A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Reviews

All of Me

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A novel in the form of a bunch of connected poems, that when I finished reading said “that was an interesting story”. All of Me made me feel all quiet inside of myself, and pleased with a boy learning who he was. I am so pleased Raincoast sent this one to me as a review.

All of Me

About the Book

Ari has body-image issues. After a move across the country, his parents work selling and promoting his mother’s paintings and sculptures. Ari’s bohemian mother needs space to create, and his father is gone for long stretches of time on “sales” trips.

Meanwhile, Ari makes new friends: Pick, the gamer; the artsy Jorge, and the troubled Lisa. He is also relentlessly bullied because he’s overweight, but he can’t tell his parents – they’re simply not around enough to listen.

After an upsetting incident, Ari’s mom suggests he go on a diet, and she gives him a book to help. But the book – and the diet – can’t fix everything. As Ari faces the demise of his parents’ marriage, he also feels himself changing, both emotionally and physically. Here is a much-needed story about accepting the imperfect in oneself and in life.

All of Me

My Thoughts

I started this book just wanting to get a feel for it, before I knew it an hour had passed and I had it mostly done. It was such a simple, quiet read. The angst of Ari clearly felt, the upset and realness of Pick, Lisa’s genuine love, and the quiet steadiness of Jorge.

The story moves forward through a series of poems that lead one from another. Brief titles, short poems for the most part with longer ones interspersed, gently, steadily telling the story.

Anger, pain, frustration, joy, pride, all spelled out in poetic form.

All of Me

I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would.

The question I have, would middle schoolers? That’s the target market. I had my 13 year old read a few pages. Just to see if he would get hooked the way I was when I started reading it. He wasn’t. The poetic style completely through him off.

So I’ve mixed thoughts when I think of a recommendation. I want people to enjoy it as much as I did, but I tend to think of it appealing more to an older crowd than a younger one. I could be wrong though, for the right 8-12 year it might be just what they need and, more importantly, want to read.

All of Me

All of Me.
Chris Baron
Feiwel & Friends.
Trade paperback, 8-12 years, 320 pages
Poetry, Growing up, Middle School, Bullying
Received: arc copy
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

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Hawking

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Today I have a graphic novel about Stephen Hawking for you. Hawking, was a wonderful man of science. Thinking through his ideas, and applying math to help prove his theory, Hawking lived a full life despite a diagnosis of ALS.

Hawking

From The Cover

Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick deliver a gripping biography of Stephen Hawking, one of the most important scientists of our time.

From his early days at the St Albans School and Oxford, Stephen Hawking’s brilliance and good humor were obvious to everyone he met. A lively and popular young man, it’s no surprise that he would later rise to celebrity status.

In Hawking, writer Jim Ottaviani and artist Leland Myrick have crafted an intricate portrait of the great thinker, the public figure, and the man behind both identities.

What you Get

I will freely admit I didn’t read all of Hawking. I’m not a big graphic novel fan, and this book is mostly done in black and white images, and my eyes get tired after a while. 🙂 I did read solid sections and this is a really nice story of Hawking, done in graphic novel style.

Hawking

You get the story of his life from the time he was born through to adulthood. The first few pages were in full colour, which I presume will be the full book when you purchase it. Aren’t the colours nice?

Hawking

The print is neat, easy to read, small and not grainy. I did find in my ARC copy that some of the print had fading. Some letters would be dark, and others would be faded. It seemed a bit odd. My assumption again, is due to the ARC copy that I received.

Hawking

What did I learn? Hawking was one smart man who really knew his math and how to put it together with the ideas he was postulating. I kept reading about how math was a part of how he put all his ideas together. New ideas, possibly great ideas, take careful working through of the math.

Hawking lived a very full life. ALS seemed to slow him down, but as he said “I’m a slow thinker”. So it put a crimp in his life, but it didn’t stop him from being the man that he was. Seeing him work through that was very interesting, and for that alone, definitely a book I would recommend you let your middle schoolers and up read.

Hawking

Hawking.
Jim Ottaviani
Leland Myrick (illustrator)
First Second
Trade paperback, 304 pages, middle school
Biography, Science, Hawking
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

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Review: Transcripts Made Easy

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Did you know that my son is going into grade nine? GAH! I am trying NOT to join in with frantic homeschooling parents getting bent out of shape over highschool. Trying hard but not necessarily succeeding! 🙂

Everyday Education has come to my rescue… at least in the area of transcripts and grading. Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler’s Guide to High-School Paperwork has been a boon to quieting my mind over this important part of record keeping.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

What I am Reviewing

Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler’s Guide to High-School Paperwork.
Everyday Education.
Janice Campbell
Digital ebook, PDF.

$24.95
138 pages.  4th edition. 
high school transcripts, homeschool transcripts, homeschool high school

Transcripts made easy is a comfortable read filled with a wealth of information. It comes as a PDF document easy to store on my laptop. At 138 pages I chose not to print off most of it, but I will be printing off some of the record keeping pages.

This is the fourth edition of this helpful guide for making highschool transcripts. You will find helpful tips from the following experts included: Professor Carol Reynolds, Judith Munday, and Kathy Kuhl.

The six sections of Transcripts Made Easy are:

  • Meet the Transcript
  • Plan with the End in Mind
  • Keep Simple Records
  • Grades, Credit and GPA
  • Create the Transcript
  • References, Resources and Reproducibles
Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Transcripts Made Easy Details

Janice Campbell starts off by explaining what a transcript is (a record of what a student has studied.). She walks us through the different sections of a transcript, what to put into them and why they are important. SUPER helpful.

Transcripts Made Easy is designed so that you can jump in at any point and use only the parts you need. If you pick up this ebook from upper elementary school you would start at the very beginning. If you are just finishing highschool though, you might want to just skip to how to actually fill out the transcript.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

From just learning how to keep records, what to record, how to track hours and more, there are many options provided. When it comes to transcripts, regardless of where you are in the process you can still come up with a usable transcript, so fret not. Help is here.. make full use of it!

One of the Things I most appreciated was Ms. Campbell’s careful explanations as to why we need to be careful how we put our transcripts together. When explaining why grading on transcripts is important, she helped me understand the mindset of the person who would be looking at that transcript. She then proceeded to walk me through the different ways of grading material, extremely helpful to someone who has never graded her child in his work. 🙂

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Section Details

As much as you can just jump into the area that you most have need of, really the whole book is helpful.

  • Meet the Transcript: Talks about what a transcript is, the different areas, and what needs to be included.
  • Plan with the End in Mind: How to plan out your highschool education, sample methods, how to make sure you are meeting requirements, developing study skills and more.
  • Keep Simple Records: Simple is best right? Why by complicated. Keep good records to make the end product easier to manage. I only skimmed the special needs section, just know it’s there.
  • Grades, Credit and GPA: How to grade, how to manage grades if you are an unschooler, different ways to mark, and a helpful writing evaluation rubric is included.
  • Create the Transcript: different types of transcripts are given, along with directions on how to create them. Pros and cons are listed for each helping you make an informed decision.
  • References, Resources and Reproducibles: forms you can use to make your homeschooling journey easier. Forms I intend to use are the class profile, the subject worksheets, and the line transcript.
Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

My Thoughts

Janice Campbell writes with a personal tone. I LOVE how she disseminated her information in an easy-going, practical format. She even reminded me that if I have a question about how to do something with a document, just ask google and there will be an answer. Sometimes I forget that!

She takes what would seem to be an overwhelming task and breaks it down into simple record keeping. Some for the homeschool parent to do, and some that the student can do. I have been pleased to talk through some of her material with my son. His first question was “Is there a sheet I can fill out?” I could happily tell him “yes!” 🙂

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

The loads of examples provided, to show the variety of transcripts and type of record keeping amazed me. There is more than one way to do it all, it’s just a matter of finding a system that works for the parent.

An excellent resource for anyone looking at how to put a transcript together for their student.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Suggestion:

Something I would LOVE to see is .. oh, how do I put it? With PDF’s you can use the fill and sign feature. So I would love to either see separate PDF’s for each of the forms that can be filled out OR….

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

A link to a google docs folder with pre-made forms already to use. That was my first thought when I saw the sample diploma along with instructions on how to recreate it. It was like… OH.. if only this were a google doc so I wouldn’t have to recreate it! I could then just fill in my son’s name and the name of our school. THAT would be the best! (YES, I admit to having a lazy side!) 🙂 I don’t know which would be better. Separate PDF forms could get cumbersome, but be really useful. BUT the google docs aspect could simply be an embedded link. I don’t know. I just LOVE the idea of having ready made forms that are fully editable, and available as a separate file.

My Recommendation:

If you are homeschooling highschool, regardless of your methodology, go get this book. It’s chock full of important information to consider in regards to homeschooling. It’s more than just transcripts, it’s grading, legal requirements, options, how to grade and so much more. It is well worth your time invested.

Everyday Education

50 members of the Homeschool Review Crew have looked at the offerings of Everyday Education. Click here or on the banner below to go read the reviews.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

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Who in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

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Do you or your children have a love of Carmen Sandiego, wondering where in the world she is? Have you watched the cartoon series on Netflix? Who in The World is Carmen Sandiego answers the question of where she came from and just who she is. An interesting read. 🙂

who in the world is carmen sandiego

From the Cover:

Based on the Netflix original series with a foreword by Gina Rodriguez. For decades, people have asked the question: Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? But just who is this infamous and elusive globe-trotting criminal?

A skilled thief on a mysterious mission, Carmen Sandiego is endlessly pursued by ACME and Interpol. But the woman in the red fedora is always one step ahead! In this novelization, based on the Netflix animated series, Carmen shares her own backstory for the first time ever. Now, it’s time to find out. . . . Who in the world is Carmen Sandiego.

My Thoughts

Not being familiar with the Netflix series, I can’t speak to how well “Who in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” follows the it. I can tell you how much I enjoyed reading this book. I can see how this story would make a compelling series to watch.

Interesting characters interwoven into a classic good guy up against nasty guys story. On a fun note, one of the main players is a homeschooled student.

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I found there to be a good mix of characters, good and bad people of both genders.   Gray areas exist for readers to ponder as they watch Carmen work through the ideas herself. 

If you want a enjoyable story to read, with or without a knowledge of the Netflix series, this was a good book to read.  Perhaps like Carmen, young readers will want to visit the world, and figure out a way to do so.  

who in the world is carmen sandiego
Who in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Rebecca Tinker 
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10-12 years
Hardcover, fiction, 208 pages
Carmen Sandiego, Netflix, novelization
Reviewed for Raincoast books.
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Dragon’s Heir

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Dragon’s Heir, The Archeologist’s Tale by Glenn Parris is um, an odd book. I love fantasy, and reading about dragon’s, or alternative paths (totally made) in how the world could have developed. FUN! Dragon’s heir was well… let’s just say I could not finish it. This is my review.

Recently I wrote a post about how you need to write simply. When the author writes “Their near spherical forms, deformable into pseudopodia, gave them the advantage of shape shifting. By virtue of these powerful dendritic appendages, they built rambling cities, bridges, and tunnel systems throughout their worlds. Collective formations of propulsive pods conveyed them between neighboring planets for centuries.” You just mentally (at least I) mentally start to shut down.

I read a book for fun. Not to stop and think WHAT? What in the world did I just read and just what do these things look like? I really haven’t a clue beyond thinking they are amoeba with teeth. (and that just makes no sense).

The premise is interesting. Dinosaurs populated the earth, left when the world was due to be bombarded. They are now looking back at earth and discovering the mammals have taken over, particularly some clever smart mammals. What to do?

I found sections interesting, honestly I did. I skipped around a bit, trying to avoid the … complicated reading sections… to see if I could just read the story. But I just kept getting lost. The story in and of itself, interesting. But someone with a more readily available large word base might find it an easier read than I did.

Dragon's Heir
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50 Adventures to have before you turn 14

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Just in time for summer, Pierdomenico Baccalario shows up with 50 Adventures to Have Before you turn 14. This easy to grab up book has 50 different adventures designed to fill a summer of fun for youth. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

50 Adventures to have before you turn 14

What I am Reviewing

50 Adventures to Have Before you Turn 14.
Pierdomenico Baccalario
Tommaso Percivale
AntonGionata Ferrari (illustrator)
Sourcebook Jabberwocky
176 pages, 10-14 years, Trade paperback
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

CAUTION: this handbook is for serious adventurers only
Are you an experience-chaser and a thrill-seeker? Then this book is for you. Full of 50 quests and adventures that will push you to explore, create, discover, and even get a little dirty, this handbook is the perfect guide to set you on the path of true adventures.
Decode secret messages, record interesting creatures your encounter, track your points for each adventure you complete, and much more!
So go ahead, accept the challenge for once in a lifetime experiences that are too good to miss!

The Details

The excitement starts when you open the very first page. This book for a specific adventurer only, a place where they can record what they did, when and how. Everyone else either needs to get their own book or.. keep their hands off. It comes complete with rules, contracts and helpful advice to get the daring adventurer on their way.

50 Adventures to have before you turn 14

Each adventure takes 3 pages. Two to explain the adventure and one to record what happened when you did it.

The explanations include words of caution when needed (making a slingshot, mushrooms) and making note if parental supervision is advised. The explanation might simply be information about the night sky, animals that live in forests, or the history of kit flying. Materials needed and instructions are amply supplied.

Learn photography skills taking pictures of plants and animals, develop wood working, outdoor skills, explore nature, the arts, and history. Fill your days with adventures at the beach, in the woods, visiting friends and playing games. Create a treasure hunt and stay up sun up til sun set.

50 Adventures to have before you turn 14

A list of all adventures is found at the close of the book, making it easy for the adventurer to find a new way to expand their horizons.

My Recommendation

This is a neat book. It would be so fun to hand to youth who, once the freedom of being out of school waned, says “I’m bored”. You could simply hand this book to them and say “get busy then, adventures await.”.

Granted, some of them would require some assistance, such as going to a petting zoo or exploring an old ruin, but most of them require few ingredients and the willingness of adventurer to explore.

50 Adventures to have before you turn 14

Many are what you might expect in a book of this sort, like exploring in the woods, making a time capsule, or flying a kit. I was delighted to see a few I didn’t expect like sleep in a scary place, identify mushrooms, secretly trail a friend, and inventing a magic potion.

My son looked through this book (seeing in my stack of review books and thinking it looked interesting). “I like it mom, it has some good ideas in it.” He then mentioned an 11 year old friend saying he’d probably really like it.

The target age range is perfect I think. The adventures are nicely varied and would make for a great summer of adventure (other than the sledding adventure). Go get it for your adventurers! 🙂

50 Adventures to have before you turn 14
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FBI Files – The Unabomber

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Follow the FBI as they search for The Unabomber, a man who, over the course of 14 bombings, killed three people. Even though I am out of the age range for this review, I found it fascinating to follow the FBI as they made their case. 

The Unabomber

About the book

A case of homegrown terrorism: the Unabomber. 
Agent Kathleen Puckett was a successful linguist and a highly trained psychologist before she was recruited for the UNABOMB investigation. The Unabomber had evaded capture for 17 years, carried out 13 bombings, and killed three men. 
Agent Puckett was a catalyst in understanding the psychology behind the Unabomber crimes. She led the team to make the arrest of Theodore Kaczynski on April 4, 1996, bringing down one of the most notorious domestic terrorists in American history.

The Unabomber

What you Get:

The riveting story of one of the Unabombers attacks greets us as we enter into the chase.  We see a horrible example of the Unabomber’s work.  We are led through the building of the FBI team along with the frustrations they experienced.

The Unabomber

Lots of images dot the pages, from evidenced gathered, various team members, sketches made and more. The reader is helped to see the intelligence of the man behind the Unabomber attacks. Such a smart man, and even though it took years, he left behind enough evidence to lead the FBI to his door.

My Thoughts

I have a hard time imagining someone being able to kill so many people. It’s one thing to be firmly commited to a cause, but to kill people over it? Especially someone just meant to be a warning? It’s a hard thing. I found it quite interesting watching the FBI do their work, but my heart was sad at the hard things the Unabomber did.

I’m not a big one for true life crime books, but I can see how many would be curious about the story behind The Unabomber.

The text was well written for the target age range. Death details were not sensationalized, death happened, how it happened was explained. No images provided. The focus was on the hunt, not on the death and damage done. If this type of literature appeals to your 9-11 year olds, it is worth a read for sure.

The Unabomber
Fbi Files: The Unabomber. 
Bryan Denson
Roaring Brook Press
176 pages, trade paperback
Ages 8-12
FBI, Unabomber, Crime, True Life, Terrorism
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.
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