Homeschooling

Born Survivors

March 27, 2024 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

When I picked up Born Survivors I thought I would be getting a novel telling a story about three fictious women in war-torn Europe. Instead I got a story that was more of a documentary about women who actually survived the Nazi reign of terror. I met the most amazing women Rachel, Priska, and Anka. I am so inspired by their outlook on life and how their perspectives helped them to survive. All links provided are to amazon of which I am an affiliate. Costs you nothing, helps me provide you with reviews!

The Basic Details for Born Survivors

Title: Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope
Author: Nicki Pau Preto
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Pages: listened on audible 13 hours and 8 minutes
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: WW2, history, Holocaust, Jewish, documentary
Available formats: Audio, Hardcover
Read: Audio book on Audible. Give audible a try for free, get a free book each month with a paid membership!

What Did I Think?

This story takes us into the world of three women surviving till the end of the war under the reign of the Nazis. Young women with husbands and extended families. None had been married long, all were well attached to their extended families, none were orthodox Jews. And then the Germans came and life changed. Bit by bit, push by push until ghettos were formed and concentration camps filled.

They focused on their life perspectives: one of which was “find the beauty in the everyday. Look for the beauty in life”. Through love, family, focusing on goals, following their instincts, and sheer determination, they survived. And I am so privileged to have heard their stories.

They avoided the trap of Josef Mengele and his “are you pregnant” questions. Miracles occurred when towns intervened to feed unfed prisoners, when Zyklon-B tanks ran empty, and when forgotten women were found and medical intervention happened for starving infants.

It was lovely to be able to follow their lives post-WW2, reunions and meetings. Learning of the other babies born in concentration camps who survived and just how these women built up their lives after suffering so terribly.

I am not going to say Born Survivors is easy to listen to. There were times when it is so hard to listen to what was done to them. BUT there were also times when you could see the miracles, and feel the love, and see the growth that hardship wrought. THAT is worth listening for!

Give Born Survivors by Wendy Holden a listen and see if you to might be inspired by their courage and determination as well!

The Curse of the Shaman

February 7, 2024 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

So I’ve been slowly sorting through books that I held for my boy to read during our homeschooling years. Sometimes I go “hey, that might make a good read” so I grab it up and kept it in my stash. Unlike me, my lad didn’t turn into much of a reader, I would have liked for him to read though The Curse of the Shaman. Themes of determination, community, and help from unexpected sources.

The Basic Details for The Curse of the Shaman

Title: The Curse of the Shaman
Author: Michael Kusugak
Illustrator: Vladyanan Krykorka
Series: A Marble Island Story
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 168
Intended Audience: 9-12 years, Elementary Students, Middle School
Genre: first nations, Canada, folk lore, Inuit,
Available formats: Kindle, Paperback
Read: Paperback

About the Author

Michael Kugusak is a Canadian author who has written several books. Growing up in Repulse Bay, NWT he currently lives in Sooke, BC. As a child he rode dog sled, went hunting and fishing, and lived a traditional Inuit lifestyle. This history can be seen in The Curse of the Shaman.

About the Book

The Curse of the Shaman takes us into the life of Wolverine from birth through to young adulthood. We get to see him grow up within the Inuit lifestyle. The anger of a Shaman led to a curse which is later rescinded, but Shaman’s magic helper disagreed. And so the story unfolds….

What Did I Think?

There were things I loved in this story and things that took me a bit to adapt to.

I struggled with some of the names in this story as well as some of the Inuit language. And a part of me wanted the author to make it easier for me! How my… how selfish of me is that eh? Good thing I recognize that eh? Changing the names would also have changed fundamental parts of the story, which I so much enjoyed.

The focus on family and community is fantastic! People care for their family units deeply, and getting together with others is a time of work, celebration, and appreciation of each other. People shared what they had and who they were freely because that was the best way to live in community. Share and share alike is how folks survive in a harsh environment.

Stories told to Wolverine as a youngster prove to be invaluable, again showing the importance of family. And as children grow up and develop new skills, so do shamans! 🙂 It is good to see not only children learn new skills but the grown ups on their lives as well! It’s a pleasant twist on a story, and another twist (though as an adult reader I rather anticipated it) is a good one as well. 🙂

All in all, a good story that immerses us into the lives of the Inuit and a possibility of how shamans work their magic. The Curse of the Shaman is well worth reading if you are looking at doing a study on Inuit of Canada.

The hat Diaries: the secret life of Ryan Rigbee

December 27, 2023 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product for The hat Diaries: the secret life of Ryan Rigbee through Mouth: Digital & Public Relations. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and it is so much appreciated. 🙂

Oh, this book. I really really wish it has been at the top of my review pile…but it wasn’t. AND I do need to honour the order in which books arrive. What a rollicking ride of hats and watching a young boy become something more. Each hat adventure contains clues that he needs to put together to get some answers. I’ll warn you straight up, the answers might not be what you expect!

The Basic Details for The Hat Diaries

Title: The Hat Diaries: the secret life of Ryan Rigbee
Author: Nadine Haruni
Publisher: Speaking Volumes
Series: The Hat Diaries
Pages: 252
Intended Audience: middle school, 6-18 years,
Genre: magical realism, coming of age, teen & young adult,
Available formats: Kindle, Paperback

The Author

Nadine Haruni is best known for her Freeda the Frog children series. The Secret Life of Ryan Rigbee is her debut foray into the middle school realm. She is also a practicing attorney, Certified yoga instructor, and the proud mother of a blended family of five children.

The Book

The Hat Diaries: the Secret Life of Ryan Rigbee is the first in a trilogy. Ryan undertakes a magical adventure in the form of hats that bring him into a series of adventures. Through those adventures he develops more into the person he is meant to become. A confident young man who sees his own potential. Coming of age books are good to read eh?

What you’ll find

You will find text meant to appeal to middle school through young adult. A very easy to read tome, filled with a variety of adventures, in different fields of employment. Magician, FireFighter, Policeman, Safari Guide and more. A variety of occupations to delight the imagination of 13 year old boy. A boy who, through the change of a hat, changes his life in the course of an evening.

Each chapter starts off simply with an image fitting it. In black and white. Nothing fancy, just something to add a bit to the storyline.

I will freely admit that I didn’t read every word. I tend to skim read books when short on time and I really wanted to let you know about this read. The imagination, and the pulling together of the story was delightful. I LOVE feeding the imagination of children.

Through Ryan’s imagination, and the help of those magical hats, Ryan learned more about his family. Enough that he was able to as good questions of his mom, and figure some things out about his deceased father.

If I were still homeschooling I’d be tempted to use this book to help in a story telling class. What kind of story would YOUR imagination spin up with a baseball cap, mala beads, or _________. All these things that Ryan has to work with, and then read what Ryan’s mind came up with. Wouldn’t that be an interesting class to teach?

More Than Words

December 13, 2023 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product More Than Words: So Many Ways to Say What we Mean through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog. It costs you nothing to do so, and is a huge encouragement to me. As such it is deeply appreciated.

Do you know what augmentative and alternative communication is? Do your children have any ideas about all the different ways that people can communicate? More Than Words brought me back to my time with with differently abled children. And honestly, I thought I knew a lot but there are even more ways to communicate than I had thought of! Come along, learn the different ways people communicate!

The Basic Details for More than Words

Title: More Than Words: So many ways to say what we mean
Author: Roz Maclean
Illustrator: Roz Maclean
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pages: 48
Intended Audience: 4-8 years
Genre: Picture Book, Children’s disabilities, Augmentative Communication, Communication, Children,
Available formats: Hardcover, Kindle
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books
Received: Hardcover with fly

A Closer Look

Having worked with people who need to be creative in how they communicate I love how More Than Words expresses more variety than you can imagine.

Can play be a form of expression? What about choosing between one thing and another? How about facial expressions or written language? Everyone has ways to communicate, and sometimes a preference or need to shown for one method over another!

I suppose it’s no different than a mom saying to her child, I’m so disappointed… or just showing disappointment in her body language. Both convey the same thing but are spoken differently. So does it matter how a person communicates as long as they are trying?

Good use of colour and facial expression fill the pages. And I love Maclean adding a personal touch to each communication method. Perhaps you might know a Jaya, Mateo, or Nathan who has preferred method of communicating different than you too?

The font changes were fantastic. The informative text appears as you see below. A simple, easy-to-read font, but occasionally large colourful words will jump off the page. Can you play, choose, dig, or cry? In what manner will you express yourself today? Who might you run into who talks differently?

My Thoughts

Did you know that the Roz Maclean so wants people to understand alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) that section is included at the close of the book to teach more. These forms of AAC might not be well-known to everyone. Learning how others find ways to talk is ever so helpful don’t you think? More Than Words is an easy read that I think children would enjoy reading. Perhaps they can guess how people will communicate! I love how even though we learned how a whole variety of people communicate, we needed to really think about how Nathan communicates. So as you read, give it some thought. What might Nathan be trying to say and how does he do it?

Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior

December 6, 2023 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog. It costs you nothing to do so, and is a huge encouragement to me. As such it is deeply appreciated.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you need to read a book twice to make sure you understand where it is going. When I read the description of Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior I thought it would be about a woman from history. Instead, it’s about a girl of today and how history has influenced her. I urge you to learn the history, and see the present fight for the Anishinaabe and others.

Basic Details for Water Warriors

Title: Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior
Author: Carole Lindstrom
Illustrator: Bridget George
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Pages: 40
Intended Audience: 4-8 years
Genre: Picture Book, Children’s multicultural biographies, Native Americans, Environment,
Available formats: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books
Received: Hardcover with fly

About the Author and the book

Autumn Peltier’s story is told in short form by Carole Lindstorm. Carole Lindstorm is Anishinaabe/Metis and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. Her goal is to write about her people and their strength and resilience. Always and avid reader, she discovered her love of writing children’s literature when her son was a young child. She has written three books.

About the book:

Ms. Peltier’s story is told in the book Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior. It tells the story of how Indigenous women have long cared for the land and water, which in turn sustains all life on Earth – honoring their ancestors and providing for generations to come. Yet there was a time when their voices and teachings were nearly drowned out, leaving entire communities and environments in danger and without clean water.

But then came Grandma Josephine and her great-niece, Autumn Peltier.

Digging Deeper

You’ll find clear, big, and easy to read text telling this story of inspiration. I always love a book where I can choose to read it with a good of children, or with a single child gathered next to me. In this particular story, the water tells the story.

Water tells it’s story from the beginning to the present. How at first everyone helped water creating ways to it to be safe for seven generations into the future. Then other voices began to speak who didn’t listen to or care for water. People needed to learn about the importance of water again. People need to speak out for what is right. Clean water for all!

Throughout you will see images of water, with blues flowing throughout leading from one page to the other. The closing notes will teach you about Grandma Josephine and the Water Walk. 35 days of walking around Lake Superior where the water was not always blue and clean. The encouragement is strong throughout…. fight well for life-giving water!

My Thoughts

You can see the heart that Carole Lindstrom has for encouraging people to fight for what is right. In Autumn Peltier Water Warrior we see a young lady learning to care for water. Of seeing the examples of her ancestors to encourage her along the way. Indigenous activism, to help make communities and the world a better place to live. This is a good thing yes?

Two New Years

November 29, 2023 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product Two New Years through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog. It costs you nothing to do so, and is a huge encouragement to me. As such it is deeply appreciated.

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to grow up in a household with two distinctly different cultures? How would parents decide to raise their children? Would one culture be emphasized over another or would they share equally? In Two New Years we get the privilege of seeing how one family lives out their decisions.

Basic Details for Two New Years

Title: Two New Years
Author: Richard Ho
Illustrator: Lynn Scurfield
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 44
Intended Audience: 3-5 years
Genre: Picture Book, Jewish Fiction, Asian, Asian-American, Children’s Holidays, New Years
Available formats: Hardcover, Kindle
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books
Received: Hardcover with Fly

Author and Book Synopsis

Richard Ho is a member of the Jedi Order and I think he lives in New York. He, like many other children, had several aspirations when he grew up. Eventually though, he became a scriptwriter and editor for an educational website. Later on he became a children’s book writer.

Two New Years brings us into the world of a multi-cultural family. Chinese and Jewish roots, two cultures that have their own distinctive holidays and ways of celebrating them. Can they find common threads that weave them together? As the multicultural family welcomes in each new year, they savor the shared values and familiar themes that bridge two calendars and two cultures.

Looking More Closely

You will love the vibrant colours throughout, bringing to life, the illustrations of Lynn Scurfield. Bright happy faces. The striking colours draw us into the excitement of the New Years holiday. It is so interesting to see how different cultures celebrate the same holiday.

The font is easy to read, this would be easy to read with a group of children gathered round, or with a single child sitting in close. Read the words, hear the tale, one family, taking the time to teach and experience two ways to enjoy the same holiday.

The fun is in the colours and imagined smells. It would be so easy to create art and craft add-ons to help children solidify what they are learning. Can you see yourself making some Jewish dishes, or standing by a river releasing the years mistakes to the currents?

My Thoughts

Such a neat way of showing deliberateness in sharing your cultural norms. Of parents not fighting over how to celebrate the holidays, but instead finding ways to share the best of both.

Two New Years with it’s bright colours, ease of reading, and delightful way of sharing the fun and excitement of the New Year. Celebrate the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah in the fall, and then in the spring celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. One holiday, two celebrations, two cultures delighted in. Check it out, you’ll learn a thing or two and smile about it in the process. 🙂

Stolen Sisters

September 27, 2023 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

There I was on vacation with a couple of books from the “Canada proud books” I won a couple of years ago that I simply haven’t gotten to. Stolen Sisters was the first one I grabbed up. It’s not a very large book and I thought it would be a quick read on a quiet afternoon when the lads were out kayaking. Two girls have gone missing and we’re drawn into the politics and ideology surrounding their disappearance.

The Basic Details of Stolen Sisters

Title: Stolen Sisters: The Story of Two Missing Girls, Their Families, and How Canada Has Failed Indigenous Women
Author: Emmanuelle Walter
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 240
Intended Audience: 8-12 years
Genre: Indigenous, Canada, Police, Missing Women, true crime,
Available formats: Hardcover, Kindle, Audio

About the story

Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander, indigenous teenagers from western Quebec, who have been missing since September 2008. Using personal testimonies, interviews, press clippings and official documents, Walter pieces together the disappearance and loss of these two young lives, revealing these young women to us through the voices of family members and witnesses.

My Thoughts

I expected a story about these girls and a working through of the mystery surrounding their disappearance. That’s how the excerpt read to me.

I was wrong. The disappearance of these two girls is a background to the politics and ideology surrounding the lack of action with the disappearance of indigenous women. We are introduced to cultural aspects (for instance: poor people, finding jobs, can’t afford a car, so need to hitchhike). The backdrop of indigenous children being taken from their homes and the breakup of entire families, and the resultant issues arising from that (such as: drunkenness, lack of involvement from the community). A variety of other issues were brought into play such as stereotypes, racism, and more.

I got about 1/2 way through and said “I’m done.” If I had wanted to read a treatise on all possibilities leading to indigenous women disappearing, or the maybes of why so many cases are left unsolved, and such like I would have continued. But I was more interested in reading about these girls in a real way, not in a clinically detached way.

I wanted to understand the viewpoint (and perhaps the frustrations) of the police or native law-keepers in trying to solve this mystery. Having all the “other stuff” interposed into that story would have made it more interesting and seem more relevant rather than like a bunch of guess work and supposition about why the solve rate of these disappearances is so low.

I may try to give it a go another time, but for a read on vacation, this simply wasn’t it. But honestly, now that I’m home for a bit, I still don’t want to finish it. That feeling persists EVEN THOUGH I hate leaving a book once started unfinished. 🙂

Potential Uses?

Homeschooling for high school students seeking to know about true crime and to understand the reasons why some crimes have low solve rates.

Good for helping with critical thinking. Could all the reasons the author listed by solved, or even be part of the problem? Are solutions possible?

Understanding the impact of history on a present population.

Seeking to understand how communities operate affect the lives of the youth living within them.

Homeschooling

Born Survivors

The Basic Details for Born Survivors

What Did I Think?

The Curse of the Shaman