A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Reviews

Girls Think of Everything

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Catherine Thimmesh has written a fun book to read.  I 100% enjoyed reading through Girls Think of Everything for a review.  All these girls from 8 and up inventing useful and needed items!   Simply delightful!

I just HAVE to tell you all about it!

From the Cover

Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta wanted to help make the lives of reguees and disaster victims safe.  So they invented….. When Mary Anderson saw bus drivers struggle to safely drive passengers through rain and snow, she devised one of the longest-lasting and most use inventions….  And because Trishna Prabhu was tired of witnessing the cruelty of cyber-bullying, she created…..

What do all these girls have in common?  Grit, determination…and the gift of inventiveness. 

What you get:

15 ladies ranging from 8 years old and up.   Solving problems and finding solutions.    Some were solutions to problems not yet realized and were discovered by accident (fabric guard). Others I recognized from watching Shark Tank (flood/emergency lights). Most were women who simply saw a problem and had the gumption to do something about it. 

Colour fills EVERY page of this easy to read tome.  The women are well introduced.  Light humour frequently applied.  The wonders of their inventions well explained. 15 women from all walks of life, from places scattered over the globe. Women making a difference. 

This excellent book is an expanded and revised edition and celebrates women throughout time.   Written to encourage and inspire the women of the future. 

My Thoughts:

Get this book.  Sit down and read it alone, read it with your children or hand it off to your thinking youngsters.  Inspire them to use their brains and figure out solutions to problems.  If an 8 year old can come up with an interesting idea with a solution… why can’t your children do the same?

My one complaint.  I’ve seen quite a few books lately focusing on girls being smart and coming up with innovative ideas.  I want to see a book with boys, or a book with boys AND girls.   Both need to be encouraged don’t you think?

Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women
Catherine Thimmesh
Melissa Sweet (illustrator)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
112 Pages, hardcover, 
Innovation, Invention, Girl Engineers, Engineering,
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.
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Jerusalem’s Queen

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Salome Alexandre ruled in Judea for nine years.   Her journey to the throne wasn’t an easy one, nor was it one sought.  Yet, she was put into place for such a time as this.   She became Jerusalem’s Queen, this is her fictionalized story. 

Two women tell this story.  Kissa, an Egyptian salve and Shelamzion, also known as Salome Alexandra.    We meet them as little girls age 11 and 6.  Two girls that form a fast friendship despite their differences in station. 

Through the experiences of these two girls we are brought into the world of slavery, and into the world of power.   We see the searching heart of the future queen as she searches out the truth of God.  The skepticism of the slave opening doors to questions about God.   Together they learn.

Is it all true?   It’s a fictionalized account, there are things we can’t know for certain, and to that end, the author provides her notes.  In them she speaks to how similarity in names cause confusion in histories.  How divergent histories can be combined to satisfy both.   I really appreciate when authors take the time to do this. 

My Thoughts

I read Jerusalem’s Queen over the course of three days.   Angela Hunt writes a compelling story, one that draws you in and helps you see both the strength and weakness of the women.    Study questions at the close help you to dig into story, exploring further the thoughts presented.  

Ms. Hunt often writes stories based around a biblical character, but the Silent Years series involves people from the Inter-testimental period.   Queen Alexandra was one of two queens of Judea, and so we learn of her life and abilities.   Well-written and ever so helpful in understanding this time period.  

Should you read it?  I think so, if only for the history.  But seriously, the story was good, the characters real, the evil and the good readily apparent, and the questions of faith asked. 

Jerusalem's Queen
Angela Hunt
Bethany House
Series: The silent years
352 pages, trade paperback
historical fiction, Israel, Biblical fiction, 
Queen Alexandra, Judea
Reviewed for Nuts about Books
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30 Days to Understanding the bible

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Do you have a love for God and his Word?  BUT sometimes mess things up?  YOU KNOW you do.  I know I DO.  Man, and it makes me feel so very stupid.  Max Anders has given us a great handbook that I have been delighted to review for the past few days.   30 Days to Understanding the Bible is a wonderful book that has just celebrated its 30th anniversary.

30 days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders

From the Publisher

If you’ve ever confused the ark of the covenant with the ark of Noah, or Jericho with Jeroboam, Max Anders’ classic book, 30 Days to Understanding the Bible, is for you. In just fifteen minutes a day, you’ll learn the Bible’s key people, events, and doctrines to get more out of God’s Word. This simple-to-use, straightforward guide has been recommended by Bible teachers and pastors for thirty years, and now it’s available in an expanded thirtieth anniversary edition—with the most requested topics from the original edition restored and updated for today’s readers.

30 days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders

What you Get

A fantastic book that walks you through the bible. Divided into seven sections, you are walked through the Old Testament, the New Testament and the 10 Great doctrines of the Bible.  The next three sections are shorter sections covering topics such as a summary of the bible, mastering the bible, and teaching plan for using this handbook for yourself or with a group.   The final section is 8 bonus chapters gathered into one section.

These bonus chapters cover important topics such as comparing the four gospels, different literary forms, messianic prophecies and so much more.

Great teaching fill the pages.

30 days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders

Along with periodic reviews and short tests.  The point is to help you retain the information you are learning.   The point is to help people have a framework for understanding God’s word.

30 days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders

Graphics help us to visually organize the information we know.   Using easy to recognize symbols, information is presented several times over in different formats to cement the material for the reader.

30 days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders

My Thoughts

I so want to go through this book with my son but “mom, I’m doing something else right now for bible, you have to wait!”. I don’t want to wait, but apparently, I have to. 

But you know what..YOU don’t have to wait. You can grab up your children, your youth, your spouse, and sit down and understand your bible better with them.  No waiting!  Go on.. get it.. read!  Learn!  It’ll be good, trust me. 

30 days to Understanding the Bible by Max Anders

30 Days to Understanding the Bible
Max Anders
Thomas Nelson
400 pages, trade paperback
Faith, Bible Study, Christianity
Theology, Reference,
Website
Reviewed for Flyby Promotions

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Beyond Words

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Can learning about animals actually teach us about them?  Can this research help us to protect them?  How do we ascribe feelings to animals without humanizing them?  As I reviewed Beyond Words, I found myself amazed and delighted about the wonders of elephants and sharks and their respective communities. 

From The cover

Follow researcher Carl Safina as he treks with a herd of elephants across the Kenyan landscape, then travel with him to the Pacific Northwest to track and monitor whales in their ocean home. Along the way, find out more about the interior lives of these giants of land and sea – how they play, how they fight, and how they communicate with one another, and sometimes with us, too.

What you Get

Two animals, discussed under the cover of one book.  Part one is about the lives of elephants.  Part two is about killer whales.  

In the lives of elephants we follow researcher Cynthia Moss as she lives out in Africa learning about the 900+ elephants that use Amboseli National Park as a central part of their lives. A pivotal part of understanding Ms. Moss’ approach to working with elephants is this “I think of them as elephants…I’m interested in them as elephants. Comparing elephants to people… I don’t find it helpful.  I find it much more interesting trying to understand an animal as itself.” 

Ken Balcomb helps us to delve into the world of the killer whale. Understanding their huge social networks and the distinctions between transients and residents. How pods of killer whales are distinctly different from one area to another, so much so that in time they will be seen as a sub-species of each other.

Both sections point out new things researchers are learning about the animal they are studying.  They also point out the dangers they face from lack of land, disrupting sonar, ivory hunters, and lack of food.   

Learning about these magnificent creatures does us no good if they disappear because we didn’t take the time to care about them.   We need to use the research to help us protect them. 

My Thoughts

I learned so much, less with the elephants than with the orca.  It opened my eyes to why captive whale programs were so horrible. 

In some ways I wasn’t horribly surprised, any animal that lives as part of a pack/herd/community is bound to have communal behaviours.  Behaviours that show happiness, sadness, grief and more.  Behaviours that we only know how to quantify by adding human emotions to them. 

I appreciated how the researchers showed restraint by being very careful not to equate behaviours in animals, to behaviour in people.   It is so important to not humanize animals.   

Yet… they come so close, it’s such a fine line. 🙂  Amazing stories about the things that these animals can do.  Rescuing, helping, teaching, aware of themselves and others.

An interesting book to read, definitely gave me things to ponder.   How will it do for middle schoolers?   It will open their eyes to the wonder of elephants and killer whales.  Giving them a deeper understanding of the societies that they form.  

  • Beyond Words: What elephants and Whales Think and Feel
  • Carl Safina
  • Roaring Brook Press
  • 176 pages, trade paperback
  • middle school
  • Science, Biology, Research,
  • Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Other books that I’ve reviewed about animals

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Locked in Ice

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Peter Lourie has written a fantastic book “Locked in Ice” that has been my pleasure to review.  Fridtjof Nansen was a fascinating man whose curious mind and determined spirit made him an important Norseman.   This book tells us about his life and particularly about his journey to the Arctic.

From the cover

An explorer who many adventurers argue ranks alongside polar celebrity Ernest Shackleton.  Fridtjof Nansen contributed tremendous amounts of new information to our knowledge about the Polar Arctic.  At a time when the North Pole was still undiscovered territory, he attempted the journey in a way most experts thought was mad: Nansen purposefully locked his ship in ice for two years in order to float northward along the currents. 

What you get

Peter Lourie writes non-fiction books that appeal to younger readers.  Locked in Ice is one such book, in it he tells the fascinating story of Fridjof Nansen’s trip through the Arctic.  Can you imagine, willfully locking your ship in ice so you can slowly be transported to the North Pole, by the waters of Arctic itself?   THIS is the daring story of a man who did just that!

Numerous pictures dot the pages of this tome, bringing life and history right in front of the reader.   14 sections walk us through Mr. Nansen’s journey from idea til closing.   It’s such an interesting journey too.

Mr. Nansen was such a curious-minded fellow and intensely interested in everything around him.   Zoology, geography, skiing, inventions, and more filled his mind and days.  He was a meticulous planner and very determined to work out any kinks in his thinking.   Once he worked out a plan he didn’t let negative talk stop him.   Determination and planning would always win through for him. 

Peter Lourie gave an excellent accounting of the life of Mr. Hansen sharing with us his excellent character qualities and skills.  A timeline is included at close detailing his life beyond his Arctic exploration.  He went on to write books, work in politics, help with international needs, and more.  A skilled diplomat and inventor, he was an active, involved man throughout his entire life. 

My Thoughts

You may recall that I reviewed another Peter Lourie book about Jack London.   Just as I found that book really well done, so I found this book just fascinating.  Mr. Hansen was such an interesting individual and he advanced, through his journey, the knowledge of the Arctic.

  • Locked in Ice: Nansen’s Daring quest for the North Pole
  • Peter Lourie
  • Christy Ottaviano Books
  • 336 pages, middle school
  • History, Arctic, North Pole, Norway
  • Reviewed for Raincoast Books.
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Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien

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Five brave women, defying the odds, take to the skies. Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien tells the story of five women in the aftermath of WW1 who took to the skies. Learn the stories of Amelia Earhart, Ruth Elder, Florence Klingensmith, Ruth Nichols and Louise Thaden. This is my review.

From the Cover

Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. While male pilots were lauded as heroes, the few women who dared to fly were more often ridiculed-until a cadre of women pilots banded together to break through the entrenched prejudice.

Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout; Ruth Elder, a divorcee; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her Wall Street family’s expectations; and Louise Thaden, who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to fly and race airplanes -and in 1936, one of them would triumph, beating the men in the toughest air race of them all.

My Thoughts

Oh, I enjoyed reading this book.  BUT I struggled with it.  I thought it was going to be a book about five women aviators who fought to be allowed to race with men in airplane races. It wasn’t.

Instead, it spoke of the race to cross the ocean.  Focusing, predominately on the failures, of men as well as women.  A big yahoo to Charles Lindbergh, but the first four women were all failures.

I found it interesting that the story of Amelia Earhart didn’t include her solo flights, or her disappearance…but rather included a rather unflattering story.  I was impressed that she wanted female pilots to be organized and worked toward that end.  It was rather odd though, the story they focused on. They didn’t even mention her solo flight across the ocean.  Just left me wondering why?

This 95-page book contains almost 30 pages of footnotes and source material links to help you learn even more about these remarkable women.

I think this book would be an excellent introduction to female aviators but not an ending book.  This book whetted my appetite to learn more about these five women, but wasn’t satisfying in the end.  I suspect that discerning upper elementary youth would have the same reaction.

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Mind Games

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A woman, good at her job, shaped by her childhood.  Struggling to break free of her past.  A threat.  A livelihood challenged. Who can be trusted?  Mind Games by Nancy Mehl is a faith-based psychological thriller.   Will the trap be sprung?  This is my review.

From The Cover

FBI Behavioral Analyst Kaely Quinn’s methods may be highly unorthodox, but her talent is undeniable. She’s done her best to establish a new life for herself after being demoted and transferred to St. Louis when a reporter revealed she’s the daughter of an infamous serial killer. But when that same reporter claims to have received an anonymous poem predicting a string of murders, ending with Kaely’s, it seems her old life has followed her.

When a body is found that fits the poem’s morbid predictions, Kaely and her new partner, Special Agent Noah Hunter, are forced to move past his skepticism of her approach and work together to unravel the deadly riddle.

Mind Games by Nancy Mehl

My Thoughts

I read this book in the afternoon of Boxing Day, and my hubby asked me at the end of it “what did you think?”   The first words out of my mouth were “I think I want a second opinion on it”, followed up by “I need to think about it”.

There was much that I liked.  Kaely was, for me, a believe-able character.  She talks to herself, has make-believe people in her life, has a hard time trusting people, and knows her job well.   People struggle with this… though I’m not quite sure why for some it. 

For instance, I talk to myself all the time, and sometimes, especially if I really need to learn material, I will pretend that I am teaching a class AND that the class is answering me.   If you think that’s weird… that’s fine, but a highly effective way to learn.

Anyways, The book.  My thoughts are mixed.   But it’s hard to say why.  This is a psychological thriller.  Most of the characters are well developed.  The storyline runs real. There are twists in the storyline which keeps the story interesting.

But in the end, it just didn’t seem worth my time. 

Now, that said, of faith-based psychological thrillers… this is one of the better ones that I’ve read.  Therefore, if you are looking for a faith-based psy thriller… this one will do the trick.  🙂

  • Mind Games
  • Nancy Mehl
  • Bethany House
  • Series: Kaely Quinn Profiler, book 1
  • Trade paperback, 334 pages, adult
  • Faith based, Mystery,
  • Reviewed for Nuts About Books
Click on image for Amazon link
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