Philomena

Reading aloud is hard. It is work, it requires focus, it demands stamina, and it usually requires good habits. Reading aloud, like almost anything truly valuable, is hard to do. Over the years, I have heard great mentors give the same piece of advice: choose a book you love. Reading aloud can be much easier…

Enemy Brothers

“England and her Allies aren’t just fighting the Axis countries – they’re fighting the evil spirits that have laid hold of Germany and Italy and Japan.” War always turns things on their heads. Real life during WWII was especially good at turning things inside out and upside down. During that creatively brutal time, so many…

Year of the Black Pony

“It took stiff-necked courage and grit to ranch in Oregon country in the early 1900’s.” The Year of the Black Pony is a story about family and fortitude more than it is a story about a horse. The horse, however, is a character worthy of being in the title. This hard but beautiful story is…

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,…

The Children of Noisy Village

Oh. Oh. Oh. This review breaks my heart, and it is wrong. 3 Stars – “The content is too old for kids in 2016. Too old school story.” (An Amazon Reviewer) Confession: I am not a big fan of Pippi Longstocking, also by Astrid Lindgren. I love the charm of Lindgren’s writing but Pippi’s unconventional…

The Hedge School

In 17th century Britain, the Protestant English settlers of Ireland had failed to assimilate the native Irish Catholics, and there was serious political and religious tension on the island. In 1641, native Irish landowners staged a rebellion against the English settlers and failed. A bloody, complicated, and chaotic series of events unfolded causing political, economic,…