Highschool

Reading Aloud with Teens

February 3, 2020 By Annette1 6 Comments

One of my favourite things to do over the years is read books with my lad. Everyday we’d plow through different books together, talking and laughing, learning together. So much fun we shared. 🙂 As my lad gets older it gets harder to find the time to read together. But reading aloud with teens is very rewarding.

I mentioned that reading aloud with teens is very rewarding. I have given you some hints in the past, but let me tell you how.

The Main Reason: It’s fun. Seriously. Reading books together is fun. The conversations that ensue, the knowledge gained, the laughter shared together. It’s so golden! Everything spills out of the fun of reading together.

What else comes from reading together?

Increased vocabulary. You can read books above the reading age of your student.
Modeling reading. The joy in learning, the wonder of new things learned.
Improved comprehension. Since you are talking about what you are reading you can automatically check the level of understanding.
Listening skills increase. You need to listen in order to have conversations. Since conversations are a great part of reading together it doesn’t take long for those skills to kick in.
Since you can read a variety of materials you can see what sparks your children’s interests.
And since you are sparking their interests, you can increase their curiousity in the world around them and
Give them a greater thirst for learning
and in the process help them to further develop their critical thinking skills.
You can not only read fiction, but non-fiction books. How to manuals, scary stories, biographies and whatever strikes your fancy. Switch up the genres of the books you read.
Discuss difficult issues like divorce, abortion, racism, political correctness and more. Stories can open eyes to concerns you hadn’t thought about before and give insight into how your child thinks.
And since you are doing all of that… consider how much closer you and your children become as you discuss great ideas, books, and interests together. It’s amazing.

Our Latest Read Togethers

Since my son is studying World War 2 this year our focus has been on reading books about that war. Some of these books I’ve reviewed so it’s been a pleasure to read them again. I’ve linked to reviews.

World War 1 heroes.
Elly: my true story of the Holocaust.
Marika.
It Rained Warm Bread.
Fever Year.
Spies, Lies and Disguise.
Under the Broken Sky.
Survivors of the Holocaust.
Desert Danger.
Heroes of the Holocaust.
Behind the Bedroom Wall.

Affiliate links follow below.

Racism, heroic action, desertion, anger, pain, horror, surprising kindness, devastating brutality, mistakes by commanders, weaponry, sneakiness (in a good way), faith, and indoctrination. All these ideas are covered by these books. We’ve had so many discussions and pleas for just “ONE MORE chapter mom, ONE MORE!”

Future Plans

We have plans to read additional books as well. One of World War two planes, Anne Frank, White Rose Society and more. So many good books around there. Every author has a different perspective and notes different things that broadens our perspective. I’ve recently finished listening to the audio book Story of the World War II. I’ve told my lad snippets of it and he plans to listen to it as well.

Others in this Series

Many Religions One Truth

January 3, 2020 By Annette1 8 Comments

World Religions class anyone? Why would anyone want to teach their highschool student about the religions of the world? There are many religions, but really only one truth. Therefore, learning about the religions of the world serves as an aid to teaching my lad discernment. In the process he will learn more about how people think.

Why Study World Religions

It’s a fair question. In a day and age when people seem to believe anything they want and call it religion or faith, why study it? Wouldn’t it be a futile gesure? You’d never truly finish.

But you know what? You don’t need to study them all to gain a

the faith of others better understood
understanding of your own faith (if any)
understanding of the global village
a multi-disciplinary approach to study
a better understanding of history.

Understanding the many religions of Others

If the only people who can understand Christianity are Christians, or the only ones who can understand Islam are Muslims, of what benefit is it? Seriously? If you can’t stretch yourself to understand how others think, then you miss out on opportunities to further understand each other. You will lose chances to reach for compromise, friendship and more. Our religious identities often influence our actions upon the world and it’s people around us.

Understand your own truth better

As you learn about the belief systems of others, you are often drawn to compare their understanding with your own. If you compare say the Islamic belief system and honestly compare it to the Word of God (the bible) you can see where it differs, and perhaps where it is the same. You will better understand when the bible says that the truth of God resides in us all. It will lend further credence to the bible.

We do take the risk that some individuals might be drawn to a different belief system, a different world-view than what they currently possess. That can be both a positive and a negative, all we can do is have open and honest discussions, pointing people to the truth found in God’s word.

Studying world religions shows us often what people do when they use general revelation to understand more about who God is. Viewing the natural world brings us to understanding God. The twists in logic sin causes as people seek to understand God without the understanding that his specific revelation gives us. Ligoniers has a good article on this point.

Scripture itself not only tells us how the heavens declare his praises, but also that “Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy (Acts 14:17)”.

The Global Village

Truth be told, different world-views surround us, and this world is becoming smaller and smaller all the time. We get to hear about Tsunami’s in Japan, government collapses in other countries, economic collapses, missing children, politics, terrorism etc. It surrounds us everytime we turn around. To help us make sense of it all, knowing what makes people tick would be a good help don’t you think?

For instance, knowing some of what I do about Hinduism and Buddhism makes me wary of the increasing populary of the mindfulness movement and the growth mindset. I have yet failed to see any biblical application of this movement. It’s good to understand it though, as understanding where it differs from the world of God gives me talking points with those espousing it.

Understanding the faith of others helps us to live out the scriptural mandate to show kindness to others and to show integrity as we live out of faith. The other week I wished someone Merry Christmas and she mentioned she didn’t celebrate it but enjoyed the festiveness of the season. I followed that up asking about what she celebrated and learned alot about Ramadan. Stuff I didn’t know before. We had a great discussion and hopefully left each other inspired by the stories of each other.

Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Study

Since belief systems influence cultures, politics and lives, understanding them is important. Understanding the Islam belief in Jihad helps us better understand the 9-11 attacks. It helps us to understand the threat felt by those who would ignore the word of God and impose their own belief set. Explaining the threat felt by leaders in other faith systems when their people turn to the Lord and so persecution of believers happens. Learn to understand how religion influences culture, and ergo the actions that people take. We can see it in political actions, in stories written, the examples used in math, how people interact with each other, and the art they draw.

The more you see the connections between all fields, the more you will see the connections to be found. a more holistic understanding of whatever subject you are learning will make your studies more enriching. In our studies of science and history over the years, we have seen many times how faith influences actions and the directions people take in their research.

History More Clearly Understood

One of my favourite things to do is visit museums and other places of history. The faith that people holds in evident in much of what we save. It can be found in the art, the artifacts, sculptures, paintings, figurines, pottery, and statues. Religion can be found in almost everything from stories written, the sacret texts pulled together. Their convictions are based on what their belief systems are. Religion pervades society and it’s actions in so many ways, we can’t always get a clear grip on it.

Suggested Resources

Some resources we are contemplating as we draw nearer to our world religions studies.

The More We Understand

How others think and why they think as they do, the better we are able to show others the truth of God. It gives us a broader view of the world we live in, in a way that devotionals can’t always. Help your students engage in the broader world, strengthen their faith, and teach them to discern truth. Learn how one truth is found as the basis for many religions.

Invested in Health

November 18, 2019 By Annette1 6 Comments

My grade nine boy has been logging all his fitness efforts this year, working on his grade nine phys ed credit. Part of that credit will include a health component. Means that I am sussing out a health credit for him. Tonight when he came home from Army Cadets he mentioned that he reached bronze level in the fitness component. He wants very much to do better at this so he’s rather invested in health. My goal is to find a curriculum that will work well for him, giving him the information he needs as he moves forward into maintaining good health and fitness.

Why is investing in health a goal?

Being physically fit and knowing what to eat to help maintain your body well helps a body is SO many ways.

Maintains mental energy, gives you the gas you need to work productively.
Helps maintain a healthy weight.
Assists in regulating the bodies natural energies.
Promotes strong bones and muscules
Reduced health problems saves you money long-term.
Increases your life expectancy.
Reduces your risk of injury as health bodies suffer less from balance issues, bone density problems, increases your flexibility and overall stability.
Improves your mental outlook.
Delays onset of chronic diseases.
Helps in recovery from Illness.

Steps Taken thus far

I went to The Learning House about a month back and found what I think is a curriculum that the lad will like. He’s used Apologia courses before and thoroughly enjoys them, so the Apologia health and nutrition course should fit. I found the Student workbook on Amazon (aff link). I also know that the Home School Review crew looked at this set a bit ago and the reviews were postive. I’m definitely leaning this way, but it’s good to know what my other options are so I continued looking.

Failed Attempts.

Looking for other options initially left me feeling like there weren’t any other options, at least for a grade nine lad. Finding resources for high school students invested in their health was more problematic than I thought it would be.

Since my lad is a you-tube watcher I thought I’d look there, but that was an unsuccessful venture. All I got, regardless of the search I did were videos related to sex eduction, or projects done by grade nine students (please… just don’t go there).

A member of the Homeschool Review Crew suggested I check out Fit2B and I discovered they have a Fit2B course for girls, but alas, none for boys. I have to wonder why nothing for boys? Are they only invested in the health of women?

One of my colleagues on Homeschooling Bloggers brought my attention to this meal planning for kids course that teaches healthy eating. She speaks to why she developed this course on her blog. Though this looks like an excellent course, it’s not quite what I am looking for.

My Search Continues

I found some links on-line which shows some real promise:

Health, Safety & Nutrition Worksheets list
I located this unit on Kids Health that I really like and shows promise: Health and Safety topics (K-12)
By the Numbers – Drug and Alcohol Prevention
Knowing that Canada has recently changed the food guide I thought I’d look that up. PDF’s, reports, images and more to assist.
Alison has a human health- diet and nutrition course which seems very doable.
I considered the sources I found for high school science.
Coursera has a food and health course that could be interesting.
I found this rather interesting course outline/lesson from Alberta for grade nine health.
Looking on TPT I found this ebook which I think the lad would respond well to. A guide to help him create the sort of work out he wants. Not sure though as it’s geared to be a small group activity. In talking with my lad he’d like to use the outline she provided and come up with his own thing.
Health Unit for grades 9-12 also on TPT. I’m a bit boggled by the price though, even if it looks very thorough and has good reviews. Not quite within my budget though, but for some would be worth it right?
This guide for North West Territories grade 9 health guide was interesting. Comparing it to the needs of Albertan student shows it’s uniqueness. Shows me how health can be geared to the students.

Final Result

Lindberg Human LungI honestly don’t know quite what I am going to do. I’ll be talking all these options over with my son and seeing what we work out. Mostly likely we’ll be doing a combination of things. Some PE items that he will plan out, as well as a curriculum of some sort.

I have a number of books and supplies that I’m going to use, the lad helped me pick most of them out. 🙂 It helps that he is invested in his health.

These supplies (aff link to Amazon)

Lindberg Human Heart.
Lindberg Human Lung.
The Complete Human Body.
Professor Noggin’s Human body card game.
First Aid, CPR and AED manual. Our edition is different than this. Just find one that works eh?
The Human Body workbook. The lad is technically a bit old for this, but it has some interesting activities in it.
The Anatomy Student self-test colouring book. I really got this for the hubby, but then he got busy and too tired, so repurposing for the lad.
3D Explorer – Human Body.
Lintball Leo’s not so stupid questions about your body.

Gather Resources for High School Science

October 8, 2019 By Annette1 6 Comments

We’ve talked Elementary School science and middle school science, how about today we tackle resources for high school science? Might as well eh? It only makes sense to finish the series! Today I thought I would Gather Resources for High School Science.

Gather Resources for High School Science

What we are doing

Some of you may know that one of my jobs is marking papers for Tree of Life. It’s a great organization to work for. Over the past couple of years I’ve grown to appreciate the Exploring Creation with Biology textbook. I picked up the student workbook for him and that’s what he is doing for Grade Nine Science this year.

If we didn’t have this resource on hand, I would have looked more closely at some of the resources I will share with you today.

Physical Resources

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention G.L.O. In real life, group classes for highschool kids. Located in the nearby big city. I keep wanting to teach a class with them as I’ve got the know-how. They teach a variety of classes, depending on the teachers they get in.

Textbooks can be picked up from a variety of sources. Locally we have The Learning House which provides textbooks for homeschoolers. I could also order from different companies and have them shipped out. Just a matter of doing your research and finding companies to work with. Companies such as: Bob Jones, Apologia, Pearson, Glencoe, or Steck-Vaughn. What others would you suggest?

On-Line Sources

In interactive unit studies I introduced to you Kristen Moon Science. She makes some great science based unit studies. You should check them out.

Cross-wired Science (reviewed them this past year) does a good science program. Currently they have a free program called Mighty Feathers so you can get a good taste of how they do their program. If you decide you like it and want to purchase Sound & Fluid Dynamics you can use the discount code (intime29) to takes $5 off.

MIT has open courseware. Search for the program you want, and then run through list. From what I can tell the courses are free but you may need to buy the textbook from Amazon.

If you want to supplement what your students are learning Exploratorium has a number of videos, activities and experiments to delight the learner.

There are some interesting science lessons at Science Net Links. It would be easy to just set a student loose to learn what they’d like here.

Learning about the weather? Sci Jinks has you covered. Videos and well-written essays.

Khan Academy has science and engineering classes for highschool.

If you are learning about the periodic table you might find this site helpful.

ACLS has an educational page on human body systems.

In highschool, most any course you might want to take as an adult a highschool student could potentially take as well (depending on interest and ability). Check out this post on wanting to learn anything for some excellent on-line resources.

What resources would you gather for high school science?

Today’s Free Write word is Gather. See all the write 31 days posts.

Grade 9 Curriculum Choices

August 15, 2019 By Annette1 8 Comments

Well… can you believe that I have a lad in grade 9? It sometimes surprises me that we’ve made it through. 🙂 Today I’ll be talking about our grade 9 curriculum choices.

History: World War 2

Some of our choices were really easy. We’d decided in 7th grade to be about studying both world wars. We had thought maybe we could both wars in grade 8 but that proved to a bit beyond us. Therefore we’ll study World War 2 for grade 9.

This shelf houses the book we have for World War 2, some of the fiction books we’ll be reading together. Right now we are reading Marika.

He’ll be reading through this series on his own. This series is based on Camp X and is part of our Canadian history. He is very much looking forward to reading it.

One of the spines we will be using is this Time Travelers project from Home School in the Woods. We started this two years ago as a review and will be working our way through it this year along with other unit studies I picked up.

English/Language Arts

I really waffled on this one and ended up going with a more inclusive language arts program. I am hoping the lad does well with it. We’ll be using Writing & Grammer 9 from BJU.

Foreign Languages

The lad was enthralled learning Latin last year through Picta Dicta and wants to know more. I did a lot of searching but wasn’t happy price wise with most of what we found. Then I discovered that SchoolhouseTeachers has a Latin program that should suit the needs of the lad.

They also have a French program that should work nicely with the lad.

Science

Since I mark for Tree of Life and the lad has seen the text we use he has been wanting to do the Exploring Creation with Biology with me. I got him the student workbook and we’re set.

We’ll also be studying health, therefore the human anatomy book and we’ll be making these models (heart and Lung) as well. I have a unit on nutrition, a book for teens on growing up, and some courses on Alison we’ll be making use of.

Math

We haven’t completely decided but I think we’ll be doing math from SchoolhouseTeachers. Dr. D has a geometry course that the lad has been eyeing, though we might find an algebra 2 course to take. We haven’t completely decided.

Our Grade 9 Curriculum Wrap-up

I keep thinking I’ve missed something… but I can’t think of what right now. This is the bulk of what we’ll be doing though so I think it’s good enough. 🙂

OH!!!! He’ll be taking tech at the local highschool. They’ll give him an introduction to woodworking, design, and two other things that I am SO not equipped to teach him! 🙂

Do you have highschool student? What will they be working through?

Hey! Follow The crew through this Annual Not Going Back to School homeschool blog hop! Links of participants below

CREW @ Homeschool Review Crew – 2019 Annual Not Back to School Homeschool Blog Hop
Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses – ABC of Homeschooling
Dawn @ Schoolin’ Swag – Adding Fun to Your Homeschool Day
Erin @ For Him and My Family – Large Family Homeschooling
Lori @ At Home Where Life Happens – Learning Life Skills
Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling – Homeschooling the High School Years
Monique D. @ Early Learning Mom – Homeschooling With Autism
Yvie @ Homeschool On the Range – 5 Days of Upper Grades Homeschooling
Abby @ Making Room 4 One More – Time Management for Homeschool Moms
Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool – 5 Days of Homeschool Questions
Amy @ the WRITE Balance – Year-Round Schooling
Annette @ A Net in Time – Homeschooling.
Betty @ Lets Get Real – Homeschooling High School
Cassandra @ My Blessed Mess – Eclectic Homeschooling

Kimberley @ Vintage Blue Suitcase – Roadschooling with a Teenager

Yvonne @ The Life We Build – 5 Days of Relaxed Homeschooling
Destiny @ Some Call It Destiny – Encouragement for the Homeschooling Mom
Karen @ Tots and Me…Growing Up Together –  A Peek into Our Homeschool
Kimberley @ Vintage Blue Suitcase – Roadschooling with a Teenager
Yvonne @ The Life We Build – 5 Days of Relaxed Homeschooling
Destiny @ Some Call It Destiny – Encouragement for the Homeschooling Mom
Karen @ Tots and Me…Growing Up Together –  A Peek into Our Homeschool
Cassie D @ Deputie Tribe – Homeschooling 6 Taking Care of YOU
Kristen Heider @ A Mom’s Quest to Teach –Theme: A Quest for a Great Homeschool Year
Patti Pierce – Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy – My Favorite Homeschooling Things
Wendy @ Life on Chickadee Lane – 5 Days of Nature Study
Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning – Homeschooling my final 4
Christine @ Life’s Special Necessities – Yes! You Can Homeschool Your Special Needs Child
Sally M – Tell the Next Generation – Tips for Homeschooling Struggling Learners

Developing Independence

August 12, 2019 By Annette1 14 Comments

The other day I was talking to a fellow homeschool mom who asked me “How did you get your son to work independently?” It’s honestly a bit hard to answer that as it naturally happened. Today I thought I’d think about that a bit more. How did I go about developing independence in my son’s learning?

The Early Years

When my son was little, we did everything together. Walks, housecleaning, playing, and just living life. We had so much fun together. I wasn’t a helicopter parent, but it was just the two of us so doing things together made sense right? This lasted until he was about 7.

Elementary Years

At 7 years old things started to change a bit, he was developing his own interests, learning to play on his own (mom wasn’t climbing our snow mountain), and discovering differences existed between us. It was a surprise to him to learn that mom wasn’t crazy about insects though I’d happily teach about them. Mom wasn’t a huge fan of spiders either much to my son’s horror . “LAD! Get this spider before I stomp on him!” was a rather familiar call in this spider friendly home we live in.

I love bunnies, guinea pigs, and dogs…. Give me something with fur to love and I am great. Going to see my neigbours’ horses brought me pleasure. My son.. well.. he likes cats, birds and small creeping around the ground things. Dogs, horses, cattle and what not are just not his thing. How could mom be so different?

Building upon those differences we start exploring countries around the world. This was a two-fold endeavor.. my striving to get my picky eater to be less picky, and to explore cultures and people not our own, showing differences in people that maybe he hadn’t considered. We had a hoot learning. He’d pick something he wanted to learn, I’d pick something. They’d often diverge but together we explore. We touched on music.. and I discovered he loves classical music, and instrumental was his love. He learned mom can’t help bopping to a rhythm though he can’t imagine why!

Encyclopedias Rock!

We discovered the joy of reading encyclopedias. Several history ones made up our bedtime reading. Looking for a person’s perspective on history and seeing how it came out in the books we read. My son quickly showed his affinity for weaponry, pointing out how the world people lived in influenced weapon design. My thoughts were on how art and language came to be, looking for the details in the workmanship. We had great conversations about what surprised us and what we learned. I bought the lad a book on weapons which he devoured and still browses today.

Math Happened

I need you to understand something. In fact I LOVE math and am good at it. Had no problems teaching the lad the basics of what he needed to learn until we came to division. There I learned an important thing. The lad thinks about math completely differently than I do. Forward progress ground to a halt. We couldn’t do math together. He was 10 and math killed it. Totally. History, language, science, all good. Math.. No. The lad suddenly had to start learning math on his own. With a program. No mom helping because how we see math just causes head butting. Pivotal moment.

Independence in math, led to independence in much more.

Math led to other decisions in Middle School

Seeing himself successfully find what worked and what didn’t in math led to other decisions. He’d do his math and then I’d learned that science, English and history were done as well.

In Middle School he discovered a LOVE of writing papers (go figure!) and a penchant for expanding what he was learning about.

“Research how dragonflies fly” this short research project lead to …. “MOM! Did you know that dragonflies are the most successful hunters? Mom! Did you know… ” What was supposed to be a one day project became two weeks of utter fascination.

He would often ask “mom, does it matter if I change the question? Does it matter that I want to learn more?” My stock answer is always “Are you learning? If you are learning and getting your other work done, it’s all good”. He’s learned to learn! WOOHOO!!!!! 🙂

Questions Changed

Questions in schooling changed. They used to be “What do I do next? What are we learning about today? Oh, can you help me make this? Want to see what I built? and such like.

Now I get asked questions like: How do I divide this up so I get finished on time? What do I need to do first? Can you help me figure out what they are asking for? The questions are different. More sorting through, more planning, less hands on.

I have needed to teach the lad skills I was taught. He’s needed to learn to read questions carefully to make sure he’s doing what is needful.

Looking forward to High School

This lad of mine faces grade nine this coming school year, so last year he made the choice to attend one class in grade 8. We chose music since it was his first classroom learning experience and would be a no-brainer for him once he got into it. No pressure, just learning how a teacher operates in a class environment. He learned much and complained about time wasted.

This coming year’s course materials required more collaboration. I have these two English programs.. let’s sort out which is better. Telling him “I thought you might like to read this WW2 books yourself, do you think we can read these over here together”? I’ve needed to ask him what he wants to learn this year and how he wants to do it (term system or semester system).

We learned from doing WW1 last year that he wants more structure to our learning so we’ve invested in some unit studies that he can work from. He is becoming more able at learning what HE needs to learn best. Even if it’s not the same way mom learns. This burgeoning independence and growth has fit him naturally.

I hope that some of this helps you encourage independence in your children. Developing Independence helps them discover talents, interests and abilities within enabling them to learn in a way that best suits.

Hey! Follow The crew through this Annual Not Going Back to School homeschool blog hop! Links of participants below

Switchback

July 11, 2019 By Annette1 2 Comments

I was away visiting a friend, and while she was caring for her family I started reading Switchback. I hadn’t seen this friend in a while and was eager to chat with her some more. When she came back, I put my book away so we could chat, but every lull in the conversation had me longing to read more from Danika Stone’s newest book.

By the time we were done chatting it was much too late to continue reading so guess what I did when I woke up? I READ! Yes, I finished it in less than an hour. 🙂 Thoroughly enjoyed it! So let me tell you about this Canadian adventure.

What I am Reviewing

Switchback.
Danika Stone.
Swoon Reads
320 pages, Age 12-18
Received Hardcover Copy
Adventure, Canada, Middle School, Survival, Canadian National Parks,
Gamer, Sexual Orientation, Young Adult
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Vale loves to hike, but kind of hates her classmates. Ash is okay with his classmates, but kind of hates the outdoors. So, needless to say they are both fairly certain that the overnight nature hike with their PE class is going to be a hellish experience. But when they get separated from the group during a storm, they have worse things to worry about than bullies and blisters.

Lost in the Canadian wilderness with limited supplies, caught in dangerous weather conditions, and surrounded by deadly wildlife, it’s going to take every bit of strength, skill, and luck they can muster to survive.

The Details about Switchback

Middle School PE two day adventure hiking in the mountains. Oh the fun! The excitement! The terror! The “I don’t want to’s”! Ash and Vale, two best friends, heading into a situation that neither wishes to be in.

Vale, bullied for standing up to bullies and being a tad different than other kids. Ash being caught between friendships. Both alone, and yet not quite. Teachers and parents who don’t quite get it. And a fall trip into the mountains of Waterton Park. What could possibly go wrong?

Lost kids, a mountain, fall weather and before you know it a whole lot of trouble is happening.

Switchback is a quick read that you feel compelled to continue. The fast pace ensures you don’t get lost in the details. The awkwardness of teens, the love of the gaming world, the well-played examples of nerd-dom, combined with beauty, fear, and growth in characters.

Each chapter has a unique quote starting it out. They come from different movies such as predator, eight below, gravity etc.

I found the book comfortable to hold and read, the type was a great size for reading through a fast-paced book. It was so compelling to know what would happen next, so having a good text size to facilitate that was great.

My Thoughts

I enjoyed the story, immensely actually even though the sheer number of adventures/escapades seemed a little over the top. It was still well written and I wanted to know the end result.

Most adventure loving young people (upper middle school through young adult) would enjoy the story as well. It’s well written with interesting characters, even with a bully I just want to whack upside the head a time or two.

I do want to add a caution. Vale identifies as aro-ace. The definition for those who didn’t know is feeling no romantic or sexual attraction towards anyone of any gender.

I struggled with this early labeling. She’s young. Knows her current self well but she doesn’t know her future self. Things can change. Labels don’t allow room for that coming change.

I am hesitant about encouraging youth to embrace such a limiting definition of themselves. I don’t think it benefits youth to be encouraging them to internalize such a definition for themselves. Reading a book may or may not reinforce that in young middle school readers. It’s hard to know.

Overall, Switchback is an excellent read to see a bullied youth stick up for herself and to have a friend realize some truths about himself as well.