Looking Back on a Decade-Plus of Homeschool Life
Once I decided that ‘school’ didn’t have to look anything like the model I grew up with, I also started thinking about happiness, and success, and what I really wanted for myself and my husband and my children as we grow up together.
I can tell you exactly when I decided to homeschool. Kid No. 1 was nearly three, Kid No. 2 was an infant, and Kids No. 3 and No. 4 were years away. I was sitting on my bed next to my husband, reading my way through a stack of library books— not unusual, except in this case, the stack consisted of every single homeschooling book my local library had available. About halfway through the stack I turned to my husband and said, “I think we can do this.” I believe his response was a dubious “Hmmm.”
That was over 10 years ago, and if you ask me why I choose to homeschool, I can give you a decade’s worth of reasons. Initially, it just sounded like a whole lot of fun. I loved school and was a fairly accomplished nerd in my day, so the idea of doing school with my kids (of whom I am also rather fond) seemed pretty great. Academically, it turns out that the one-on-one of homeschooling is such an efficient way to teach that we could take Fridays off and still keep up with what was being taught in our local schools, even as we watched our school-friends deal with bullies, school bureaucracy, and the occasional lousy teacher. I believe that homeschooling supports family relationships and creates life-long learners, and we’ve chosen this course with great care and thought.
Of course, if you ask my kids why we homeschool—and people have—they will tell you that it’s because “Mom likes to sleep in and wear pajamas all day.”
Now, as it happens, this is also true. Which I think illustrates something important about homeschooling: it’s not just an educational choice, it’s a lifestyle choice. I thought I knew this going in. I pictured my kids’ educational journey as just that, a road trip, where instead of taking the interstates like most other folks, we had decided to take the back roads, enjoying the scenery and confounding the GPS.
But I’ve since realized that metaphor doesn’t go far enough. Once I decided that ‘school’ didn’t have to look anything like the model I grew up with, I also started thinking about happiness, and success, and what I really wanted for myself and my husband and my children as we grow up together. We’re still on a journey, but it’s not enough to say that we’re driving the back roads. I think we’ve left the car behind and are doing something radically different— more like taking a trip in a hot air balloon, with an entirely different view of the scenery.
“We’re still on a journey, but it’s not enough to say that we’re driving the back roads. I think we’ve left the car behind and are doing something radically different— more like taking a trip in a hot air balloon, with an entirely different view of the scenery.”
I didn’t quite know that’s what I was signing up for, halfway through the stack of library books, and it can get a bit nerve-wracking up there at times, but I have learned a few things I can share with my fellow balloonists.
Be flexible. You’re in charge up there, but you’re not in control. Health, financial, or other family issues may mean that the best choice for your family today is not the same as it was last year, or even last week. Give yourself permission to change course.
Keep your destination in mind. Whether you’re planning to homeschool for a year, until college, or for as long as it works, at some point your child will have to deal with the more traditional expectations of the rest of the world. This can be a rocky transition, but there’s a lot you can do to prepare and make it easier.
Teach the kids how to steer. When it’s appropriate—and as often as possible—let them make the decisions about where to go next. And, of course, enjoy the ride. Skip math and grammar and spend the day in bed with the kids and Harry Potter. Take a family trip when everyone else is in school. And definitely, always, wear the pajamas.
At Home with the Editors: Amy’s 9th Grade Reading List
Our 9th grade homeschool reading list is heavy on U.S. history and literature, with an effort to bring in diverse voices and stories. (Plus lots of physical science and a Studio Ghibli lit class!)
As promised, here’s the list of books we read in our 9th grade homeschool this year. (You can read more about our curriculum and schedule for 9th grade here; this is just the book list.) We read a lot, so this looks like a long list, but we didn’t read every book in its entirety. And while I tried to break this down into sections, we don’t really compartmentalize, so there’s definitely overlap. I didn't include books she read on her own for fun.
Summer Reading
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
I am always recommending this book to people who want to do more academic reading, and high school felt like the perfect time to put it on my daughter’s list.
A People’s History of the United States
I’m pretty sure this would have made a good U.S. History spine, too, but I went the more traditional route and assigned this for summer reading.
The Partly Cloud Patriot
I wanted to my daughter to jump into U.S. History thinking about who is telling the story and why and what it all means, and this collection of essays was a fun way to introduce the power of perspective in history.
Americanah
We were both really moved by this story about a young Nigerian woman who comes to the United States to go to college. (We also loved her We Should All Be Feminists.)
The Tao of Pooh
Recommended by my philosopher friend as a surprisingly good introduction to Taoism, which I wanted to explore before jumping into our comparative lit class.
U.S. History/American Literature
Spine: The American Pageant (AP edition)
I don’t usually go for traditional textbooks, but this one was helpful for pacing ourselves so that we covered everything we needed to get to before the AP test.
Spine: Primary Source: Documents in U.S. History Volume 1 and Volume 2
Spine: Norton Anthology of American Literature
We read this almost straight through—it was great for sampling a lot of different nonfiction, stories, and poems.
The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
I love that these letters capture a dramatic period of U.S. history and what life was like for ordinary people during the Revolutionary period. We really enjoyed them.
The Witches: Salem 1692
How can you study U.S. history and skip the Salem witch trials? I thought this book was fascinating (and a great read alongside The Crucible) because it really ties into ideas about religious provocation and crowd-sourced accusations that feel pretty relevant right now.
The Scarlet Letter
For literature, we really wanted to look at the qualities/themes that make a work "American," and The Scarlet Letter was a good place to start. Hawthorne is writing as a descendant of the Puritans he skewers in his story, establishing the complicated relationship between the past and present, the old and the new, that's still such a big part of American thinking. (I always get the Norton critical editions when I can because the essays at the back are great supplemental material.)
Founding Brothers
An obvious choice but a really good read.
Huckleberry Finn
An obvious but essential read. (But seriously WHAT IS WRONG WITH TOM SAWYER? Is he a metaphor for everything that is wrong with the South or just a terrible, terrible person?)
The Killer Angels
We all know what happens at the Battle of Gettysburg, but this scrupulously researched novel really brings it to life. My daughter hated it, though, so she didn't finish it.
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Fascinating!
Mothers of Invention: Women in the Slaveholding South in the Civil War Era
We talk a lot about how WWI changed women's lives, but the Civil War had a similar effect on the "ladies" who had to go from pampered, protected, fragile flowers to strong, capable caregivers, workers, and providers.
The Red Badge of Courage
Not my daughter's favorite—a little too violent and unhappy, but since that's kind of the point, we worked through it.
Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity
Great biography. My daughter loved this one.
Brave Companions
We really enjoyed this collection of short biographies of people who don't always make it into traditional history textbooks.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
This is an excellent and often heartbreaking book about the Native American genocide during the 19th century.
Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation
Another sad but excellent book about Native American history.
Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian
This book wants to sort of give Jackson's side of the story, to explain why he'd commit so enthusiastically to wiping out entire nations of people. And maybe it kind of succeeds? But Jackson's position is just so terrible and wrong and misguided and the results of his actions so catastrophic that I think we kind of didn't care why he might have felt that way. Sometimes it's fun to read a book that you can totally disagree with, but we'd been reading a lot about the Native American genocide, and this just made us sadder.
Nothing Like it in the World: The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
The railroad transformed the United States, and its completion was a massive undertaking for a still-young country. The whole project is fascinating, and this book did a great job capturing both its scope and some of the individual personalities involved.
Portrait of a Lady
Always a delight!
An American Tragedy
I loved this book in high school, so I was happy that it held up on reread and that my daughter enjoyed it—two things that are never guaranteed!
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
We will pretty much never stop being amazed by the sheer coolness of Teddy Roosevelt.
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
Really interesting read about how Roosevelt brought the idea of conservation and public lands to the United States.
The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age
Corporate culture is such a part of modern life, it was really interesting to read the history of its roots.
American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism 1865-1900
When did capitalism become the American Dream? Sometime between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century, the democratic dream started to become the capitalist dream, and this book captures some of the people and moments that contributed to that transition. This was so interesting to read.
My Antonia
A classic novel of the pioneer experience—plus interesting to read while immigration is such a controversial topic.
Southern Horrors and other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida Wells, 1892-1900
OK, so Ida B. Wells is awesome in pretty much every way, but this book—about racism and sexism in the post-Civil War South—is so depressing. Totally worth reading depressing, but be prepared.
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power
Also depressing, also worth reading. Lots of sexual violence (which is probably obvious from the title), though, so be aware.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow
How could we not read a book that Martin Luther King, Jr., called "the historical Bible of the civil rights movement?"
The Great Gatsby
Gorgeous.
Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story
The Murphys knew EVERYBODY (Picasso! Hemingway! Fitzgerald! Cole Porter!) in 1920s Paris, and their lives read like a good novel. (Which I guess isn't that surprising since Fitzgerald also based the Divers in Tender Is the Night on them.)
East of Eden
I really think this is the great American novel.
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America
My daughter didn't love this group biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey, but I read it twice.
Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882
A really detailed examination of the history of immigration in the United States.
How the Other Half Lives
A first-hand look at the lives of new immigrants in 1880s New York City.
Black Like Me
This book is amazing: A man passes as black on a road trip through the 1950s South, and his experiences and their effect on him are pretty unforgettable.
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
More cool Roosevelts.
Band of Brothers
It's not that this is a bad book—it's a very good book—but wars are not our favorite part of history.
Hiroshima
So heart-wrenching.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
You've probably heard about how great this book (which explores the intersection of science, race, and ethics) is, so I'll just chime in and add, yep, it is great.
All the King’s Men
A classic. (And, oh my gosh, incredibly relevant)
The Final Days
This is a richly detailed chronology of Nixon's last months in office.
Invisible Man
Everyone should read this book, so I'm happy it fit so neatly into our high school reading list.
Comparative Literature
Studio Ghibli: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata
This book was fine—some very interesting bits and some less interesting bits—but it was awesome to find a book about Studio Ghibli.
Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence
A readable approach to a slice of Japanese philosophy that resonates through the adaptations we watched.
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Another philosophical idea that we wanted to understand in a more nuanced way.
Allegory of the Cave
I think this is the essential text for understanding the Western mind/body dichotomy, which is also an important part of Western literature.
Japanese Tales
Being able to recognize allusions and motifs is an important part of comparative literature. (Plus these fairy and folk tales were really fun to read!)
The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore
See above. :)
Physical Science
Spine: Holt Science Spectrum: Physical Science with Earth and Space Science
I wasn't over-the-moon thrilled with this textbook, but of the limited options for homeschooling high school science, this one felt like the best fit for this year. If you use it, be prepared to supplement a lot. I think this is a good option if you have a kid who's interested in physics but doesn't really have the math yet to be successful at physics.
Spine: Hands-On Physics Activities with Real-Life Applications: Easy-to-Use Labs and Demonstrations for Grades 8 - 12
Because you can't do high school science without labs! (This was actually a pretty good resource—it didn't match up with the book exactly, so I still had to put in some Google fu time to find labs to go with some concepts, but the labs we did were well organized and mostly successful.)
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Everything feels more accessible and more interesting when Bill Bryson explains it to you.
Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality
One of my favorite intro to physics books. We read this in bits and pieces as it related to things we were studying.
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
Another good book that we read in bits and pieces as topics in it came up in our studies.
The Norton History of Astronomy and Cosmology
Again, we read this as it felt relevant to what we were studying. It's a history of astronomy, so it gave good background info, but what I really like about this book (as opposed to the many other histories of astronomy out there) is that it includes the contributions of non-Western thinkers. Actually, you could probably use this as a spine for a middle school history of astronomy class and have a great time.
Professor Povey's Perplexing Problems: Pre-university Physics and Maths Puzzles with Solutions
Sometimes she'd figure out the right answer, often she wouldn't, but my daughter loved the explanations of how to approach physics and math problems. I think it really helped her expand her thinking about scientific problem-solving, which is awesome. I picked it up on a whim, but it was definitely one of our science highlights.
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
When experiments don't work and hypotheses fail, you're still learning something.
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
A fun readaloud.
Bad Science
Another good readaloud—this one's focused on how to recognize bad science (skewed test results, medical quackery, etc.) when you run into it.
Earth: An Intimate History
Interesting overview of the history of earth science.
Reading the Rocks: An Autobiography of the Earth
Pop-geology! (That sounds like an insult, but I promise I don't mean it that way.)
Etc.
The Bean Trees
My pick—I loved this novel, and I was excited to share it with my girl.
Letters from Iceland
Such a delightful surprise!
Our Town
Part of our "read more plays" initiative.
Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
A little dated now but still totally worth reading.
The Importance of Being Earnest
So funny! (Plus it inspired our dog's name, so there's that.)
Cry, the Beloved Country
Beautiful and heartbreaking.
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet
This one had been on my daughter's TBR list for too long.
Great Expectations
A classic!
A History of Reading
A lovely little collection of essays on the magic of reading.
The Nine Tailors
Still trying, still failing, to get my daughter hooked on the Lord Peter mysteries.
The Best Short Stories of O. Henry
Because when you're trying to write more focused short stories, you turn to a master.
The Portable Dorothy Parker
ESSENTIAL. Don't leave home without it.
Readaloud of the Week: Turtle in Paradise
In brief: In this quintessential summer story, 11-year-old Turtle goes to live with her aunt in Key West, Fla., when her mom’s new housekeeping job proves kid-unfriendly. (In the middle of the Great Depression, you have to take the jobs you can get, but Turtle’s mom hasn’t always made the best life choices.) As Turtle explores her new community and makes friends with her wild cousins, who call themselves the Diaper Gang, she discovers the joys of family and of standing up for what you really want.
What makes it a great readaloud: Holmes really captures both the beauty and the hardship of life in 1930s Florida—this book is a great jumping-off point for reading more about the Great Depression. Turtle is a tough, likable protagonist, and her cousins’ antics are pretty hilarious. (Bonus: Now you have a fun excuse to look up Shirley Temple and Little Orphan Annie on YouTube.)
But be aware: Kids may not love the ending, which definitely isn’t Hollywood-happy.
Quotable: “What is it with folks always talking about where they’re from? You could grow up in a muddy ditch, but if it’s your muddy ditch, then it’s gotta be the swellest muddy ditch ever.”
Not-So-New Books: Redwall
It’s been a challenge to find books that my 10-year-old son likes to read or listen to, but we have hit gold with the first book of a very long series: Redwall by Brian Jacques. It has everything that my son likes: nature (the characters are all animals), adventure, and rebellion (he is a Star Wars fan, after all).
Redwall is an ancient stone abbey, inhabited by peaceful mice that take care of and offer comfort to all the woodland creatures living in Mossflower—the forested area around the abbey. Unfortunately, an evil, one-eyed rat named Cluny and his followers are on their way to Redwall, aiming to conquer it and seize control of all of Mossflower. The mice of Redwall and their friends have to band together to save their home. Among them, a very special mouse named Mathias is on an epic journey to find the sword that belonged to Martin the Warrior, an ancient hero in Redwall history. He knows that if he can find this sword, he might be able to save Redwall.
This book is on one hand a classic story of good versus evil, but it’s also a very intelligent book. I love how unlikely characters are brought together and become friends in order to fight against injustice. Female characters take on key roles in the fight too. The author shows how pride, arrogance, and greed will eventually send a character to his or her doom. This is a book that as an adult, I enjoyed just as much as my son. We are now reading the second book in this series, Mossflower, and oh my, there are twenty more books after that! I’m pretty sure my son will want to read them all.
Stuff We Like :: 7.14.17
Hello, weekend!
around the web
Horse-Riding Librarians Were the Great Depression’s Bookmobiles
This might be the best movie review you ever read.
I am always up for a true story about an imaginary kingdom with a real consulate, and this one is just fascinating.
Disney Princesses suck at consent. (Suzanne sent me this because she knew I was having a hard week, and she knows what brings me joy.)
Also, Suzanne would like everyone to know that THERE IS GOING TO BE A SQUIRREL GIRL MOVIE.
at home/school/life
in the magazine: Hooray! The summer issue is out!
on the blog: Resources for better literature classes
one year ago: One of my all-time favorite posts: How to NOT Teach Your Kids Shakespeare (But Do Something Else Really Important Instead)
two years ago: The easiest way to get organized for high school (This is still the system I use—I like it so much, I implemented it at my husband’s hybrid high school)
three years ago: Am I the only lonely homeschool mom?
reading list
I’ve been swamped this week, so it’s another not-so-stellar Library Chicken report: The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession (+1), Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (+1), 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories (-1, returned unread but not because I don’t want to read it), How to Cook a Wolf (+0, on my bookshelf)
Another lazy homeschool week here, but we did just start a big family Harry Potter reread, starting with the fancy illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
at home
Everything in my house needs cleaning or laundering, but I am still planning to spend as much of this weekend reading by the pool as is humanly possible. It’s not like the mess won’t still be there on Monday, right?
Best of HSL: Best Cities for Homeschool Families: #1 Austin, TX
[We're gearing up for our updated list of Best Cities for Homeschool Families this fall, so we thought it would be fun to publish the three best of 2014 on the blog, starting with the homeschool friendly city of Austin, Texas.]
As any homeschooler who’s blown up a Coke bottle in her backyard can tell you, sometimes, you’ve just gotta embrace the weird. Which may just be why Austin and homeschooling are a match made in heaven. This city—which takes it graffiti promise to “Keep Austin Weird” so literally that it’s got a Museum of the Weird, complete with Bigfoot mummies, downtown on 6th Street—can handle whatever even the most out-of-the-box life learners hit it with.
Though nearly two million Texans call the state’s capital city home, Austin still feels more like a small town that’s had a growth spurt than a shiny metropolis. On any given day, you might spot a ragged crowd of kayakers paddling across Lady Bird Lake in the Barton Creek Greenbelt, a seven-mile stretch of public green space along the waterfront. Or you might run into a group of young artists balancing sketchpads on their knees in the Umlauf Sculpture Garden, which lets kids twelve and younger in free every day. Line up for a Harry Potter marathon at the Alamo Drafthouse, and there’s a good chance your kids can drum up a friendly conversation with a fellow Dumbledore fanatic wearing her house colors. Even the line for Franklin Barbecue—which would be frankly ridiculous if that first bite didn’t make you forget how long you waited—can be a kid-friendly lesson in supply and demand. Alternative education opportunities abound in Austin, from the fairly traditional (homeschool day at the Bullock Texas State History Museum or classes at the Austin Science and Nature Center) to quirky niche activities like engineering Maker groups and survivalist training weekends. And kids can choose their next favorite bands just by walking down the street, especially during the city’s annual South by Southwest music festival and conference extravaganza.
On top of all that, living in Austin’s cheap—at least comparatively. Houses in up-and-coming East Austin had a median price of just $219,000 this spring, and even ritzy hoods like Lakeway have plenty of homes selling in the mid-$300s. Food, utilities, and transportation costs in Austin all fall below the national average—a big plus for homeschool families stretching one income. Thanks to dedicated bike lanes on more than half of the city’s streets and continued bike path development—the city aims to have 900 miles of bike lanes by 2020—Austin is a reasonable place to live without a car.
In Brief
Homeschool requirements: None. If you’re withdrawing your child from school, the state recommends notifying the school, but you don’t have to file any paperwork, meet any attendance requirements, or participate in any standardized testing.
Community: Austin Area Homeschoolers is a friendly resource with discussion groups, field trips, new homeschooler resources, and a weekly co-op.
Books: Book People has an awesome children’s book collection—and they’re so passionate about good reads for kids that they’ve teamed up with local authors to put together a Modern First Library of new kids’ lit classics.
Resources: Check out homeschool programs at the Bullock Texas State History Museum and the Austin Nature and Science Center; get creative (with real tools) at the Austin Tinkering School; learn outdoor survival skills at Earth Native Wilderness Survival School; check out David Foster Wallace’s manuscripts and letters at the Henry Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin; play outside on the Barton Creek Greenbelt
Number of Museums: 25, including the Mexic-Arte Museum and the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center
Number of Libraries: 35, with regular book clubs, poetry nights, gaming sessions, and performances
Median home price: $318,854
Population: 1.8 million
This was originally published in the fall 2014 issue of HSL. Information was correct at time of publication but may have changed since then.
Book Nerd: Library Chicken Weekly Scoreboard (7.11.17)
Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!
Somehow we’ve made it to the middle of July, which means that school starts in less than a month for those kids in my house who attend traditional high school. (The one homeschooler remaining doesn’t start back until September, so I imagine he’ll spend the month of August lazing around and playing loud video games and generally being obnoxious to his siblings while they try to do homework.) I need to get serious about breaking out of this reading slump if I’m going to get one last burst of summer reading in—though that’s hard to do when I’m busy going to the movies (Wonder Woman! Cars 3! Baby Driver! The new Spiderman! Wonder Woman again!) all the time. I’ll just have to bring Jeeves and Wooster along to read in the theater while I’m waiting for the coming-soon trailers (The Big Sick! Dunkirk! The new Thor!) to start.
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Jeeves and the Tie That Binds by P.G. Wodehouse
The Cat-Nappers by P.G. Wodehouse
Jeeves and Wooster #7 through 10. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best Jeeves and Wooster novels come from the middle of the 10-book sequence (beginning, I’d argue, with my personal all-time favorite, The Code of the Woosters). By the time we get to The Cat-Nappers, Wodehouse has lost some steam, though I think we can forgive him given that this 10th Jeeves and Wooster novel was published in 1974, when he was 92 years old. So while the last few novels are maybe only for hard-core fans, I still thoroughly enjoyed going through the whole sequence, mostly because I got very attached to Bertie and his lovable dopiness.
(LC Score: 0 for Stiff Upper Lip and Tie That Binds, off my own shelves; +1 for Cat-Nappers)
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks
Which brings us to the “extra” Jeeves and Wooster novel, an homage to Wodehouse (officially sanctioned by his estate) by novelist Sebastian Faulks. As I’ve mentioned before, I find that these kinds of books can be hit or miss (mostly miss), but Faulks gets a lot of things right. While he can’t match the sparkling brilliance of Wodehouse at the top of his form (who can?), he clearly appreciates Bertie and gets that while Bertie may be an upper-class twit, he is also cheerful, friendly, open-minded, and endlessly obliging and generous to aunts, old school chums, and ex-fiancees. In this last adventure, Bertie and Jeeves end up switching roles, with Jeeves pretending to be a Lord and Bertie masquerading as a gentleman’s gentleman—as to be expected, hijinks ensue—but the most important thing (SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!) is that after more failed and accidental engagements than one would care to count, Bertie finally meets The Right Girl. It’s a sweet ending to a series that celebrated farce but never became mean-spirited or cynical. (BONUS HEADCANON: The future Mrs. Wooster works in publishing, so clearly she must have met Harriet Vane, and I’m sure the two of them hit it off. And then, given that Lord Peter and Bertie are both old Etonians and Oxford alumni and must have mutual friends, Wimsey-Wooster dinner parties undoubtedly followed. With Jeeves and Bunter butlering in the background. THIS MAKES ME VERY HAPPY.)
(LC Score: 0, off my own shelves)
Scream for Jeeves by P.H. Cannon
Okay, maybe I’ll sneak in just one more Jeeves and Wooster homage—after all, if you see a book advertised as a Lovecraft-Wodehouse crossover, you pretty much HAVE to read that book, right? This very slim volume takes three Lovecraft stories (I had to look up the references, as I’m not as up on Lovecraft as I am on Wodehouse) and plugs in Jeeves and Bertie, behaving pretty much as you would expect. It’s cleverly done and gave me the giggles but I think you need to be a big fan of both authors to make it worth your while.
(LC Score: +1)
Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie
Tommy and Tuppence #2. The Beresfords, now a young married couple, take over a private detective agency and entertain themselves by solving mysteries in the style of their favorite fictional sleuths, including (because Agatha was meta before meta was cool) Hercule Poirot. And a whole bunch of other detectives I’ve never heard of. It’s a fun collection, though I was slightly disconcerted by the number of attractive young women who drop dead immediately after encountering Tommy and Tuppence. I also winced a bit at the very end when Tuppence cheerfully gives up detecting because she’s got a new calling: Mother-To-Be. That said, the Beresfords are awesome and you’ll have to excuse me now because I have to think up a good way for them to get invited to the Wimsey-Wooster dinners.
(LC Score: +1)
Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy Ansa
Have I mentioned that I love novels that are about adult children coming together and returning to the old hometown to deal with a death or other major family issue, A.K.A. Getting the Fam Back Together? I first heard of this one while making a list of authors from Georgia that I wanted to check out. Here, the three adult children of recently deceased “Mudear” (a nickname for “mother dear”) return to their small Georgia hometown to arrange her funeral and deal with the personal fallout from their relationship with this neglectful and emotionally abusive woman. I have a hard time with abusive mothers in fiction, but Ansa gives Mudear her own voice and the opportunity for rebuttal throughout, making it clear that she’s more complicated than simply being the villain of the piece.
(LC Score: +1)
Bats of the Republic by Zachary Thomas Dodson
And I think we’ve established that I love epistolary novels (BRING THEM ALL TO ME). This is an epistolary novel To The Extreme, a beautifully designed book that includes an actual sealed letter bound in the text for the reader to open. It’s also a post-apocalyptic novel of sorts, with two narratives that mirror each other: Zadock Thomas’s story set in 1843, and his descendant Zeke Thomas’s story set in a “post-Collapse” 2143, both revolving around a mysterious letter. I really enjoyed reading this book. I also think it is flawed in some interesting ways—in my opinion, the narrative collapses under the weight of the puzzle it has created. A good read, though, and certainly worth picking up to admire the artwork and how it’s put together.
(LC Score: 0, off my own shelves)
Bone Vol. 1: Out From Boneville by Jeff Smith
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe written by Ryan North, art by Erica Henderson
Dial H Vol. 2: Exchange written by China Mieville
This Week in Comics: The Bone series was a big hit in my house when my kids were younger, so I’ve been meaning to pick it up for a while, and of course I’m always up for a Squirrel Girl adventure (in this standalone graphic novel she accidentally clones herself and you know that never ends well). I wanted to finish the Dial H series since I had read the first volume earlier, and believe it or not volume two got even weirder—I don’t think I ever really figured out what was going on, though I enjoyed the introduction of a Sidekick-Dial to go with the Hero-Dial.
(LC Score: +3)
Underground Airlines by Ben Winters
Lord Darcy by Randall Garrett
The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley
Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
A lot of great-looking books went back to the library this week because of (1) the previously mentioned reading slump, and (2) I’m clearing the decks for our upcoming Annual Family Vacation to North Carolina, where I sit on the back porch reading all day while my family tries (in vain, mostly) to get me to participate in bonding activities like board games and conversation. Gotta return all the books that would come due while we’re gone so I can get a brand new stack of books to carry out to the back porch.
(LC Score: -6, RETURNED UNREAD)
Library Chicken Score for 7/11/17: 1
Running Score: 58
On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:
By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie (Tommy and Tuppence age gracefully!)
Shakespeare Saved My Life: A Memoir by Laura Bates (teaching Shakespeare in a maximum-security prison)
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (I’m overdue for a reread of this one)
Vermilion by Molly Tanzer (in which I will apparently learn what a ‘psychopomp’ is)
How to Find Your Family’s Natural Routine
Believe it or not, your family probably has a routine already — and if you step back and observe your life patterns for a week or two, you’ll start to see it emerge.
Every family has a natural rhythm for work, play, and rest — and finding yours is the key to developing a routine that really works.
Sometimes, to find the homeschool routine that really works for you, you have to forget your schedule completely. When your routine isn’t gelling, it makes sense to take a step back and rediscover your family’s natural rhythm. This can be especially helpful if you are making the switch to homeschooling from a more traditional school environment or if you are experiencing big transitions in your homeschool. Seize the opportunity this summer to drop your schedule completely and pay attention to the rhythm that your days naturally fall into. (Don’t be alarmed if there’s no apparent rhythm—or even if things seem a little chaotic—for a week or two as you shed your regular routines. Think of it as hitting the reset button—it takes a short time for your homeschool to reboot after you turn it off.)
Your job is to pay attention: Notice when your family is active and ready to engage, when they’re thoughtful and introspective. Pay attention to when people gravitate toward the kitchen for food and when they’re pulled outdoors to play. Make note of when people wake up and when they start to wind down for the day. These are the natural rhythms of your family’s everyday life, and following them will help you develop a routine that really works. Mentally, you can start to rewrite your daily script to match up to what clearly works for your family—it may mean dropping morning art classes in favor of afternoon ones or doing math first thing in the morning while you eat breakfast. The key is to find what works for your family so that you can plan your days around your natural rhythms.
Your challenge this week: Turn off your daily to-do list, and chart your family’s natural rhythm. When do people wake up? When are they ready for bedtime? When are readalouds the most fun? When does everyone need some alone time? When do the kids get antsy? Track everyone’s habits this week to start making sense of what your family’s ideal schedule might look like.
Readaloud of the Week: When Mischief Came to Town
In brief: After her mother’s death, Inge Maria goes to live with her grandmother on a tiny Danish island where the grown-ups and her new school are stricter than she’s accustomed to. But Inge Maria’s curiosity, intelligence, and tendency to making mischief may be just what the little island community needs—and Inge Maria discovers that she has more in common with her grandmother than she expected.
What makes it a great readaloud: Perfectly balancing tenderness and humor, this is pretty much a textbook example of a heartwarming story. Inge Maria is utterly lovable, and the island town is peopled by funny, interesting residents. Bonus: This book is full of yummy food.
But be aware: Inge Maria’s mother’s death is a sad undercurrent that runs throughout the book.
Quotable: “Tears and laughter. Grief and joy. Loss and love. It's all right to have both. I know that now.”
Stuff We Like :: 7.7.17
The summer issue is in final edits—hooray!
around the web
This piece about aging and women in Tudor England was both hilarious and fascinating. Case in point: “Contemporaries had only to consider the wildly popular Women’s Secrets to know that old women should be viewed with suspicion. Best keep these crones away from infants, cautioned the learned text, since they could ‘poison the eyes of children lying in their cradles by their glance.’ All women were ‘entirely venomous,’ readers were told, but in earlier years menstrual blood at least served to dilute these evil humors. With the onset of the menopause, the poison was left to stew fetid in the body, with the worst toxins escaping malignantly through wrinkled eyes.”
A feminist biography mixtape (I’ve read some of these, but the rest are going on my TBR list, reasonable life expectancy considerations be damned.)
Really interesting read that doesn’t end up where you might necessarily expect: Are coding toys useful?
at home/school/life
on the blog: Teaching what you don’t know
one year ago: Our favorite campfire readalouds
two years ago: Organizing your reading lists
three years ago: Find the Beauty in the Mess and Chaos
reading list
My Library Chicken game was pretty weak this week, but I am cranking out the summer issue, so maybe I could get a point for that? My summation: The Adventures of Sally (+0, on my Kindle, a little non-Jeeves Wodehouse fun but I missed Bertie); Monster, Human, Other (+0, advance copy, but I’m looking forward to doing a full review of this); The Power of the Adolescent Brain: Strategies for Teaching Middle and High School Students (-1, returned unread, but I do still really want to read it); Mrs. Sharp's Traditions: Reviving Victorian Family Celebrations of Comfort & Joy (+0, on my shelf); The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (+1, really well written and interesting and I’m glad I read it, but I think I need to stick to Wodehouse for a little while because this made me so sad)
Homeschool reading: None! Summer issue holiday for the kids, which they are mostly using to build Hogsmeade in Minecraft
at home
We spent the Fourth of July getting a new hot water heater, so I am enjoying my Very Expensive Showers for the next couple of weeks until the cost-per-shower returns to more normal numbers.
I don't want to be all self-promote-y, but if you are in Atlanta and looking for middle or high school classes, you should check out The Academy. I've been spending a lot of time helping get it up and running, and I think it has really amazing classes.
Book Nerd: Library Chicken Weekly Scoreboard (7.4.17)
Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!
Happy Fourth of July! Today I will be enjoying the traditional re-watch of the musical 1776 and hissing and throwing popcorn at the screen whenever Thomas Jefferson shows up. I might also read a bit. I’m still in a reading slump, meaning that I find it hard to focus on anything and have at least half a dozen partially finished and temporarily (I hope) abandoned books lying around. When I’m feeling like this I have a hard time dealing with any kind of fictional conflict, so when I see it approaching I put down the book and pick up something else—typically a reread and/or something with very low stakes. Bring on the Jeeves and Wooster!
Jeeves in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse
The Mating Season by P.G. Wodehouse
Bertie Wooster Sees It Through by P.G. Wodehouse
How Right You Are, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
I’ve been reading and rereading Wodehouse for decades, but before now I’ve never tried to read through all ten Jeeves and Wooster novels in chronological order. (Mostly because the joys of Wodehouse are not dependent on “story arc.”) I’m enjoying the experiment, of course, but I’m also finding that it allows me to appreciate Bertie’s voice even more—his verbal tics and repetitions, the way that the story of his winning the Scripture Knowledge prize at school works its way into every single narrative. These are books #4 through #7—three more to go!
(LC Score: 0, off my own shelves)
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
Tommy and Tuppence #1. Young Tommy and Tuppence, childhood friends just demobbed from their service in The Great War, run into each other in London and (through the usual series of unlikely coincidences) find themselves caught up in a mystery involving the sinking of the Lusitania, Bolshevik spies, and a missing girl named Jane Finn. It’s all utterly ridiculous plot-wise, but great fun, especially if this if your first introduction to the Beresfords. I’ve read it before and remembered The Big Twist, but still enjoy reading it as a romance, even if the mystery is a bit silly.
(LC Score: 0, Kindle)
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Another reread! Inspector Alan Grant, flat on his back after an in-the-line-of-duty accident, revisits the murder of the Princes in the Tower. This novel consistently ranks as one of the best mystery novels ever written and I’ve read it at least a couple of times before, but it’s actually the fifth novel with Inspector Grant. Last year I went back to read the beginning of Tey’s series (the first one is The Man in the Queue) and found that I really enjoyed them (though fair warning: they are typical detective stories, so don’t go in expecting something like the historical conundrums of The Daughter of Time). When I got to The Daughter of Time in the sequence, I wasn’t in the mood for a reread (too many great library books on the stack) and it’s taken me until now to get back to it. One thing that struck me was how much more I enjoyed the book now that I understand more of the historical context, having read more English history in the interim. I also think it makes a great homeschool read, not just because of the history, but because the whole point of the book is to develop your critical thinking skills and look at history (or more specially, historians) with a skeptical eye. It’s a great way to introduce students to the idea that history is written by the winners. Since it helps to have context, it would be a good side-by-side read with for anyone studying that period, and I highly recommend it for anyone who’s doing Shakespeare’s Richard III. HOMESCHOOL RECOMMENDED.
(LC Score: 0, off my own shelves)
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Shockingly, NOT a reread! This YA fantasy is one of the books I’ve been picking up and putting down for a couple of weeks now and I decided to power through. I love the beginning: there’s a modern-day town on the edge of a forest and everything is perfectly normal, except for the unbreakable glass casket in the forest where a horned prince has slept for decades. And a changeling attends high school with our protagonists and every year a couple of tourists get eaten, but yeah, other than that everything’s perfectly normal. This novel has a lot going for it—there’s a great scene where the high schoolers are partying and drinking in the woods around the glass casket like they do every Friday night because of course that’s what teenagers would do—but (and this may be the slump talking) it turns out I’m kinda over Faerie at the moment. I’m also definitely not in the mood for YA teenage kissing, and there’s a LOT of YA teenage kissing in this book. (Diverse kissing, though, so thumbs up for that!) I think it’s a case of wrong book, wrong time for me, but I’d have no hesitation in passing it along to my favorite YA readers.
(LC Score: +1)
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran
So YA fantasy isn’t working for me; let’s head back over to the mystery section. Claire DeWitt is a very unusual private investigator who has been hired to find out what happened to a missing lawyer in post-Katrina New Orleans. I really enjoyed this book. I also am now completely freaked out about ever visiting New Orleans, since Gran vividly depicts it as a lawless violence-ridden Third-World city that you need special skills to survive. (Seriously: my daughter’s freshman chorus trip was to New Orleans and if I had read this book before then I might not have been able to sign the permission slip. Fortunately she and her fellow singers had a great time and all returned unscathed.) Alongside that, there’s an incredible amount of love and respect for the city and its inhabitants here. If anyone out there is from New Orleans please read this and let us know what you think—I’d love to see a reaction from someone who knows the city.
(LC Score: +1)
Farthing by Jo Walton
A murder has taken place in a country house in 1949 England, getting us comfortably back to the world of Wodehouse and Christie—except that in this version of 1949, England made an early peace with Hitler (as a result of the Hess Mission, which, yes, I will happily read ALL THE BOOKS, fictional and otherwise, about Rudolf Hess and his bizarre flight to Scotland) and so now exists in the shadow of a Third Reich-controlled Europe. The owners of the house and their friends make up the “Farthing Set,” a group of powerful pro-German politicians who helped broker the peace. Things do not end well. I don’t want to say too much, except that it’s a great book and I recommend it, but the book does have a strong political viewpoint and I was surprised to see that some reviewers thought it heavy-handed. I did not, which may be an unfortunate side-effect of the times we are living in. It’s the first book in a trilogy; as soon as I work up the emotional energy I look forward to tackling the next two books.
(LC Score: +1)
The Glass-Sided Ants’ Nest by Peter Dickinson
In her introduction to Farthing, Walton thanks Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, and Peter Dickinson for getting her on the right track regarding British mysteries. I had not read Dickinson, but of course I have to check out anyone mentioned in such illustrious company. This is his first novel, written in 1968, and first in a series with Inspector Jim Pribble as our detective. Here’s the setup: During World War II, a (fictional) New Guinea tribe called the Ku were slaughtered by the Japanese. The handful of survivors now share a home in London, along with the anthropologist daughter of the white missionary couple that had lived with them in New Guinea, and their chief is murdered. When I first saw the cover of the library edition, featuring a cartoonish African man, I was...concerned. You might be thinking that all this sounds like a great opportunity for a lot of casual racism and general offensiveness, and you wouldn’t be wrong. The Kus are described as primitive and child-like, definitively alien and Other, and characters more or less continually comment on the blackness of their skin. One character also suggests that the anthropologist, who has been accepted as a member of the tribe, is keeping them as her own private project, a personal “ant farm” that she can tend and watch. That said, Dickinson gives depth to the story and the characters, and the Kus that we meet (the few with speaking parts) come across as distinct individuals. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this novel, but I can tell you that I read it more or less in one sitting and that I’ve got the next one coming. I’m hoping for no more cartoon African covers.
(LC Score: +1)
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
The nice thick sequel to The Three Body Problem. Nope, not this week.
(LC Score: -1, RETURNED UNREAD)
Library Chicken Score for 7/4/17: 3
Running Score: 57
On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:
Ha’penny by Jo Walton (sequel to Farthing)
Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran (sequel to City of the Dead)
The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey (next Alan Grant book)
The Old English Peep-Show by Peter Dickinson (next Jim Pribble book)
Our Favorite Summer Homeschool Posts
To stretch out the holiday weekend a little longer, we've collected some of our favorite summertime posts for your reading pleasure.
Readaloud of the Week: Wolf Story
In brief: A father's bedtime story (about a determined fox and resourceful hen) stretches on over days and weeks as his son asks for "more Wolf story."
What makes it a great readaloud? The continuing adventures of Waldo are a great reminder of how fun—and addictive—good stories can be. And Wolf Story is one of those great books that is enjoyable for readers (who will totally identify with the dad's occasional wishes to just get to a stopping place so he can get some sleep) and listeners (who will love the unexpected twists and turns of the increasingly wacky Wolf adventures).
But be aware: You may want to be prepared for your own bedtime storytelling sessions. (Shelli has some great tips to get you started.)
Quotable: "Daddy! Stop!" cried the boy. "Stop saying so many colors. You're putting me to sleep!"
"Why not?" said the man. "This is bedtime."
"But I want some story first," said the boy. "Not just colors."
Book Review: The Curve of Time
The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet is a must-read for all homeschooling moms. It’s a memoir written by a widow and a mother of five children, who, during the 1920s and 30s, took her children on their 25-foot cruiser, The Caprice, to explore the waters of British Columbia every summer. During the winter, they lived in their Little House, which overlooked the water, and she home educated her children. This was at a time when there were still relatively few white residents in this area.
There is information that is not given in the book, such as what exactly happened to her husband, or where her children went after they grew up. If you aren’t familiar with British Columbia, you may not understand exactly where every inlet and fjord is that they explored, but none of that bothered me. I was enthralled with each chapter, which is a short account of each of their adventures. They followed the orcas, had an encounter with a bear and cougar, talked to locals, and explored the winter villages of Native Americans who were still living there at that time. (I didn’t exactly approve of how they entered the villages without permission, but considering this was written in a different time, I decided to appreciate this first-person account of this primary document.)
As I was reading the book, I marveled at this woman who not only was raising five young children all by herself, she also had to be a captain, navigator, meteorologist, and mechanic. I traveled on these waters many years ago with my father in his boat, so I know it’s important to understand the tides and how deep the water is before you attempt to enter any small cove. And Wylie Blanchet had no technology to help her! There was no such thing as a depth finder in her day. Then I thought about the challenges of raising and homeschooling two boys on land with my husband, and I wondered if she might be a super woman.
Or, perhaps she found it easier to contain all five children into a small boat. There was no end to the entertainment they found on the beaches and in the woods, catching fish for dinner, picking berries, escaping bears, finding small fresh water lakes, and making friends with other settlers along the way. I appreciated her details about the flora and fauna. I felt like I was in The Caprice and seeing a world that I’ll never be able to go to. I was sad when the book ended because I wanted the adventures to continue.
This book might be a little boring for the younger crowd, but it would be a good book to include in history studies or as a selection of Canadian literature for high school students. The 50th anniversary edition includes black and white family photographs taken by Blanchet’s family, which will bring you closer to this endearing family.
Stuff We Like :: 6.30.17
Where did June go, you guys!?
around the web
This is our official high school summer reading list: A curriculum for white Americans to educate themselves on race and racism. (See also: Reading list for summer in participatory citizenship)
Will somebody please buy me all of these wall decals of women scientists/engineers/mathematicians? Thank you very much. (The whole Beyond Curie project is awesome.)
Relevant to my interests: Gendered Treatments of Trauma during the First World War
Hilarious: How Dr Seuss could simplify boring, wordy documents
You may notice the absence of the video for "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)." That's because I broke down crying in the middle of watching it and couldn't finish. Maybe you'll have better luck.
at home/school/life
in the classroom: Just an FYI that we’re putting a hold on our online classes for one more term while I help my husband get his hybrid high school up and running this fall. (If you’re in the Atlanta area, you can always take a class with Suzanne or with me at the Academy.) We do plan to get back to classes—but a girl can only have so much on her to-do list at a time.
on the blog: Are you keeping up with our summer reading series? Suzanne has some great recommendations for addictive summer series.
one year ago: 6 surprising signs you’re actually doing a great job homeschooling
two years ago: The Rory Gilmore reading challenge, Emily Dickinson on Facebook, spoon puppets, Richard III and more feature in this Stuff We Like roundup from July 2015.
three years ago: 11 reasons we love the summer (2014) issue of home/school/life (our second official issue!)
reading list
My Library Chicken report for this week: Socratic Circles: Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking in Middle and High School (+1, work-related), Habits of Mind Across the Curriculum: Practical and Creative Strategies for Teachers (+1, work-related), Queen Lucia (+0, read on Kindle), Miss Mapp (+0, read on Kindle), The Hearts We Sold (+0, advance copy), Just One Damned Thing After Another (-1, returned unread—I wanted to read this so much [British time travel antics!], but then I made the mistake of reading a review that compared it to Douglas Adams and another that called it a funnier Connie Willis, and I just knew it couldn't live up to that and I needed more space between reading it [which I will eventually because British time travel antics] and reading about it)
Homeschool reading: The Book of Unknown Americans, Art and Physics (with my almost-10th grader); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardobe, The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, Ick! Yuck! Eew!: Our Gross American History (with my almost-4th grader)
Our current family readaloud: The Dark Is Rising
at home
I am in that place where I am trying to do too much, but everything I am doing is really important, so I have to keep juggling all the balls for a while. If you, too, find yourself in this position, I encourage you to (1.) get better at saying no! and (2.) invest in a bottle of Library of Flowers Forget Me Not bubble bath to make the most of those cobbled-together minutes of down time.
Cookie of the week: Billionaire bars (I could eat all of these by myself, but that might just be the deadline talking. :))
Summer Reading: John Connolly’s Samuel Johnson Series
Welcome to Summer Reading 2017! This year we’re taking advantage of the long summer days to read our way through some of our favorite series for children and young people.
Books written by Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett rank high in various lists of mine, including Comfort Reads, Series to Recommend to Just About Everyone, and Books That In General Make Me Feel Better About Being a Human. Humor is subjective, however, and I’ve found that when I run across a book blurbed as “the next Douglas Adams!” or “in the spirit of Terry Pratchett!” it usually ends up in the “meh” category, provoking maybe the occasional smirk but that’s about it. John Connolly’s Samuel Johnson series is the exception.
I knew things were looking good on the very first page where we have both (1) footnotes (I ADORE FOOTNOTES IN FICTION IT’S A SICKNESS HELP ME) and (2) entertaining chapter titles (e.g., In Which We Delve Deeper into the Bowels of Hell, Which Is One of Those Chapter Headings That Make Parents Worry About the Kind of Books Their Children Are Reading). We soon meet 11-year-old Samuel and his very important dachshund, Boswell, and Samuel soon learns that his neighbors (with an accidental assist from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider) have opened The Gates of Hell. After that it’s up to Samuel, Boswell, Samuel’s friends Tom and Maria, and unlikely ally Nurd the Demonic Scourge of Five Deities (including Erics’, the Demon of Bad Punctuation) to save the world.
For me, Connolly’s Samuel Johnson series hits the sweet spot, reminding me (in the best ways) of Hitchhiker’s Guide and Discworld without feeling derivative, while at the same time telling a story about friendships, unexpected and otherwise. I know humor is subjective, but this one is definitely worth trying—and if you aren’t immediately sucked in by the footnotes and chapter headings, you can at least use it as an excuse to revisit the masters and spend some time with Arthur Dent and Rincewind. (Bonus recommendation: John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things, a “fairy tale for adults” about a boy who finds himself in a fantasy world and must search for the way home, is also excellent and I highly recommend it for YA readers and up. Please be aware, however, that it contains some very dark elements, and I would not hand it to a middle-grade reader, even though the publisher is trying to market it to that age group by putting a preview chapter in with The Gates.)
In Which We Learn That Even If You’re Super-Bored You’re Better Off Not Messing Around With Old Books Written In Languages You Don’t Recognize But Still Understand Somehow, Especially If You Happen To Live At 666 Crowley Road.
In Which We Learn That Even After You’ve Defeated A Demon Wearing The Appearance Of Your Ex-Neighbor Mrs. Abernathy It May Still Return to Seek Revenge By Plunging You Down Into The Dark Realm Of Hades
In Which We Learn That Even After It Seems Like The Bad Guys Have Been Defeated And Everything Is Going Well You Should Still Avoid Demonic Toy-Shops That Open Just In Time For Christmas
The Most Important Change You Can Make to Improve Your Child’s Writing
I sat outside the high school band room simultaneously on the verge of either tears or a full-fledged panic attack. In my hands were the notes I had taken about the assignment due in two weeks: a research paper in MLA format with a minimum of five resources and no less ten pages. The number of research papers I had previously written? ZERO. The amount of guidance the teacher offered us? ZERO. Almost twenty years out from high school graduation, I remember only a handful of assignments from those years. That one, though? I doubt that the memory of my utter despair and desolation of my confidence as a writer will ever fade.
This experience was an extreme example, but my old teacher made a mistake that a great many writing teachers make. They fail to TEACH writing. Telling kids what you want them to write about isn’t teaching writing. Telling them how many pages they should write isn’t teaching writing. Lighting up their work with red pen marks after the work has been done isn’t teaching writing. That’s assigning and assessing writing.
So how does one TEACH writing then?
1. Mentor Texts. Mentor texts are samples of writing that come from skilled writers. They’re an important tool in both the pre-writing and drafting stages of the writing process.
Before writing, mentor texts can be studied and even dissected. A child writing an expository essay about a historical figure could study biographies to see what techniques biography writers use to begin their books. A child writing a book review could open up the Sunday newspaper to investigate the book and movie reviews written by professional writers to see how they write conclusions without saying, “You should read it, too.”
During writing, mentor texts can be a valuable reference. A child who is struggling with the mechanics of dialogue can refer to an admired novelist’s books to see how the rules of dialogue play out in “real” writing.
2. Modeling. Don’t worry—no one is asking you to put on a swimsuit or strut down a runway. Modeling in this case means that you own your role as the most skilled writer in your homeschool, dig in there right alongside your students, and show them how it’s done.
I know, I know. Writing is hard work. Actually, Hilda Taba called writing “the most complex of all human activities.” I promise you, though, that if you make the investment of chewing on a writing project alongside your child, you’ll be amazed at the improved outcome.
It’s worth noting that you don’t need to complete every step of the writing process every time to be successful with this teaching tool. Usually I find that it’s most important to be there at the beginning of each step in the writing process, and then it’s okay, even for the best, for me to get out of the way.
Probably the most important aspect of modeling is thinking aloud. Don’t just let your child see the product of your inner thoughts—speak your thoughts as you think them. It’s okay, too, to share when you struggle with something. “I’m really frustrated with this, so I’m going to leave it and come back to it later,” is a no-joke important lesson to learn as a writer.
Learning to write doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or bewildering. Using mentor texts and modeling absolutely has the potential to transform both the outcome of your child’s writing and the way your child feels about him or herself as a writer. Writing is hard. Don’t send them into the wilderness of words alone.
Book Nerd: Library Chicken Weekly Scoreboard (6.27.17)
Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!
So have you ever had one of those weeks where Everything Is Awful and there’s really No Point in Even Trying Anymore so you might as well give up and binge-watch an entire season of Real Housewives after which you feel vaguely nauseated for the next day or so rendering you completely unable to focus on any of the four or five perfectly nice books you’ve started reading or cope in any way with anything that requires functioning brain cells? Anyone? Or is it just me?
Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
Nothing better than the first three Jeeves and Wooster novels for a reading slump. As usual, Bertie is busy trying to help his old school friends get engaged (or to get out of one of his own frequent accidental engagements) and nothing seems to work out until Jeeves comes in to save the day. The only bad thing I can say about any of the Wodehouse books is that they do occasionally betray their age. Thank You, Jeeves, published in 1934, uses the n-word (without any malice, apparently, but it’s still jarring) to describe a traveling troupe of "minstrels," and a major plot point revolves around Bertie disguising himself in blackface. So that’s fun. Fortunately, my favorite of the three (and perhaps my all-time favorite Wodehouse novel), The Code of the Woosters, is free from random racial slurs, so that I can thoroughly enjoy its delights: Bertie sneering at a cow-creamer! Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts! Gussie Fink-Nottle and a bathtub of newts! Farce involving a policeman’s helmet! Now I need to go re-watch the Fry-Laurie adaptation, which I’m sure is better for my spirit than Real Housewives.
(LC Score: 0, from my own shelves)
N or M? by Agatha Christie
I mean no disrespect to Poirot or Miss Marple, but the best sleuths ever created by Agatha Christie were clearly Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Christie must have loved them too, because after first appearing as 20-somethings just after World War I in The Secret Adversary, Christie’s second novel, she returns to them over and over again during her career, so that we see them age along with her until their final appearance as 70-somethings (in Christie’s last-written, though not last-published novel) in Postern of Fate. I picked up N or M?, from the middle of their career, at a library booksale a while back and was glad to have it in hand so as not to completely overdose on Wodehouse. During World War II, Tommy and Tuppence (now middle-aged) are undercover at a boarding house trying to sniff out Fifth Columnists. Frankly, they do a fairly terrible job of it, suspecting the obvious choices while the real culprits go undetected, but I don’t even care because I enjoy hanging out with the Beresfords. Sadly, there are only five Tommy and Tuppence books. I’m not always excited about professional fan-fiction, where a current author contracts with the estate of a deceased author to carry on one of their series, but I NEED more Tommy and Tuppence, so someone should get on that IMMEDIATELY. (NOTE: I would also accept a stand-alone series starring Ariadne Oliver.)
(LC Score: 0, from my own shelves)
Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times Vols. 1 & 2 edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood
Leftovers from my stack of Georgia history. RETURNED UNREAD.
(LC Score: -2)
Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle
Nope. In no way do I have the emotional stamina to be reading this one right now. RETURNED UNREAD.
(LC Score: -1)
Library Chicken Score for 6/27/17: -3
Running Score: 54
Umm, did I mention that I may be in a bit of a reading slump? Recovering from a slump requires lots of comfort books so there may be some Georgette Heyer or Dorothy Sayers or Elinor Lipman in my future. Also I’ve got these lined up on the nightstand:
On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:
The Secret Adversary and Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie (Tommy and Tuppence #1 and 2)
Jeeves in the Morning and The Mating Season by P.G. Wodehouse (Jeeves and Wooster #4 and 5)
Summer Reading: If You Liked The Fault in Our Stars
Love and life get complicated in these young adult novels. Bring your own tissues.
Love and life get complicated in these young adult novels. Bring your own tissues.
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Misfits Park and Eleanor fall in love in high school, but both of them are smart enough to know that first love never lasts forever.
Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts
Stoic Zac meets fiery Mia in the hospital, where they’re both undergoing treatment for leukemia.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
A suicide attempts lands anxiety-ridden Craig in an institution, where he meets a motley crew of residents who help him face his fears.
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
Ponyboy isn’t sure where he fits into the sharply divided social castes of his 1960s Oklahoma town, but when trouble strikes, he’s forced to choose sides.
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
It doesn’t pay to be different in Standish Treadwell’s world, where a Nazi-like government keeps everyone living in fear and hope is hard to find.
My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi
One bad decision changes Lucy’s life forever. Now she—and her friends and family—must deal with the fallout.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
Social outcasts Sarah and Eric forge a deep friendship, but when Eric’s life takes a different turn and Sarah ends up in a mental hospital, refusing to speak, everything they think they know about each other will be challenged.
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Grieving the loss of her universally beloved older sister, Lennie finds herself in an unexpected love triangle: drawn to one boy who shares her grief and one boy who pulls her toward joy.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
When the world’s population is decimated by a global pandemic, a small troupe of Shakespearean actors travels between far-flung communities, bringing art and music with them.
Stuff We Like :: 6.23.17
It has been raining here ALL WEEK. I'm hoping to get a little sunshine this weekend.
around the web
This cracked me up: Texts from Wonder Woman
My friend Stephanie shared this piece earlier this week, and it has some great tips for not-black parents to talk to their kids about police shootings of black people. She said something that really hit home with me—that it’s so tempting to protect our kids from things like this but that that very temptation is kind of the epitome of white privilege.
Internships and summer programs can be great experiences, but maybe there’s nothing like the classic camp counselor gig.
Relevant to my interests: Songs about libraries and librarians
at home/school/life
on the blog: Nanette is pretty much filling up my podcast app right now, most recently with The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel
one year ago: 31 Great Books to Inspire Young Writers
two years ago: Myers Briggs book recommendations, the tragic truth about hoverboards, the Wolf Hall audiobook, and more in this 2015 Stuff We Like roundup.
reading list
Suzanne inspired me to pick up some Wodehouse to get me through this week’s special election, so Jeeves features largely on my Library Chicken list: Carry On, Jeeves (+0, on my Kindle), Right Ho, Jeeves (+0, on my Kindle), Iron-Hearted Violet (+0, because it was discounted for the Kindle so I had to buy an e-back-up copy, but then I also had to read it because I love Kelly Barnhill), Lower Ed (+1, a really interesting—and kind of disturbing—look at the world of for-profit colleges), The World of Odysseus (+1, work-related), The Greeks: A Portrait of Self and Others (+1, work-related), and Courtesans and Fishcakes (+1, work-related)
In the hammock with the kids: Revenge of the Evil Librarian, A House Without Mirrors (I’m totally stealing this one when she’s done), Hamster Princess: Giant Trouble
Homeschool: How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World (This has been fascinating!)
at home
We’ve been watching a Supergirl/Arrow/The Flash in tandem so that we get to the big crossover episodes in all of them at the same time.
I usually try to knit everyone a new sweater for Hanukkah, which means I have to get started in the summer to get them all done! This year, we have a new family member to knit for, and I am thinking of making him this cute little doggie sweater for our winter walks. Have you knit a dog sweater? Is there a pattern you really like? (I’m thinking about Abate for my son, too, but I haven’t settled on any official people sweaters yet)
My kids asked for a food delivery subscription this summer (maybe inspired by YouTube commercials? I am not sure -- it's one of those things where they send you all the ingredients for a specific recipe), and they’ve been really adorable making dinner together twice a week. I’ve always been non-plussed by subscription meal services, but I love that it’s given them the confidence to tackle dinner regularly. (I’m still not sure why a tiny bottle of soy sauce is more user-friendly than measuring out a portion from a bigger bottle, but I think I have to accept that it just is. I don't recommend Blue Apron, though!)
SUZANNE REZELMAN is home | school | life magazine’s Book Nerd. Subscribe to home/school/life to read her brilliant book recommendations and literary musings every issue. Your library list will thank you.