Bookworm Fridays: The Door in the Wall

As I understand it,  The Door in the Wall is one of those “love it or hate it” sort of things. I remember having to read this book as a young person, and at the time, I wasn’t completely sold on it. However, my education didn’t exactly provide me with a good grasp on History, which I feel is helpful to have when approaching this story. As an adult, I devoured this lovely read.

Set in the Middle Ages, this tale follows Robin, a noble’s young son who has lost use of his legs while his parents are away. The servants have succumb to the plague, and Robin is alone until he is taken in by a loving monk.

The Door in the Wall is very much about Robin’s personal triumphs as he learns to find the openings to pass through the difficult walls that life has erected in his path. It’s also useful for learning historical “lingo”, although some complain that the author presents a somewhat “romanticized” version of this time period.

This is recommended for grades 4-8 and while this group should be well able to handle the reading level and events, I’d say it would be more appreciated the the upper age limit and beyond–armed with a dictionary for a few of the older words.

It would be hard to imagine a library that doesn’t carry Marguerite De Angeli’s timeless tale, but just in case yours doesn’t, you can find it here.

Bookworm Fridays: What the World Eats

What the World Eats is a wake up call paired with a social studies lesson. While I usually cover a work of fiction, I feel that this is a book that every child should read at some point (or at least check out the photos).

Basically, families all over the world have been photographed with all of the food they would eat in a typical week. Many of the photos are very sobering, as you are forced to look at the poverty that is a reality for so many every day. Overall it’s very interesting to see what people eat and how many of those foods are like ours. On the pages facing the photos, you’ll find a list of the foods, and other facts such as the cost of the groceries, and information about the country.

If your library doesn’t carry this, you can also buy (or preview) it here.

Bookworm Fridays: Robot Wars

Robot Wars, by Sigmund Brouwer, is for the high-tech, space-age, future-loving young person. Set in the future, 14-year old Tyce lives in an experimental colony on Mars. This series has almost everything you can think of: futuristic gadgets including a robot army, strange experimental animals, space-age flying dog-fights, conspiracy theories revolving around the government agencies back on Earth, bad guys, and scenarios that cause one to consider faith and family.

It would take me a coon’s age (something I learned in Kentucky!) to tell you about every book, so you should head on over to Amazon to read the story lines and reviews. **Please note: this series was originally published as The Mars Diaries, a 10 book series. Now as Robot Wars, there are 5 books with 2 stories in each.

I want to add a disclaimer here. There is some material that is pretty heavy in this series, after you get past the first book. However, in my view, and considering what I see out there in the “teen” section at the libraries, it may be considered very mild to some. The author is obviously a Christian, and he handled things very well while still adding elements of danger and science fiction. Yet, as always I recommend that you look through these books first.

“You Wouldn’t Want To…” :a Recommended Resource for History

If I haven’t already mentioned it, history was not my favorite subject in school. In fact, I would have rather taken “Watching Paint Dry 101”.

Now, as a homeschooling mom, my view is quite different. We both look forward to our history lessons. I believe this is due in large part to the way we’ve approached history–as a story. A fascinating story.

We have a timeline in our basement consisting of about 20 pieces of poster board. We’ve been studying history from Mesopotamia on, pasting little facts in the appropriate time slots.

While we’ve used many resources to do this, such as Story of the World, and various works of historical fiction, one of our favorite and most informative sources is a series of books whose titles all begin with “You Wouldn’t Want To…”  These silly books give you information from Sumerian times to the more recent American History events in a memorable way.

Amazingly, the amount and type of information given in these books means that they’re real competitors in the non-fiction genre. For instance, when we were studying Ancient Egypt, I picked up You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy! and a couple other from that series, along with some more “serious” works. To my surprise, the former contained almost all of the same facts as the latter–and in better format! The comedic presentation makes for an interesting read that will stick in the minds of youngsters–especially boys!

You can find these books on Amazon, but check your library first. In my experience, most libraries carry at least some of this series.

Here is a complete list of what’s available that I found at
http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/2009/05/you-wouldnt-want-to.html

***Please note that although I do appreciate this series as a whole, all of these books don’t necessarily represent our views. Use your best discretion, as usual.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Mammoth Hunter!(c. 10,000BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Sumerian Slave (c. 5000-2000BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be An Egyptian Mummy! (c. 3000BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Pyramid Builder! (c. 2500BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be An Assyrian Soldier (c. 2000-600BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Slave In Ancient Greece! (c. 1100 – 150BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Work On The Great Wall of China! (500-200BC)
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Roman Soldier!(400BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be In Alexander The Great’s Army! (336-323BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Roman Gladiator! (c. 260BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be Cleopatra (69-30BC)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Viking Explorer! (c. 1000)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Crusader! (1095-1099)
You Wouldn’t Want To Live In A Medieval Castle! (c. 1200s?)
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Medieval Knight!(c. 1200s?)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be In A Medieval Dungeon! (c. 1200s?)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be In The Forbidden City! (built 1406-1420)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be Married To Henry VIII! (1491 – 1547)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be Ill In The 16th Century/ Tudor Times! (1500s)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be Mary, Queen Of Scots! (1542-1587)
You Wouldn’t Want To Sail In The Spanish Armada! (1588)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Pirate’s Prisoner! (1660s?)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be An 18th-Century British Convict!
You Wouldn’t Want To Travel With Captain Cook! (1760s)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be An Aristocrat In The French
Revolution! (1789-1799)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A 19th-Century Coal Miner in England!
You Wouldn’t Want To Sail On An Irish Famine Ship! (19th Century)
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Suffragist!(19th Century)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Victorian Schoolchild! (1880s)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Victorian Miner! (1880s)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Victorian Servant! (1880s)
You Wouldn’t Want to Be A Victorian Mill Worker! (1880s)
You Wouldn’t Want To Live In Pompeii! (AD79)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Mayan Soothsayer! (AD250-900)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be An Aztec Sacrifice! (c. 1200s)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be An Inca Mummy! (c. 1450)
You Wouldn’t Want to Sail With Christopher Columbus!(1492)
You Wouldn’t Want to Explore With Sir Francis Drake! (1570s)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be An American Colonist! (1585)
You Wouldn’t Want To Sail On The Mayflower! (1620)
You Wouldn’t Want to Be at the Boston Tea Party!(1773)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be An American Pioneer (18th Century)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be In The First Submarine! (19th Century)
You Wouldn’t Want Sail On A 19th-Century Whaling Ship!
You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Civil War Soldier!(1861-1865)
You Wouldn’t Want To Work On The Railroads! (1860s)
You Wouldn’t Want To Live In A Wild West Town!
(c. mid 19th Century)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Worker On The Statue
Of Liberty! (1876-1886)
You Wouldn’t Want to Sail on the Titanic!(April 1912)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be A Polar Explorer!
(Ernest Shackleton: 1914-1917)
You Wouldn’t Want To Be On Apollo 13! (April 1970)

Bookworm Fridays: The Bronze Bow

The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth Speare, is another book we included in our history studies. It follows a young zealot, Daniel, living at the time of Christ. After his father was crucified by the Romans, Daniel lived in the mountains with a band of Zealots until some young people from town discover him one day. He is eventually compelled to rejoin his community and care for what’s left of his family. While this book is not religious, it uses the commandment to love to challenge the hate that’s in Daniel’s heart for the Romans. It also highlights the conflict that must have been in the minds of many Jewish people of Daniel’s time: how could this man, Jesus, who teaches love possibly be the savior they hoped for? Find The Bronze Bow here.

Bookworm Fridays: Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog’s Tale

“Dog and man can fit together like no others do. Lewis and I had that fit….

How did we get that close? I think the wilderness had something to do with it. Lewis and I would have been close anywhere, but the wilderness brought out the best in both of us. We were made for that territory.”

Meriwether Lewis’s Newfoundland, Seaman, gives his account of this famous expedition starting with his first introduction to Lewis. History and animal lovers alike will enjoy this book.

Find Lewis and Clark and Me, by Laurie Myers, here.

Recommended Resource: Sticky Situations

In the earlier years, I noticed that most of the devotions and Biblical studies for younger kids basically amounted to a retelling of a Bible story like a fairy tale.

I could see two problems with this:
1. How many times can a child hear the basic story of Noah’s Ark or Daniel in the Lions’ Den without becoming numb to it?
2. In my opinion, this kind of fairy tale presentation does not show a child how to apply the morals to their life. It doesn’t communicate that the Bible should be acted upon, instead of just being heard.

About the same time that I was struggling with this issue, and how to remedy it, my husband was in the midst of some special training at work. They had been doing some exercises that included some moral dilemmas they were supposed to “solve”. At home, he recited several of the questions they had been given to answer, and my son was intrigued with the idea and excited to chime in with his ideas as to what he felt was right.

Immediately, I began searching for a devotion or Bible study that included this practice, and what I found was a book by Betsy Schmitt, Sticky Situations. Basically, this book gives a scenario, and then some multiple choice answers. Then it gives you some scripture to look up to help your child decide which answer is correct. In the back of the book, you’ll find the answers along with some discussion questions. Sometimes there’s more than one good choice. Here was a way that we could make the connection between scripture and our decisions, and I’ve never met a child that didn’t have fun trying to solve these moral dilemmas. After we used this book at home, I would regularly use it with a class of kids I taught at church.

I highly recommend Sticky Situations for kids that aren’t mature enough to delve into the intricacies of scripture yet (think major and minor prophets, etc.), but who are past the simple Bible story book age. You can find it (and even look at many of the devotions) here.

There’s also a second one that’s said to be for 6-10 year-olds, but I found it’s really best for the younger end of the bracket. The situations are much more simple than those found in the original book. Find that one here.

**Disclaimer, there were one or two devotions that made me raise an eyebrow, although nothing I deemed unfit. Still, I recommend reading each devotion ahead of time, just in case.

Bookworm Fridays: God King: A Story in the Days of King Hezekiah

God King was a book we came across when studying ancient history. Set in the time of King Hezekiah, the story brings to us in detail the life of a prince, Taharka, from Kush. Although it’s historical fiction, and should be read as such, Taharka (AKA Taharqa & Tirhakah) is mentioned in many early recordings including the Bible (Isaiah 37:8-9, & 2 Kings 19:8-9). God King brought us greater understanding of the brutal Assyrians as they went through the area wiping out entire nations. It also shed a lot of light on King Hezekiah and we marveled as we read about the aqueduct system he made which enabled his people to survive the Assyrian onslaught. This book really “fleshed out” not only general history, but this Biblical story, and was a really enjoyable read.

Find it here.

Bookworm Fridays: Mama’s Bank Account

Mama’s Bank Account is one book that’s dear to my heart. It’s an account of a young girl living with her Norwegian family in San Francisco, and most of the stories center around her Mama. My mother read it to me when I was a little girl, and then I poured over the pages again with my little family a few years ago.

While I have to admit that this story has a bit of a female bent, my guys liked it really well–laughed on cue, and looked introspective at all the right parts.

This is an older story, but I can’t see it’s morals going out of style any time soon.

But now we come to the sad part. I had always thought that this was based on a true story, that Mama was really out there some where (or was). And in the highest pedestals of my little mind, there sat Mama. After rereading the book as an adult, I  did some research and found out that this wasn’t exactly true, and I have to tell you: that is one piece of information that I could have lived without. My literary bubble was busted.

Fortunately, your kids don’t need to know that, and it doesn’t change the fact that this is a worthwhile read. I do want to bring up the fact that there is an alcohol reference, in case it bothers anyone. Fortunately, it’s very understandable given the time period and culture.

You can find Mama’s Bank account here. There are newer versions as well, but I don’t like the covers as well. Call me OCD, I’m just funny about those things.

Bookworm Fridays: City of Ember

It is always night in the city of Ember. But there is no moon, no stars. The only light during the regular twelve hours of “day” comes from floodlamps that cast a yellowish glow over the streets of the city. Beyond are the pitch-black Unknown Regions, which no one has ever explored because an understanding of fire and electricity has been lost, and with it the idea of a Moveable Light. “Besides,” they tell each other, “there is nowhere but here” Among the many other things the people of Ember have forgotten is their past and a direction for their future. For 250 years they have lived pleasantly, because there has been plenty of everything in the vast storerooms. But now there are more and more empty shelves–and more and more times when the lights flicker and go out, leaving them in terrifying blackness for long minutes. What will happen when the generator finally fails?

Twelve-year-old Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet seem to be the only people who are worried. They have just been assigned their life jobs–Lina as a messenger, which leads her to knowledge of some unsettling secrets, and Doon as a Pipeworker, repairing the plumbing in the tunnels under the city where a river roars through the darkness. But when Lina finds a very old paper with enigmatic “Instructions for Egress,” they use the advantages of their jobs to begin to puzzle out the frightening and dangerous way to the city of light of which Lina has dreamed. As they set out on their mission, the haunting setting and breathless action of this stunning first novel will have teens clamoring for a sequel. (Ages 10 to 14) –Patty Campbell accessed on Amazon.com

We enjoyed this book mainly because it has a different kind of theme and feel than anything else we’ve read. Another big bonus is that there are both a male and female lead character, which should make this book appealing to most family members.

I do want to add that there are three sequels to this book, one of which we read, the others I skimmed alone. While we found the second book somewhat interesting, it lost some of the feel of the first and I can’t endorse it as a favorite read. The third book has some material which I simply didn’t care for and the fourth appeared to be similar.