HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 23, 2018
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 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.
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (first in the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell mystery series) is $3.99. Traditionalist Holmes fans might not appreciate its take one a retired Holmes, who pauses his beekeeping project to team up with a plucky, egotistical orphan (a girl, no less!) in decidedly post-Victorian 1915, but if you like the BBC series or you raged at Holmes’s decision in “The Speckled Band” (She hired you, Holmes!), you’ll appreciate this older, wiser take on the detective.
Still on sale
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 Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg is $0.99. This isn’t my favorite Konigsburg — but if this were any other author, this story about a new kid in town who dreams of discovering something new would be high on the list. Konigsburg just sets a really high bar for herself.
The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman's brilliant (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) history of the month leading up to World War I, is $1.99. Tuchman has a knack for weaving sophisticated historical details into a text that reads like a story, and I feel like a high school U.S. history student who skipped this book would be missing out. (At least read the first chapter, about Edward VII's funeral, together!)
Salt: A World History is $1.99. I love books like this that trace some apparently insignificant item through history; Library Journal says: "Deftly leading readers around the world and across cultures and centuries, he takes an inexpensive, mundane item and shows how it has influenced and affected wars, cultures, governments, religions, societies, economies, cooking (there are a few recipes), and foods." Sign me up.
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
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.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
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."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
