The Avion My Uncle Flew

Then follows Nazi plots, new friends, language mixups, and last but not least, l’avion, built by oncle Paul, which is a central part of the story. Even if, like me, you’re not a plane enthusiast, you will become personally invested into this avion. 

The Door Before

In every book of Wilson’s middle-grade novels that I have read, the most true magic comes not from witches, wizards, dream walkers, or faeries. It comes from the powerful love of family. The characters in these stories are never fighting for themselves or the unknowable big wide world. They are always fighting for their own. In the most noble and heroic ways they are fighting for their siblings, for the parents, for their children, for cousins, and for those they have adopted into their families.

Mara’s Stories

This small book has 121 pages of stories that were told in and about the concentration camps. Stories that capture the heart and imagination of the listener. Stories that show a kind of resistance to darkness, a fierce clinging to all that makes us human, and a celebration of life. Gary D. Schmidt did extensive research on primary sources from folklorists, Jewish religious scholars, and Holocaust survivors. Some of the stories are happy and some are sad. Some are historical or biblical and some are about the moment right then. But each captures the essence of the people in that time and that place. And each reminds us of how to live – even when we are in the darkest night of our soul. 

Alexander the Great

This most fascinating story leaps off the page like an exciting novel. John Gunther’s writing is refined and like that of a master storyteller. He tells us just enough of Alexander’s life to make us impressed and curious. And, he tells it in such a way that we are eager to know more.

Frankenstein

This is not a story about a monster. Or at least not the kind of monster I was anticipating. There is no brainless creature terrorizing the countryside. The “Monster” was a created being with human thought and reasoning, emotion, and the capacity for ethics. But, the real monster in this novel is Dr. Frankenstein himself who created this being and then cruelly abandoned him. It is a riveting tale of the human condition. 

Pouring Iron

A Plumfield Kids book review by Jack, age 12

David Weitzman’s picture book Pouring Iron is about a foundry and a boy who, every time he goes to visit his grandparents, walks past a foundry and looks in, but it’s always too dark and dusty to see a thing. David Weitzman writes picture books about young people growing up in a trade that will become their life’s work. This particular book is on the business of ironworking.

The Story of D-Day: June 6, 1944

Starting in Chapter 12, we get powerful accounts of men who were bound and determined to do the right thing, no matter how terrifying, or useless. These men were the best of us. I thank them for their courage under fire. I want their stories to live in the minds and hearts of my children.

The Sinking of the Bismarck

Nothing went right. Until, through a combination of sheer determination and uncanny good luck, the Allies were able to sink the most important ship in the German navy. Failure to win this battle would probably have cost us the war. And one devastating error after another almost guaranteed the victory to the Germans. Only God knows how this came out right in the end. But, by His grace, it did.

The Happy Hollisters   

A Plumfield Kids Book Review by Jack, age 12

There are so many reasons why I love this series. One of them is that the author (Jerry West) was actually writing about his children. Now, obviously, his real children did not have the adventures that the Hollisters had.

Doctors Who Conquered Yellow Fever (Landmark Book) (PK)

I wish to be a nurse, and so naturally I find books about nursing and medical discoveries to be fascinating. I have been reading my way through the Landmark books and saw this one and had to read it. I found Ralph Nading Hill’s writing to be interesting and engaging, while still being right to the point. He also wrote Robert Fulton and the Steam Boat for the Landmark Books, when I saw that, I knew I had to read it as well, and, at the time of writing this, I am loving it.

Boxers & Saints (PK)

A Plumfield Kids Book Review by Lucy – The Chinese Boxer Revolution was no joke, and this book indeed captures the anger and hate of the Boxers trying to rid their country of the foreigners or “Foreign devils” (as they referred to them) and the holiness and bravery of the Christians trying to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

So Tall Within

I discovered that this book was available on Audible. Because my ears work better than my eyes, I began this journey with the audiobook. It was incredible! I listened twice. The narrator is absolute perfection, and when I reached for the picture book, her voice remained in my head and helped me to read this story as it should be. This allowed me to really pause and linger over the illustration by David Minter. Listening to my memory of the narrator, I was able to really see the pictures and know that they were very good.