Blog

As a homeschooling veteran, I review middle-grade stories to help parents, librarians, and teachers choose good books.

Look for author news here too!

 

Undercurrent by Michelle Griep, a review

What if, sometimes, people who go missing actually end up in another time? Michelle Griep asked herself this question and spun this story to answer it. In it, Englishwoman Dr. Cassie Larson takes some students on a short cruise in the North Sea. She buys a wooden brooch shaped like a wolf from a mysterious man. Back on the boat, the brooch falls overboard. She leans after it… and she falls too. A Viking is rowing across the North Sea, circa 900 AD.

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Unearthly by Cynthia Hand, a review

Clara has a hard time believing she’s an angel, until her mother shows Clara her mother’s wings. Clara finds she has them too. Each part-angel, says her mother, has a Purpose which is revealed when he or she is a teenager through visions. It’s very important to do what the visions are telling you to do, to fulfill your Purpose. Otherwise, apparently, you may end up as a Dark Wing, the disobedient angels with black wings who are absolutely up to no good.

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Help with making a blog

Want help making a blog? Over at MotherboardBooks.com, my computer-book publishing company for homeschoolers, I’ve been wanting to offer a product that shows newbies how to make a blog website. Here’s why: regular blog entries bring your website to the attention of the search engines. That’s a very good thing. The higher your Google ranking, the more readers you’ll have, because your site will be easier to find. I’ve converted nearly all my websites to blogs!

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Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore, a review

Ron Hall’s flirtation with the wealthy lifestyle leads him down the path of infidelity. His wife, Debbie, forgives him, and together they embark on a new project of her choosing–ministering to the homeless in Fort Worth, Texas. Ron finds himself serving food every Tuesday.

Debbie’s had a dream about a man who is, in the words of Ecclesiastes, “A wise man who changes the city.” She points out the man to Ron–a tall taciturn, angry black man. Befriend that man, she tells him.

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Lucky Baby by Meredith Efken, a review

Meg Lindsay is a Christian woman who is still affected by her controlling, mean mother. Finally she gets around her wounded heart enough to want to be a mother herself–specifically, to adopt a child from China. It takes some fast talking before her geeky atheist husband, Lewis, gets on board with the idea.

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Reinventing Rachel, a review

Californian Rachel Westing has been a good Christian girl, doing all the things she’s expected to do, and God’s responded with good things for her. Then all of a sudden everything comes crashing down.

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Softly and Tenderly by Sara Evans with Rachel Hauck, a review

Jade lives in Tennesse in a small town dominated by her in-laws, under pressure to get pregnant from her lawyer husband. But she keeps having miscarriages. Then she finds out her in-laws’ marriage is a wreck under the surface. Her husband tries to beat his addiction to perscription pain killers. Her mother, who has come to stay with her, is dying of leukemia. It sounds like she’s living a Southern soap opera.

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