Modern Living Books

Building Blocks of English series by Jeff De La Rosa and Ruth Bennet
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YOU GUYS, I am ridiculously excited about these books, that I just stumbled across in the graphic novel section of our library. What in the name of all grammarian nerddom could you possibly be excited about Sarah? WELL, slow your scroll and I will tell you! 🥳🤪
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For the last 7 years I’ve been in the thick of grammar instruction with my kids (kid 3 is about to move on to more advanced concepts, and kid 4 is just about to start), and these books introduce ALL the major concepts in a fun way! Swipe for a completely unposed picture of said Kid 4, who grabbed the book to read for fun while I was setting up for the photo shoot 😆
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A grammar book? That kids read for fun?!! I am floored. The series also has books about vowels and consonants (that can be read to pre-readers), and books about finding plot structure and information in texts - De La Rosa is a wizard for figuring out how to make that fun!! Where are my people at? These books are PERFECT for going along with the English memory work, or for reading ahead of starting (or with) Essentials class! Ages 6-11 could benefit from these, happy nerding!! 🤩

TransDimensional Hunter series by Lydia Sherrer and John Ringo 🦹🏻‍♀️🎮⚔️
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If you’ve been around my page for a while you’ve probably noticed I’m a big fan of sci-fi and fantasy stories. This series is *fantastic*, so even though it’s not a traditional living book I still want to share it! It can be hard to find stuff interesting and appropriate for teens that don’t go too far into adult content. I believe this fits the bill nicely. The final book in the series drops TODAY 🥳
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Lynn Raven is a pretty normal high schooler - self esteem problems, has bullies to deal with, school is hard work, but…. she has a secret -> she’s actually one of the top rated players in a popular online war game (pretending to be a grizzled old veteran), and this gets her tapped to be a beta tester for a brand new game coming out that involves *gasp* Going Outside. Which leads to a whole new set of challenges, a stronger friend group, saving the world?? and a LOT of growth!
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The character development is fantastic in this series, and not just for the main character. The action and plot are interesting, with lots of twists (it’s not super predictable). The themes can be hard (see the list below), but the answer is usually to lean into the hard, be compassionate and willing to sacrifice, and move towards others instead of away.
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I recommend this for mid teens and up. Here are some potential content warnings so you can decide for yourself - hard themes that come up:
▪️Parental death
▪️Parental abuse
▪️Bullying
▪️Attempted sexual assault
▪️Survivor’s guilt
▪️Single motherhood
▪️Reputational assassination
▪️Destructive effects of fame
Also there is cursing in the books a few times, along the lines of d***, s***, b******, h***, etc. No F bombs, no drugs, no alcohol. Slow romance, but nothing mentioned beyond a kiss or two in the later books (and no hints at characters sleeping together). If you’re worried about something in particular, please comment or DM me and I can let you know 😊

Once upon a time I started a bookstagram in the hopes of turning it into a business. That ship sailed because I am *not* cut out to be an online influencer. However, since I still love recommending books, and since this is the FIRST adult book I have been able to finish this year 🥳 I’m going to celebrate by posting about it. For 3 people to read (thanks algo! 🤪)
As an American I’ve learned a lot about the start of our country over the years, but this book taught me so much! As an adult I’ve always wondered how the colonists got from feeling British to feeling something else. Richard Archer explains that shift VERY well, and details the societal landscape of Boston from 1763-1769, ending with the Boston Massacre. He uses all kinds of first hand accounts like letters and newspaper articles, and summarizes well without making things overly complicated or dry.
On another note, my family was able to visit Boston last month (🥳), and I was shocked to discover afterwards (while reading this book) that 50% of the places I went in Boston were underwater at the time of the Revolution. Swipe to see old and new map overlays! Pictures taken from this interesting blog post: https://fredlanga.blogspot.com/2014/01/exploring-boston-mapping-lost-boston.html
I would recommend this to any adult looking to dive deeper into the colonial experience, and upper level highschoolers could handle it as well.

Hansel and Gretel 👫🌳🍭 Popping in from the Harvard bookstore in Cambridge, Mass. to let you know that the new Stephen King + Maurice Sendak picture book is TOP NOTCH fairytaleing. You can see the bottom of it if you look up at the third shelf above my readers (sorry, I didn’t think about a real picture till later because I’m obviously not a real influencer 🫠😂🤪). Swipe to see the full cover! King’s retelling was detailed and interesting, reminding me of Lang’s fairy books, but with more modern language. I, personally, do not like horror and have never read King, but he does storytelling well. This kids book tells the raw story - the evil stepmother, the wicked witch, but it is not gross or gratuitous, just real. Both children are also given agency in the story. This is a book worth buying if you are a lover of fairytales!

Well, this is interesting. Who wants to read a Stephen King Fairytale retelling?

‘Hansel and Gretel’ Picture Book Due This Fall from Stephen King and Maurice Sendak In a surprise announcement and pairing, HarperCollins has announced the September publication of 'Hansel and Gretel', a Brothers Grimm reimagining by horror writer Stephen King, illustrated by late Caldecott Medalist Maurice Sendak.

Some of us are just born readers

🌾Picture Book Roundup🍁 Well, I can’t find the “enter” key on my phone keyboard anywhere, so that tells you how long I’ve been off Instagram. Formatting aside, here are some fun books we’ve been enjoying lately:
🍄 All Ages - “A Boy, a Dog, a Frog, and a Friend”, and “One Frog Too Many” both by Mercer and Marianna Mayer. Wordless picture books, classics, AMAZING.
🍄 Toddlers - “Pumpkin Pumpkin” by Jeanne Titherington and “Nanta’s Lion” by Suse MacDonald. Simple script, interesting illustrations, fun stories.
🍄 PreK/K - “Find Fergus” by M. Boldt (a little kid seek-and-find) and “The Terrible Plop” by .
🍄 Elementary - “One Bright Penny” by Geraldine McCaughrean and, despite being encyclopedic, my elementary boy read “The Ultimate Predatorpedia” from cover to cover!

“But middle- and high-school kids appear to be encountering fewer and fewer books in the classroom as well. For more than two decades, new educational initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and Common Core emphasized informational texts and standardized tests. Teachers at many schools shifted from books to short informational passages, followed by questions about the author’s main idea—mimicking the format of standardized reading-comprehension tests. Antero Garcia, a Stanford education professor, is completing his term as vice president of the National Council of Teachers of English and previously taught at a public school in Los Angeles. He told me that the new guidelines were intended to help students make clear arguments and synthesize texts. But “in doing so, we’ve sacrificed young people’s ability to grapple with long-form texts in general.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/?gift=alInWvfrt8HYWuf-YgzDAx7vJ2lLtLvE1WftahLaBwU&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2DDY2tl1xAbLKD8WtPX-NP_78a3urbEibVS6o7VjsCyAJ9uP5GpoqQdA8_aem_kxfwp0snzKbcwvrFLzzqWg

The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.