yourself is $1.99. This book is a MacGyverish delight, and if you have a budding maker, you need it, stat.
Still on sale
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay is $2.99. Harry Potter completists won’t want to miss this script that kicks of the Newt Scamander movies, even though it takes place many years before The Boy Who Lived was born.
The Red Queen is $2.99. We recommended this one in our summer 2015 reading guide: In Mare’s world, the Silvers have all the power, while the Reds do all the labor. But Mare, a Red, has powers no one suspects in the first novel in this medieval fantasy series.
The Search for WondLa is $3.99. School Library Journal says “DiTerlizzi is pushing the envelope in his latest work, nearly creating a new format that combines a traditional novel with a graphic novel and with the interactivity of the computer. Yet, beneath this impressive package lies a theme readers will easily relate to: the need to belong, to connect, to figure out one's place in the world. The novel's ending is a stunning shocker that will leave kids frantically awaiting the next installment.”
The Boggart is $3.99. If you’re looking for something that will remind you of Roald Dahl, this hilarious story of an ancient, magical Boggart meeting modern technology is a readaloud delight.
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is $2.99. Auxier’s weird Gothic-fantasy mash-ups aren’t for everyone, but they’re definitely for me, and this story about a blind orphan who steals a box of magical eyes and ends up on a fantastic quest is delightful.
The Name of the Wind is $1.99. If your fantasy-loving teen needs a new series to binge, you can’t go wrong with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recommendation!
Absalom, Absalom! is $2.99. Faulkner’s story of the dark legacy of slavery and the question of what it means to be human convinced Suzanne that Faulkner was worth a read. I am totally biased by my own Faulkner love, but this is one of his best, I think. For high school.
The Book Thief is $2.99. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. In 1939 Germany, an orphan falls in love with book — and Death himself narrates the stories. Holocaust stories can be both punishing and profound, and this one is no exception — but when you’re ready, it’s worth reading.
Howl’s Moving Castle is $3.99. Sometimes a curse can be just what you needed, as Sophie discovers in this delightful fantasy about a hat maker's daughter who's cursed to premature old age by the Witch of the Waste. To break the curse, Sophie will need to team up with the mysterious wizard Howl, who happens to be stuck under a curse of his own — but first, she'll have to get to his castle, which has a habit of wandering around. I love this as a readaloud, on its own, or (of course) a companion piece to the equally wonderful (though often quite different) movie adaptation.
Jackaby is $1.99. This first in the series (of which I am a fan) introduces the supernatural Sherlock Holmes and his new assistant, runaway young lady (who’d rather be a paleontologist) Abigail Rook.
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches is $1.99. More for teens and parents than younger readers, Audre Lorde tackles racism, sexism, homophobia, and other-ing in all its forms. The New York Times says: “Lorde's works will be important to those truly interested in growing up sensitive, intelligent, and aware.”
The Glass Town Game is just $0.99. I snagged this one as soon as I saw it since it made Suzanne’s Best of 2017 list — she says “Similar in style to Valente’s Fairyland series with a dash of The Phantom Tollbooth, this would be a great read-aloud and introduction to the Brontes (although you may have to prepare your listeners for some post-book heartbreak when they learn about the eventual fates of the siblings). I especially loved the Jane Austen cameo, presented (as Valente apologetically notes) from Charlotte’s point of view (she’s not a fan).”
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Book or movie? With so many Christie adaptations and books to choose from, we’ve rounded up the cinematic cream of the crop and the stories that give the most mystery mileage.