A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Books for Upper Elementary

Review: The Kindness Club

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Meet Chloe, a girl with a good heart having to make a fresh start in a new home and a new school.

Trying to make the best of it.  Her best friend left behind, and wanting desperately to make some new friends.

What is a girl to do?

She’s to think positive, that young lady is.  “I have the best friends at my new school, I have the best friends at my new school”.  

Chloe, finds herself in a science with Mr. Dibble, and he assigns her, along with Lucy and Theo a science experiment.  They are to come up with an hypothesis, test it out and report back to the class.  They have two weeks to complete the project and thus the Kindness Club is born.

Chloe is also invited to join the “It Girls” club, a club only for the cool girls of the school.

Chloe has more new friends than she bargained for and soon finds herself “worried about upsetting all her new friends”.   As events unfold in the book, she truly learns how importance kindness is.

My thoughts: 
I actually thought I wouldn’t like this book when I started reading it, but I did.   It was neat to see the affect the kindness had on a wide range of people.   Such an interesting assignment Mr. Dibble gave to his students.  A great way to put thought into action.  

Now do I think upper elementary/middle school students will like it?   My son was intrigued by the idea and thought it would be interesting to try something like that. He was even coming up with ideas he thought would be neat to try out.  When I asked if he wanted to read it, he said “it’s a good book for girls”.  🙂   He likes the idea, but sees it as a girls book.

I think if the cover was changed, it might appeal to him more.

The Kindness Club : Chloe on the Bright Side

By: Courtney Sheinmel
Size: 7.19 x 8.53
224 pages
Ages 8-12 years

Published by: Bloomsbury USA

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Books We’ve Enjoyed Recently

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 I wanted to update you on some of the books we’ve read lately.  

They’ve been a varied bunch, but I thought you might like them. 

 The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt.   This is a GA Henty book that took us quite a while to finish.   We did it as a read-aloud, starting with it being a lunch time book and then a bed time book so we could get it done.   I found it very wordy and often summarized sections with my lad.   BUT the tale itself is well done with it becoming not only a story about Egypt but of people coming to the know the Lord and how, in time, it changed an entire people group.    Excellent story.


Here, There Be Dragons   I read this one for myself a while ago and it’s been sitting in my “put this on my blog” pile.  🙂  Good read, want to read more in the series.  It’s a typical protect the world from the bad guys type of fantasy fiction.   Good read though.   Character development, interesting scenes..

Sky Dragons: Dragonriders of Pern.  I freely admit that I love Anne McCaffrey books, and the books she writes with her son Todd… love them too.  The Dragonriders of Pern are one of my favourite fantasy books.  Dragons, danger, people, mystery, drama and they have everything.  I really hope that when my lad gets a touch older that he will love this series as much as I do.  Time will tell eh?

Anyways, SkyDragons takes us back in time to Xhinnia needing to help save Pern.  They land in an area with no caves and no safety.  Where will they nest to stay safe?   read the book and find out!

Recommended reading level… teenagers and up.   Not a lot of adult theme, but there is some.

Mystery of the Egyptian Scroll: Secret Agent Zet Series Book 1.   My son and I absolutely loved this book.   It was a quite read, held our attention, taught us alot about Egypt and her people, and was just a great mystery.  We were on pins and needles as we waited to find out how the bad people would be stopped.  Rest assured they were.   Definitely recommend reading this one.

I think this was a veritas press history book selection but I can’t remember for sure.  But go.. get it, read it.  🙂

Another one of my favourite authors is Mercedes Lackey.   The Companions of Valdemar is high on my lists of must reads.  🙂   Recently I have read Closer to the Heart (The Herald Spy Trilogy Book 2)  as well as Closer to the Chest (Valdemar: The Herald Spy).    I am currently awaiting in the release of book three of this series.. patience is sometimes hard come by…  🙂   Anyways, Mags and Amily have work to do in both of these books.   Can they help Valdemar?   We are introduced to some interesting characters in both books.  I particularly liked the addition of a special needs fellow (his name currently escapes) who is able to help out the rangers.  Can’t talk well but can do amazingly specialized weapons and works of beauty.   Bands of informants created by both Mags and Amily that work two different sections of society.   A lot of a kindness in these books despite the danger and evil that sometimes surround.   Probably why I like them so much.  🙂  

I will warn you.. if you do get hooked on the Heralds of Valdemar series… it’s huge!!!   So many lovely books to read.  🙂

Well there you have it.. I think I’ve gotten through all the book in my stake.   Need to do this more often you know?   🙂

Three Middle School Books

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Today I want to take a moment to talk to you about three middle school books I’ve recently had a chance to review.

First up is.. what I thought was a touch of an odd book..The title is Secrets of the Dragon Tomb.The characters were interesting and the story was a clever mystery and had twists and turns that kept me alert, but I still thought… it’s an odd book.   A mystery wrapped up in a fantasy world.  

The  setting is high society Mars.  Strange
clockwork machines,. Pterodactyls gliding through the sky, automatic
servants hard at work, and in the
north, the great dragon tombs hide marvels of Ancient Martian
technology.

Twelve-year-old Edward Sullivan has always dreamed of becoming a spy ….
Instead, he spends his days keeping his eccentric family from complete
disaster.  BUT THEN his family is kidnapped.  Edward is off to save them. He discovers that spywork is a bit more challenging than he had imagined. . . .

This book was written by  Patrick Samphire and illustrated by Jeremy Holmes.

Recommend it?  I think so.   It’s oddity is kinda appealing.   It’s not fine literature, but it was entertaining seeing how this eccentric family ended up working together to save the day.

 Patrick Griffin’s Last Breakfast on Earth.   Written by Ned Rust.

Mr. Rust introduces us to Patrick, the middle child in a family with seven children.   It’s a busy household with a boy in the middle of it who liked science… who could have guessed that such a love would get him into such a mess of trouble?

Alternate realities exist!  Earth – Ith.  Celebrate the odd, teach the expected, be plugged in at all times, or not.   Meet the proscribed rules, do what needs to be done.   or hold on…

Perhaps one should work to save the world?   Yeah, work to save the world and have the biggest adventure of your life.

Recommend it? This book intrigued me.  🙂   It was a fun read, and I think most middle schoolers would get a kick out of it.

Wolf Keepers by Elise Broach.

Take two children, who form an unlikely alliance, one secure in her family relationship, the other not, the setting… John Muir Wildlife Park.   Add a mystery…something is happening with the wolves at the zoo.   Strange noises and happenings at night…the wolves are dying and no one knows why.  Add the intrigue of John Muir and his lost cabin..can it still be around?

Two snoopy youth, a fast moving vehicle, Yosemite Park, a mystery solved.  History explained.

Recommend it? I have to admit, my son and I loved this book.  Well written with excellent character development.  Good cliff-hangers.  Great story line that left room for questions and considerations…it’s good to see a book make a lad think.   I so enjoy watching that.

So there you have it, three very different from each other books….but all with their own intrigues to them.   Depending on what your middle schoolers like to read, these three books just might fit the bill eh?

All these books were sent to me courtesy of Raincoast Books.

Art Series: 642 Big Things to Draw

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Do you have a child who likes to draw but sometimes or often comes and says, Mom, I want to draw something but I don’t know what!   Can you tell me what to do draw?

Now…if your child is anything like mine, 99% of the ideas you come up with will be summarily rejected.    I don’t know about you but… I FIND THAT IMMENSELY  frustrating.   Probably shouldn’t, but it is what is right?   Enter in… this wonderful book of ideas.   642 Big Things to Draw.   So many ideas… if a child can’t find something to draw in here, well… do they really want to draw?

Anyways, let me tell you about this book, and I have to tell you books like this are MEANT to be used (unless you are my son who would rather grab an idea and put it on art paper).

This is a fairly big book (9.29 x 10.67) that is filled with pages divided into sections.

Each of those sections has a word or phrase written in it.    With a good amount of space to draw in as well, or if you don’t want to be constrained by space, get a art sketch pad and draw there.  It’s all good.  Just draw and let your mind relax as you bring forth your creative talents.

Everything in this book is large… from jumbo jets, to a zoo, to a giraffe’s neck and Lake Superior.  A bit of everything inbetween.   642 different ideas condensed into 304 pages.   Slapped down into a book where the pages are divided into 1/2’s, thirds, quarters in different configurations.  Keep the mind sharp eh?  🙂

Once a week or so my son and I will grab a book and draw for 15 minutes.   Sometimes we start new projects, other times we continue to work on projects from the week before.  We use this book and others like this book as our sources of inspiration.   It is amazing how simple words can inspire art.

I LOVE IT.

642 Big Things to Draw

Chronicle Books
9.29 x 10.67
304 pages
Ages: all ages can have fun with this book

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Affiliate links provided to help you find this great idea starter for doing art.  

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com

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Great Books for Middle School

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I don’t know about you, but finding good books for middle school in kinda important, to that end, I’ve been keeping my eyes and ears open for good books for my lad.

So I’ve been collecting book titles (as well as going through my own books from that age)  … go figure.. I kept a bunch of them!!!   Moved them more times than I aught to have but there yeah go, a well loved book is just that eh?   First I will start with what have read, and/or what I have here.

Books Read or In Progress

Just finished this one: The Wolf Keepers… wow!!!   What a fantastic book this is that Raincoast Books provided me… just fantastic.   One troubled lad, a busy girl, a zookeeper and a bunch of wolves.  The wolves are dying… mysterious happenings are going on at night… and before you know.. trouble looms.   OH.. I want to tell you more but then there would be huge spoiler alerts!!!
Just go.. get it..read it.   I will assume that you will enjoy it as much as the lad and I did.  We enjoyed it so much that some nights we read TWO chapters!!!!

 
The Seeker of the Lost Cities… we have just finished book two of these series… hubby has read ahead to book four… we are looking for the audio of book three to continue our adventures.  Sophie is such a real character, and the plot is thickening between the council, the black swan, and the other group.   We are getting more on pins and needles about what is going to happen next.  Dex is such an interesting character and Keith (and the shiny silvery Alicorn) make us laugh, and all the other characters, so real and alive and you are just drawn in deeper.

 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

The lad and I finished this gem off last month, and it was a good read that brought out all kinds of thoughts and emotions.   Good characters development, a look into some of the realities of history all within a fictional context .

The Rangers Apprentice… we finished the audio up to book 10, but the lad is wanting to read the book for himself before we continue the series… so we are needing to be patient.  I bought the audios for book 11 and 12 as I WAS NOT being patient and have told him to HURRY UP so that we can all listen to it together.

What is he reading right now?   The Warrior Cat Series by Erin Hunter.  LOVES THIS series… I can’t tell you how much cat-loving boy enjoys this series… he’s one book into the second series (reading them in the order of the history not in the order of writing) and is talking about how we need to buy ALL the books that we currently don’t have.  I’ll buy them if you can’t afford to okay mom?

 

I am currently reading through Miss Peregrine home for peculiar children to see if I’ll let the lad read it or not.  I found the movie a tad alarming and the book just odd to read through, so the jury is still out on that.  Hubby wants to read it and if he likes it, it will be passed down to the lad.

Before I forget.. The Unwanteds.  Great series that we are both reading and listening to.   Alex and Aaron…Mr. Today and Secretary, Simba, Florence and the squirrleycorns.. interesting characters that are well developed.

Fablehaven.   oh my fablehaven… captured our thoughts and feelings and made us angry and happy and ever so pleased, and worried at times too… but it all comes good in the end.   Great series..  Brandon Mull…

 The Beyonders , another great series that we have enjoyed.   By the same author.  Smaller series at three books. We will be finding more by this author and reading them.

The Harry Potter series.. audio and written.  We like them all.. ONLY I haven’t yet read or listened to The Cursed Child.  I leafed through it and it is written like a play so I’m left feeling a bit skeptical about it.   Anyone read it?   Was it any good???

Books from my younger years:
The Bronze Bow: one of the next books I’ll be reading with him.

The Wrinkle in Time series.    I have long remembered these books and how they made me think.  I still wonder about the “X’d out”… I want my lad to like these books and enjoy them, I suspect I’ll be reading them with him one of these days.

 The Narnia Series… we’ve read through the first two books but keep getting distracted.. once the new
year
hits we’ll get back on track again with book three.  Mind.. we are
slightly frustrated as we lent out one of the books and it’s disappeared
so our set is incomplete.   It’s frustrating because we had TWO full
series and got rid of one because of our impending move only to be left
with one incomplete series.   ARGH.

Books Already Planned that are New:

  •  Maze Runner
  •  The Brotherband Series is a spin-off of The Ranger’s
    Apprentice-so looking forward to reading/listening to this new series.
  •  The  Eragon
    series

Books Recommended:

  • Through the looking glass, 
  • The giver series.
  •  Micheal Vey series by Evans
  • Steelheart, Firefight and Calamity by Brandon Sanderson
  • The Five Kingdoms by Brandon Mull
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs – Tarzan series, Mars series, Venus series
  • Maze Runner
  •  Tuesdays at the Castle
  •  The Series of Unfortunate Events
  •  The
    Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by (starts with the
    Alchemist.)
  • The Bartemaeus trilogy
  • Firefly Hollow

Can you think of any that I missed?  Let me know in the comments below and I will add them.  🙂

Review: The Great Shelby Holmes

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This was such an enjoyable read.   Seriously, it was fun.   I am going to get my lad to read it once he’s done the series he is on.   Good detecting with good humour built within, and you’ll find friendship blossoms in unexpected places.

Anyone who likes Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Watson (or at least knows the story) will get a kick out of this twist on the story.   Shelby Homes, a brilliant young lady, detective extraordinaire, meets Holmes, typical boy transplanted to the big city.

Watson learns quickly how focused Miss Holmes is when on the track of a mystery, and how appreciated it is.   He also finds himself learning important life lessons as the story progresses, as does Shelby.

It’s actually hard for me to write about this book as I enjoyed it immensely (even though it’s a children’s book) and don’t want to give away the story.   Suffice it to say Shelby Holmes is given a mystery to solve, Watson finds himself included, and together they figure out who did the dirty deed.

Go on.. get this book for your mystery loving children.  They’ll probably like it!

 

The Great Shelby Holmes
Author: Elizabeth Eulbery
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 256
Age: 8-12 years
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

The Haunting of Falcon House, a review

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A boy.  Russia.  An aunt.   A destiny to full-fill.   Is 12 year old Lev up to the task?   The Haunting of Falcon House is my latest review for Raincoast Books.

Book Synopsis:
A long undisturbed bedroom. A startling likeness. A mysterious friend.
When
twelve-year-old Prince Lev Lvov goes to live with his aunt at Falcon
House, he takes his rightful place as heir to the Lvov family estate.
Prince Lev dreams of becoming a hero of Russia like his great ancestors.
But he’ll discover that dark secrets haunt this house. Prince Lev is
the only one who can set them free-will he be the hero his family needs?

My Thoughts:
I read this book through in one sitting, took me (an adult) about one hour to finish.   I could imagine my son taking about a week to finish it, potentially less.

I have to admit though, I’m not sure what I think of this book.
It intrigued me enough to keep reading it.  
The chapters are short and sweet.
It’s interesting, but its… odd.
I know.. I don’t normally call books odd… but I found this book odd.   It had interesting pictures scattered through the book.   An interesting character that seemed a bit detached from himself, a rather um…. almost horrible aunt, servants that ran scared and a wee boy with interesting abilities.

 Would I read it again?
Perhaps that’s the standard by which I should judge this book.
And you know what?   I think I would.  I think I would like to read this book with my lad just so I could see his response to it.   I think he’d be surprised at the ending, I think he’d be intrigued by the events that happen throughout the book.  He’s more level-headed than his mother is and less apt to be alarmed by what he reads.

I think that’s part of what makes me call this book odd… I’m easily alarmed and I spent time internally telling myself there must be an good explanation for what’s going on…and I was happy that my suspicions in one area were correct but was surprised in another.

My recommendation: If you have level-headed children, who like mildly spooky books, this short chapter book might be the book that they are wanting.  

It’s an interesting read, and I was curious as to how it would turn out in the end.   I had this thought, the aunt has an end purpose in mind… what is it???

I’m glad I found out!  🙂

Eugene Yelchin is both the author and the illustrator.  It runs around 320 pages and is geared for ages 9-12.   I reviewed The Haunting of Falcon House for Raincoast books.