My sixth-grade daughter is periodically asked by PR professionals to review books for children and teens. I can personally attest to the fact her nose was glued to this one! I hope you enjoy Darla’s review.

The Secret of Wellington’s Map is an outstanding book, one of my new favorites actually.

If you were looking at your friend, covered in red splotches, struggling to breathe surrounded by furry animals with wide dog-like noses and long tails, what would you do?

The Secret of Wellington’s Map is an exciting mystery of two teenage girls named Jamie and Nicole who find a magical map. With one touch, they can walk into any time, anywhere, as long as they have a picture in their minds.

When their friend Charlie — an antique-pawn shop owner — is kidnapped, they leave on a mission to find their lost friend. They end up enjoying an amazing journey testing their friendship, revealing family secrets of the past, and having an experience like no other.

I love the mystery in the story, with the magical map. It really makes you think as you read it. The “time-keeper” part was confusing at the beginning, as were the strange names, but when as you go deeper into the story, it all comes together.

You want to be Jamie, bouncing around time in places you can only imagine in this book. It is exhilarating when she discovers the map, and scary every time Nicole almost dies. You have to guess friends and enemies, so almost every one in the book is what I would call a “frienemy,” including the cat.

With so many amazing things going on in the story, in my everyday real life, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that was happening to these two (almost) normal teenage girls. I asked myself, if I were Jamie, would I have enough courage and curiosity to keep jumping through an old piece of paper to another time, and not be sure if I would still be able to get out?

If you’re like me, when your parents physically take away the book so I will talk to them, you’ll still be sitting there (or hiding from your book-stealing parents,) wondering what will happen next, and wondering what you would feel and do if you were Jamie.

This is an awesome story that I would definitely recommend if you want some adventure. Mollie Kehl Penrod was very successful at writing a great book.

Other torch-passers:
A Man Named Ted

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Former PTT posts.

CONGRATULATIONS TO JENNY, COMMENT NUMBER 48! YOU’RE THE WINNER - PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS AND DEBORAH WILL SHIP YOU THE BOOK! Thanks to all who participated - this was lots of fun.

Shannon at Bloggy Giveaways is hosting a giveaway link-fest, and author Deborah Reber is generously offering to give one of my lucky readers her new book, In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe their Amazing Careers.

Deborah had asked me to review In Their Shoes and I have have truly enjoyed it, reading much of it over the shoulder of my 11-year-old daughter.

In Their Shoes is a fun, easy-to-read resource book for girls starting to explore career options. Deborah interviewed 50 women in various careers — from senator Barbara Boxer to a forensic scientist to educational psychologist Alice Wilder (Think It Ink It.) Some of the careers are well-known, while others help girls to think outside of the box — like “actionist” or “environmentalist” — encouraging them to find their passion and figure out what career might relate.

In addition to interview quotes and basics about the career, Deborah gives insight to dress code, stress factor, and the nuts-and-bolts of what it takes to get to where these women are in their careers. And at the end of each profile, she lists additional related career titles to help girls consider other paths that might fit their interests. She’s also enlisted young women to pose questions to those profiled, getting to some meaty details relevant to youth, that might otherwise go unrevealed.

In all, I see this as an outstanding resource for girls. It’s been fun to watch Darla flip back and forth through the pages - checking the table of contents and index to find the answers to her questions — her interest perked in avenues she hadn’t previously considered.

To be included in the drawing, please just click over to Deborah’s site, Smart Girls Know and come back here to comment about what you like about the site. You can participate even if you don’t have a blog. Just make sure you leave a working email when you leave your comment. A winner will be chosen at random on Friday, February 1. US addresses only please. Thanks for participating!

I’m also hosting a giveaway for the Career Expedition Boardgame. Check it out!

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THANKS, TAMI for including this post in the Carnival of Homeschooling.

(Photo from week 1.)

This week I’ll share the results of our Homeschool Experiment. If you’ve been following along this year, you know I’ve given you periodic updates and Tales of a Fourth Grade Guinea Pig — which was usually written by D. I did this partly to celebrate tangibly the pretty cool stuff we were able to do as a homeschooling family. I’ve also revealed a lot of our struggles along the way.

However, you may not know the reason why we began this journey.
Continue Reading »

The list of homeschool tips and advice is HERE - please share your links and visit participants there.

I posted this call for tips at this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling, hosted by Consent of the Governed. There are always great reads at this carnival, so check it out!

Next week, I’ll share the results of our homeschool experiment. I’ll take most the week to do this, and I expect that many families considering homeschooling will click on the series over time. I’d like to end the week with a group collaboration of homeschooling tips.

So if you’re a homeschooler, please consider joining me next Friday, June 22, to write about your best advice for new homeschoolers. I’ll post a Mr. Linky, and you can link yourself to a new post you’ve written for this collaboration, or an older post, that meets this criteria. You can share one tip, or ten!

Please tell people about this writing project, so that others can participate as well. (Feel free to use the graphic above in your announcement.) I’d love to be able to provide Google searchers a “tips” post that contains all our collective expertise.

I’ll be leaving on a trip shortly after the Mr. Linky goes up next week, so your links will be the reading material for my readers while I’m gone. I hope you’ll join me!

Thank you so much for your announcements: Principled Discovery, Redbud’s Lane, Through the Looking Glass, My Quivers Full, The Zoo, My Twenty Cents Keeps Moving, Life With Two Little Vikings, Sprittibee, Happy Hearts at Home, Kris’ Eclectic Homeschool, Eclectic Education, Mom is Teaching, From Melissa’s Desk, Ten O’Clock Scholar, One Child Policy Homeschool, Our Homeschooling Expedition, The Common Room, Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood, Why Homeschool. I know I’m missing some of you. Please let me know if you’ve announced the project. Thanks!

HOMESCHOOL EXPERIMENT RESULTS SERIES:
WHY WE STARTED
the JOYS
the STRUGGLES
the FUTURE for us
UPDATE after we Quit Homeschooling
Family out of Sync

Other Homeschooling Experiment milestones:
The Beginning
Week One - Starting with a Frazzle
Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff
Week Two - Just when I thought I knew what I was doing
Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS!
One-month Review
D’s Review at One Month
Week Five - Stress and frustration
Week Seven - Flip-flopping curriculum
Note to self - Consider having low expectations some weeks
Two-Month Review — Some aha moments
Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream
Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history
Five-Month Review — What I underestimated
Six-Month Review - Let’s Just Skip this Month
Seven-Month Review — Curriculum review
D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series
Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig
All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS!

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Our family embarked on a one-year homeschooling experiment and I chronicled the journey here on Pass the Torch. You can visit all our homeschooling posts by clicking on the category page.

We also hosted a homeschool tips and advice project, which generated excellent suggestions for families new to homeschooling. I also link to key posts below.

HOMESCHOOL EXPERIMENT RESULTS SERIES:
WHY WE STARTED
the JOYS
the STRUGGLES
the FUTURE for us
UPDATE after we Quit Homeschooling
Family out of Sync

Other Homeschooling Experiment milestones:
The Beginning
Week One - Starting with a Frazzle
Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff
Week Two - Just when I thought I knew what I was doing
Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS!
One-month Review
D’s Review at One Month
Week Five - Stress and frustration
Week Seven - Flip-flopping curriculum
Note to self - Consider having low expectations some weeks
Two-Month Review — Some aha moments
Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream
Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history
Five-Month Review — What I underestimated
Six-Month Review - Let’s Just Skip this Month
Seven-Month Review — Curriculum Review
D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series
Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig
All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS!

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