A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Reviews

Review: Betty Before X

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Do you know one of the good things about going to the ER?  It gives you a chance to read an wonderful middle school book. It’s good to read while you wait you know?  The book in this case is Betty Before X.  Ilyasah Shabazz with some help from Renee Watson. 

Betty is a young negro girl who for the first few years of her life was raised by her auntie.  She then moved in with her momma, new siblings and momma’s husband.  She moved out of the south to Detroit in 1945.   Betty isn’t sure of her momma’s love, or her momma’s want of her, and thus the story unfolds, spilling out into school, church and community. 

This is a story that has real pain and sorrow in it, but it isn’t kept at the forefront of Betty’s life.   The forefront of Betty’s life is the Lord and seeing the blessings he has provided.   This book had so many blessings along with hidden questions and ideas in the heart of this girl child.  Hardships she needed to face up to, but life that she needed to live.

Most of this book is just about Betty, as a youngster, growing up.  What helped to formulate her mindset and shaped her day to day life.  A book that draws middle school students into the life of a black child in Detroit in the mid-1940’s. 

The largest part of the book is simply black and white. Numbered chapters that varied in length, it is divided into six sections, the first five containing a quote and a set of years.   Just like you see below. 

 

At the close of the story, we find the image to the right, after the image we find a section talking about characters and places in Betty’s life, as well as an timeline overview of her life.  Betty grew up to become the wife of Malcolm X.   In the story we are introduced to ideas that are more fully explained her without the ease in telling that you’d find in a story.

 

This quote from the book just sits with me… making me wonder… where do uncried tears go?

My thoughts:

I really appreciated that this was a book filled with looking for the positive even amongst the hard things of life.  Not diminishing the hard things, but not making them a point of hate or anger, just a longing for something more and better and seeing the good in what you have.  This makes it an easier read of black history that I would want my middle schooler to read.  The close of the book doesn’t skirt the truth, it gives the facts so that we know the behind the scenes of the story.  Sharing them so we know the pain of that time, a knowing of the history.   If you pick this book up, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and learn much! 

Betty Before X
Ilyasah Shabazz with Renee Watson
Farrarr Straus Giroux
Trade paperback, 256 pages, 
Middle school, Upper Elementary, Fiction, Black History

Reviewed for: Raincoast books. 

Where to find: Amazon Link.

 

Review: Bold Women of Medicine

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Imagine, wanting to do something and being told that you can’t.  Determinedly sticking to your guns being degraded by fellow classmates.  Imagine treating the unwanted, the hurt, the broken that no one wants to touch.  Imagine finding ways to treat people that haven’t been done before and changing lives of the one or two.   Imagine these things, now… go grab a copy of Bold Women of Medicine.  Be impressed by these women pioneers.

The stories in the book are amazing, spanning the globe, showing us the determination and grit of these pioneering women.   I learned about hospital and college start up, pioneer nursing stations, innovations in osteo medicine and more.   Women fighting and learning and working.  Striving hard to meet their goal of easing the suffering of others. 

Just who are these women?   Florence Nightingale, Mary Edwards Walker, Elizabeth Kenny, Virginia Apgar, Jerri Nielson, and Adele Levine, just to name a few.  Women from the early 1800’s through to the late 1900’s.  Women, boldly pursuing their dreams in medicine. 

Images dot the pages. These images give us glimpses into the lives of these extraordinary women.

My thoughts:

This was a engrossing book to read, the lives of these women, their determination, it sticks with you.  It would be a great book to give to any girl or women interested in the field of medicine, inspire them and help them make wise decisions as they start their journey.  I found it inspiring read their thoughts embarked on their journey, sometimes choosing a discipline for conducive to families, sometimes seeing a need and then working to fulfill it, and finding ways to work around help problems to meet the patients needs.   These women were galvanized into action, and their stories should inspire the same from us. 

Bold Women of Medicine
   21 Stories of Astounding discoveries, daring surgeries,
      and Healing Breakthroughs.
Susan M. Latta
Chicago Review Press
Hardcover, 230 pages
Medicine, women, healing, young adult
Series: Women of Action
Reviewed for: Chicago Review Press.

Where to find: Amazon Link.

Art Book: Things I Love, an imaginative illustration journal

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Draw, Color, Sticker has put out a sketchbook called Things I love.  This is a book meant to guide you in your search to find your inner doodle.  So join me as I walk you through this imaginative illustration journal.

The first half of this book is done in four page sets.  One two page set with completed illustrations so you can fill in the colours and let your mind wander about how you might like to set up the page, the next two page spread gets you started off, but then allows you to recreate the first two page spread or to change it to suit your personal tastes.

Color, Draw, Create… add stickers… there’s 500 of them in the last half of the book to add. These stickers are designed to coordinate with the pages in the book.  Done up in with a lot of pink, blue and yellow. Simple drawings to enhance the drawings already there.

My thoughts:

I honestly don’t know what age this is geared for, and so it’s hard for me to judge the sketchbook well.  The drawings in it are simplistic and yet a bit complicated so at first glance I might think it’s geared for children, but then at a second glance I think perhaps good for older individuals.  So it’s really hard to say.  My younger sister thought it was a book geared for students age 5-9 years.  Just the right age to get them started, with stickers to inspire them on their journey.  🙂

Things I love Sketchbook: An Imaginative Illustration Journal
Series: Draw, Color & Sticker
Caralyn Gavin
Quarry Books
Softcover, 64 pages
Art, drawing, artist, 

Review for: Quarto Group

 

Review: Pep Talks for Writers

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I’ve talked with you a bit already about what I’ve learning from this interesting book called “Pep Talks for Writers”, the most recent one being “Accept the Mess“.  This book gives you 52 insights and actions to boost your creative mojo, so basically one insight you can work on per week for a year!   What a way to increase your skill set eh?

So, like always, I assume you want to know what you get! 

You get a well made, what I consider, attractive little book with 52 chapters, one for each topic.   The chapter lengths are three pages each with a “try this” exercise at the end.  Some of these activities are very short, others will take you a whole weekend if not more, but it’s all in the pursuit of being a better writer eh? Questions to answer, decisions to make, changes to encourage, writing to do.  All things we as writers are encouraged to make.

Some of the Chapter Titles

  • you don’t need permission to be a creator
  • goal + deadline = magic
  • you are what you wear
  • fail often…fail better
  • new experiences = new thoughts
  • trusting in the absurd
  • know thyself

Does that just make you want to dive you?   For instance… why SHOULD you trust in the absurd?   How can you fail better isn’t failing, failing?  Deadlines = magic.. I thought they equalled stress…..so yes, I want to dive into these chapters and I want my questions answered… don’t you?

My Thoughts:

I love the set up of this book, the short chapters, the interesting chapter titles, the call to actions that close off each chapter.  It’s a method that works well for me, and I think would work well for you.  After all, a call to action helps to cement the learning doesn’t it?   The writing style is engaging and the points made, make sense.   Do you want to be a better writer?   This book will help. 

Pep Talks for Writers
  - 52 insights and actions to boost your creative mojo
Grant Faulkner
Chronicle books
trade paperback, 255 pages
Adult, writer, writing, resource, how-to

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Where to find: Amazon Link.

Review: Where We Belong

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A mystery, a seeking out, two willful ladies sussing out how to live for the Lord. Helping the down-trodden, seeking out his world. Let’s go out on a historical ride with Lynn Austin’s new book “Where we Belong”.

About the Book:

Rebecca and Flora Hawes are atypical Victorian women.  Their strong love of adventure and their willingness to stick together in their search to be used of God leads them into the Sinai Desert in 1892.  Travel with them along with  Soren Petersen, their somber young butler, and Kate Rafferty, a plucky street urchin learning to be their ladies’ maid.  These two two women chasing rumors of an important biblical manuscript.   Their trip is dangerous and uncertain, will they prevail?  

What I thought.

Honestly… I  could not get into this book.  I tried.  The girls seemed fascinating at the start of the book and I’m not sure if was due to my poor health over the past month and a lack of focus, but this book simply didn’t hold my interest.   I skipped to the end as sometimes that makes me go “oh, I want to know how they reached that end”.  Didn’t work this time.  Sorry. Might have been the skipping around or .. I dunno.   I skipped around enough to get a good feel for the book and it’s character development.   

The characters were believable, they grew and developed throughout the book, some with surprising results.  The historical details seemed spot on.   Good premise for a book.

  
Where we Belong
Lynn Austin
Bethany House
Fiction, Christian, 
Trade paperback, 475 pages
Adult fiction
Reviewed for: NutsAboutBooks.

Where can you find: Amazon Link.

Review: Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education

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So I’ve reviewed Lesson Planning for Highschool, and Moving with Words and Actions, today I have for you the middle school version.   Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education is a great book for the teacher of middle school physical education, covering the gambit of the what and why, to the how and where.  Filled with instructional tasks, and the break down of a variety of middle school physical activities, to make teaching easier and in line with the national standards. 

Shape American, along with Human Kinetics, has come out with a thorough treatise on teaching middle school students their physical education requirements. 

What do you get?

Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education is a 778 page well written manual on teaching physical education to your middle school students.  It is broken down into 11 chapters divided into two sections.


1. Planning to Student Success in the Middle Grades.
+ The Importance of Teaching for Student Learning in the Middle Grades.
+ Teaching to Standards.
+ Meeting the National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes in Middle School.

2. Lessons Plans for Middle School Physical Education
+ Applying Students’ Skills and Knowledge to Dance and Rhythm
+ Applying Students… to Invasion Games
+ Applying Students… to Net and Wall Games
+ Applying Students… to Fielding & Striking Games and Target Games
+ Applying Students… to Outdoor Pursuits
+ Applying Students… to Physical Participation
+ Applying Students… to Program Design and Fitness Assessment

I like how even in middle school we are encouraged to help our students plan out their physical education even outside the classroom.  Isn’t it great when they want to be involved with something?   I look at my lad and his interest in Karate.  This is Shape America is all about… helping our youth make wise decisions.   They start in the classroom with the encouragement to take it beyond the doors. 

Ergo introducing a wide level of sports/physical fitness options that you might not have considered before.  Such as dance, handball, something called ultimate .. where the student needs to show proficiency in a wide range of activities: catching, throwing, defense and more, learning disc golf, in-line skating, biking, backpacking and more just to name a few.  I have to admit, as I read through the list I wondered… where is ice skating?  I suppose though it would be impossible to list every activity that youth can engage in (as they don’t have karate either). 

Each lesson accredits the teacher who designed the program, as I looked through, they came from all areas of the United States. Each lesson has a number of tasks it is broken down into.  For instance, Pickleball as 8 separate tasks from how to hit the ball, learning game play, playing with a partner and more.  The authors have endeavored to make this treatise and ready to use as they can. 

My Thoughts: 

A great resource for the physical education teacher of middle school.  Broken down into different grade levels this is a wonderful aid to helping your students learn some of the many ways that physical education can take place. I love how each lesson is broken down into smaller tasks to ensure the sport is taught well. 

Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education
 - Meeting the National Standards & Grade-level Outcomes.
Strategies for designing student lessons, plus 22 modules
   and 176 Lesson plans
Robert J. Doan
Lynn Couturier MacDonalad
Stevie Chepko
Shape America
Trade Paperback, 178 pages, resource, middle school, 
physical education

Reviewed for Human Kinetics. 

Where to find it?  Amazon Link.

Art Book: Maya Lin – Thinking With Her Hands

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Have you ever visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.?   Have you seen it’s mirrored surfaces and how it brings the past toward the present, bringing unity?  In Maya Lin: Thinking With Her Hands, we learn the story of the artist behind this memorial.

This was a very interesting book to read, it was fascinating to see into the mind of a young woman as she worked on her skills in architecture and design, seeing her reasoning behind why she builds memorials the way she does.   I just love stories about the why of how people do things, it’s always a fascinating look into the mind and will of another person.  I thought it clever the way the chapters were labeled with building mediums. 🙂

We are brought from her early life, onwards to her current projects.  Well-written text with good illustrations brought her life and her work into clarity.  Written on a level for middle school and high school students to easily read and understand. As an adult, I was able to read through the book in about an hour.

I loved the graphics…all the real life pictures along with the occasional topographical map, brought her work to understanding in my mind, about the effort involved to bring her concepts to life.  She built so many sculptures, and takes her time working to truly understand the project before making a decision about how to approach it.  I appreciated the fact that she used all sorts of mediums to convey her thoughts.. moulding the ground, building with various materials, utilizing water, weather, and more. 

The typeface used was a clear and not muddied, very easy to read.  You need to check out a map she was working with to create a sculpture using the earth?  Neat eh?

One of the elements I most appreciated was how they showed Maya Lin’s determination to have her work presented in the way she deemed best WHILE she took her opponents thoughts into perspective.  Not forcing her own way, but using their thoughts to improve her own work.   It shows humility combined with skill.. and that’s a good thing to have eh?

My Thoughts:

This would be an excellent book to have any middle schooler read and think about it. It’s good to see how people think about how their past can affect their future, and how even a school project can get you noticed. Maya Lin took a chance and succeeded. Taking in advise from others and knowing how to stick to your goals and ideas, and how to modify them if needed. It would be a nice add-on to a study of the Vietnam War as well as other memorials scattered around the United States. 

Maya Lin: Thinking with her hands
Susan Goldman Rubin
Chronicle Books 
Age 10+
112 pages, hardcover
Biography, art, Architect, architecture
Middle School

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Where can you buy it?  

Amazon link.