Archive for the ‘Gifted’ Category

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Book review: Kim

Saturday, December 16th, 2006

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Author:Rudyard Kipling
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 12 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Sophisticated readers
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:1901

When we finally read (and then re-read) the last page of Kim, my barely 12 year-old said to me, "I loved this story. I love Kim. But no more Kipling for a while. It is too hard."

We started reading Kim together in early fall. We finished in mid-December. The difficulty of:

  • The language (and there are many languages used here: British English, of course, but also Irish, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, others we probably don't know the names of...)
  • The concepts: Tibetan Buddhist vs. Hindu religious beliefs, Islamic concepts, the differences between Catholic and Protestant attitudes, and
  • The politics: What are the Russians, French, British, and the various native Indians trying to accomplish in all their complicated plots
made reading the book a long-term investment.

Some days, we could manage only a few pages, because we had to pause to analyze what had happened, or because we couldn't understand a religious practice, or the meaning of a word distracted us.

Kim is like Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell meet James Bond meet Harriet the Spy, only harder.

Not a book to be read when one is tired.

The novel describes Kim's path to enlightenment, adulthood, and employment as a British spy. We walk with Kim, the young, orphanned son of an English soldier, as he grows up to be Friend of All the World, the perfect chela (caregiver to a Tibetan monk), and player of The Game (spy). And as we adventure with Kim and the lama with whom he strives to "escape the Wheel", we come to know representatives of nearly all the religious sects and political players in colonial India.

Highly recommended for very advanced young readers.



-- Emily Berk

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

Posted in Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Fiction, Gifted, History, Reading level: Sophisticated reader | Comments Closed

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

Book review: The Songcatcher

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

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Author:Sharyn McCrumb
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 12 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction, historical
Year of publication:2002

The book is actually the history of a song, rather than a story about a person who catches songs. And/or it's the story of how a song gets caught.

In telling the tale of the song, McCrumb helps us learn the history of a special region of Appalachia -- the beautiful, remote, hilly part that straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.

We learn, in "their own voices", of the boy who was stolen from his home island in Scotland and so brought the song to the New World, of his hard life during the Revolutionary War, and of his journey to Appalachia. The song then leads us into the mind of a Confederate soldier in the Civil War, which in this part of the country, literally pitched neighbor against neighbor, few of whom cared all that much for the Northern OR Southern cause. Because the song continuously eludes capture by the songcatchers, we then follow its course through family of a young girl in the early twentieth century and then into the mind of another soldier in World War II and then into the later twentieth century.

In each historical period, the song's lyric "When she/he came home, she was a-change-ed, oh" proves true both for those who go to war and for those to whom the war comes home.

Highly recommended for advanced young readers.

Note: The violence, suffering, and death caused by wars are described in short, sharp, riveting, but horrifying bursts that punctuate many of the stories told by the song's custodians.

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

Posted in Biography, Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up | Comments Closed

Book review: The Ruins of California

Sunday, October 29th, 2006

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Author:Martha Sherrill
Reading Level (Conceptual):For grown-ups
Reading Level (Vocabulary):For grown-ups
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:2006

Not a travel book (Ruin can be taken to mean many things in the story, including the last name of the girl narrator), but a fairy tale about parenting in the maelstrom of drugs, sexual freedom, alcohol, style, and serial divorce that was California in the 1970's (and perhaps still today).

The moral of the story? Perhaps that teaching one's children to observe closely and act on their observations is more important than preaching a strict morality that is no longer adhered to by grown-ups, teenagers, or even those who preach it.

-- Emily Berk

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

Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: for grown ups, Culture, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, History, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: Grown up | Comments Closed

Book review: The Trumpet of the Swan

Thursday, October 26th, 2006

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Author:E.B. White
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 5 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 5 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:1970

I won't label this a book about matter-of-factly overcoming one's disabilities; it's so much better than that. I guess what it really is is a book about how one voiceless swan found his bliss (and his voice), and it provides lessons in how we can find ours. The book on 4 CDs narrated by the author is worth many listens.

-- Emily
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Trumpet of the Swan, The

Posted in Animals, Conceptual: age 5 and up, Culture, Fiction, Gifted, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: age 5 and up | Comments Closed

Book review: Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom – Strategies and Techniques Every Teacher Can Use to Meet the Academic Needs of the Gifted and Talented

Wednesday, October 25th, 2006

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Author:Susan Winebrenner
Reading Level (Conceptual):For grown-ups
Reading Level (Vocabulary):For grown-ups
Genre:Non-fiction; education
Year of publication:1992

If you're going to get one book and your child is in school, get this one.
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If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom : Strategies and Techniques Every Teacher Can Use to Meet the Academic Needs of the Gifted and Talented

Posted in Conceptual: for grown ups, Gifted, Homeschool, Math, Parenting gifted children, Reading level: Grown up, School | Comments Closed

Book review: Where I’d Like To Be

Monday, October 23rd, 2006

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Author:Frances O'Roark Dowell
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 12 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 8 and up
Genre:fiction
Year of publication:2003

A group of children abandoned to a group home and an apparently Asperger's-spectrum, intellectually gifted child, are united by a love of architecture, or building, at least, scrap-booking, and the stories told by an overly-imaginative housemate.

Not hard to read, although the stories of how the children came to live in the home are sad.

The book gets readers thinking about the fine line between imagination and lying, the need to escape mundane realities sometimes -- especially when one's life is nearly unbearable, and about the power of caring friends and adults.

-- Emily Berk

If you found this review helpful and/or interesting, consider supporting our book habit: Buy this book!: Where I'd Like To Be

Posted in Child-raising, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Female protagonist, Fiction, Gifted, Reading level: age 8 and up | 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: Galileo’s Daughter

Saturday, October 14th, 2006

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Author:Dava Sobel
Reading Level (Conceptual):Children 12 and up
Reading Level (Vocabulary):Children 12 and up
Genre:Non-fiction
Year of publication:1999

The story of Galileo's daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, is mostly peripheral to the story of Galileo himself, in this non-fictional biography. Along with interesting details about what life was like for the illegitimate daughter of a famous scientist in the late 16th century, the book also concentrates on the Catholic Church's determined and successful attempt to get Galileo to renounce his conclusion that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa.

Reading about the Inquisition which forced Galileo to choose between his deep faith and what he knew to be scientific fact, I was reminded of the later, fictional, 1984 and Darkness At Noon, and the non-fictional Reading Lolita in Tehran and the recent efforts in the United States to ban the teaching of evolution. What is it about power that drives people in authority to force scientists to renounce what they know for what the powers-that-be think they should profess?

In Galileo's case, it seems to me, many of those who reviewed his writings understood that Galileo was correct. And yet, what was required was Obedience rather than Truth.

Why does this happen? Is it, as Ayn Rand seems to think, because those lacking in intellectual gifts resent those who are more intelligent than they are? Or, can it be that theologists and ideologists truly believe that what they believe is not only true, but also that anyone who disagrees must be destroyed?

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

Posted in Biography, Conceptual: age 12 and up, Culture, Death is a central theme, Female protagonist, Gifted, History, Reading level: age 12 and up, 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

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