A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Books for Middle School

The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog through Harbour Publishing. 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. 🙂

Are you interested in the First Nations people of Canada?  Want to take in a unique perspective?  Enter in The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog.  I never knew that woolly dogs were a thing for our First Nations people… DID YOU?  Well, if you are like so many of us (I asked my colleagues at work and they too were surprised), come along for the adventure eh? 

The Teachings of Mutton

Basic Details for The Teachings of Mutton

Title: The Teachings of Mutton: A Coast Salish Woolly Dog
Author: Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa with Coast Salish Contributors
Publisher: Harbour Publishing Co
Pages: 264
Intended Audience: high-school, young adult, adult, 
Genre: indigenous stewardship, weaving and textile arts, native american biographies, history, northwestern North America,  
Available formats: Kindle, Paperback, 
Received: Paperback
Reviewed for: Harbour Publishing

About the Book

Did you know that there used to be a woolly dog?  It was an integral part of the Salish Community.  In this read by Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa we are privileged to learn more about this dog and the people it was part of.  The woolly dog was bred for thousands of years for its woolly fibres.  These fibres were woven into traditional blankets, robes and regalia. Despite careful efforts to protect this breed by the by Coast Salish peoples, by the 1900s, the Woolly Dog had become so rare it is now considered extinct.

About the Author

Formerly the Director of Research Services, Liz Hammand-Kaarremaa is now retired and spends her time researching the Coast Salish peoples. She holds a Master Spinners Certificate and the textiles of the Coast Salish peoples are naturally a focus for her. Liz was instrumental in identifying a rare blanket in the Burke Museum to be made of Woolly Dog hair.

The Teachings of Mutton

Looking Deeper

Eleven chapters round out this educational read that is filled pictures, illustrations, and maps. As we progress through the chapters we get to see how the wooly dog came to be.

  1. Finding Mutton : The ancient story of Swuq’us
  2. Mutton’s journey to the Smithsonians: The Dog Children and the Original Occupations
  3. The Woolly Dog: The teachings of Fibre
  4. The Wool: The Cultural Importance of Blankets
  5. Where are all the Blankets: Misunderstanding our relationships with the Woolly Dog
  6. Mutton’s Ancient Origins: Connecting to our Ancestors
  7. Other Dogs: The care and Feeding of Dogs
  8. The Diet of Woolly Dogs: The care and Feeding of Dogs
  9. Processing Wool: The impact of Colonialism
  10. What did Woolly Dogs Look like? : Fur Beings and Woven Visions, Connecting with Musquem History
  11. An Ending and a Beginning

I appreciated how as part of the forward she mentioned how she wanted to respect the Coast Salish people.  Recognizing that she has her own preconceptions so hopes to let the Coast Salish people speak with their own words as much as possible.  Recognizing the Mutton may have been the name of this particular Woolly Dog, but wasn’t a name respected by the Coast Salish people. 

A scholarly read

This is a scholarly read, filled with illustrations, pictures, and maps to bring the text to life.  For instance, without this map I wouldn’t have clearly understood the range of the Woolly dog (the yellow area).  For such a niche breed, I didn’t expect that.

Native art featuring the Woolly Dog has a prominent place.  I just loved this inclusion.  Made everything so much better you know? Makes me regret that the Woolly Dog is no more.  It looked like a fun little dog to have around.  Not too big, not to small, and very useful besides! 

These dogs were such an integral part of their community, rather cool to learn about. 

My recommendation

If you want to take an unique look at indigenous peoples of Canada, check out The Teachings of Mutton.  You will find loads of information about the textiles, the geography, and the history of this helpful little dog.   It’s kinda too bad that their usefulness waned.  Technology and imports isn’t always a good thing when it comes to a niche population. 

Seeing the quality of the blankets they made with their wool, makes me wonder if they can use DNA from the blankets to somehow bring them back.  What do you think?

A useful book if studying the First Nations people of British Columbia.  A fascinating book if you love textiles and their history. A wonderful look into a type of dog I’d never heard of before.  Give it a look see,  you won’t regret it! 

A Kid’s Guide to Plants of the Great Lakes Region

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product A Kid’s Guide to Plants of the Great Lakes Region through Harbour Publishing. 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. 🙂

MAN…. Sometimes I wish I had a child to homeschool again.   If I did, when going through Canada, and particularly Ontario, A Kid’s Guide to Plants of the Great Lakes Region would be EVER so useful!  Loaded with activities, tons of easily accessible information, descriptive photos and so much more. You need to check out this delightful book that helps children and youth access the plants growing around them. 

kids guide to the plants of the great lakes region

The Basic Details for A Kid’s Guide to Plants of the Great Lakes Region

Title: A Kid’s Guide to Plants of the Great Lakes Region
Author: Philippa Joly, contributing author Danielle Gehl Hagel
Publisher: Harbour Publishing Co
Pages: 224
Intended Audience: grade 3-4, 6-12 years
Genre: plants, Great Lakes, kid’s guide, Nature guide, Botany, homeschool, kid’s activity book, 
Available formats: Kindle, Paperback, 
Received: Paperback
Reviewed for: Harbour Publishing

About the Book and Author

As a clinical and community herbalist, Philippa Joly has her hands in many pots.  She works with individual clients, leads workshops and classes for children and adults, draws nature based pictures, and writes books.  She uses her skills in a variety of ways just like all of us!  🙂   A fellow Canadian she spends her time out in British Columbia. 

A Kid’s Guide to Plants of the Great Lakes Region is a middle-school friendly introduction to the plants of the Great Lakes Region.  You’ll discover outdoor activities, games, activities and quizzes that make learning about nature fun.  Dig up some roots!  Make some jam! Create a salve to cure an itch.  Discover new berries to eat and to definitely NOT eat!   Foster a love of the outdoors, increase attention spans and physical well-being, learn about the plants the surround, and connect with nature.   Contributing author is Danielle Gehl Hagel.

Looking More Closely

So let’s take a closer look at the treasures you will find in this lovely guide.  Eight chapters as well as a chapter dedicated to parents and educators.   Learn about the original peoples of the area, the regions covered, and so much more.   You’ll see plant profiles (of some 50 plants), learn about some invasive plants and learn the do’s and don’t of wildcrafting.  This reminds me of a facebook group I’m part of where people talk about the mushrooms they are harvesting from the wild.  The encouragement is always to do no damage, but to harvest thoughtfully. 

As you continue to work your way through, you’ll discover some easy crafts to make and activities to do.  Have you ever thought of playing Burdock tag? Sounds like a sticky situation eh?  🙂 

Make Plantain Salve to ease the pain of insect bites. Dig into some wild leek pesto!  Find out how to measure a Bracken fern.  Dish up some juices, oils, lotions, and jams from plants you discover. 

Learn about all sorts of plants.  I have to admit that I knew most of these, but would middle-schoolers?  Probably not!  Descriptive text written for the target age range, with a sense of humour.  🙂 Be prepared to discover interesting little tidbits and to read responses from other middle-schoolers.  Learn some Latin.  Observe illustrations and photos.

The Parents and educators section is filled with tips for making the best use of nature study.  Not just tips for using this book in the best way, but more on how to introduce wildcrafting, and various skills.  Skills such as handling a knife for cutting samples or making wood carvings. 

My Over-all Thoughts

Should you add The Kid’s Guide to the Plants of the Great Lakes Region to your library?   Yes!   Find it, borrow it, give it a good read.  Be inspired and watch your children/students be amazed at everything around them!  

The plethora of illustrations, photos, and descriptive text make this an engaging tome. The engaging activities and crafts add a fantastic hands-on component that helps to hammer home what they are learning (and it’s fun!). 

I do wish the invasive plant section had been a bit larger.  But I can understand the brevity, the focus is on the plants of the Great Lakes Region, not on the invaders that don’t belong.  One does not wish to create a massive book that would then be unwieldy.   

This kid’s guide is just the right size to provide variety in activities and help provide assistance in learning regardless of where you are in the Great Lakes Region.  That is what makes this book so valuable.  It is a helpful resource whether you are living in city, town or country.

The book of chaos series

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I’m part of this book list from BookBub. They send out offers to get books for free or cheap. I forgot to bring a physical book to work one day and thought I’d read on my phone instead. The Book of Chaos was in my most recent purchases. All I can say is I got hooked and so picked up the rest of the series using Kindle Unlimited. Thought I’d tell you about this lovely middle school fantasy series.

Review picture for The Book of Chaos series by Jessica Renwick

Some Basic Details

Title: Series: the book of chaos

One: The Book of Chaos
Two: The Guitar of Mayhem
Three: The Bow of Anarchy
Four: The Curse of the Warlock
Five: The Song of Embers

Author: Jessica Renwick
Series: Starfell
Publisher: Starfell Press
Pages: Averaging 350 pages
Intended Audience: middle school
Genre: fantasy, friendship, mystery, 
Available formats: hardcover, paperback, audio, kindle

There is to be a sixth in the series that finishes off the entire story, but it hasn’t been written yet.  The author wrote me a very nice email explaining family sorrow, and that the sixth is still on it’s way. 

The Basic Story:

Fable, a 12 year old girl, living a sheltered life in a quiet village. She has magic but needs to keep it hidden. She gets stolen away by a magic book.  Lands in a kingdom where magic is the norm, but an evil lich is causing a whack of trouble.  This lich wants Fable because of her developing powers, and so a battle of wits and power ensues.  Fable develops friendships with youth and adults as she engages in this battle for dominance. 

The Author: 

Jessica Renwick is from Alberta Canada where she loves to read mysteries and horror novels.  She turns that love into novels for middle schoolers.  She has chickens and dogs to help keep her busy in her garden when she’s not writing or reading.  

starfell series

So what did I think?

So I was abit taken aback that this series is considered horror.  I didn’t find it scary at all.  Some of the characters are mean and get into doing nasty stuff, but it’s not overly scary.  I suppose if I was in upper elementary school I might consider it rather scary though…  It’s hard to say, I’m an adult and can’t really remember what would have scared me back then.  🙂 

So what did I like? 

 I loved the core group of friendship that formed fairly quickly. Fear for one’s life can create bonding instances can’t they?  🙂   

I loved that the older folks, the adults in the picture, were very willing to help the children out.  They were protective (sometimes overly) but their concern was for the safety and well-being of the youngsters in their charge.   

I am currently very intrigued (and wanting to read book six) by the changing character of one of the “bad guys”.  My curiosity is stoked about what is going on with this individual. 

The characters weren’t static.  They grew and changed, sometimes through developing confidence, sometimes because hard things happened to them, and sometimes just because new skills emerged. 

What didn’t I like?

Fable was very persistent in thinking she was a bad, horrible, untrustworthy person just because her grandmother was.  It got to feel very repetitive despite her friends reassuring her frequently. 

The lack of patience in the youth, never wanting to wait for the adults to help them out and taking things into their own hands.  Granted, the team of friends was basically what the story was about, not about the adults.  So from a story perspective it makes sense that they acted as they did.  But as a parent reading, I found myself disliking the “we are right and they are wrong” persistent attitudes.   

I do get disappointed by the persistence in middle school fiction of having a same-gender relationship of some sort going on.  Granted the one in this read feels like a natural extension of who the people are, but could easily have been written without it. 

Final thoughts

BUT because I am so invested in this story, I actually wrote the author and asked her when the sixth book is coming out.  She wrote me a lovely letter in response speaking to family tragedy causing a delay.  And I’m sorry she’s had to deal with such sorrow. BUT!!  I hope she recovers from her family concerns soon and book six comes out!

I mostly enjoyed this series and really hope book six comes out soon.  The story is good and continues from book to book.  I love the gradual reveal of new talents and the confidence that grows in each of the youth, some more quickly than others eh?    So give The Book of Chaos series a read eh?   ONLY if you like magic, and mildly scary stuff though!  🙂 

 

The Spinner of Dreams

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This book, The Spinner of Dreams, was so interesting… I’m actually tempted to re-read it since I read it during vacation in September.  When I read it I thought “I have to review this on my blog because it was so interesting.”  But since it’s been a while not all the details are sharp you know? 

Imagine struggling with a diagnosis and then writing a character who reflects it.   Finding a way to bring that struggle to life in a way that others understand.  Even though I know that different people struggle with the same condition in a variety of ways, seeing how one person handles it can help with understanding others.  

Spinner of Dreams

The Story’s Synopsis

The Spinner of Dreams brings us Annelise and her uniqueness in life.  She lives a life of aloneness since she was cursed by the Fate Spinner at birth.   She has a black mark on her hand and a monster living within and a whole town around her blaming her for everything wrong in their lives.   Her parents love and protect her, bringing light into her dark existence.  The monster within is getting worse.  What can she do?   

Annelise does what she must!   She will rid herself of this curse, she’ll find the Fate Spinner by entering the Labyrinth of Fate and Dreams.  She needs to make it out alive.   By doing so she’ll meet the merciful Spinner of Dreams and make her life better. 

Title: The Spinner of Dreams
Author: K.A. Reynolds
Illustrator: Flora Delargy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 416
Intended Audience: 8-12 years
Genre: action & adventure, fantasy, fairytale, mental health
Available formats: hardcover, Kindle

Spinner of Dreams

So what did I think?

Honestly, it took me a while to get into this story as I found it rather horrifying the way Annelise was blamed for everything.  People treated her and her family so badly.  And then the cat showed up.

The cat was …. a bit odd, and somewhat unexpected. 

And my curiosity got spiked.   What’s with this odd cat?   What does he have to do with the story?

And so I followed along with the cat, and got hooked on the rest of the story.   You’ll note that every chapter has it’s own bit of artwork attached. 

I saw kindness, trickery, pain, sadness, impossible odds, and more.

It was at times rather odd, but once I read about how the author tried to include her uniqueness’s with the story it all rather fell into place.   Perhaps read the author’s note before reading the story?  NAH, that might wreck it for you!   🙂 

It took me off-guard with how much I enjoyed this rather quirky book.  So in-between fantasy and fairytale while maintaining the good vs bad story. 

Not everything is easy or perfect in The Spinner of Dreams.  There’s lots of description, bad things happen in the maze, unique things happen that will make you wonder what is going on, and you’ll finish the story and want it to go on.  🙂 

Agents of S.U.I.T. From Badger to Worse

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Do you remember the Investigator books that I reviewed a while ago?   The Investigators and The Investigators Take the Plunge.  Agents of S.U.I.T. From Badger to Worse continues the series by John Patrick Green.  In this particular case the Badger InvestiGators need to learn to keep within a budget while going about their investigating.  Hmm… Wonder if they can see their way through? 

Agents of S.U.I.T; From Badger to Worse

The Basic Details for Agents of S.U.I.T. From Badger to Worse

Title: Agents of S.U.I.T. From Badger to Worse
Series: The InvestiGators
Author: John Patrick Green & Christopher Hastings
Illustrator: Pat Lewis
Publisher: :01 First Second (Roaring Brook Press)
Pages: 208
Intended Audience: 3-4 grade, ages 6-8
Genre: animal comics, mystery, detectives, children’s book, graphic novel
Available formats: Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback
Received: Hardcover
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

About the book and Author

Agents of S.U.I.T. is a series written by John Patrick Green and Christopher Hastings.   This series, which continues The InvestiGators Series has a website devoted them.   Animal Characters that take on Human jobs and the lessons they learn whilst doing so.   The Badger investigators have much to learn, you’ll have to read to discover if they learn it in time! 

John Patrick Green and Christopher Hastings have written several Agents of S.U.I.T. books.  John Patrick Green has loved comics and cartoon strips since childhood.  Being silly and including puns as he writes about animals doing human things is something he very much loves to do.  To discover about his quirkiness with lego, check out his website. 

agents of S.U.I.T - FROM BADGER TO WORSE

Taking a Closer Look

In this second book, of a three book series of Agents of S.U.I.T, we again see colourful images light up the pages.  Combined with easily written text, this makes of a graphic novel that is quick to read.   

The first part of the book started off a bit slowly, but quickly built up speed as Bongo and Marsha go undercover to solve the bungalow burglaries in Bora Bora.

agents of S.U.I.T. - badger to worse

The text is very much geared to upper elementary/middle school humour.   I admittedly didn’t really enjoy the humour, but I can see how younger minds might enjoy it.   For an instance of the humour used.  At one point the badgers were called honey badgers (due to some honey they were covered in) and they responded with “We’re European badgers”.  The on-lookers responded with “If You’re a-peein’, find a restroom!  You’ve made enough of a mess already!”

Would I recommend?

I can’t really recommend this book.  I suspect that upper elementary/middle school kids would have a lot of fun reading these books but I didn’t enjoy i.  It bounced around alot and didn’t really make a lot of sense to me. 

But I’m not the target audience.  Agents of S.U.I.T: From Badger to Worse does introduce us into the characters of Bongo and Marsha.  Puns are very much in evidence, and there was a lot of off-beat humour.  I was reading some other reviews and some folks called it “dad-humour” but I would not classify it as such.  More like low-grade kid humour. 

I guess, for me, the book was trying to much to be funny and fun-filled, that it forget to tell a solid, coherent story.  

I’m fairly disappointed that I didn’t really like From Badger to Worse.  I liked the first one in the series if you may recall from my review last week.  Perhaps the third one in the series will be as good as this one.

Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake through Raincoast Books. 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. 🙂

So I brought this graphic novel to work and a co-worker said “oh, that looks interesting, can I read it?”   Ergo, I handed Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake to her and said “have fun”.  So this review will be a mix between her thoughts and mine.  Bear with me eh?  

Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake

The Basic Details for Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake

Title: Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake
Author: Rob Justus
Series: Death & Sparkles, book 2
Publisher: Chronicle Kids
Pages: 368
Intended Audience: 10-14 Years
Genre:  graphic novel, friendship, humourous comic, fantasy, magic, adventure comic,
Available formats: Kindle, Hardcover, paperback
Received: Paperback
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

About the Author and Book

Author and Illustrator Rob Justus has created a number of books including the two graphic novels in this series.  After working for years as a market researcher he decided to return to his first love of drawing and writing.  He has two sons and lives in Ottawa, Canada. 

This graphic novel continues the story of an unlikely friendship between a unicorn and death.  Unicorns as you can imagine are rather silly, Death, as you can imagine, is a tad bit more serious.  So that sets the ground work for some tension.  Can a dance party help?  You’ll have to read this novel to find out. 

InDepth with Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake

Personally I found the colours to be rather dark throughout.  But that said, considering the location of the story and that Death is one of the main characters, the colour palette makes sense right?  But at the same time I just wish I liked the art work and colour choices more. 

There is grade school humour throughout.  Some lines are funny (to me as an adult) and the rest just was… age-appropriate I guess.  🙂  I can definitely imagine chortles coming with younger readers. 

Death is very serious minded, and Sparkles is very silly and very dance oriented. But don’t you know how opposites attract?  Happens with friendships all the time and it’s part of the fun in interactions.  🙂 

The story jumps around a bit in the beginning which is a bit disconcerting at times as it goes from past to present and so forth and switches perspectives as well.  The Mole People were unhappy, the unicorns were unhappy and things DEFINTELY got blown out of proportion.   History spoiled the present.  Revenge ended up on the minds of those involved.  Death, surprisingly, is the one who kept a mostly level head. 

A positive part of the story line is the determination of Sparkles to follow through on the family legacy.  Can Sparkle’s horn lead through to a good conclusion?  Can Sparkles turn into a grown-up unicorn?  Well… THAT I’m not going to tell you!   You’ll have to find your own copy of Death & Sparkles and the Sacred Golden Cupcake and find out. 

Jawbreaker

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product Jawbreaker through Raincoast Books. 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. 🙂

Braces, bullying, and reporting.  This fair sums up the themes of Jawbreaker by Christina Wyman. Max is a typical teenager in so many ways.  She wears braces, and tries to figure out life.  Hanging out with friends and managing school.  It would all be so much easier without the bullies!   How will Max find her way through?  I’d tell you but that would destroy the fun of reading her story! 

Jawbreaker by Christina Wyman

The Basic Details of Jawbreaker

Title: Jawbreaker
Author: Christina Wyman
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Pages: 320
Intended Audience: 8-12 Years
Genre:  bullying, friendship, middle school, siblings, family, braces, dental work, 
Available formats: Kindle, Hardcover, Audio, paperback
Received: ARC Paperback
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

jawbreaker by christina wyman

About the Author and the Story

Author Christina Wyman takes a moment of her life, her middle school years dealing with dental issues, and turns it into a story of courageous determination to become better. She doesn’t mitigate the pain of dealing with the bullying and family situations, but at the same time shows a light of hope.  This Michigan teacher has shed her tiny bedroom as a child for a home with hubby, rescue cats, and various wandering wildlife.  She wants more rescue cats and chocolate as she continues her dream of being an author. 

Her story Jawbreaker walks us into the first person experience of seventh-grader Max.  Living with her sister and parents on a paycheck to paycheck basis.  She deals with family dysfunction, bullying, teachers who just don’t understand, and a desire to be something more!  She loves reporting the news and writing opinion pieces.  Will her life ruin her love of reporting? 

Digging Deeper into Jawbreaker

One thing you’ll notice in this ARC version I received is the art work is not complete.   You’ll find placeholders for each chapter.  This did not detract from the story for me, but rather helped me to not pay attention to the non-essentials in pursuit of a solidly good read. 

Max is a solidly real person, battling the angst of friendship, school, and family.   It’s not easy to be the one being bullied over something you can’t fix.  Only time is the answer, but that’s hard to see when you are in middle school you know?  Wyman does an excellent job of drawing us into the lives and actions of Max, her family, and her friends. 

This is a very readable, and relatable story.  My sister grew up having to wear braces, and a head piece, and she had to be so careful about what she ate. So Jawbreaker gave me a bit more of a glance into her life.  Being part of a family of six she came into her own amount of teasing, but then, so did I with wearing glasses.  We weren’t downright mean to each other though, so spared that! 

Jawbreaker would make an excellent story for any child (braces or no) experiencing bullying.  Not everything comes out excellent in the end, but it does come out better.  Through Max and her family, perhaps some reader will feel some hope, or at least some kinship, and know in the end, it will come out better.