Confounded by Kid's Lacrosse

Young children and teen’s participation in community based Lacrosse teams is on the rise in Connecticut. It is all over the place here. I swear this is new in the last five years or something because before that the rapid expansion in popularity of soccer was all the rage. I don’t know how popular it is in other places but assume it’s on the rise in other states as when I travel I see parent’s cars with LAX stickers all over them.

I probably am going to have to put my kids into an organized sport as they are not getting enough exercise on their own at home. I have tried family bike rides, family walks, and the last effort was to try to get them to agree to go jogging with me with the end goal of running as a family in short road races that occur over the summer. I can’t get them to do anything.

Because we homeschool my boys don’t have access to sports at the public school. Connecticut does not allow homeschoolers to participate with public school sports even if a family is a property owner and pays their property taxes. Contrary to assumptions of citizens of all ages and parents of schooled kids, Connecticut homeschoolers do not get tax rebates if they homeschool, tax discounts, nor do we get educational content advice or free textbooks or educational materials from our local school or from the state or federal government. I am not asking for any of that but I’m stating it for the record as in other states some homeschooled kids can play team sports at public school.

Being a homeschooling family means we must rely on community based sports. These are prolific in the elementary grade years but start to taper off in middle school and by high school grades they are nearly non-existent.

Homeschoolers must find their own ways to be physically active.

Baseball is way too serious around here. My brother-in-law is very involved with his town’s team and the stories I hear are so insane that I don’t want my kids involved with any of that. I am talking about adults going nuts at games, screaming, parents getting kicked off the field and suspended from attending games and so forth. Baseball in my own town is not that bad, I don’t think but it super competitive. It is not primarily for fun or to play the game it is about winning. Kids who are not the superstars sit on the bench. And anyway, there is not so much exercise in baseball if you ask me.

Neither of my kids is into soccer. My younger one tried it at age five and the town’s program at that time was completely boring and poorly run. Thus he has negative memories and refuses to join a soccer team. To the defense of AYSO I’ll state I never put him on the AYSO team. I so hated being the parent at Little League in this town that I cringe at the idea of attending those soccer games. I don’t want to deal with the Nannies or the Soccer Moms or the Helicopter Parents or the overly-competitive fathers.

So I’m thinking of Lacrosse for my younger son. Now here is the thing. I have been approaching other parents asking about Lacrosse. One family is a soccer family and says that she has friends who do Lacrosse and she worries about it as the kids get so injured. They don’t wear helmets, apparently, and they not only run into each other and bash their heads together but they allowed to use the sticks to stop the other players in any way they want including bashing them in the head or face! With no helmets! I kept on asking around and spoke to parents of kids who DO play Lacrosse and they say the same thing.

Now here is the most surprising thing of all. I asked the Lacrosse parents about how their kids like it and they say they love it. Then I say I may put my son into it and they tell me NOT TO DO IT. Why? Due to the injuries and the danger. So they say their kids love it but it is dangerous and my kid shouldn’t do it. They say it is more dangerous than football as with football they were all that protective gear. When I push them to explain why their kids do it if it is dangerous they admit they didn’t know that up front and so they put them in, but the child loves it, so they let them keep doing it, all the while they are petrified their child will get hurt.

It is at that point that I started thinking indeed the parents of today have gone nuts.

First off we are an over-protective society lately and a culture that is largely driven by fear of lawsuits. Where are the lawyers on this? Why is someone not pushing the league or whoever runs this to make the Lacrosse players wear helmets, even if it is not “normal” for the college kids who play? These kids playing in my area are as young as seven years old. Sometimes perhaps it would be wise to have different rules for certain games in order to protect the health and safety of the young children in our society.

Second how can a parent be so worried of their child getting hurt yet allow them to keep doing the sport? Are those families completely running a child-driven household? I note those families use schools so they are not having a child-led experience with the child’s education such as with certain methods of homeschooling.

For the record the people I’ve been asking are all highly educated people, all have either a Master’s Degree or a Medical Doctor degree. These are not stupid people or uneducated people.

I’m scratching my head over this. If anyone can share insight to this Lacrosse thing please do, by leaving a comment. If you have an opinion on this and agree with me that something is amiss please leave a comment.

Technorati Tags: Lacrosse, Lacrosse kids, kids and sports.

Another Milestone for Older Son's Orthodontia

Last week my son's expander (RPE) got loose and came off of his lower jaw. This is the last one he has in. He has used a retainer for the top jaw for a long time.

We had an urgent visit to the orthodontist to address this fallen out expander. We were all surprised to hear news that the thing is to be kept out and it may be gone for good. Hooray!

The orthodontist is designing a lower retainer for him now.

The upper teeth are coming in, in ways that makes the upper retainer not fit right. That retainer was cut so the teeth can come down. Once they are all down a new retainer will be made with a piece across the front teeth because now his two front teeth have a little overlap starting to occur.

It looks like this boy may completely avoid braces!

I'm happy for him to avoid the braces for the pain and annoyance they cause. (I had braces for 3.5 years with headgear so know this all too well.) My husband has perfect teeth and never needed any braces so I can only assume that son inherited his jaw and teeth from his father.

I'm also glad to not have to pay for braces, another reason to rejoice.

At this moment dental insurance usually doesn't cover much for orthodontia. Braces remain largely an out of pocket expense. This spells G-O-O-D I-N-C-O-M-E. Based on the bodies I see sitting in the orthodontist's chairs, more and more adults are getting braces, which surprised me as I only know one adult with braces. I had no clue so many adults were getting braces. And with the use of palate expanders kids aged 7 and 8 are sometimes getting those and some still need the regular braces later (like my younger son).

My point is that if any of your children are interested in a career in health care perhaps they should look into dentistry or becoming an orthodontist!

Especially since so far the big health care reform or health insurance reform that President Obama wants to pass seems to not touch either plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures for dental (teeth bleaching, veneers, etc.) or orthodontics. Anyone who wants to work in people's mouths could stand a chance at a very good income compared to other types of doctors who are already saddled with dealing with insurance companies and forever being threatened to make less money due to health care reform.

I have a feeling that no matter what health care reform comes down the pike, American citizens will always be willing to pay out of pocket for cosmetic dentistry and cosmetic medical procedures. (If people are so unable to pay for medically necessary medical prodedures one has to ask how the others can afford to pay for so many botox injections and breast enlargement surgeries!)

He Already Knows It

My eleven year old is not happy at the moment about reading some science books. Although they count toward the library summer reading program (a plus) he says they are a waste of his time.

We have not officially covered all these topics as formal study in our homeschool. Some topics we covered in depth in his Kindergarten or First Grade year. (He is now just entering seventh grade.)

My son informs me he knows all this stuff already, the names of the parts of plants and trees, names of specific plants and trees and so forth. He said the book about weeds was all information he completely knows already. Some of it he can remember learning at his homeschool experiential nature class. Other things he doesn’t recall where he first learned them but he remembers it all.

The funny thing is that if you had asked me if we studied all these topics I’d have said no. Yes I can credit some of it to the class, but as we don’t get any kind of list of topics covered from the class I often don’t actually know what was done in the class (nor have I asked for such a list in the last two years, when we first began doing the class I’d inquire what was done).

Meanwhile I was feeling badly that we didn’t "do enough” science in the last two years for home study due to busy-ness with other learning projects and real life intervening.

When I looked at the book shelves of books not yet read, I felt guilty for having bought them and never having used them ALL. So when I’m cracking the whip to use learning materials we already own in book form here at home, I’m finding the kids already know the stuff (since my younger son has been saying some of the same things). Great.

So much for me worrying about gaps in their homeschooling.

For now I’m staying with the plan to go through these children’s books we own and have the kdis read them to themselves over the summer. They will count toward the library’s summer reading program. I’m making a list of topics covered to include in their homeschooling records. Later in the upcoming year when I am sure we are too busy to get to do all the formal lesson planned, or when we take days off due to colds and flu and such, I can remind myself of all that was done in this area to feel that my kids aren’t falling behind as indeed they have learned plenty.

Technorati Tags: homeschooling gaps, homeschooling, living books, experiential education.

Notes From Today's Parenting Interactions

I'm helping my eleven year old pack for a week at Boy Scout summer camp.

I decided to write this down as a way to remember the small, mundane things that make me smile about mothering my kids. My older boy, who this post is about, is growing up so quickly. I dread the day, perhaps in the next year, when his voice changes and when the facial hair appears.

I'm trying to smile at the small things, and laugh out loud at the truly funny. I'm trying not to grumble complaints but to celebrate the good, small stuff. The "big" moments are so few and far between that if they are all we celebrate we will miss out on most of the parenting journey.

Here's what went on tonight when packing for camp, I'll tell about the funny tasks only.

Task 1: Pack underwear.

Me: "You need seven pairs of underwear."

Son: "I only have one clean pair."

I turn to look at his hamper. It was overflowing. I note I reminded him each day in the last three days to go get his dirty clothes and run a load. Loads were run. Apparently they were not his clothes! He and his brother do all the family's laundry so this problem is not on my shoulders.

Me: "You'd better go start a load of laundry!"

Task 2: Put last name on all clothing items. Some are last year's clothes that are already marked, others need to be marked.

Me: "What's this writing?" (on a class B Troop t-shirt) "This is not my writing, it's really small and faded."

Son: "I don't know, I can't read it either."

Me: (squinting) "It says Owen!"

Son: "Oops."

Me: "I'll call Owen's mother to let her know I have one of Owen's shirts!" (Then I wrote over it so the writing would be dark.

Task 3: Pack swimsuits. I know my son owns three swimsuits that fit.

Me: "Get your swimsuits out please."

Son: "One is camo and that is not allowed. That means I only have one."

Me: "I know you have two. Where is the red one?"

Son: "It doesn't fit."

Me: "That's impossible. It's the same size as the other one. Try it on please."

Son: "See? It doesn't fit. I can't even pull it up."

Me: (Thinking: this is not possible.) "Why can't you pull it up?"

Son: "It is knotted."

Me: "Let me see." Upon inspection, I see the tie to tighten the bathing suit is knotted by accident. My son thought they were too small. "This knot needs to be undone. If you can't do it, go ask Dad."

Son: "Okay." (Gets Dad to undo the knot after trying and failing.) Stands there holding the bathing suit.

Me: "Try them on please."

Son: "Oh! Now they fit!"

Me: (thinking: "Imagine that!")

Task 4: Get more Class B t-shirts from closet. His shirts are hung on hangers.

Me: "What is this pile of folded shirts on the floor doing here?"

Son: "Oh. That is clean laundry that I didn't hang up from when I was sick with the fever. I was tired so I just put it there. Consider it another "Adventure from My Adventures in Lazyness".

Me: (nodding my head) I decided to hang up those shirts as my son was busy packing other stuff. I found three of my own t-shirts hanging in his closet (plain colored, Land's End, same brand as some of his. So that's where they went! I don't have many t-shirts and this is one reason why my drawer is so empty!

---

I wonder what crazy things will happen at camp this week. Wish me luck, I think I'll need it!

Blogged Book Reviews at Semicolon

It's Saturday which means there is a new edition of Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books.

Visit to read what bloggers have reviewed in the last week.

If you have blogged a book review submit your review today by visiting the post and following the simple directions.

Semicolon Saturday Review of Books July 11, 2009 Edition

Enjoy.

Wellfleet Cape Cod Photo

Drive by shooting = take photos from a moving car.

Wellfleet Drive-in, Wellfleet, Cape Cod Massachusetts. This place is like a time warp, in a fantastic way. The latest movies in a 1950s era drive-in.

Photo taken by ChristineMM on 7/02/09.

(double click to enlarge)

New Bird Identified!

Tonight I went out to get the mail and all kinds of bird craziness was going on in the trees around my front yard the likes of which I'd never heard before. I could not ignore this, of course.

Tiny little birds were flittering here and there. They were calling to each other nearly non-stop, making clucking noises I can only describe as sounding a bit like a chicken. The sounds were coming from all over. At first I thought it was the clucking of a wild turkey coming from the woods.

They were hard to spot because they kept moving from branch to branch. They were light grey and as soon as I'd see one between the leaves and branches it would flit to another branch or to a different tree. There were at least four.

As I stalked them they moved across the yard and away from me. Oddly despite me being close and them trying to get away from me they'd land on the ground and hide in weeds then go up into low branches then higher into tall branches then back down to the ground. I just read online that they swish their tail in order to stir up insects to catch them and eat them.

I finally got some good glimpses of them. Tiny, shaped like a chickadee, smaller than a chickadee, grey all over. It was starting to get dark so the color shading was hard to tell.

Once in a while a sound like a rattlesnake would be made.

They were quite noisy!

I wondered if they were babies and the mother or father was calling to them that danger was present.

They moved off into the dense woods and out of my sight. I could hear them in the woods though.

After about twenty minutes of searching online I identified the birds as blue-gray gnatcatchers. The calls heard on this site are not exact but the body shape is exactly right and all the other characteristics are identical.

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo, the light was poor anyway.

A Bit About the Gray Catbirds

In my spotting process I also discovered a nest in my crab apple tree that was made this spring sometime. I have seen a pair of gray catbirds in that tree daily so now my suspicion that they had a nest there was confirmed. This is my first year with a pair of catbirds in my yard. They spend most of their time outside my bedroom window and the front of my house. Due to this I hear them first thing in the morning, last thing at night and even when I'm at my computer during the day. I'll take a photo of the nest soon, when the light is better. This evening while reading about nests of Gray Catbirds I was surprised to see they have robin's egg blue eggs. I wonder if that intact blue egg I found in my yard in May was actually a catbird's?

An Autodidact

I came across this Amazon customer reviewer's profile which was linked from a site that also links to my profile.

Read his profile. I love how he turned into an autodidact about science. Love, love, love it.

Life long learning is awesome!

Robin McGraw's Complete Makeover Guide Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: Robin McGraw's Complete Makeover Guide: A Companion to What's Age Got to Do with It?
Author: Robin McGraw
ISBN: 978-1400202515

Star Rating: 3 stars

Summary Statement: Will Be Liked by List Makers Who Like Prompts

This book is a companion to “What’s Age Got To Do With It?” by Robin McGraw. The background information behind the reasons to do each recommended thing (eat good foods, exercise, etc.) is contained in "What's Age...". This companion book is 128 pages and does not repeat all of the much longer and detailed information. This book has summaries of the important topics which read like reminders for readers who can’t remember what they read in the “What’s Age…” book or who don't want to re-read the entire "What's Age...".

This book is intended to be written in like a consumable workbook. It has many places for lists. McGraw prompts the reader to answer questions and set goals by writing them in this book. I felt some are useful such as measuring and weighing one’s body before starting a diet change, others like “make a list of hair products you think you want to try” and the section with the same thing for makeup seemed stupid to me. These are not thought provoking questions that the reader must ponder and discover through writing out the answers, it’s a simple shopping list for goodness sake!

I didn’t find the book very useful. To explain why I’ll share that I’m well read about wellness, women’s medical issues including peri-menopause and menopause. I’m well informed regarding nutrition and eating well to try maintain wellness. I’m very informed on issues with trying to lose weight including owning, having read her husband’s two books on weight loss and eating to maintain one’s weight. I also saw all or almost all of Dr. Phil McGraw’s TV shows on his methods of weight loss. I’ve been informed about fitness and exercise since I was a teenager in the 1980s back when Jane Fonda’s LP was my first aerobic exercise instructor. I also know enough to know of the fads that have come down the road for the fitness industry (the present being Pilates which is recommended in the book).

Actually me not learning anything new is not true, I learned that there are two hair care products that I never knew existed and that some women use way more makeup than I’ve ever purchased or used. My ignorance is due to my choice to try to use natural personal health products and I seek to avoid chemical based skin and hair products. Actually I’m surprised that the author recommends such a strict and natural plan for food, avoidance of alcohol, and exercising yet she uses so many chemical laden makeup, skin care products, hair products and I can see she wears fingernail polish too (although nail care was not included in the book).

I’m trying to be optimistic to think that someone would really like this book. Perhaps the perfect audience for this companion book is someone who feels overwhelmed at where to start when designing one’s own makeover and loves prompts and lists. A person who is a list-maker but who feels they can’t come up with their own lists off the top of their head would like this book. It can also serve as an easy book to re-read if the reader does not want to re-read the entire, longer “What's Age…” book.

I rate this book 3 stars = It’s Okay. Despite me feeling it was not beneficial to me, I don’t feel that I necessarily dislike it (2 stars) or hate it (1 star). It is also low-priced so the low price doesn’t contribute to a reason to like it even less.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program. I am not allowed to resell the book for profit. Full retail price of this book is $9.99.

Technorati Tags: Robin McGraw’s Complete Makeover Guide, Robin McGraw’s Complete Makeover Guide book review, makeover guide, makeovers.

My Older Son is Blogging Now

A year and a half ago my son started a blog. After creating three blogs he didn't want to do the writing, when he started writing drafts, so the blogs sat unused.

Last week he asked to start blogging on one of the blogs. He's posted a few entries so far.

I'm considering this a good exercise in writing composition.

I feel like an unschooling parent regarding this project because my son has resisted and we've had power struggles over formal writing composition lessons. Yet in this blogging endeavor through writing short blogs posts, in the editing process I am teaching him elements of English grammar. He's relearning and practicing capitalization at the beginning of the sentence, proper nouns versus common nouns, spacing between words and paragraphs, and all the punctuation. Dividing up text into paragraphs is being covered. Lastly, the actual writing composition, moving from a first draft which is more like free flow writing into clarifying his thoughts by adding more details so that other readers will know what he is talking about is being done. For example if he mentions Halo I remind him to tell the reader it is a video game in the beginning of the post.

My son has his own Amazon Associates account so just in case anyone buys anything through the links inside of his posts or from linking from his sidebar he'll make a small profit from the sales. I don't expect this to happen too much but just in case, I want him to make his own money rather than mix up his sales with the commissions from The Thinking Mother.

Today he asked to add a photo to his profile and he selected which picture to use.

In case you are wondering I have not given either of my children much access to the computer. Unlike other parents my husband and I have not given them free reign to fiddle with our PCs. We fear they may crash the hard drive or erase critical programs like some young children we know have done to their parent's computers. So the last thing that my son is interested in and that I'm not pushing is for lots of experimentation with designing his template or making a custom template.

He is asking for a Site Meter to track his visitors and he'd like a world map tracking program like I use.

I am thrilled that he wants to blog and write in this way.

He was funny when he said, "Does writing for the blog count as writing composition for homeschooling?" I said yes. I had told him that in the upcoming year a major goal is for him to do regular writing composition and to really get to a point where he feels more comfortable with creating written pieces (handwritten or on the computer, I don't care which, I care about the composition process itself).

Let's hope his enthusiasm continues!

Privacy Issues

In case you are wondering my son is not using his real first name or last name. We do not reveal the town we reside in. He uses a pen name. He does not have the password for his account. I have to log in to Blogger for him. All his comments are on moderation so I will be the one to see them and approve or deny them in case someone is trying to contact him or if they are rude or post inappropriate content or send spam to his blog. I did not put his email contact on the blog. He actually does not use email yet but in order to create his own Blogger account he needed his own email account.

His Blog Revealed

In case you want to read his blog the one he is actively writing on is The Dragon Seeker's Reviews. His Blogger name is Dragon Seeker.

My Younger Son

Now my younger son wants to get in on the game. In the next two weeks I'll be spending time setting up an email with our ISP and a Blogger account for my nine year old son.

One Last Word on Non-Traditional Learning

So far this project is taking up a lot of my time! Sometimes doing things in the unschooling way can be more time intensive for the parent than simply administering a homeschool lesson.

When relying on the child's passion I think it helps for the parent to be available when the mood strikes and when the child is "on fire" to do the project. I'm trying to both be available to my son but also sometimes he must wait until I am available, sometimes he has to wait. I can't drop everything I'm doing in order to help him at the exact moment he desires. I won't go that far with child-led learning. (Such as the other night I was trying to get dinner made and things were cooking and needed immediate attention or they would have burned, so he had to wait until I was free.)

I am reminded once again that doing things "in real life" not learning always based on a lesson or using a curriculum can be more productive. I'm finding we went through many more concepts in the 45 minutes that I worked with my son this morning than a structured lesson ever would have "dumped" on the child in one sitting, yet my son was okay with that amount of new material or re-learning old concepts as he wanted the blog posts to both be published today.

It is more work for the parent sometimes. The concepts may be more erratic, not logically organized or thorough. In this way things are learned when they are needed to be learned and practiced when it comes up in real life (not in a predictable schedule). Anyhow this is what unschooling parents try to explain to non-unschoolers all the time but I think sometimes the others "just don't get it".

My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters
Author: Sydney Saltar
Genre: Young Adult Fiction ages 12-16 (Girl interest, main character girl age 17)



Summary Statement: Realistic Characters, Good Lessons Learned, Funny & Sad

Star Rating: 5 stars out of 5: “I Loved It”

**At the very end of this post is a spoiler that some parents may want to know about. Do not read the very bottom of this post if you don't want to hear a spoiler.**

Unfortunately, this book and I got off on the wrong foot. It is a shame that in the first few pages I was turned off by the main character’s complaining tone and mistook it for whining. Thus this book sat on my “to be read” pile neglected for three months! When I finally picked it up to read it I was surprised at my initial impression. I grew to understand the main character more deeply and I realized she was NOT as shallow as her complaints about her life and about the appearance of her nose first implied.

I wound up being glued to the book. It was funny and later, sad. I started it in the afternoon and in between doing other things, had to find out what happened so stayed up until two in the morning to finish it off! For me it was a page-turner.

I quickly grew to like the main character as to me she is a very real girl. She and her friends reminded me in some ways of my friends and me as teenagers (despite me having been a teen back in the 1980s). The story focuses on the summer before their senior year of high school. Each has goals for their summer. These three close friends are imperfect, make mistakes and learn from them. Bad choices have negative consequences and in all the cases the girls learned from their errors.

At times I literally laughed out loud (when in public), which is a compliment to the author’s storytelling. I found myself thoroughly liking the main character and rooting for things to go in the right direction for her, wanting a good outcome in the end.

A deeper message in the story is to love yourself as you are and to realize that people care more about your authentic, unique self rather than liking or loving a person based on the size of their nose, which I bet you can tell based on the title of the book is the main character’s big complaint about her looks.

I also appreciated the message with multiple characters in the book deciding to not be promiscuous and to choose to remain virgins at least through the end of high school. The lessons learned when some drink too much alcohol (as underage minors) are clearly stated and it is not glamorized. The mother's constant attempts to clim the social ladder in town are clearly negative and the topic is handled well in the end. These messages are a wonderful antidote to the many young adult fiction books presently on the market for girls that focus on external appearances, designer clothing, having a social life filled with promiscuous sex, alcohol consumption and sometimes drug use, and being rich as the main points to the story.

I felt these characters were very “real” and believable. I grew to like them all.

This book has many talking points and lessons to be learned, which would make a great book discussion for a mother/daughter book club.

With the publication of this book I felt there is hope for young adult fiction for girls after all. We need more books like this and less of the other type, please!



Disclosure: I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program. Retail value of this ARC is $0 and it cannot be resold by me for profit. I received no money in exchange for writing this review.


Technorati Tags: My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters book review, young adult fiction.













SPOILER for my blog readers not included in my Amazon Vine review on Amazon.com:--- some parents may want to know about: A male character winds up being gay. He is in the closet and limited kids find out. His parents do not know. I didn't mention this in my Amazon Vine review as Amazon reviewer guidelines (for both customers and Vine reviews) now prohibit spoilers in the reviews. Homosexuality in YA novels seems to be on the rise, meaning while a book's main focus is not about homosexuality or the main character is not a homosexual, but sometimes it is a topic with a minor character, as is the case in the book. If you don't want homosexuality in any book your child will read, you would want to know this. Most characters in this book are aged 17 and it is about the summer before their senior year in high school. There are no homosexual sex scenes in case you are wondering.

When the Whistle Blows Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: When the Whistle Blows
Author: Fran Cannon Slayton
Genre: Juvenile Fiction ages 9-12
Publication: Philomel, June 2009
ISBN: 978-0399251894 (hardcover book)



I was attracted to this book because it is a coming of age story with a teenaged boy character set around a train town in the 1940s. Both books about trains and good stories from the 1940s are not common themes for children aged 9-12. I hoped it would be a good story for my train aficionado son to enjoy reading.

The book was quite different than what I assumed, it was better than expected. But first I'll share that my almost-twelve year old son grabbed the book first and when he read the back cover he said, “This is the best idea for a story I’ve heard in a long time!” He put aside the book he was currently reading in order to read this one and he finished it over two days, riveted to it. He said it was a very good book with sadness in the end and he implored me to read it right away.

When I began reading it I was surprised by the format and the storytelling style. The format is telling one long story of what happens on All Hallows Eve, in seven stories total. So, the book is like a short story collection of one boy's life from ages 12-18. Author Fran Cannon Slayton weaves in details of what happened in the last year and more about the main character's life and of his family and the changing times so with each chapter we learn more and more about the family, the railroad, the times and how they are changing.

Secondly I was surprised at the voice of the character. I was reminded of the wonderful storytelling of my grandmother who passed away recently at age 98. I used to love hearing her old tales, rich in the language of days gone by, with local terms and old fashioned sayings. I love the way the author chose to tell this story! This storytelling style is not common in new published fiction for readers aged 9-12. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I wondered if today's kids would like it and specifically asked my son what he thought of that method of storytelling. He said he loved it because it was different than most books he reads and that it made him feel like he was transported back in time and really helped him feel like he was in that place and in that time. You couldn't wish for much more than that in a story! (I'll note that his favorite genre is fantasy such as ERAGON and secondarily he likes fiction such as Andrew Clements, so I was happily surprised that he enjoyed this writing style which is very different from the books he usually reads.)

Two elements that I was drawn to were the very strong family bonds especially between the brothers and the boy's father (the mother is not a strong figure in the story) and the feeling of brotherhood and camaraderie between the teenaged boys and the men. These were clear in the stories about pranks with friends and dealing with an older bully, the football championship game, the men who worked on the railroad together and the adult men in the Secret Society. This is a masculine book through and through with strong men as role models. This is a book that boys should read and is one that I hope girls will enjoy as well.

As I already said my son said the book had sadness in it, and that is true. The book is emotional and I shed tears in the scenes when characters were mourning deaths of people they loved.

The book is well written and the author is an excellent storyteller. I really enjoyed this book.

I can't say much more without spoiling the story.

I was left wishing there were more books on the market like this one...

If you have a boy in your life aged 9-12 have them read this book. Actually, any aged reader with an interest in reading good storytelling or interested in tales from the 1940s or about railroading would enjoy it. It would make a great read aloud from parent to child or even grandparent to child (the grandparent may enjoy this very much also).

I hope schools and libraries purchase this book as I feel it will appeal to some readers who have trouble finding newly published fiction that they like.

Railroad and Trolley Museums as well should offer this for sale in their gift shops. Parents of train enthusiast children are always on the lookout for good books with trains in them.

This is a window into the 1940s in a time when steam trains were on the way out and diesels were coming in, so the book can be used in classrooms as an educational book as well. I can also imagine this being a summer reading program selection.

The last thing I’ll say is this book deserves to win an award. It is that good!



More Information



Official website of Fran Cannon Slayton

Fran Cannon Slayton’s blog about the road to publication

Disclosure: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from the author as a review copy. Retail value of this uncorrected proof is $0 and it cannot be resold for profit. I received no payment for writing this review.

Site About ADD & Also Homeschooling Science

One of the mothers who attended homeschool support group meetings that I also attended was Teresa Gallagher, who lives in Shelton Connecticut. For five years she homeschooled her son who has ADD. Teresa has a degree in environmental science as well as a passion for science.

I recall attending one meeting in which Teresa Gallagher spoke to us about teaching science in our homeschools. I found the evening enriching and informative.

Teresa Gallagher shares her thoughts about homeschooling science on this webpage of hers: Homeschool Science Suggestions.

If you are interested in ADD/ADHD, she has a larger site for that topic here.

Although Teresa Gallagher no longer homeschools, she was one of the positive supportive people in my local homeschooling community that was there to help me learn and grow. I feel that local homeschool support groups are unique. I think that every homeschooling mother's experience would be enriched if they were active in a (good, positive) homeschool support group.

Yes, the Intenet is helpful in some ways, but having contacts that you talk to face to face are different. Not every helpful person chooses to discuss things on email chat groups, not every informed person has a homeschool blog. Not everyone thrives or even likes to write enough to post emails or to write for a blog or website. To tap into some of the other minds, we have to meet those people face to face and talk to them, and to listen to what they have to say.

I hope you find something of use from Teresa Gallagher's website(s).