THE LADY'S MINE by Francine Rivers Christian writer Francine Rivers is back with a delightful Western set in a small mining town in the Sierra Nevadas. The Lady's Mine (I just love titles with more than 1 meaning!) is the story of Kathryn Walsh, a young woman, who is rejected by her wealthy, socialite stepfather and mother. Their parting gift to her is her murdered uncle's "estate." This consists of a filthy house with a printing press and an abandoned mine in the very tiny, unsophisticated, mainly populated by men, town of Calvada. Even though marriage is the farthest thing from Kathryn's mind, it's very much on the minds of the men in this one horse town. She's much more interested in controlling her own future by using the press and exploring the mine, but was it because of these things her uncle died? Francine Rivers is not a Christian writer that shies away from trouble/problems. Themes like desire pop up with regards to wealth and women. Prostitutes are written about. Men utter a "curse or oath" although the actual word is not spoken. There is a reality that is portrayed through her pages, but then there is a clear decision point in her characters' lives where a choice must be made - continue with a new life in Christ or keep following the old path of destruction. Not every character chooses the new life, but unfortunately that's what we experience in real life as well.

HOT DOG by Doug Salati How many of you have checked out this year's Caldecott winner? If you haven't, Hot Dog by Doug Salati is worth it! No matter if you have a dog or not, anyone can relate to hot summer days and the desire to find a quiet, cool spot! We recently spent a week at the beach, and after reading this book I was envisioning bringing our Australian Shepherd to the beach to see how she would act in the waves and on the beach. (This dream was short lived with the thought of packing her into our Suburban with 5 kids, and making the almost 14 hour trip with her serious carsickness issues.) The point is this is the type of book that pulls you in and you can envision! Since it's a Caldecott winner, let's talk artwork for a minute. This isn't your traditional, beautiful art book. It has a cartoonish feel to it, but it's fantastic none the less! It gives the book an element of fun since we are dealing with a sweet, little dog. The first several pages are filled with lots of reds, oranges, and yellows as heat resonates off the pages! As soon as we leave the city the color palette changes to blues and greens and an air of Ahhhh fills our minds! Delightful! One last note. If you need a fun way to teach alliteration and onomatopoeia, this is it! The pages are filled with examples. The moral of the story, pass this one on to all your kiddos, no matter their age!

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY by Bonnie Garmus SPOILER ALERT To actually talk about this book you are going to have to know what happens. There is a lot I don't share, but this is the main gist of the book. I know I said I have a busy week and wasn't going to post, but I finished reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I didn't want to forget my thoughts before getting to this post, so here goes! Lessons in Chemistry is big in the reading world right now. I belong to a couple different Facebook reading groups and there is a lot of chatter about this book. Set in the 1960s but bouncing back into the 1950s, we follow the life of chemistry genius Elizabeth Zott. Working in a male domineering world where it is thought she should be barefoot, pregnant, and stirring a pot in the kitchen, she just wants the recognition she never receives, but deserves, for her work. Zott sets herself on a trajectory to save what she thinks is a cultural abuse on women that expects them to give up all hopes and dreams to stay at home, and keep the home fires burning. But that's not where it ends. Zott has had an extremely complicated life beginning with her father and mother. Her father was a preacher convicted later for tax evasion. That's not it, though. Her only beloved sibling, a brother, is discovered to be gay. (Zott already knew this and was fine with it.) The father told him that God hated him, so he went out and hung himself. Elizabeth was 10 years old when this happened, her brother 16. Elizabeth Zott has determined to never give anyone authority over her. When she falls in love with a brilliant scientist, she refuses to marry him. Instead they end up living together. Through an unfortunate happening he died, and she finds out she is pregnant. The complications continue to grow. Zott ends up fired from her job, and through a random series of events is offered a job as the host of a cooking food show. This goes against everything that she stands for, but she has a child to feed. She takes it, but refuses to become the stereo-typical smiling, beautiful clothes and make-up host. No, she sets out to teach women chemistry in the kitchen, to give them hope outside the four walls they find themselves trapped in. The book deals with so much more than this thread I've given you. It includes topics such as rape in the workplace, sexual abuse in a boys home, value of life -people are just animals, etc, etc. BUT EVERYTHING BOILS DOWN TO ONE THING - a complete and utter rejection of God. When asked multiple times throughout the book about her feelings about God, especially since she is in a science related field, she emphatically denies Him. I have to ask myself if I can blame her after all that she has been through and the answer may surprise you. No, I can't. BUT, and there's a lot in this but, she hasn't come to know the TRUE GOD. Her parents actions were not representing God. Her co-workers were not demonstrating God. Honestly, I walk away from a book like this intensely sad that this is someone's view on God, because it is! This author, Bonnie Garmus, is speaking to us! My heart weeps for her that this is her view. This book is nothing more than a human trying in her own power to take the shreds of her life and piece them together. I pray that the author has an encounter with someone who can introduce her to the real Savior! HEADS UP- Alongside all the other things mentioned, there is language. There are f-bombs that pop up periodically.

THE HUMMING ROOM by Ellen Potter I have been feeling like Mary Lennox over the past few days. Cleaning out the garden beds from last year, I came across some cilantro, dill, and tomato plants that have reseeded themselves and are valiantly pushing through the weeds. I admit I get a thrill when I see those little plants soldering through the weeds. I imagine that's how Mary felt in the Secret Garden when she discovered the little green shoots poking up through the earth. I'm sure you're all very familiar with Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, but did you know there's a modern version? The Humming Room is Ellen Potter's rewrite, and its foundation is close enough to the original to recognize its predecessor but fresh enough that it brings its own story to the table. Roo Fanshaw's father is dead. Her mother, well, she was just one of the many girlfriends her father had at one time. She's long gone. Now the police are at the door with a lady she doesn't know to take her to an uncle she's never even heard of. His house? Oh it's enormous, but it's an abandoned tuberculosis sanitarium in the middle of Cough Rock Island. The house is heavy with grief, and it all circles around a locked room of the house, an atrium filled with secrets. HEADS UP- There is a little bit of native magic.The wife had a certain flower that was called liana, also known as the tongue of the jungle spirits. By whispering someone's name to its tip three times it calls to them. This is how her uncle is called back home. Roo also listens to the ground. She has the gift of hearing if plants are living or not.

MUSHROOMS by Niko Summers. Illustrated by June Lee. We are making use of our field guides with this beautiful weather and enjoying God's amazing creation. I usually rely on the National Audubon Field Guides, Google, and Google Lens  to help identify our finds. However, this beautifully illustrated Mushrooms Field Guide by Niko Summers (illustrated by June Lee) was in my Easter basket this year, and it is just a delight to flip through. I look through it and dream of all the beautiful fungi I hope to find. On the top of my list is Dead Man's Fingers. They are really wild! (If you don't know what they are, look them up!) It is possible to find them in Ohio, so I'm keeping my eyes open!

NORA'S CHICKS by Patricia Maclachlan It's spring time and Facebook is full of pictures of chicks and ducklings. 4-H is in the air and that means the start of animal projects for us! It was time to pull my copy of Nora's Chicks by Patricia Maclachlan out and share it with the family. Nora's Chicks can really be used two ways with your kids. First is through hearing the original story itself. Nora is an immigrant from Russia who is struggling to make friends, because she is shy. Through a series of events, chicks help her bridge that friendship gap. The story is very sweet. That's not where it needs to stop though! Second, we don't have to be an immigrant to be desiring friendship, right? You may have a child that is on the hunt for a good friend right now (or maybe I'm speaking to you!). They may be lonely and feel left out. Nora's Chicks demonstrates to us that friendship can be found through unlikely circumstances and not on our timetable. It can always be right around the corner! ALONGSIDE ACTIVITIES- If your child is on the hunt for a friend, pray with them often that the Lord will direct their steps to a good one! - Do you know someone with chicks? See if you can visit them and learn a bit about them. What kinds are they? Are they egg-layers or meat chickens? - Learn about Russia. Find it on the map. -Do you know what borscht is? I was raised in a home where my mother made us borscht to eat.

THE WOUNDED SPIRIT by Frank Peretti The Wounded Spirit by Frank Peretti is one of my Top Picks of the year. As I sit down to write the post for this book, I am praying that the Lord will help me do it justice. We are living in a time surrounded by people who have "wounded spirits." We are seeing the effects of that every day on the news. I believe it is due to a culture shift away from the Lord and a devaluing of His most precious creation, life. If you are not familiar with Frank Peretti, it is worth your while to be. A popular, Christian author in the 80s-early 2000s, Peretti didn't tackle your run of the mill Christian romance. No, his genre was spiritual warfare, and it's the kind of stuff you don't read right before you go to bed! His most popular books are probably This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, but then Peretti came out with two books that broke from his normal style. The first was entitled Tilly, and it tells the story of a Christian woman who has an abortion. Through a series of events she meets her aborted child. The theme is healing and forgiveness. It is seriously powerful. But, I'm not here to discuss Peretti's fictional works. I'm bringing to the table his second book that broke from his traditional works, a nonfiction book about his life entitled The Wounded Spirit. Peretti's birth was not a normal, no-complications event. In the process, he was injured and left with a lasting deformity that kept him small in size and the butt end of many jokes and abuse in school - especially in gym class. This was before video games, but not before the start of "horror" movies. Peretti admits how he respected the monsters from movies that were deformed but were able to act out on their abusers, but coming from a Christian family, Peretti knew that was not a possibility. There really didn't seem to be any other options at that time, except to endure it. Until a breaking point happened. You'll have to read the book to know the rest of the story. Peretti doesn't just leave it at his story though. Even after going through everything in school, he shares that at points he picked on other kids. Then he asks us to examine ourselves. Were you picked on in school? Can you still remember where you were and who did the picking? It only happened to me a couple of times, but I can remember it to this day! Did you pick on other kids? I'm not talking about teasing here. I'm talking about smash somebody under your heel and ground them into the ground type of picking. I have. Do you want to know what prompted Peretti to share his story that he had never shared with others before? The Columbine shooting. Don't get me wrong, he in no way justifies what happened in that school, but the truth is we're forgetting to remember that each of us is created in the Image of God. Oh yes, there's a lot of actions and behaviors going on in our world that we do not agree with. We need to stand against the behavior and not forget that God's desire is for ALL to know him personally. People are VALUABLE! Read the book! HEADS UP- Some of the abuse revolves around being abused in the groin area during showers after gym class. There is not explicit detail.

LESSONS AT BLACKBERRY INN by Karen Andreola. Illustrated by Nigel Andreola. When I began "officially" homeschooling 16 years ago, the first book I read was For the Children's Sake. The second was Karen Andreola's Pocketful of Pinecones. I then bought all of Karen Andreola's back issues of The Parents' Review. The life portrayed in these books/magazines spoke not just to my mind, but to my heart as well. I am a lover of books, and I am a lover of God's creation. How could this method (Charlotte Mason) not speak volumes to me? After graduating my oldest two, who are both in college, and continuing to school three more at home, I realized I have kept some of the foundational CM principles, but sometimes I found myself reaching for other methods when I wasn't sure how to make the process work in certain subjects with certain ages. I'm okay with that. It is okay to be a CM purist, and it's ok to be a mixed bag homeschooler. (It's fine to choose another method as well). It worked for us. However, recently I was at our homeschool convention, and I picked up a copy of Lessons at Blackberry Inn. I dipped right back into a book that filled my soul like a drink from a cold spring on a hot day. Literally! If you have drunk from a spring like this you know what I'm talking about. I probably will never be a purist, but I am returning more to those ideas. It is very interesting to come full circle in a life journey.

THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON by Meg Waite Clayton The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton is a very moving book documenting the change to Vienna, Austria when Hitler and his Nazis took over. Following the story of a wealthy, influential, Jewish family, The Last Train takes us through the utter destruction that happened to so many families during this occupation. While much of the story is one of deep sadness, it also highlights those that risked their lives to do what they could to help others as we follow one brave woman's constant attempts to help as many Jewish children escape as possible. This book is very powerful. It is not an easy read as a mother considering the choices that parents had to make at that time. It is a book that will cause some self examination to occur as you consider what you would have done in the different situations that are presented. HEADS UP- There are a couple of sexual comments made, and at one point there a person hiding in a room where an affair takes place. There's not a lot of detail, and it's an easy part to skip over.

INSECT BOOKS Ohio weather hasn't been the most cooperative for nature walks/outside activities. It's been chilly and rainy. On days like today, it's great to bring the nature walk inside! Usborne has some great resources to help that happen. Lift-the-flap Bugs and Butterflies can be used well with a range of ages. For littler ones name what is on the outside of the flap and just say in your own simple words what is happening. This is a little meatier of a lift the flap book, so it works well for a little older child. But the real question is do any of us really grow out of lift the flaps? I know I haven't! The Big Bug Search is not your simple search and find book. It is challenging! Usborne is king at showing just little parts of bugs with the rest hidden by foliage or other obstructions. If I handed my fourth grader this book to do on her own, she would quickly become frustrated if I expected her to complete a page. I would do one of two things. One, set a timer for 10 minutes and see what your child can find on their own or sit down and hunt with your child. I can attest that some of these little bugs are not easy to locate!

THE UNDERNEATH by Kathi Appelt. Illustrated by David Small When you have a book that is a Newberry Honor winner, a National Book Award Finalist, and Amazon's #1 Book of the Year you have high expectations. While The Underneath is a book that checked all of those boxes, I was a bit disappointed with the story. However, reflecting back on it, I can see that it has grown on me a bit. Instead of me recounting the story to you (which will result in a 10-mile-long post), I'm going to give you a very broad overview. The Underneath is actually 3 stories coming together to form one. Set in the bayou along the Louisiana-Texas border, the first story focuses on a mother cat, her kittens, and an old injured dog. The second story is about an angry, young man named Gar Face. The third revolves around two snakes who can shape shift one time to human form. (These three subjects are about as far apart from each other as possible, but they do eventually come together in one coherent story.) The overarching theme is love and the choice of forgiveness or hate. As the 3 stories intersect, each group must choose which emotion they're going to hang on to due to events in their lives. There's not an intense focus on magic, however the shape shifting snakes and a hummingbird that accompanies the spirits of those who have died into the afterlife give the book a folklore feel. Something interesting about this book is the author, Kathi Appelt, is a creative writing teacher at Texas A&M (or was), and this was her debut novel. HEADS UP- If you have a sensitive child, this book is not for them! There are some details of abuse. Gar's face is mangled due to his father punching him. The father also beats Gar Face's mother. There is alcohol abuse. One of the main characters dies at the hands of Gar Face.

TRYING by Kobi Yamada. Illustrated by Elise Hunt Are you familiar with the author Kobi Yamada? If not, his powerful books are seriously worth checking out! If you have a child that balks at stepping out and trying new things, then Trying is a book you should get your hands on. This book is actually perfect for any age. I read it out loud to the whole family at the supper table the other night. We all can use encouragement from time to time to step out and try something new. That's not where the book stops, though. Oftentimes we might give something a try, but then we throw in the towel prematurely because we are unhappy with the results. I often have to remind myself and my kids that Avengers are not real people. Rarely are people born with their gifts already perfected. It takes time and growth to hone and master our gifts. Our current gotta-have-it now culture rarely celebrates the string of failures that leads to an accomplished goal, but Trying does! So go ahead and celebrate the end result of mastery with your loved ones, but don't forget to acknowledge the attempts in the process. Illustrator Elise Hurst nails it with her artwork. Black and white blurred pictures lend an air of hopelessness and defeat, but then we start to see hints of life where green creeps into the illustrations. Beautiful!