The Tangled Skein by Alta Halverson Seymour is as wonderful as the Purple House Press cover is beautiful! Originally published in 1946, it was written on the heels of WWII, and captures the challenges of that very moment in Norway beautifully.
Tag: wwii
The Winged Watchman
A Plumfield Kids Book Review by Jack Masarik, age 11 “The Watchman . . .The Watchman . . . Joris looked at it in despair. Winged Watchman . . . guardian angel . . . his breath came in wheezy gasps. He heard footsteps coming closer. Soon he would not be able to run anymore;…
Combat Nurses of WWII (Landmark Book)
A Plumfield Kids Book Review by Greta Masarik, age 13 “To all of them–these heroic women who had voluntarily endangered themselves to heal broken bodies and broken spirits as well–the entire nation would owe an eternal debt of gratitude.” When we think of the heroes of WWII, more often than not, it’s the generals and…
The Mitchells: Canadian Summer & Friendly Gables
As always, however, little troubles happen. Despite their scrapes and scares, the family make some important friends, and end the summer with a beautiful home to move into. This is a delightful story about childhood at its most idyllic. My children think it is their favorite of the three books.
Hanna’s Cold Winter
Hanna’s Cold Winter by Trish Marx has the most perfectly written cadence for reading aloud! I read this lovely 32-page picture book as part of Morning Basket with my fifteen, thirteen, and eleven-year-olds. I wasn’t worried at all about whether or not they would find it “too young” because I knew the story was stimulating…
The Avion My Uncle Flew
I am a boy mama. I love boys. I especially love middle school and teenage boys. I love their curiosity, their creativity, their love of humor, and their sense of adventure. Finding books that speak to the virtues of boyhood is hard these days – but it wasn’t always so. In the golden age of…
The Borrowed House
“[Hilda van Stockum] says, ‘It is light that creates beauty in nature. Without light we can’t see, and all form is lost, whereas the most common and despised objects can be made beautiful by the light that plays on them. You don’t have to paint heroic scenes or idealized goddesses . . . a common…
Rowan Farm
Rowan Farm is a delightful sequel to Margot Benary-Isbert’s treasure, The Ark. This sequel picks up just a few weeks after The Ark concludes. I enjoyed this book. Rowan Farm is just as wholesome and enriching as the first. I am handing it to my 13-year-old without any concern except for one which I will…
The Ark
Oh, how I would have loved Margot Benary-Isbert’s The Ark when I was a teen! The Ark’s main character, Margaret Lechow, is a lovely soul whose sympathy with animals resonates with my own deep longing to have been raised on a farm. Like Margaret, I was never more comfortable anywhere than when I was at…
The Winged Watchman
Hilda van Stockum’s The Winged Watchman is an edge-of-your-seat adventure story that paints a vibrant but challenging picture of WWII life for Dutch families in German-occupied Holland. “Joris Verhagen was six years old when the Germans invaded Holland. At ten he could remember little of what it had been like before the war. Dirk Jan,…