Archive for the ‘Conceptual: 8 and up’ Category

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Book review: Conrad’s Fate

Saturday, November 18th, 2006

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Author:Diana Wynne Jones
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:2005

Either Diana Wynne Jones must have had a truly rocky relationship with her uncle, and found that her mother did not protect her from him, or else she's just got a thing against uncles. In any case, evil uncles are major drivers of plots in Jones' intriguing set of worlds, as Conrad Tesdinic, the 12 yr. old narrator of this book, learns. Conrad's uncle is every bit as evil in his own ways as Christopher Chant's (who becomes the Chrestomanci in Diana Wynne Jones' universe) was to him.

A 16 yr. old Christopher Chant and his future wife, Millie, play supporting roles in this, the eventful, but not frenetic story of how Conrad avoids the terrible fate his uncle attempts to foist upon him and instead finds himself a mentor.

My now-11 year old and I really enjoy our glimpses into Diana Wynne Jones' multiple alternative universes, in which the outcomes of historical events led to the preeminence of technology in some universes and the preeminence of magic in others.

Although Conrad's Fate stands well on its own, we recommend that readers enter this interesting and complicated universe by reading at least A Charmed Life and then The Lives of Christopher Chant before reading this one.
Similar books

If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 6: Conrad's Fate

Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed

Review: The Well-Trained Mind

Thursday, October 19th, 2006

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a review by the mother of a gifted homeschooler

I’ve now read TWTM twice and have had time to think about it a bit. I like SOME things about classical education in general and TWTM in particular, but others, I’m not too keen on.

First of all, Piaget’s stages of development have been known to be incorrect for years (even though they’re often taught in psych 101). They just aren’t true.

Having a true \”grammar stage\” would be acceptable to some students but just plain painful to most gifted ones–and beyond that, for math, at least, it is simply counter-productive. For example, TWTM predictably likes Saxon math, with its emphasis on rote memorization and the execution of algorthims as a substitute for actual mathematical thinking. While many gifted children will accept this, it is not a good idea. There is, quite frankly, a very good reason that Susan Wise Bauer did not major in science, mathematics, or engineering. Most classical education curricula provide a very poor background for these things. The prediction in TWTM that students will find upper level math and science \”hard\” is not representative of the difficulty of the subject so much as the completely lack of decent preparation.

Memorization of facts, which is an emphasis of a classical education, provides a framework around which everything else you learn can be hung. Whether it’s dates or mathematical facts (and this from someone who HATED memorizing math facts), there are certain tools that are important to build a body of knowledge upon.

Also, many schools now completely neglect all language arts, and classical programs usually offer a very good program for those. History is often dreadfully dull and incoherent as presented in schools, and most classical plans make it important, relevent, coherent, and at least fairly interesting. Primary sources are important, but they are not the be-all and end-all of math or science or history studies for very important reasons.

For a subject-by-subject critique of TWTM from my point of view, since it’s the most popular book on classical education, click here.

— Sophia

www.notadestination.com

Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: 8 and up, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Conceptual: age 5 and under, Conceptual: age 5 and up, Conceptual: highly sophisticated, Culture, Gifted, History, Homeschool, Math, Reading level: age 12 and up, Reading level: age 5 and up, Reading level: age 8 and up, Reading level: Sophisticated reader, School, Science | Comments Closed

Book review: The Wee Free Men

Tuesday, October 10th, 2006

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Author:Terry Pratchett
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:2003

The Wee Free Men is a very enjoyable book about a nine year old girl named Tiffany Aching and her unexpected friends, the Nac Mac Feegle. I liked this book VERY much and it was fun to read. It is wacky in a normal way.

Tiffany lives on a farm peacefully if not a bit bored-ly until she meets the Feegles, and together they have to save the day.


I also really enjoyed reading the sequel, A Hat Full of Sky.

-- Fizzy, age 11


If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Wee Free Men, The

Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: 8 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up | Comments Closed

Book review: Mister Monday (Book 1 of the Keys to the Kingdom Series)

Monday, October 2nd, 2006

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Author:Garth Nix
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:2003

Creepy, kind of random horror story, featuring an asthmatic protagonist.

There are many fantasy books for children. I found little of interest in this one. For an opposing view, please see this book report by a ten year old fan of the Keys To the Kingdom series. -- Emily Berk

If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Mister Monday (Book 1 of the Keys to the Kingdom Series)

Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Fiction, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed

Book review: Molly Moon’s Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure (Book 3)

Wednesday, September 27th, 2006

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Author:Georgia Byng
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:2005

We had not read the first two books of this series when we read this one, and that was not a problem. Apparently, earlier in the series, Molly Moon escapes from the dreary orphanage in which she is confined by becoming a master hypnotist and defeating her uncle, who is an evil madman.

In this episode, Molly must learn to travel through time so she can rescue her beloved dog, Petula, her friends Forest and Rocky, and her earlier selves, all of whom have been kidnapped from the present to India in the 1870s.

The plot is twisty and interesting and Molly is a wonderful role model for gifted children. She has obviously had to work hard to learn to be a great hypnotist in previous books. Now that Molly is possibly the best hypnotist in the world, there are still other challenging skills she needs to work hard to learn. Skills that some adults around her have mastered and other adults are just adequate at doing. Time-travel for one.

Another endearing trait that Molly has is that she is very aware both of her great abilities and of her shortcomings. The all-knowing narrator of the book takes especial care to let us know what Molly is thinking when she masters her self-doubts, carefully thinks through her options, and then puts her all into implementing whatever solution she thinks will work best.



-- Emily Berk

If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure (Book 3)

Posted in Animals, Conceptual: 8 and up, Culture, Dealing with bullies, Dickensian, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science Fiction | Comments Closed

Book review: Freak the Mighty

Saturday, September 16th, 2006

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Author:Rodman Philbrick
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:1993

When I was young and feeling lonely, isolated, ridiculed by my fellow students, my father, one of those hugely gifted people who thrives with little interaction with other people because he is constantly obsessed by projects of his own, would suggest that I reach out to "other lonely children" and make friends with them. I never really found that forging alliances with other "outcasts" made me feel better when those in the "In Group" made fun of my clothes, hair, etc. Freak the Mighty is one of those novels in which the alliance of the weak prevails.

And, Sad Ending Alert. The foreshadowing is quite subtle, so it might come as a shock to young readers.

In Freak the Mighty, the physically imposing narrator is living with his grandparents who fear that he has inherited the evil nature of his father, who is in prison. The narrator befriends an intellectually gifted but physically frail neighbor. By combining their gifts, they can travel far and not get lost; they can find proper placement in the school's advanced classes. And together, they triumph over bullies adolescent and grown, the narrator's learning disability is diagnosed, and he learns to appreciate dictionaries, reading, and learning.

As with Hoot, the plot is involving, but, as with Hoot, I felt as if the novel's promise that adults and peers will eventually come to their senses and recognize/honor the child's worth and Do the Right Thing(s) may not jibe with how the world usually works. (For example, even if their test scores don't reflect it, let them participate in the gifted program even though that might "not be fair" to other students.)

-- Emily Berk

If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Freak the Mighty

Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, School | Comments Closed

Book review: A Hat Full of Sky

Tuesday, September 12th, 2006

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Author:Terry Pratchett
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:2005

A Hat Full of Sky is the sequel to the Wee Free Men. It is about an eleven-year old girl named Tiffany Aching, who is training to be a witch, and the Nac-Mac-Feegle (Wee Free Men), who are fairies (but do NOT call them that unless you want to be seriously injured).

Tiffany is a very unusual witch, because she's from the Chalk Land. In fact, Tiffany is actually the ONLY official witch of the Chalk. She is also the Hag of the Chalk Land, which means that it is her job to protect the Chalk. (She tells it what it is; it tells her what she is.)

When something evil comes to the Chalk, Tiffany has to make it go away.

-- Fizzy, age 11


An adult's view...

The Hat Full of Sky of the title is Tiffany's witch's hat. For services rendered in the first book in this series (The Wee Free Men), Tiffany is anointed with the invisible but meaningful hat of the Head Witch. And throughout the book, Tiffany wrestles with whether to proclaim to the world that she is indeed a witch (by putting on a hat that everyone can actually see), with whether to accept the responsibilities as well as the honors accorded to witches, and with whether she is qualified to succeed her illustrious grandmother and talented enough to conquer the evil and the self-doubt that threaten her land and herself.

Pratchett seems to think that, yes, Tiffany is indeed talented enough, and she needs to know that, but no need to admit to the rest of the world that she really is magical. So, here's a child allowed to be special enough to save her Land, but she's not to be too special. And Tiffany is not the only one who is pressured to conform. Her Teacher is another special one. As the plot progresses, the feature that makes her special is mitigated so -- no more problem -- the specialness is gone.

My daughter really enjoyed reading this series, as did I. But as the end of this book approached, I came to realize that if one wears an invisible witch's hat, one does not have to admit to oneself or to anyone else that one is special/magical. Kind of like the Rainbow Fish, who gives away all his colorfulness, so that he can be just like all his new friends, who were not very accepting of his uniqueness. Is this the message we want to convey to the heroes in our society? (It's fine to sacrifice your all for our good, but please don't admit that you have qualities that we do not have.) Just asking.

So, anyway, both my daughter and I also enjoyed reading Stargirl, which weighed much less on my mind than Hat Full.  

If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Hat Full of Sky, A

Posted in Conceptual: 8 and up, Dealing with bullies, Dragons and/or mythological beasts, Fairy tales, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, School | Comments Closed

Book review: Charlotte’s Web

Monday, September 11th, 2006

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Author:E.B. White
Illustrator:Garth Williams
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 5 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:1952

Updated Sept. 11, 2006:

My then-10 year old daughter fixed her eyes on me, eyes that implied that she'd just realized that a Truth had been withheld from her, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

"So, Mom," she said, "It seems as if what a fiction book is about is not really what it's about. Is it?"

"Hmmm," I answered. "What you mean is that a story is not just about its plot. Sometimes, often, in fact, a story has a message and the message is conveyed by the plot, but also by the author's choices of words. The message is sometimes called the theme of the book. It's what the author wants you to learn from reading the book. It's why authors go to all the trouble of writing books."

Which brings us to Charlotte's Web. Charlotte's Web has long been a favorite of mine and my daughter enjoyed listening to it for a year or two when she was very young. But when dear daughter (dd) was around four, her best friend was diagnosed with a disease that was, at the time, almost always fatal. We happened at the time to be listening to the audio book version of Charlotte's Web as read by the author, E.B. White. So, there we are in the car, listening, and dd asks, "Is L. going to die?" I turn the tape player off and answer that I don't know. Dd says "I don't like Charlotte's Web. And what did Cinderella's mother die of?"

I explain that in those times long ago, nearly everyone was more likely to die but that women of childbearing age were particularly at risk. Dd asked, "So, are you going to die? Am I going to die?" ....

For years after that conversation, dd did not willingly read or listen to Charlotte's Web. I believe that this is because, more than any other children's book that I have read, Charlotte's Web is about death as a normal consequence of living. And, no, I'm not saying that children/people never die in books, but they die romantically as in At the Back Of the North Wind or they die unexpectedly young at the hands of Evil Doers or they die off-screen, like Cinderella's mother. (Dd's friend lives and thrives, thank goodness.)

Throughout Charlotte's Web, starting with the first chapter, Wilbur the pig's life is at risk. In the beginning, it's because he is a runt, a child who lacks the health/strength necessary for his mom and the farmer to be willing to care for him.

Later, now healthy if small, naive, and unremarkable, Wilbur's life is still in jeopardy because he is a pig and it is normal for pigs raised on farms to be slaughtered for Christmas dinner.

Wilbur is forced to become remarkable, or to at least seem remarkable in order to survive. Which, I think, is one of the reasons that I love, and my dd loved the story. Some of us are actually remarkable, and we've found over the years that being remarkable is not always the best thing for a person to be.

Charlotte's Web is still not my daughter's favorite book, although it remains one of mine. If your child is a sensitive reader, it might be best to read Charlotte's Web with them, rather than on their own.

Or, if you want them to read E.B. White's amazing, elegant prose in service to a less stark plot, encourage them to read the equally quirky and beautiful Trumpet of the Swan, in which death does not play a central role.

Original posting on Monday, November 26th, 2001:

For her own reading, the six-year old is back to Charlotte's Web. It's an interesting book. The vocabulary is very technical, actually. Many descriptions of the goings-on at a farm. And words like "Frigidaire", "phoebe" (the bird), "interlude" -- make reading slow if the child wants to know what every single word means. We go from the child reading about life, death and friendship and discussing these concepts with us as she reads, "...do you realize that if I didn't catch bugs and eat them, bugs would increase and multiply and get so numerous that they'd destroy the earth, wipe out everything..." and "... what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsty -- everything I don't like. ..." to US reading to her "The B. stands for Beatrice, but I just like B that's all." (Junie B. Jones)
--Emily

If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Charlotte's Web

Posted in Animals, Conceptual: 8 and up, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Fiction, Reading level: age 5 and up | Comments Closed

Book review: The Jungle Book

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

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Author:Rudyard Kipling
Illustrator:Jerry Pinkney
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Sophisticated readers
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:1894

"At this point, reading pretty much any book is very easy for me. So what's important to me is how the book is written and what it's about," my 11 year old said to me recently.

"Then what about The Jungle Book? Did you find that easy to read?"

"Well, no, actually. It was very hard. But beautiful."

Rudyard Kipling's century-old story may be the perfect book for advanced but very young readers to tackle. The plot is involving, the characters -- people and animals -- think and act like individuals you might have met. But what's truly captivating about the book is the language Kipling uses.

My daughter's only misgiving about the book: It's clear that Kipling does not hold monkeys in high regard. Unlike people who do not even know of the Law of the Jungle, monkeys know of the Law, but refuse to submit to it. Monkeys are dear daughter's favorite animals. She will need to write her own book, in which they state their reasons for their recalcitrance.

In terms of the monkeys and the plot in general, it turns out that Disney's animated movie, Jungle Book, stays pretty close to the original book. And it's got some wonderful music and voices as well. Too bad I won't be recommending anything Disney for the next year or so.

Anyway, this book is better than any movie.

The hardcover to which this review links also includes the stirring story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a very brave little mongoose.

There are many thees and thous in Jungle Book, which make parsing some sentences challenging. But the ideas described in these complicated sentences and long chapters (each one a tale that pretty much stands on its own) are thrilling.

For example, one chapter tells how Mowgli, the wolf boy, organizes his pack to stop the marauding gang of over 200 dholes, red dogs, which threaten to stampede through the jungle, ripping every animal they come upon to shreds. There is much blood shed, unavoidable bloodshed, and Akela, who led the wolf pack when it adopted Mowgli, is mortally wounded:

"Said I not it would be my last fight?" Akela gasped. "It is good hunting. And thou, Little Brother?"

"I live, having killed many." [responds Mowgli]

"Even so, I die..."
"So why does he say 'Good hunting' if he's dying?" my daughter asks? (Dear daughter was prepared for this death, although she is very sad about it. Akela is old and prepared to die.)

Well, in the book, 'Good hunting' is a greeting, like, 'Shalom' that means both 'hello' and 'good bye'. And also, Mowgli's plan has succeeded, so it has been good hunting, even though Akela was mortally wounded. And also, it is the wolf's way to kill and be killed, in accordance with the Law of the Jungle. So many layers of meaning expressed in just a very few words!

This chapter, like all of them, beautifully shows the power of that Law. You kill only when you have been gravely wronged. You make sure bullies do not harm you or those for whom you are responsible. But you don't act out of malice or greed, and you act in concert with your friends and brothers.

Highly recommended for advanced young readers.



-- Emily Berk

If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Jungle Book, The

Posted in Animals, Child-raising, Conceptual: 8 and up, Dealing with bullies, Death is a central theme, Fiction, Homeschool, Reading level: Sophisticated reader | Comments Closed

Book review: Pilgrim At Tinker Creek

Saturday, August 12th, 2006

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Author:Annie Dillard
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 8 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:non-fiction
Year of publication:1974

I have always been squeamish.

And yet, Annie Dillard's beautiful yet clear-eyed vignettes about the resplendence and horrors of the natural world captivate me.

A must-read for any budding naturalist.

See also An American Childhood, a memoir by the same author. This one doesn't tell you exactly how Dillard became the astute observer of nature revealed in Pilgrim, but it does focus those same astute eyes on life in Pittsburgh, PA in the fifties.


If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Pilgrim At Tinker Creek

Posted in Animals, Biography, Conceptual: 8 and up, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up, Science | Comments Closed

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