Love 2 Learn.net

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Billy visits with a friendly old neighbor who tells him of a quarry he used to visit as a boy the location of which had been lost to the townspeople for many years. With some clues, he and Blaze find the old quarry - a beautiful spot and a great place for swimming. They rescue and befriend a dog.

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First reviewed:

5-23-05

Blaze and the Mountain Lion

Author(s):

C.W. Anderson

Number of pages:

48 pages

1959

Publisher:

Aladdin Paperbacks

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

This book is a bit shorter than others in the series, and so might be a particularly good one for less-confident readers. It seems to average about five lines per page.

In this story, Billy and Blaze search for the lair of a mountain lion that has been troubling ranchers and rescue a baby calf from a ledge on a cliff.

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First reviewed:

5-23-05

Blaze and Thunderbolt

Author(s):

C.W. Anderson

Number of pages:

48 pages

1955

Publisher:

Aladdin Paperbacks

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Billy and Blaze are on a family trip out west where they encounter Thunderbolt - a beautiful wild horse that is the envy of every cowboy. Rather than trying to capture Thunderbolt with fast horses and lassos, Billy makes friends with Thunderbolt slowly and eventually gains his trust.

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First reviewed:

5-23-05

Blaze Shows the Way

Author(s):

C.W. Anderson

Number of pages:

48 pages

1969

Publisher:

Aladdin Paperbacks

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Billy and Blaze befriend another horse and boy-rider team. Tommy and his horse Dusty are just getting used to each other and Dusty is a little nervous about jumping. Nevertheless they decide to try out for a pairs jumping contest.

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Click here for our study questions on this book.

First reviewed:

5-23-05

Out of the Silent Planet

Author(s):

Clive Staples Lewis

Number of pages:

160 pages

1965

Publisher:

Macmillan Pulblishing Co. Inc.

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

The first story in the "Space Trilogy", Out of the Silent Planet begins with a man of such littleness that he is only known, for now, as the pedestrian. He is taking a summer holiday - trying to 'get lost' - from his philology professorship. This is NOT a nailbiter yet. By accident Ransom (Lewis himself was a Cambridge professor keen on words - so you know you have been given his name for a reason) stumbles onto an old schoolmate, Divine, and another professor, Weston, in a strange house. The bizarre scene sees them drug our poor Ransom and gives way to the much more bizzare rest of the book. They travel through space to Mars (or Malacandra as the inhabitants call it). But like a mystery novel the strange story starts to give way to order. Ransom is smart. He gathers that he is being brought back to Mars by these two as a sacrifice to creatures called Sorns. They had been to Mars before and started happily collecting gold there. But the inhabitants told them they would have to present themselves to the world leader. They dreaded this so much they returned to Earth just to retrieve that sacrifice, that Ransom! (see I told you) Ransom escapes shortly after they arrive and goes about trying to survive, understand and finally love this new world. There are 3 or 4 species on the planet which are intelligent (it's handy to be a philologist when you have to learn a few new languages in a hurry!) I can't tell you more because it really is a book that is hard to put down. After you get through the first bit you will drink in the rest with exceeding pleasure. Lewis has given himself a tool to really explore different mindsets. Here he is not bound by current conventions - not even by 'terrestrial' conventions. In fact we are allowed to explore a world that is so different Ransom at first has trouble separating out the geographic, plant and animal features - they are all just a sort of blur when he first sees them. And just when he has allowed us to wonder about talking with different species he gives us some of the most eloquent defenses of what in life, in every life of every intelligent species, is good and strong. There are many things to explore in this book. I am sure that I have not plumbed the depths of allegory and language that Lewis, a professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature, is sure to have woven in. But even the first reading will bring to the surface an abundance of issues to discuss and ponder. This book could be read as early as 7th grade. But it would be better understood by high school age.

Reviewed by:

John Van Hecke

First reviewed:

3-17-2001

Perelandra

Author(s):

Clive Staples Lewis

Number of pages:

222 pages

1944

Publisher:

Macmillan Pulblishing Co. Inc.

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Perelandra is Venus. Ransom gets sent to Venus on a mission. Of course it takes him some time to get settled with the new surroundings again.

While Mars was an old and mostly ruined world Venus is brand new. The clouds hide a lush tropical paradise. And Ransom is to see to it that this world's "Eve", temporarily separated from her "Adam" for this adventure, is kept from the fall. There is no guarantee. In fact, Ransom bears the same, human, form as the tempter - none other than Weston. But he is more often called the Tempter and the Un-man. He is, like the serpant from Eden, a possessed thing.

Lewis explores original sin AND original good. Having read this in seventh grade, this was the first book that really made me think about the latter a lot. It is a fascinating 'world' to explore. There are incredibly lengthy debates that are actually exciting to read. How can Ransom convince her to choose good when she knows nothing of the other option? How does one justify the good to the just? It is an exploration in first principles.

This book could be read as early as 7th grade. But it would be better understood by high school age.

Reviewed by:

John Van Hecke

First reviewed:

3-17-2001

That Hideous Strength

Author(s):

Clive Staples Lewis

Number of pages:

382 pages

1946

Publisher:

Macmillan Pulblishing Co. Inc.

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Fantasy

Grade / Age level:

Adults

Mature Teens

Review:

Perspective:

Judeo-Christian

Reviewed by:

John Van Hecke

First reviewed:

3-17-2001

Caddie Woodlawn

Author(s):

Carol Ryrie Brink

Illustrator(s):

Trina Schart Hyman

Number of pages:

275 pages

1935

ISBN:

9781416940289

Publisher:

Aladdin (2006)

Binding:

Paperback

Subject(s):

Setting:

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Caddie Woodlawn is the story of a young tom-boyish girl who grew up in pioneer Wisconsin during the Civil War (this story predates the first book of the Little House series by about 25 years – but they are quite close geographically). Caddie's father was the grandson of an English Lord, but as his mother was from the lower classes, his father was disowned and the family grew up impoverished. He emigrated to America where he married a charming Boston lady with whom he raised a family of eight children. They moved to Wisconsin when Caddie (short for Caroline) was very young. Soon after their move and still before the story begins, they lost their five year old girl due to her sickly "constitution." Because of this, Caddie's parents decide to let her grow up in the out-of-doors where she spends a great deal of time adventuring in their nearby woods with her brothers. (This was quite uncommon for girls in those days.) There they meet real-life Indians and develop a curious friendship with them. They also hear somewhat wild Irish folktales from their golden-hearted Irish farmhand (you may want to read these tales yourself before presenting them to little ones), and are involved in a real-life "Incredible Journey" when their dog, Nero, amazingly returns to them after being lost several states away. Caddie's mother still does have an influence on her daughter and over the course of the story (in which Caddie is 11 years old) Caddie begins to develop a sense of what it means to be a lady, despite her rough ways. Like the Little House books, this story is neither Catholic nor particularly religious, but full of good old-fashioned family values and a proper devotion to parents – you particularly see the children's strong admiration for their father, who is simple, honest, hardworking, understanding, and plays a very active role in his children's daily lives.

The story is written by Caddie's granddaughter who, orphaned at a young age, was actually raised by Caddie and grew up listening to these stories from her grandmother's childhood. This grandmotherly wisdom shows through in the book in the way the stories were selected and told. Click or tap here for our review of Brink's second book, which contains more of the Woodlawns' adventures.

Our family recently enjoyed visiting Caddie Woodlawn Historic Park, near the Minnesota border in Western Wisconsin. It's a very simple place where you can walk through Caddie's house (no tourist guides or anything – you just walk through the empty house on your own) and visit a memorial to Caddie's sister Mary who is buried in an unknown place on the property. Reading this book (and visiting Caddie's house) were good opportunities for me as a mother to reflect on some of John Senior's ideas from the Restoration of Christian Culture on the benefits of a simpler life.

On a related note: I found the movie (of the same name) done by Wonderworks terribly disappointing. Most notably, they took one of my (and apparently the author's) favorite characters – the noble and loving Robert Ireton, and turned him into a mean and cowardly character.

Another reviewer, Suchi Myjak, notes:

Caddie Woodlawn includes the sad story of the Hankinson family. Briefly, Mr. Hankinson married an Indian woman back when this was the frontier and white women were exceedingly rare; however, after many others arrive and the area becomes much more settled, he becomes ashamed of his Indian wife and sends her away back to her tribe. Their three children are left behind and are, of course, sad to lose their mother. The Woodlawn children act with kindness toward these semi-orphaned children and I have no concerns about that aspect. However, when they discuss Mr. Hankinson's behavior among themselves, saying that their own father would not have sent away their mother, the last word on the topic is that Mr. Woodlawn would never have married an Indian in the first place.

This incident is, unfortunately, all too realistic for the time and place, and I don't believe in whitewashing history. But for my own children (who also have a white father and an Indian mother) I opted to wait until they were older to allow them to read this book. When used as a read-aloud, of course, this episode can be skipped if your family also has concerns about it.

Reviewed by:

First reviewed:

1998-99

Caddie Woodlawn's Family

(Originally published as Magical Melons.)

Author(s):

Carol Ryrie Brink

Number of pages:

193 pages

1939

ISBN:

9780689714160

Publisher:

Aladdin (1990)

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Setting:

Grade / Age level:

Review:

This is a delightful collection of additional stories about Caddie Woodlawn and her family (and one additional story as explained in the introduction that doesn't quite belong). These stories take place between 1863 and 1866 and so in some places overlap the original stories in Caddie Woodlawn which took place in 1864. Here each chapter stands alone as an interesting and true story and many are very touching and beautiful. The first, from which comes the title Magical Melons, is the story of how the three oldest children discovered a large number of perfect watermelons in the hayloft in the barn. Childishly believing them to have magically appeared there, they quietly devoured a large number of them over the course of several weeks. It turns out that the farm hand Robert Ireton had hidden them there to provide a surprise for the family later in the fall when they would be unexpected. When he went to pull them out there were only a few left and Tom, Caddie and Warren had to sit by while the rest of the family enjoyed what was left of the treat.

This book would make a delightful read aloud for the whole family and should be required reading, along with Caddie Woodlawn, for those studying Wisconsin history.

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