Have you visited my new site?
Please join me at my new blog titled I read. Do you?
It's moving day. Please come with me.
In the past few months I have really been working diligently at downsizing my life. I have had garage sales to sell my clutter and donated the rest. I will never be a minimalist because I'm so stinking sentimental, but I must admit this new lifestyle of "less" is working for me.
So now it's time to deal with the issue of two blogs. It seems that is one blog too many.
Please join me at my new blog titled I read. Do you?
Subscribe now to I read Do YouYou will find all of my old blog postings there. I'm still planing on reading books and homeschooling items for reviews. Nothing really has changed.
Just a new Internet address.
And one less blog in my new downsized life.
Thank you so much! See you at I read. Do you? really soon!
Review: How Huge the Night by Heather Munn and Lydia Munn
Book Summary (from Amazon): Fifteen-year-old Julien Losier just wants to fit in. But after his family moves to a small village in central France in hopes of outrunning the Nazis, he is suddenly faced with bigger challenges than the taunting of local teens.
Nina Krenkel left her country to obey her father's dying command: Take your brother and leave Austria. Burn your papers. Tell no one you are Jews. Alone and on the run, she arrives in Tanieux, France, dangerously ill and in despair. Thrown together by the chaos of war, Julien begins to feel the terrible weight of the looming conflict and Nina fights to survive. As France falls to the Nazis, Julien struggles with doing what is right, even if it is not enough-and wonders whether or not he really can save Nina from almost certain death.
Pages: 304
Year originally published: 2011
You might want to know: Don't take my word for it! Visit Kregel Publications for blog tour info and more reviews.
My source: I received this book complimentary from Kregel Publications in exchange for an honest review, but the opinion is all mine.
My thoughts: How Huge the Night is an compelling and important book. The main character is a teenager named Julien, but in some ways the main character was the war. The politics and horrors of World War II shape the lives of all who come to live in the small French village of Tanieux. Through the eyes of Julien, readers learn about true events when a tiny group of people worked together to protect numerous Jewish refuges over the course of the war.
Each year school kids study World War II, learning important facts about the Maginot line, the occupation of Paris and the atrocities committed in hate. It's time to put away those boring text books and make the learning real. This book would be a wonderful resource for the study of World War II.
It's not a book that is easy to read, with topics such as Nazi occupation and war. This book is precisely what brings history to life. Teens will relate to characters their own age, hopefully opening up conversations about the horrors of prejudice and violence against others.
Bottom line: If your teen is studying World War II history (maybe a little Sonlight 300?), then you really MUST read this book.
Bottom line: If your teen is studying World War II history (maybe a little Sonlight 300?), then you really MUST read this book.
Book excerpt (Chapter 23):
Thursday the power came back on. They sat in the living room, around the radio that crackled with static; they looked at each other, and then away. The room grew quiet as the announcer began to speak.“Since Mussolini’s declaration of war on France two days ago, Italian troops are pushing west—”
Mama was on her feet. “The thief!” she hissed. “The backstabber, the coward!” Her face was red. Everyone was staring. She sat down.
Papa looked at her. “Saw his chance, I guess.”
“He’s a shame to his nation,” Mama snapped. Julien stared. Then they heard the shift in the announcer’s voice and turned sharply to the radio.
“German troops are approaching Paris at a rapid pace. As we speak, the vanguard is reported to be fifteen kilometers from Versailles. This will be our last broadcast for a while.”
They did not look at each other. The silence was total.
“Today Paris has been declared an ‘open city.’ Our military will not defend it. This decision was made to avoid bombardment and the great destruction and loss of life that it entails. . . .”
Julien realized he had not been breathing. It was an amazing thing, breathing. Tears shone in Mama’s eyes.
“They won’t bomb Paris,” said Papa quietly.
“They won’t bomb Paris,” Mama whispered.
Benjamin stood, his face very still. He walked slowly to the door and took the stairs.
Julien waited, breathing, seeing Paris; seeing Vincent and his mother look up out of their second-floor window at a clear blue sky. He waited until the news ended, until they had read a psalm that said The Lord has delivered.
Then he followed Benjamin.
Benjamin’s door was closed. Julien hesitated, biting his lip, and went into his own room.
He looked out the window in the fading light. They wouldn’t defend it. This was it, then. What Pastor Alex said was true. German tanks would roll down the Champs-Elysées for real in just a couple days. Then the boches would come here. And they would stay.
He pulled Vincent’s last letter out from under his nightstand. I can’t believe you almost died, it said. That’s crazy. He got up, and went and knocked on Benjamin’s door.
No answer.
“Benjamin? You all right?”
“Fine.”
Julien opened the door. Benjamin turned quickly, scowling.
“Did I say you could come in?”
“Well sorry,” Julien growled. How am I supposed to help when he’s like this? “Just wanted to say good night.”
“Good night then.”
“Look, it’s not as bad as it could have been, okay? They could have bombed the place to shreds like Ro—” He bit his tongue.
“You’re right,” said Benjamin, looking away. “That’s good for your relatives. I’m glad.”
“And your parents!”
“Nothing’s good for my parents.” His voice was toneless. “Look, Julien, we can talk about this in the morning. I need to go to bed.”
Julien knew when to quit. He turned away. “Sleep well.”
“You too.”
But he couldn’t. He turned and turned in his bed, twisting the sheets.
He got up and looked out at the crescent moon and the stars high over Tanieux, so white, so far, always the same; they would still be there when the Germans were here; they would still be there all his life. They were still there over Rotterdam, too. It didn’t make any difference.
When he finally slept, he dreamed: Paris on the fourteenth of July, the fireworks, bursts of blue, of gold, of red above the city. A whirling rocket going up with a hiss and a bang. Then a louder bang. Then a bang that threw up a great shower of dirt and stones, and people screaming, people running as the shells began to fall—
He woke, and lay shivering. He got up to close the window. The stars shone down like cold eyes.
He heard a faint scratching. Mice maybe. A floorboard creaked. He listened.
And he heard it. Very slow, stealthy footsteps going down the stairs.
He sat up slowly. Magali or Benjamin. Tiptoeing down the stairs to the kitchen, wishing there was something to eat. . . . He got out of bed and leaned out the window, watching for the faint light that would come through from the kitchen. No light came.
But on the ground floor, the heavy front door opened, and a dark shape slipped out into the street. A shadow with a suitcase in its hand.
He ran across the hall and threw open Benjamin’s door. A neatly made bed, a letter on the pillow. He grabbed it, ran back to his room, jerked his pants on over his pajamas, and ran downstairs in his socks. He’d catch him. Benjamin was on foot. He had to catch him. He scrawled on the flip side of the note, I’ve gone after him, pulled on his shoes and jacket, and flew down the stairs and into the dark.
He raced down the shadowed street and stopped at the corner, heart pounding, looking both ways. North, over the hill: the road to St. Etienne. A train to Paris, like he’d said? There were no trains now. Or south—south to where? Oh Lord if I choose wrong I’ll never find him.
Think. What would he do if it were him? He’d go south—north was suicide, but—he didn’t know, he didn’t know Benjamin. Who did? Nothing is good for my parents, he’d said—he didn’t seem to even care that Paris wouldn’t be bombed—
Because his parents weren’t in Paris.
Julien turned, suddenly sure, and ran.
The Kellers had left Germany because of Hitler and his people. Would they stay in Paris and wait for them? “Let’s walk south,” Benjamin had said—and that stupid map—he should have guessed.
He ran, breathing hard, his eyes on the dark road ahead. Oh God. Oh Jesus. Don’t let me miss him please—please—
He broke free of the houses; the Tanne gleamed in front of him under the splintered moon, cut by the dark curve of the bridge. He froze. He ducked into the shadows and breathed.
There on the bridge was a slender figure leaning on the parapet, looking down at the dark water.
Oh God. Oh Jesus. Now what?
Benjamin turned and took a long, last look at Tanieux. Then he adjusted his backpack, picked up his suitcase, and walked away.
Julien slipped out of the shadows and up to the bridge, his heart beating help me Jesus help me, his mind searching for words. Come home. And if he said no? Drag him? Help me Jesus. He was across the bridge, ten paces behind Benjamin; he broke into a silent run on the grassy verge of the road. He caught up to him. Laid a hand on his arm.
“Benjamin.”
Benjamin whirled, eyes wild in the moonlight. They stared at each other. “Why.” said Julien. “Tell me why.” His voice was harder than he meant it to be.
“Let me go.”
“No.” He tightened his grip on Benjamin’s arm.
Benjamin tried to pull away. “Julien, let me go. You have no idea. You have no idea what they’re like.”
“The boches?” This time his voice came out small.
“The Nazis, Julien. Ever heard of them? Yeah, you heard they don’t like Jews—I don’t think any of you people understand.” The sweep of his arm took in the school and the sleeping town. “Your parents are great, Julien—offering shelter and all—they really are. But they don’t know. Yet.”
But they do. They know. “Know what? What’ll they—do?”
“I’m not waiting around to find out.” His face was white and deadly serious. “Trust me on this, Julien. They are coming here and when they do, it’s better for you if I’m long gone.” I believe it is very dangerous to be a Jew in Germany. And soon—
Julien stood silent. The night wind touched his face; the hills were shadows on the horizon where they blotted out the stars. Suddenly he felt how large the world was, how huge the night, how small they stood on the road in the light of the waning moon. Ahead, the road bent into the pine woods, and in his mind, Julien saw Benjamin walking away, a small form carrying a suitcase into the darkness under the trees. His fingers bit into Benjamin’s arm.
“I don’t care,” he said savagely. “Where would you go?”
Benjamin said nothing; the moonlight quivered in his eyes as they filled with tears. He turned his head away. “I don’t know.” His voice shook.
Julien caught him by the shoulders, gripped him hard. “Well I do,” he said fiercely. “You’re coming home.”
Review: Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers by Barbara Frank
Book Summary (taken from the back cover): Literature and mathematics are important, but so is getting ready to take on the adult world. Barbara Frank designed this curriculum for her own teenagers so they would be prepared for living on their own. They are now independent young adults. Prepare your homeschooled teenager for life "out of the nest" with Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers. Pages: 125
Year originally published: 2008
You might want to know: Barbara Frank has just released another book for teens titled Thriving in the 21st Century: Preparing Our Children for the New Economic Reality.
My source: I received this book complimentary in exchange for an honest review, but the opinion is all mine.
On Amazon: Life Prep for Homeschooling Teenagers by Barbara Frank
My thoughts: Life Prep for Homeschooling Teenagers is a fabulous starting place for any panicking parent of a teen. I know. I am one of those panicking parents.
As talk around the house turns to driving and plans for the future, as a homeschooling mom I wonder if we have focused too much on the reading and math. As I look at my growing kids, I'm wondering if diagramming sentences is a good lesson for life or should we focus on balancing a checkbook?
Thankfully, Barbara Frank has blazed that trail and written a book to to share her advice. Life Prep for Homeschooling Teenagers is laid out in an easy to read fashion, with information for the work-bound teenager as well as the college-bound teenager.
Personally, I was impressed with the reading list included in this book. The list is just the sort of "out of the box" reading list that I was looking for to fill in some educational gaps. It's easy to focus on books that colleges consider to be "the classics" but Ms. Frank's reading list covers books ranging from Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters' First 100 Years to the PBS video series Affluenza (which I have seen and enjoyed).
For me, the best part of Life Prep was the projects. Written in a workbook type format, this section allows teens to dream big, then springs a little reality on them. Got a teen looking at a fancy car? Have them explore price comparison, car purchasing and securing insurance using the study prompts found in the book. Got a teen dreaming of a job? Have them look at taxes to see just how big that paycheck might end up being.
If you have a teen you want to prepare them for all aspects of grown-up life. That can be a stressful thought. For me, I'm hoping to relax a little, enjoy my years with my teen and rely on Barbara Frank's Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers.
Sales! Freebies! Go to Currclick!
This just in direct from CurrClick:
It's CurrClick's "Back-to-the-Beach Sale and Freebie Event" going on now through June 30th. Readers will have fun searching for 8 hidden beach creatures (each containing a freebie!) plus get 40% OFF hundreds of awesome summer education curriculum choices.
Plus, don't forget to visit CurrClick's Facebook Page where readers can share freebie treasure hunt tips with each other.
Happy Summer, Everybody!
Happy Summer, Everybody!
Yes, with sales and freebies at CurrClick, it will be a Happy Summer indeed!
Have you seen the new plate?
Did you blink last week? Too bad. You might have missed it. Last week the U.S. government unveiled dietary guidelines.
The old Food Pyramid, established in 1992, is now about as relevant as those MC Hammer pants you were wearing when you first saw the pyramid. Out with the old and in with the new Food Plate guidelines.
Finally!
I have been asking friends and family if they have seen the new plate guidelines. And you know what? Not a SINGLE person had seen it! So in case you also missed it and you are looking for more info, here you go: Choose My Plate Guidelines
So what do you think of the plate? Personally, I like the new streamlined plate image. The plate is designed to get us thinking. Will every meal I eat have the same food group proportions shown on this plate? Definitely not. Will the plate image make me look at my daily food choices overall? Honestly, I really think it will.
The government also released a 15 page document of recipes that are color coordinated to match the plate. These recipes look pretty good, actually. Maybe I will reach for that second helping of salad after all!
Over the past 20 years, the Food Pyramid has had a few changes. Here is one version:
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| Holy macaroni! This Food Pyramid really is a messy visual disaster! |
Thoughts on the plate? Do your kids like the new plate? I printed off the picture of My Plate and taped it to a cabinet in our kitchen. We have already had several discussions with the kids about food choices and that is a very good thing.
Will you be there?
It's lots of fun and you can attend in your pajamas (and those lovely curlers)!
Don't be intimidated by the online idea. Sign up now, save the date on your calender.
When the date rolls around, I promise, it will be easy to find the links to the conference. Following along is as easy as watching a video or something like that on your computer.
You can do it! Try the online conference! Sign up today at Heart of the Matter Online.
I'll be there. Will you?
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