Stuff We Like :: 3.7.20

Evil-fighting babysitters, middle school testing, Japanese storytelling, magical houses, and more

Find me on Patreon

• chatting about how to start your own homeschool group

• sharing my Friday links roundup

• (and you can also download our Time Cat reading guide)

What’s happening at HSL

• How can I help my high school procrastinator?

• Updated: The Hate U Give Reading Guide

What I’m reading

I have had Flora Segunda on my reading list for a while (mostly because of its delightful subtitle: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog) but only just got around to reading it. I feel like if I had read this in middle school, it would have jumped to the top of my beloved books list: Flora (Segunda because the first, prima, Flora mysteriously vanished in a war before her replacement sister was born) is the youngest of the once-powerful Fyrdraaca family, but she does not want to follow in her mother and sister’s military footsteps. Instead, she longs to be one of the forbidden rangers, a group of magic-users who work in the shadows. Honestly, though, she’d settle for not being the family’s de facto servant — ever since her mother banished their house’s magical butler, Flora’s been the only one holding the enormous magic house together. One day, when she’s late for school, she breaks the rules and rides the house elevator — bringing her into contact with the banished butler and a family mystery that Flora’s determined to solve. The world-building in this book is layered and complex, and there are plenty of tantalizing mysteries remaining after the story wraps up its main threads in a satisfying and surprising way. 

I also read The Grey Sisters, which has a very dramatic set-up — two friends road trip to the place where their siblings died in a tragic plane crash and discover a doomsday cult living off the grid there — but ends up being mostly forgettable. I’m actually having trouble coming up with anything to say about it…

The Babysitters Coven, on the other hand, was as predictable as bubble gum lip gloss in the 1980s and really just as much fun. This mash-up of The Baby-Sitters Club and Buffy the Vampire Slayer doesn’t pack the punch of either of those works but is nonetheless a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours: Esme’s a babysitter — what else does she have to do? — and when new girl in town Cassandra joins her babysitting club, they discover that babysitters are responsible for more than just getting the kids to bed on time. In fact, babysitters are the superheroes who stand between the everyday world and unspeakable evil — and Esme and Cassandra are about to get in on the fight. It’s not a great book, but it’s fun.

What I’m learning

I’m in the midst of putting together a Japanese literature and film class for next fall, so I’ve been reading tons of books on Japanese storytelling, which is so different from western storytelling. I’m getting so excited about this class.

Typically, I don’t give written tests in junior high, but this semester, my middle schoolers insisted that they wanted to have a chemistry exam, and they all rocked it. There are a couple of things I take away from this: one, if you treat tests like something fun, they seem like they’re fun, and two, giving people two minutes at the end to check their answers against their notes really boosts their confidence. And, of course, tests aren’t the best measure of learning.

What I’m watching

I’m also teaching The Philosophy of The Good Place this fall, so I’ve been watching The Good Place with the kids. (We had just finished Parks and Rec, so they were very concerned when Bad Ben Wyatt shows up!)

(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.)

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