I would like to think that L.M. Montgomery needs no introduction. There, that was short and sweet! I do believe most of us have at least heard of Anne of Green Gables, the book, the character, that made Montgomery famous. It is difficult now to believe that after several rejections from publishers, Montgomery stuck…
Author: Diane Pendergraft
A Tangled Web
Oh, such a tediously tangled web! I considered taking notes as I read so I could keep characters straight. I kept thinking the cast would eventually resolve into a few manageable main characters and I would figure out which I was supposed to care about. It didn’t and I didn’t. In three generations sixty Darks…
Emily’s Quest
It seems that even in the 1920s there must have been some demand for trilogies. As much as I love Emily herself, I think Montgomery might have done better to have resolved all the love affairs in a longer second book. In this book we see Emily grow into an admirable, caring woman intent on…
Emily Climbs
In this sequel to Emily of New Moon, Emily is 14 years old and has successfully graduated from the local country school. In order for Emily to go on to high school, she has to board in town with nasty, suspicious Aunt Ruth. Aunt Ruth is a trial to Emily because if she doesn’t understand…
Kilmeny of the Orchard
L.M. Montgomery’s Kilmeny of the Orchard is a stand-alone short novel published two years after Anne of Green Gables. Try as I might, I couldn’t help comparing the two as I read Kilmeny. Is this from the same pen from which Anne flowed into the hearts of thousands of girls around the world? “Eric Marshall,…
All of a Kind Family
I didn’t read Sydney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind Family until I was homeschooling my children. My first thought was, “Why didn’t I know about this sweet story when I was a child?” The first book in the series was published in 1951. June Cummins, who wrote the foreward for a 2014 edition of More All-of-a-Kind Family, says…
Emily of New Moon
Besides loving L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables because it’s a great story with a timelessly loveable heroine, it is special to me because it is one of the few books my mom introduced me to that she had loved when she was young. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon is special to me because…
A Muse Meant
muse: “to consider reflectively; a state of deep reflection or meditation.” (Webster’s II, 1984) I require time to muse. One thing I’ve been musing about lately is how often we a muse ourselves. The etymology of the word amuse gives me pause. From the Old French, amuser, to stupefy; from Latin, a, meaning “to” +…
Kavik the Wolf Dog
Kavik the Wolf Dog, by Walt Morey I see by the listing of several of our addresses on the flyleaf in my immature handwriting, that I loved this book between the ages of about 10 and 14. As I reread it this week, I was struck by how familiar the beginning scenes were. I wish I…
Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer
John Grisham is one of my favorite living authors. He’s one of the few for whom I’ll take a two or three day break from other reading when I hear he’s come out with a new book. He doesn’t exactly qualify, to me, as brain candy, but he’s definitely a brain vacation. Years ago I…
Pronunciation
Part of our Spelling Series: Five days a week I spend a large portion of each morning teaching spelling. I watch children working, like ancient scribes, to represent their speech sounds with the symbols I am teaching them. I do teach standard spelling. I do not teach them to spell any way that feels right, but…
Charlie the Lonesome Cougar
I have been packing around a paperback copy of Charlie the Lonesome Cougar for almost 50 years now. The title is from a Disney movie that came out in 1967. I may have watched the movie on a Sunday evening “Wonderful World of Disney.” Perhaps at a drive-in theater! In 1968, Scholastic Books published a…
Why Won’t They Read? Children Aren’t Reading Well Today.
The author’s early reading of the Raggedy Ann books gave way to a preference for animal stories, valuing virtues over modern, frivolous children’s literature.
-ible, -able Endings
Part of our Spelling Series: There are some things that most of us readers and speakers of English just know. The letter q is always followed by u. I don’t care what the Scrabble Dictionary says. Though si sometimes sounds like sh (session), I don’t remember ever seeing anyone trying to use si for the sh…
Live on the Rest
The new school year looms. I feel more apprehension than excitement. Like Martha, I am anxious and troubled about many things, most of them months away. Yesterday I was reminded of a story that became personal this time. Remember the prophet’s widow (II Kings 4) who goes to Elisha for help? Her husband has died…