{Review} Orphs of the Woodlands at Tangletree

Last school year, one of Amber's favorite reviews was an online learning tool and game from Star Toaster. This summer she jumped at chance to review their brand new app, Orphs of the Woodlands at Tangletree.

I'll tell you right up front that Amber is a little older than the suggested age for the app, however after having used their original online product she wanted to try out the app too. It was a nice review for her and fun to revisit the orphs. Still, she completely finished the app in just an hour or two (over two days).

What exactly is this app all about?

Star Toaster creates interactive books that not only include engaging stories, but lessons on a wide array of subjects interspersed throughout the story. A fun game where your child can care for the orphs (orphaned woodland creatures) is the reward for completing lessons.

The new app, Orphs of the Woodlands at Tangletree, is available on iTunes for Apple devices only. It works equally well on an iPhone and iPad, and requires iOS 8.0 as a minimum.  On iTunes the app is listed as targeting children ages 9 to 11, and I'd agree that those children will receive the most benefit. However, for children who are earlier readers, like Amber was, it would be easy to use as early as age 7.  Amber is 14 and has started her 9th grade year. She definitely felt it was a little young for her and rather easy, but it was still fun to read the story, complete the jobs (lessons), and help the orphs.

The app is a prequel story to the original Star Toaster book on their website, The Treasure of HighTower.  It includes:

The main story, a 122 page interactive book about Abba the Flying Squirrel and his friends in their fort tree house, named TangleTree. Since this is an interactive book various words are highlighted and clickable providing access to definitions and job training pages on vocabulary, grammar, science, and more.

75 lessons on a wide array of topics such as math, science, grammar, vocabulary, thinking skills, character, life skills, and the arts.  These lessons are accessed through the story or through Stumptown.

Over 130 jobs that correspond to the lessons can be accessed through Stumptown and will earn starts for your child to help the orphs.  Lessons and jobs become available the further into the story your child progresses.

The menu system provides easy access to reports for you, the parent, to check up on your child's progress. A summary report tells you how far into the book your child has read along with how many lessons and jobs completed. A second report details exactly which lessons have been read and jobs completed - either correctly or incorrectly.

The goals of the orphanage encourage the user to earn their stars and help guide them in providing for the orphs who live in Tangletree. It is a very visual way to see the needs of the orphs and make selections to help them.

Along with such a fantastically fun and EASY to navigate app, the people at Star Toaster provide quick and pleasant customer service. This is definitely not one of those apps where you will be left in the dark after purchasing. If you have any questions, the friendly Star Toaster people will be there to help.

I think this would be a great on-the-go app for kids to use when they need to be occupied, but you'd rather it be educational instead of mindless games. Just be sure to take along headphones if you will be in a quiet area, since sound is an important part of the game!

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{Review} Beric the Briton Audio Drama

I'm sure it's no surprise that we are reviewing another audio drama from Heirloom Audio Productions, since they have always been an easy to use and fun addition to our school lessons. The latest production, Beric the Briton, takes place in one of our favorite places to study: England.

For the purpose of the review, Heirloom Audio Productions not only provided us with the physical two-CD set of Beric the Briton, but also an array of downloadable materials which included:

• Beric the Briton MP3 set
• The e-book of Beric the Briton by G.A. Henty
• Study guide and discussion
• The official MP3 soundtrack 
• A printable cast poster
• Inspirational verse poster
• Behind the scenes video
• Live the Adventure letter

What is Audio Drama?

If you are unfamiliar with audio dramas, let me give you a little explanation. These are unlike any other audio recording you might have heard and are not simply a book-on-CD.  Imagine the old-style radio dramas and theater, complete with voice actors, sound effects and soundtrack.  That is what the Heirloom Audio Productions creates with their audio dramas. It is a completely immersive experience.

Beric the Briton

The audio drama of Beric the Briton is based on the book by G.A. Henty and part of the series The Extraordinary Adventures of G.A. Henty.  We have previously reviewed three other fantastic entries in this series (The Dragon and the Raven, With Lee in Virginia, & In Freedom's Cause ), and Beric the Briton is no less of an engaging story.

G.A. Henty was a popular historical author in the late 19th century who wrote adventures that are still relevant today. The details of the historical accounts are surprisingly accurate while providing a wealth of information about the events unfolding in the stories.

Beric the Briton tells the story of a fictional young man during the time when the Romans invaded and occupied Britain. Beric fights with the Iceni tribe, led by the Warrior Queen Boadicea, and is eventually captured by the Romans and transported back to Rome. The story of his training and life as a gladiator and servant in the palace of Emperor Nero are intriguing, as is Beric's eventual return to Britain.

The Study Guide

Included in the generous downloads we received, was the PDF version the corresponding study guide for Beric the Briton. This is a full color study guide with gorgeous backgrounds that really get you into the time period.

The study guide starts off with some historical summaries to help listeners understand the time when Beric the Briton takes place. Then each chapter of the book has a similarly styled study guide page that not only lists the time stamp for the section of the MP3 audio to which it corresponds, but also the CD number and track. This is extremely useful when listening along and wanting to ensure you are in the correct section of the study guide.

For each chapter, the study guide has the following features:

• Listening Well questions which help the student recall the specific details of that chapter.
• Thinking Further questions that encourage your student to make some analysis of information heard, look up geographical information, or think about the motives of the characaters.
• Defining Words help bring to attention possible new vocabulary used and encourage the student to look up the exact meaning of the word. You could also have your student guess the meaning from context first.

The study guide concludes with a little more historical information and three Bible studies related to the moral topics in Beric the Briton.

What we Thought

Normally, I ask Amber to follow along with the study guide loaded on her iPad as she listens to each of the Heirloom Audio Productions audio dramas. However, this time we are taking more of a Summer break than we've had in years, so I simply encouraged Amber to listen carefully and come to me with any questions she might have.

Amber found listening to Beric the Briton during her daily rest time to be relaxing and entertaining while she was able to be immersed in the Roman occupation of Britain. She used both the CDs and the MP3 files, because I had not yet loaded the MP3 files on her iPad the first day. Amber definitely prefers the control she has on her iPad with the MP3 files, since the CD player is across the room. Yet, I enjoyed being able to listen to a portion of Beric the Briton when Amber used the CD player without earbuds.

If your family enjoys experiences history through wonderfully descriptive and accurate stories, you will not be disappointed with Beric the Briton!

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{Review} 21 Grading Grids for Popular High School Essays

Imagine the situation: your child has labored over a writing assignment and proudly handed it in to you after hours (or days) of diligent work. Now it's your turn to sweat it out. Although the assignment sounded like a good idea initially, you actually are not prepared to give it more than a cursory glance looking for grammar mistakes.

Does this sound familiar? It's pretty much my life unless we are following a curriculum that dictates the task and gives me a grading rubric. Thankfully, Writing with Sharon Watson has made available 21 Grading Grids for Popular High School Essays and a Position Paper.

Let start out with why we actually need to grade those essays and papers our students turn in to us. It encourages the writer to see their progress over time, but also gives them a realistic view of their writing abilities and indicators of where they can improve. That's what this is all about, right? Not expecting perfection the first time out, but knowing where the student could benefit from more assistance.

The note to the teacher in 21 Grading Grids for Popular High School Essays and a Position Paper suggests handing the student a copy of the grading grid that will be used for their writing along with the assignment details. This help the student to understand exactly what is expected of them and prevents any surprises later on in the process. It is even suggested to alter any of the grading grids as needed, since they are simply tools to assist the teacher.

What exactly are these grading grids?

There are 21 different types of grading grids that fit with the majority of essay types your high school student might be assigned. Each grid details components of the essay the teacher should evaluate and provide a point score based on how well the essay fulfilled that portion. The majority of the grids also contain a separate smaller section for scoring the mechanics (or grammar) of the essay. This allows you, as the teacher, to grade separately on the writing style than on the mechanics. Of course there is also plenty of space on each grading grid for general comments too.

The 21 grading grids provided are:

• Opinion Essay
• Persuasive Essays:
  
  • With Thesis Statemet
  • Specific Audience
  • Logical
  • Compare & Contrast
  • Moral / Ethical
• Emotional Appeal Essay
• Emotional Appeal Speech
• How-to Essay
• Position Paper
• Devotional
• Hard News Article
• Feature News Article
• Biography
• Compare-Contrast Essay
• Literary Analysis of "The Lottery"
• Literary Analysis of a Classic
• Definition Essay
• Description on a Person of Influence
• Personal Testimony / Spiritual Journey Narrative
• Interview into Narrative Essay
• Personal Narrative Essay

How I Used the Grading Grids

Although it's summer-time, I did have at least one writing assignment where I did not give Amber appropriate feedback. Determining which style of essay grading grid to apply to the assignment turned out to be my most difficult decision. Eventually, I settled upon a Definition Essay for Amber's research and page length writing on Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.

Since I received 21 Grading Grids for Popular High School Essays and a Position Paper as a downloaded PDF file, this means I have been able to print off as many copies of each grading grid as my heart desires. Unfortunately, Amber had already written her EDS paper prior to receiving the grading grids, so she did not have the benefit of looking it over prior to writing. However, I did go through a couple of copies trying to get my notes to her just right.

I did choose to disregard a category of grid that did not apply to Amber's essay, which reduced her possible points. Still, it helped Amber to see where she can improve next time.

Currently, Amber is in the early stages of writing her confirmation testimony that will be presented before our church congregation this Autumn. The Personal Testimony / Spiritual Journey Narrative grading grid is not a perfect fit for the assignment given to Amber by our pastors, but it's fairly close. I've altered the grading grid to fit Amber's assigned task, so that she has a visual outline of how to compose her testimony. 

The 21 Grading Grids for Popular High School Essays and a Position Paper from Writing with Sharon Watson is an invaluable resource for those of us who need a little guidance when grading high school level writing assignments. 

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{Review} ArtAchieve - Level II

How do you include art classes in your homeschool? Do you keep things informal by encouraging artistic endeavors as the mood strikes, send your children to outside art classes, or teach them yourself? We have struggled with this over the years by trying a multitude of options including expensive art classes at several locations, co-op art classes, at-home books, and self-directed projects. All have worked to some degree, while all have also lacked something Amber desperately wanted: guided instructions for drawing that make sense to her.

I am entirely inept in the art fields while my husband is rather gifted but short on time to teach Amber. Recently we were given a full year access to the Entire Level II from ArtAchieve, and Amber could not have been happier!

How Does ArtAchieve Work?

ArtAchieve provides unique online art classes that take the student through the steps of the lesson with both an array of instruction types. Each lesson begins with a brief history from the culture the project is based on. These are not simply lessons in drawing still life, yet projects inspired by art of a wide array of world cultures.

The ArtAchieve website begins with an About section that links introductory videos which explain how to use the site and lessons, along with tips for teachers. For those who still have questions there is also an FAQ that easily answers any other concerns. The site is very easy to navigate and understand, but going through the About section will allow for a more enjoyable experience.

The Entire Level II that we received has fourteen separate lessons including the Swedish Dala Horse, a Korean Wedding Duck, the Polish Szopka, a Mermaid from Denmark, and various Ukrainian inspired lessons. 

All fourteen lessons are available in two different formats:

1. A video lesson where the student is guided through the lesson by an instructor who demonstrates every step of the project along with the presenting the history portion of the lesson. The teacher is quite personable and gives clear explanations that are easy for the user to understand.
2. A Powerpoint lesson with detailed written descriptions and instructions along with clear images of the project stages. Although you can pause the video lessons, the Powerpoint option gives you the ability to move ahead when you are ready and to use written instructions if that is your preference.

The majority of the lessons also come with a warm-up PDF download for the student to use prior to beginning the lesson. Any needed pages for the lesson will also be linked as PDF files to be downloaded and printed.

Every lesson has an information page with:

• A detailed description of the lesson with finished project image.
• A complete list of all supplies needed to finish the lesson as shown.
• Suggestions for cross-curricular connections with applicable links to turn the art lesson into a complete unit study.
• Lesson length broken down by sections.
• Sample projects from actual students.

After several times through the lesson, she was pretty happy with this final product.

How Did We Use ArtAchieve?

Amber was the intended user of these lessons since I am utterly hopeless and unteachable in this area, while she has great interest in drawing. Over the years Amber has received a smattering of drawing instructions, but she has trouble putting everything she learned together since the knowledge was acquired so disjointedly.

Honestly, she was fairly excited to possibly have a complete set of drawing instructions right at her finger tips. She logged in to our ArtAchieve account through her iPad and familiarized herself with the workings of the site. After sampling both the Powerpoint lessons and the video lessons, she decided the video lessons were the method for her.

Amber opted to not start with lesson 1 in the set, but to find one that worked on an aspect of drawing she struggles with: proportions. The lesson descriptions helped her easily pinpoint the German Nutcracker lesson as her first choice. Off she went with the video lesson. Immediately when the instructor began listing off the supplies needed, which Amber had already read on the description page, she asked me if it was all necessary. For this lesson she wanted to focus on her drawing skills and not on finishing the project. I told her for now that would be alright.

Amber had been afraid to try this lesson that she wouldn't be able to draw the mermaid, but in the end she's rather proud of it.

I have not seen Amber concentrate on drawing as much as she did on this first lesson. She was totally engrossed while working with the video, pausing occasionally to finish her portion.  In the end she said her proportions were still a little off, but she improved.

One would expect that Amber would move on to another lesson during her next art time, but she did not. Instead she repeated the German Nutcracker a total of three times! She found the lesson informative and wanted to improve her skill in this area.

Amber actually did not fully complete any project in the lessons, since she wanted to concentrate on her drawing skills. While this is not all that exciting to those of you wanting to see her finished products, it was how she needed to work on these lessons. Eventually, she will go back through and work on the techniques for finishing the projects. But for now the drawing was her main focus.

Tessellations! This one took several days of work to complete.

What Did We Think?

ArtAchieve is the artistic product we've been looking for all these years. This is exactly how Amber prefers to study art - with demonstrations and verbal instructions. She is not terribly fond of the Powerpoint lesson option, but for those students who need written instructions it will be perfect. Thankfully, all of the lessons come with either the video or Powerpoint choice. 

The wide array of artistic techniques and projects helps ArtAchieve appeal to a larger audience and keep the attention of those want to do more than simply draw. We were highly impressed with ArtAchieve and plan to use it for the remainder of our year!

Be sure to check out the free lessons available from ArtAchieve to get your feet wet with this fun program.

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{Review} State the Facts: A Guide to Studying Your State

Recently, we began looking for a new way for Amber to study our state history that we could document as her high school state study. Thankfully, at the perfect time a review of State the Facts: A Guide to Studying Your State from Laurelwood Books became available.

State the Facts: A Guide to Studying Your State is a versatile consumable study guide that can be used for any U.S. state. There are so many facets to this book that your student may not complete every page, but will definitely learn more about their state through self driven research and question prompts.

The book really is a study guide in that it presents major topics to study about the target state, and then provides questions for the students to ponder or research.  The study guide is best used for students at least eight years old, and is geared towards fourth through sixth grade students since those grades are when state history study traditionally take place. However, the book can be used for older than sixth grade as well because of the open ended nature of the questions.

State the Facts: A Guide to Studying Your State is 58 pages long, and begins with a quick "How to Use This Book" section. The author recommends having fun while learning about your state, and working the book in any order you prefer. There is no wrong order of pages and it may not be possible to complete all pages.

Students will need a source of information about their state and the author recommends using people around you, the library, and other standard resources. Even the phone book is a possible resource for the first page in the book where the student is asked to name the elected officials starting with the U.S. president down to their own mayor and librarian. Address and phone numbers for these officials can also be included.

The book also recommends calling the local librarian or congressman, senator or other official. Scripts to use on the phone are given for the students, but they may still ask their own questions. However the point of these calls are to find out more about how the state government works, so the questions revolve around that topic.

Other topics for student research include:

• Statehood - researching how and when statehood was achieved and some details about the process.
• Significant People from the state - both from the student's own reading and also specific occupations (scientists, presidents, authors, etc).
• Days Gone By - How the state has changed over the years in various aspects.
• Facts about the students community - zoos, museums, and other resources available locally. 
• Planning a local trip
• Plant and animal life - learning what lives in the student's state. Nature walks are also encouraged in this section.
• Commerce, Industry & Natural Resources
• Weather - documenting the types of weather common in the state, including a personal weather log.

The end of the study guide also includes a complete and a blank map of the United States for the student to locate and learn where their state is in the country. And as a bonus, a list of all the presidents of the country are also included, through George W. Bush.

Our Usage:
Amber did study Missouri history in fourth grade, both in parochial school and after we began homeschooling mid-year. However, high school students in Missouri are encouraged to also study the state and there were topics that we did not cover in  as detailed as I might like the first time around.

I allowed Amber to look through the book and decide which pages she wanted to start completing. Although the study guide is really designed for a younger age group, the types of questions and need for personal research make it easy for even a high school student to use the book. Amber looked up details about Missouri's statehood, and the one and only president born in Missouri - Harry S. Truman.

Honestly, Amber wasn't sure we even had a president born in Missouri, but I reminded her about Truman who actually grew up in the same city where Amber's dad is from. It felt like such an oversight that she didn't remember about President Truman.

Amber used her iPad to browse the internet for information about Missouri and Truman. There was a good deal of interesting information she found, but did not necessarily have a place to record in the study guide until she remembered the blank Notes page at the beginning.

We had a good time reminiscing about field trips we've taken when going over the places of interest to visit in our area so that Amber could complete those pages. We even decided to return to a couple of those places once the school year starts up again.

State the Facts: A Guide to Studying Your State from Laurelwood Books turned out to be a rather unique and fascinating tool for studying our state. We highly recommend it for any one who wants a little more guidance in topics to research or even just a scrapbook style memory of your state.

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{Review} NotebookingPages.com

Being Classical homeschoolers, we incorporate a good deal of reading in Amber's lessons and the amount has continued to increase as she has gotten older. We are not fond of multiple choice or fill in the blank worksheets to reinforce the reading assignments, yet still need ways to encourage thought and analysis.  For several years now, we have made use of our Lifetime Membership from NotebookingPages.com as a way for Amber to journal her lesson reading.

What Can You Find on NotebookingPages.com?

The Member Center is the place to start with your Lifetime Membership as it not only is your entry way to the member downloads, but has an EasyStart Guide for those unfamiliar with notebooking.

The Membership Download section of the menu is where you then access the abundance of notebooking pages available on the website. A secondary menu allows you to search for notebooking pages based on subject or through a keyword search.  Of course, basic lined notebooking pages are also available without a specific theme. Those pages come in various line sizes, with places for pictures or graphics, or full pages of lines. Various border decorations are used to make the pages more interesting.

The available notebooking page topics include:

• A-Z Pages
• Bible & Character Study
• Famous People - Presidents & First Ladies, Scientists, Explorers, Composers, Artists, Poets and more.
• Fine Arts - Artist & Picture studies, Composers & Listening, and Copywork.
• Geography - Continental Maps, Country Study, USA Study, and World Maps
• History: (Every major topic from each period)
  
  • Book of Centuries / Timeline
  • Ancient Times
  • Middle Ages
  • Renaissance & Reformation
  • Modern Times
• Holidays - You can search by month!
• Language Arts - Topical copywork along with Greek and Latin Word pages.
• Science & Natural History:
  
  • Anatomy
  • Animals - broken down by types
  • Astronomy
  • Experiment pages
  • Nature Study
  • Plants - Including trees, wildflowers, and weeds

Each notebooking page is delivered as an immediately available PDF file download. There are various ways to download your notebooking pages, depending on how many style page you want of a single topic or how you want to store the pages. Each major topic has the following downloads:

• A Zip File of all individual files on the selected topic
• A Catalog file that lets you see the the Table of Contents of the topic along with thumbnail images of the pages
• A Table of Contents for the topic
• Complete file of all pages for the topic (not zipped)

These files are in addition to simply finding a specific topic page, for example: the Sugar Maple Tree, and downloading that single notebooking page.

These notebooking pages are designed to be used with any age child, and each topic contains more than a single page inside the PDF file. An assortment of pages with lines for all stages of writers, pages with and without boxes for personal drawings, and pages with an array of border designs are included in every topical download. The notebooking pages will grow with your child from Kindergarten through high school.

What Comes with a Lifetime Membership?

The Lifetime Membership of NotebookingPages.com provides UNLIMITED access to the thousands (literally) of notebooking pages currently available on NotebookingPages.com for the lifetime of the website.  The membership also includes all future notebooking page additions to the website, which is huge since additions are always being made!

How We Use NotebookingPages.com

Since we have been members for three school years now, our usage of NotebookingPages.com was not limited to only the current review period. We are rather fond of our membership and this is one homeschool resource I definitely could not do without!

Amber's sixth grade ancient history course was mostly of our own design, and we relied heavily on NotebookingPages.com for pages that Amber could use to summarize her reading. Amber did not always want to provide me with illustrations for her summaries, but some days she chose to also draw a little on the notebooking pages. Thankfully, we had the option to select pages with space for art work or pages with lines only.

In just about every subject, we regularly find ourselves wanting to supplement lessons or may find the suggested curriculum assignment to be not of our liking, and so we go first to NotebookingPages.com to find a ready made page for our current study. We have also used the experiment pages as replacements for those provided in our science curriculum.

Quite often I give Amber reading material on her medical conditions so that she may be fully aware and able to understand her own body. We use NotebookingPages.com to turn the reading into a miniature study on the specific topic. Most recently Amber has been reading the specifics of how Ehlers Danlos Syndrome affects her entire body. I gave her the option of various generic science pages to use for a summary report on her reading.

Lately, with the problems she has been having with her hands and fingers, Amber has not been able to do much handwriting. However, we found that the notebooking pages still work for her because they are PDF files, which she can use on her iPad in an app that allows annotations. This lets Amber still summarize on the notebooking pages while using a full size keyboard with her iPad. It also gives me the ability to print her work to store with her school files.

We even plan to use NotebookingPages.com for Amber's high school years. While working on lessons for Amber's upcoming high school Botany class, which I'm creating mostly on my own, I realized that NotebookingPages.com has nearly every possible plant page I could need. I've already scheduled which notebooking page will be used with each reading assignment, and the experiment pages will be our means of documenting Amber's genetics work with plants. There is no need for me to look any further than our Lifetime Membership for the assignment pages!

No matter your homeschooling style, NotebookingPages.com has resources to help you encourage your students in their lessons.

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{Review} The Scarlet Pimpernel - Progeny Press Literature Guide

Literature is one of our very favorite school subjects because it combines the best of every other beloved topic. Literature takes us away in time and location while teaching us more about ourselves and our world.  However, it can be difficult to find all that a particular piece of work has to offer when reading it casually for ourselves. Literature guides, like The Scarlet Pimpernel E-Guide from Progeny Press, provide the extra structure we need to see all the author intended.

In the early portion of eighth grade we reviewed Introduction to Poetry: Forms and Elements from Progeny Press, which Amber greatly enjoyed and so was delighted to use another of their E-Guides for a Summer study of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Although Amber has her own distinct preference for free-reading books, she happily will read just about any type of literature.

For this review we received a download of the PDF version of The Scarlet Pimpernel E-Guide, which is a high school level student study guide for the book, and a separate PDF of the answer key. I greatly appreciate it when publishers, especially those of electronic products, provide the answer key as a separate file so there is no temptation to sneak a peak at the answers in the back.

The answer key for The Scarlet Pimpernel is exactly that: a simple listing of the answers to all of the study guide questions. For the items which may not have straightforward answers, the key does provide suggested answers that at least give you the direction they expected the student to take with their response.  It is a very no-nonsense answer key, and works perfectly with the study guide.

The study guide is actually an interactive PDF document that allows all questions to be answered directly in the electronic document, as long as you are viewing through a compatible software. The guide begins with notes to the instructor that make suggestions on possible use schedules as well as credit recommendations.  A quick synopsis of the book, notes about the author, and background information on The French Revolution and the Reign of Terror are given for those who may not have covered this in history.

Working through the study guide on her iPad.

The study guide then breaks down the book into seven chapter groupings for the purpose of analysis.  Each chapter grouping includes:

• A vocabulary section where the student may be requested to provide both a synonym and antonym for the listed word, or match the definition with the word and use it in a sentence, or even give their own definition prior to looking the word up in the dictionary. The vocabulary work varies by section and keeps the student thinking.
• Story questions that simply help the student remember the details of the current chapters.
• Analysis questions which encourage the student think about literary devices used.
• Dig Deeper questions, which to me are the meat of the study guide, and assist the student in seeing the deeper meaning in each section of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Some of the chapter grouping also include optional activity ideas which require a bit more time and research to complete.

The study guide finishes with an Overview section which lets the student put all of the thoughts and ideas studied over the course of the book into a solidified idea.  The guide also provides a final list of essay and project ideas to encourage further understanding of the time period and the ideas presented in the novel.

We used The Scarlet Pimpernel as a way to wrap up our studies of the time period in history and to give Amber a unique Summer literature study. While we definitely could have opted to print the study guide or have Amber work through it on her computer, although these were not her preferred options. She wanted to keep the ability to type her answers in the study guide, as opposed to handwriting, but still not be tied to her computer.

However, we found that Adobe Acrobat Reader on Amber's iPad did not support the interactive nature of the PDF study guide. This was easily solved though with another app that allows for PDF annotations. So, armed with her trusty iPad, bluetooth keyboard, and book, Amber was ready to begin.

She particularly liked being able to type directly into the PDF document.

Although the instructor notes suggest reading the entire novel through before working on any questions might be the more successful path, Amber is not fond of this method with any assigned literature book. After reading the introductory matter in the study guide, she opted to read only the first five chapters and then move on to the study guide for that portion. Amber does have memory retention problems though, so reading the novel through once and then being asked to work through the study guide would essentially require her to read the book twice through by the end.

Amber actually is rather enjoying this study guide and appreciates the varied types of vocabulary activities along with the limited number of detail related questions. She honestly is very intrigued by the story in The Scarlet Pimpernel and finds the Dig Deeper questions are giving her a good deal more insight into the novel than she expected.

We have completed about half of the novel and study guide at this point, but are moving slower than anticipated due to Amber's ongoing comprehension issues with electronic products. I probably should have printed the study guide and allowed Amber to physically write when she felt able. However, we do love the portability that the E-Guide provides and that both of us can have copies on our devices while discussing her answers.

Overall, this is another spectacular literature E-Guide from Progeny Press and we both have enjoyed the perspective it provides to a classic piece of literature.

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{Review} The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins

If you were to ask Amber what her favorite past-time or hobby might be, the answer has always been and quite possibly always will be: reading. While she's not overly particular about her books, and honestly what voracious reader can be, Amber does have genres and styles that are preferred. Instead of telling Amber I had a review opportunity for a fiction novel, I simply showed her the online synopsis for The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins from Shiloh Run Press.

Immediately, Amber was intrigued by the book and asked me where I had found it and how soon could it be in her hands. She was much dismayed to find out that it was a review item and so she had to wait a few weeks for the selection process and shipping. The poor, maligned child watched every single package that came into our house until the book finally arrived.

The remainder of this review will be from Amber's view point, since I did not read the book. Let me state up front that I did check out the summary prior to accepting the review, read the entire online sample, and thumb through the physical book before handing it over to Amber. We do not allow horror books, zombie apocalypse, or anything I would not read myself. The Glass Castle left me with no concerns at all.

What genre would you consider The Glass Castle?
Amber: General fiction, maybe Mystery / Adventure - but not the who-done-it type of mysteries. Definitely more Young Adult / Teen fiction than elementary school age fiction. Not that there is anything inappropriate in the book; I just think it has concepts that might be too hard for younger kids to grasp and they would miss out on the story then. I know you told me it was a type of Fantasy book when we first looked at it, but I would not go that far at all. I can't remember any real elements of magic or anything fantasy related. (Right... my incorrect perception of the summary.)

What age reader would you recommend for The Glass Castle?
Amber: It was a fairly quick read for me and only took 1 to 1.5 hours of continuous reading that afternoon. Even though it was a fast read, I would again not recommend it for elementary aged kids unless they regularly read more difficult topics. It's not about the reading level, but the story ideas. I might have been able to read it in fifth grade, maybe. I would have enjoyed it the most starting in 7th grade.  (Amber just finished 8th grade.)

She likes to listen to soothing music while reading.

Can you give me a summary of the story?
Amber: I'm going to warn you that the book ends with the story line unresolved because this is apparently the first in a series. If you are going to read the book, there will be spoilers in this summary. (I assured her that I would be okay with spoilers if I did indeed end up reading the book.)

The book starts with a girl, named Avery, and her brother being captured and taken to the castle. The two children are kept separate from each other with the little brother being used as a bargaining chip to keep Avery there. Avery lives with other children that are all 13 years old, like herself. All of the 13 year olds appear to be orphans or for some reason have missing parents. Even though they all live in the castle, the king does not know these children are there completing hidden jobs.

Avery meets other children who have been living in the castle and working for a long time. She learns that the kids have a spy network and spy on an evil lady named Angelina who wants to marry the dying king and then rule. The kids all know her plan. It appears that Angelina is behind most of the kidnappings of these 13 year old children because the King's son, born to his queen that died, would have been about 13 if he lived. There are some people who believe the king's son is alive.

Avery has a flower amulet her mother gave Avery before she died and Avery still has it with her. One day while working in a room with a painting of the queen who died, Avery notices that the queen herself was wearing this exact amulet. It brings up the question of how Avery's mom came to have the amulet and who exactly Avery's mother was to the queen. The story does not lead you to believe that Avery's mother was the queen.

But realizing that Avery's mother's stories of the castle might actually be true, the children begin looking for underground tunnels that Avery was told of by her mom. The tunnels are important, but I won't spoil why.

There are also other adults who know about the kidnapped children who work in the castle and supply the children with information. These adults do not like Angelina and also know about her evil plan to take power after the king dies. One person who helped was an older lady who actually drove the cart that first brought Avery to the castle. However, they eventually find the old lady has been killed for helping the children. This leads them to believe they are on the right track.

The book ends with Avery heading off to compete in the olympiad with the main storyline still unresolved.  I believe the next book is about the olympiad.

What did you like and dislike about The Glass Castle?
Amber: I loved the story idea and the hidden mystery. I found it unique how all of the main characters are basically unknown to the majority of the supporting characters in the story because they are the kidnapped children working in secret. It's like two stories in one.  There really wasn't anything I disliked about the book, but I would have liked for it to be a bit longer.

Have you read any books you feel are similar to The Glass Castle?
Amber: Off of the top of my head, no. This is kinda different from my normal books and I can't compare it to anything that comes to mind. I'd say this is a fairly unique book.

Would you recommend this book, and if so who to?
Amber: Oh yes! I would definitely recommend this book. Again, it was a pretty easy read for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would like to read the next one in the series when it is available (she said this while batting her eyes at me). I would recommend it to anyone older than 6th or 7th grade, even adults, who like mystery or adventure type stories.  It is set in a medieval-like time, not exactly accurate medieval, but clearly not modern times either. So, the reader needs to be someone who likes that setting.

This is pretty much the highest praise Amber can give a novel, and she now has me intrigued enough that I might try to find the spare time to read The Glass Castle myself. However if you are still on the fence about The Glass Castle, please take a look at any of the other 89 reviews of The Glass Castle written by other members of the Review Crew.

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