National Homeschool Book Award Blog
Sunday, April 29 2012 by Valerie the Book Club Lady
Teaching art and art history may seem like a daunting task. While most of us believe we are good at art as kindergarteners, once we get to be a little older (and especially as adults) we come to the very wrong conclusion that art is only for an extremely small group of incredibly talented individuals. But, Mina, Paul Klee and I are here to tell you that is not the case at all! You have nothing in the slightest to fear from art.
Read more
Sunday, April 22 2012 by Michelle
I love the way Mina talks about food in MY NAME IS MINA! Food, for Mina, doesn’t seem to be just about filling her stomach when hungry, but also about thoroughly enjoying the act of eating. Take, for instance, when she talks about fig rolls:
“FIG ROLLS! WOW! I like to nibble the top of the biscuit off first, then chew away the lovely figgy stuff (it’s lovely slooched around inside the mouth with chocolate milk), then eat the bottom bit.” (p. 23)
Or, when she recalls eating spaghetti pomodoro:
Read more
Sunday, April 15 2012 by Valerie the Book Club Lady
I am so glad Mina works with clay in MY NAME IS MINA! In David Almond’s companion novel, SKELLIG, Mina is a minor character, but her love of creating with clay is still a part of the story. Ever since reading the book with my local book club, when I think of Mina, I think of clay! The day of our book club meeting, the room was filled with kids that could not get their fill of working with the clay. This actually led me to start a homeschool art club, but that is a whole other story . . .
Read more
Sunday, April 08 2012 by Michelle
From the feather on the cover, to Mina’s favorite William Blake quote about the caged bird, to an egg-shaped poem, bird references are everywhere in MY NAME IS MINA.
Meet the archaeopteryx!
Early in the book, Mina introduces us to the archaeopteryx, an ancient bird-like dinosaur whose name means “ancient wings”. The archaeopteryx was roughly the size of a raven and is thought by many scholars to be the oldest known bird. Maybe you live in an area where you have a natural history or science museum where you can go see some fossils of this first bird ancestor, as Mina dreamed of doing someday. Enchanted Learning has some great resources for learning more about the archaeopteryx.
Read more
Sunday, April 01 2012 by Michelle
This year, in an effort to encourage and support families enjoying the NHBA books together aloud, we’re sharing hints and tips to help with getting started.
MY NAME IS MINA is our focus book for April! This book is unique in contrast to the other nominees this year in two distinct ways:
- The story is told in the form of a young girl’s journal and uses a lot of visual devices in the book’s design to underscore this, mainly fonts and the way the words are laid out across the pages. Also, the voice has a train-of-thought feel that you would expect more from a diary of one’s private thoughts than from an edited piece of writing.
- It is more of what is called “character driven” rather than “plot driven” writing, meaning that the story is really about getting to know Mina. While there are things that happen in the book, the main focus is more on Mina and her thoughts instead of an overarching plot that pulls the story along.
How much time should we plan for reading MY NAME IS MINA?
Read more
Sunday, March 25 2012 by Valerie the Book Club Lady
Can you imagine having an incredible sense of taste like Logan? Imagine being able to decipher each and every ingredient in a breakfast bar or identifying whether the milk you’re drinking is from one cow or another. That kind of ability is certainly far beyond the normal power of human gustation, also known as taste!
We all know WHERE the sense of taste takes place (tongues for us humans, but feet if you’re a butterfly!), but what about HOW it works?
Read more
Sunday, March 18 2012 by Michelle
Snack for THE CANDYMAKERS? It’s got to be chocolate pizza, of course! It was served to the kids in the factory cafeteria, but we can make our own version of it at home. The book describes chocolate pizza as having a chocolate bread-type crust, with a mixture of chocolate and white sauces on it, topped with shredded marshmallow cheese. Let’s talk about crust choices first, then move onto ideas for toppings.
Read more
Monday, March 12 2012 by Michelle
We tried something new!! Kristin O’Donnell Tubb, author of NHBA-nominated SELLING HOPE, graciously agreed to a Skype interview, which we recorded and posted on our new NHBA YouTube Channel!
We posed some of our questions and a couple questions from readers. Check it out--the interview is full of great tidbits and behind-the-scenes info! We learned about what encouraged Kristin in her writing, what she hopes people take away from her work, lots of background about SELLING HOPE, and even a little about her next book (to be released January 2013) called The 13th Sign!
Read more
Sunday, March 11 2012 by Valerie the Book Club Lady
What’s it like to be you?
Many books have been written using changing narrators, including last years NHBA winner, EVERY SOUL A STAR. In THE CANDYMAKERS, we get a unique chance to hear and understand the same short period of time from four completely different perspectives. The facts remain unchanged; Philip dips his finger in the chocolate and Logan charms the bees in each version. But our understanding of these events broadens with each new narrator, and we gain insights that otherwise would have gone unseen.
Read more
Sunday, March 04 2012 by Michelle
You saw it coming, I’m sure. And, you were right. We could hardly write a blog series about THE CANDYMAKERS without discussing...well, making candy! Candymaking is both an art and a science. The science part comes from trying to understand how cooking sugar changes its physical properties on a molecular level. The art comes in when getting creative about how to combine ingredients and flavors into something uniquely your own!
The idea of making candy from scratch strikes fear in the hearts of many, so we’re going to talk first about some ways you can get your kids excited about the creativity involved in making candy, without dragging out the heavy-bottomed pans and thermometers!
Just IMAGINE!
Read more