A Net in Time

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Medal of Honor: Jack Montgomery

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Studying the lives of real-life heroes is important for children.  It gives them someone real to look up to.  Role models show character qualities in real situations to help children learn how to emulate those qualities in their own lives.  Michael P. Spradlin introduces us to real-life hero Meal of Honor: Jack Montgomery who fought in World War II at Anzio. 

Medal of honor: Jack Montgomery

From the cover:

Jack C. Montgomery was a Cherokee from Oklahoma, and a first lieutenant with the 45th Infantry Division Thunderbirds. On February 22, 1944, near Padiglione, Italy, Montgomery’s rifle platoon was under fire by three echelons of enemy forces when he single-handedly attacked all three positions, neutralizing the German machine-gunners and taking numerous prisoners in the process. Montgomery’s actions demoralized the enemy and saved the lives of many American soldiers.

The Medal of Honor series profiles the courage and accomplishments of recipients of the highest and most prestigious personal military decoration, awarded to recognize U.S. military service members who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary acts of valor.

Medal of honor: Jack Montgomery

What You Get:

A well-written story, that speaks not only to the actual action taken, but also to the life of the man leading up to that moment.   So it’s not just a story of Mr. Montgomery being a hero, but how his life made him a hero. 

Medal of honor: Jack Montgomery

Interspersed between the story is material about the US Army, or it’s ordinances, or people involved during the battle.  For instance, readers learn about Mussolini, why the Cherokee symbol changes from a swastika to a thunderbird, the use of deception in battle and more. 

Medal of honor: Jack Montgomery

Numerous black and white images dot the pages, showing us scenes from history that the hero might have seen, or relevant to the historical period.  Some of the images: Hitler reviewing his troops, soldiers manning a machine gun, Montgomery receiving his medal and many more. 

My Thoughts

I’ve struggled reading this book.  Part of it stemmed from I think a missing page.  I reading and then the story just stopped mid-sentence and then picked up later.    The other part was, the story itself kept being interrupted, so I couldn’t just read it from start to finish. 

Was the story itself good?  Yes!  Resoundingly so.  I would happily read more real-life stories like this.  It was good to read.  Good to know how men in the army have to take risks, and simply just do their job to the best of their abilities. 

Medal of honor: Jack Montgomery

Jack Montgomery: World War II – Gallantry at Anzio
Michael P. Spradlin
Series: Medal of Honor
Farrar Straus Giroux
112 pages, paperback, 8-12 years
Military, Hero, World War 2, United States Army
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

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Hosanna, Loud Hosanna

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Hosanna, loud hosanna is often called a children’s song.  I grew up singing it, and so I bring it to you today. 

Written by Jeanette Threlfall. This gentle, sweet lady was orphaned young and therefore was raised by her uncle and aunt, and later on she lived with their daughter.  She suffered an accident that left her an invalid with a lame limb.  This gave her lots of time to write poetry and hymns, some of which are published and about 6 are still in use today. 

Lyrics

Hosanna, loud hosanna, the little children sang;
Through pillared court and temple the lovely anthem rang.
To Jesus, who had blessed them close folded to His breast,
The children sang their praises, the simplest and the best.

From Olivet they followed mid an exultant crowd,
The victor palm branch waving, and chanting clear and loud;
Bright angels joined the chorus, beyond the cloudless sky,
Hosanna in the highest, glory to God on high!

Fair leaves of silvery olive they strewed upon the ground,
While Salem’s circling mountains echoed the joyful sound;
The Lord of men and angels rode on in lowly state,
Nor scorned that little children should on His bidding wait.

Hosanna in the highest! that ancient song we sing,
For Christ is our Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven our king.
O may we ever praise Him with heart and life and voice,
And in His blissful presence eternally rejoice!

Review: For The Temple

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For The Temple  is a story I have been listening to for the past three weeks.  Heirloom Audio   is the producer of this captivating and dramatic tale, telling the story of the first-century Jewish revolt from the perspective of a fictional young Jewish man, John of Gamala. 

For The Temple by Heirloom Audio

The Story

G.A. Henty writes a tale with John of Gamala at the centre of it.  It takes place during the years of Roman occupation.  Political infighting and lawlessness ruled the day.   In the end, the destruction of the Temple.

John ends up in the middle of a losing battle between Rome, greedy political groups and bands of robbers from Palestine.  He makes and loses friends along the way.

John, a fictional character, maintains his honour and integrity throughout this conflict, eventually becomes procurator.

For The Temple by Heirloom Audio

What you Get

How do I break this down for you?   I could tell you that you get 27 tracks, cut into manageable sound bites running 4-8 minutes.  I could say that they tell the story in a logical manner that doesn’t jump around from past to present.

But how do I tell you an Heirloom Audio story differs from, for instance, an audible story?  Frankly, I LOVE listening to audio books.  Listening to a good story while I fold the laundry is one of my greatest pleasure in the course of a day.

Heirloom Audio is more than one or two people reading a story. It’s a whole cast of people, retelling a story. All the voices and dramatic action make it a compelling listen, you just want to know what is going to happen next. They have a well-rounded cast that presents their parts well. 

For The Temple by Heirloom Audio

This audio comes with an excellent study guide with is formed out three basic sections: Listening well, Thinking further, and Defining words.   I have to admit, I looked them over, but I didn’t really use them.   As I looked through I found some questions I thought were good. 

“John says that the first duty of any Jew is to protect the temple.  Why should that be?”   and “Some people are opposed to violence in books, particularly in books meant for young people. What do you think of this? Is it wrong to portray war as it is? Does it need to be portrayed graphically? Why can’t the author just say “Many men died that day?”

I listened to the audio as an adult, the study guide is designed for parents who want help talking their younger children through the storyline and its lessons. It can also serve as series of written assignments for older students.   Each lesson is meant to go with each track. 

For The Temple by Heirloom Audio

I have to tell you, this study guide was well put together and worth going through if you have your family listening with you.  It will also help you delve into the story of this battle deeper.

For The Temple by Heirloom Audio

My Thoughts

Though I enjoyed listening to the story, I was completely lost.  I listened to it twice all the way through, and then bits and pieces just to see if I could figure out the entire story.  I know there was storm and boat scene, and I know there was a terrific battle.  But try as I might I couldn’t connect all the pieces.   I don’t know why.  I have listened to Heirloom Audio tracks before and not had a problem, I own a few of them as digital recordings.  But with For the Temple something just wasn’t working for me..  

I’ve been thinking about who would this audio drama be good for.   ANYONE, except perhaps not sensitive littles.  Mind.. I’ve never had one of those in my house, so I’m not sure.  I didn’t find anything objectionable.  

It’s an excellent way to learn history, to see how political infighting from the Jewish leadership harmed the Jews as they fought to save the temple.   How Rome got annoyed with bands of rebels making things hard for them.  There is so much history in this story.  

I strongly urge you to go check out other reviews.  🙂

For The Temple by Heirloom Audio

 For the Temple
Heirloom Audio
Digital Download,
audio drama, audio theatre, audio theater, radio drama, radio theatre, radio theater, audio book, G.A. Henty, heirloom audio, Christian audio drama, Christian radio theatre, focus on the family radio theatre, homeschooling, Christian homeschooling, homeschooling curriculum

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeirloomStories  
Instagram: @HeirloomAudioOfficial

Jesus calls us o’er the tumult

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Jesus calls us o’er the tumult is a hymn I was reminded of as I poured through the pages of my hymnbook.  Listen close, do you hear his call?   Do you hear him call you from your daily tasks into a life that is better?  One filled with reward?   Keep your ears open, the call is real. 

I recently did another song by the author of this hymn.  Cecil Alexander also wrote All Things Bright and Beautiful.  She was the author of a good 400 hymns, 6 of which are still in current day Irish Hymnals.   She used the money she made from her books/music to fund charitable works in her community.   (source)

Lyrics

Jesus calls us over the tumult
Of our life’s wild, restless, sea;
Day by day His sweet voice soundeth,
Saying, Christian, follow Me!

As of old Saint Andrew heard it
By the Galilean lake,
Turned from home and toil and kindred,
Leaving all for Jesus’ sake.

Jesus calls us from the worship
Of the vain world’s golden store,
From each idol that would keep us,
Saying, Christian, love Me more!

In our joys and in our sorrows,
Days of toil and hours of ease,
Still He calls, in cares and pleasures,
Christian, love Me more than these!

Jesus calls us! By Thy mercies,
Savior may we hear Thy call,
Give our hearts to Thine obedience,
Serve and love Thee best of all.

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

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Hymntime. their version contains six verses, which is more verses than my familiar three.  Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah is a well-known song for me. 

Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah is sometimes sung with the first line of Guide Me, O My great redeemer.   I don’t know if this is updated language or an original alteration.  Written by William Willams from Wales, he died on the same farm he grew up on.  A wanna-be doctor who became a preacher.  He wrote around 20 hymns.

Lyrics

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more;
Feed me till I want no more.

Feed me with the heavenly manna,
In this barren wilderness;
Be my sword, and shield, and banner—
Be my robe of righteousness.
Fight and conquer, fight and conquer
All my foes by sovereign grace,
All my foes by sovereign grace.*

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
Be Thou still my strength and shield;
Be Thou still my strength and shield.

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st Thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold:
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer,
Sin, and Satan and the grave,
Sin, and Satan and the grave.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee;
I will ever give to Thee.

Musing on my habitation,
Musing on my heav’nly home,
Fills my soul with holy longings:
Come, my Jesus, quickly come;
Vanity is all I see;
Lord, I long to be with Thee!
Lord, I long to be with Thee!

This is a tune I am not familiar with but I love listening to men sing. I hope you do too!  🙂

Jerusalem’s Queen

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

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

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

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

My Thoughts

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

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

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

Jerusalem's Queen
Angela Hunt
Bethany House
Series: The silent years
352 pages, trade paperback
historical fiction, Israel, Biblical fiction, 
Queen Alexandra, Judea
Reviewed for Nuts about Books
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Battles of World War 1

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I have to admit to feeling a bit surprised.   I thought, battles of the war, how complicated could it be.  BOY, was I wrong.  Led to a rather fierce discussion between the lad and I about how I could be so wrong!   But hey, we worked it through and have decided to divide this section into part.

Battles of the Western front, and the eastern front.  Then battles of Africa.   We’ll tackle sea battles and air battles.   But last week and this week we are just going for the general approach.. just getting a bit of an overview of the battles of World War 1. 

Battles of World War one. Soldier walking across a field.

Photo by Specna Arms on Unsplash

Movies Watched

To that end, we watched a few different movies.  Flyboys. and The Red Baron.  We tried watching The Trench (don’t recommend it).   We have plans to watch Warhorse documentary and War Horse but so far we can’t get a stream that works. 

Books Read

The lad read through these books below, just select pages that talked about battles of the war in generic terms, or as a broad overview.

The goal is to have him find a battle he wants to research from a Canadian point of view, but so far none of them are grabbing his attention.

We also read through a book called Vimy Oaks because I was just intensely curious.  It took us a couple of nights to read through.  Thoroughly enjoyed this book. We found it fascinating that the oaks from France eventually found a way back after all the destruction.

Videos Watched

Would we be us if we didn’t watch some videos as well?

Watching how the line moved so much at first and then just kind of stalled, reminded us of how HARD and kinda pointless trench warfare would have seemed to the men involved.

Resources Used

We used a variety of resources for this unit study.   These include writing prompts from Bonnie Rose.   Heather LeBlanc’s Major Battles and Events of WW1 and Military Geography from TOS.    We used a timeline from someone but I can’t find a link to it… Might have been a free unit we picked up somewhere, I can’t truly recall.

Other posts about world  war one