“The scene was intensely attractive. The thickness of the swamp made a dark, massive background below, while above towered gigantic trees. The men were calling jovially back and forth as they unharnessed tired horses that fell into attitudes of rest and crunched, in deep content, the grain given them. Duncan, the brawny Scotch head-teamster, lovingly…
Author: Sara Masarik
Curators of things Good, True, and Beautiful
Fall 2018: Memory Walk
I am not a morning person. I am, by nature, a night owl. I have, however, discerned that I need a quiet and prayerful start to every day. Stealing the term from Jen Mackintosh, I have dedicated 30-60 minutes every morning for my Mother’s Morning Basket. “Everyone of us needs half an hour of prayer…
Boys of Blur
When the sugarcane’s burning and the rabbits are running, look for the boys who are quicker than flame. Crouch. Stare through the smoke and let your eyes burn. Don’t blink. While cane leaves crackle and harvesters whir, while blades shatter armies of sugar-sweet sticks, watch for ghost in the smoke, for boys made of blur,…
Please Don’t Eat the Daises
“We are being very careful with our children.They’ll never have to pay a psychiatrist twenty-five dollars an hour to find out why we rejected them. We’ll tell them why we rejected them. Because they are impossible, that’s why…You take Christopher – and you may; he’s a slightly used eight-year-old… I watch him from the kitchen…
A Mother’s Rule of Life
In the early days of my homeschooling, I discovered a little gem that I have read and re-read throughout the last decade. A Mother’s Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot is an interesting book which has proved to be a valuable resource in my homeschool and spiritual life. Understanding that the home is not a…
Book Club: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Earlier this month, I hosted a Wonderful Wizard of Oz themed book club at Cathedral Book and Gift with 15 young readers. I think that of all of our book clubs to date, this was my favorite. I do like the Oz books, but that is not why this was my favorite. Last summer we…
Book Club: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Earlier this week, I hosted a book club at Cathedral Book and Gift for 34 readers aged 7-15. I was shocked by the number of registrations for this particular club because our book was Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a book which many find to be quite strange. During my years at Hillsdale College,…
Outlaws of Time III: The Last of the Lost Boys
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” – C. S. Lewis Reflecting on that C.S. Lewis quote, I cannot think of any exceptions to that rule. In Death By Living, N. D. Wilson writes: “…I write for children because I have read more…
Know and Tell: The Art of Narration
My homeschooling style can best be described as “relaxed classical” or “love of learning through living books.” In ordinary words, I am homeschooling for heaven not Harvard. That said, if God’s plan for my children includes Harvard, I want them to be adequately prepared to meet the challenge. In our homeschool, we are focused on…
The Hobbit Club
Last year at about this time, some friends and I decided to start a book club for us grownups (as opposed to the book clubs for young readers and teens that I was already doing). We settled on reading Tolkien with the aid of Joseph Pearce and our Hobbit Club was born. In our first…
Pickle-Chiffon Pie
Do you read dust jackets? Be honest. Do you? Do I? If I am honest, only sometimes. Last fall Jill Morgan sent me a box of some of her favorite Purple House Press books hoping that I would like them as much as she does. It turns out that I do. I. Really. Do. When…
Miss Jaster’s Garden
Miss Jaster’s Garden by illustrator turned author N. M. Bodecker is one of those picture books that every family library should have. The illustration has a daydream-like quality with soft watercolors, the story line is adorable and the kind that children love to giggle at, and the writing is charming and intelligent. If Anne Shirley-Blythe…
Purple House Press Picture Books
One of the things that I most looked forward to about becoming a mom was having a good excuse to read picture books again. There is something special about being able to escape everyday life and get lost between the pages of a magical imaginative, world that has been beautifully illustrated. When my oldest was…
Alexander
What is it about Alexanders and their no good days? One of my favorite books from my childhood is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. In that story, Alexander has one of those days wherein nothing goes right and he is his own worst enemy. Little kids find…
The Little Old Man Who Could Not Read
The Little Old Man Who Could Not Read by Irma Simonton Black is a tender tale about an old craftsman who loves his toy-making work so much that he fails to make time for other important things – like learning to read. In this funny but educational little story, children learn, through the toymaker’s experience, why…