I love to read. Its absolutely my favorite thing to do in the evenings or while the kids are off at activities. There isn't a single genre I enjoy most, although I probably read books on agriculture and sustainable living more than any other.
Quite an odd pair of books pictured above, wouldn't you agree? On the left is History Stories for Children by Dr. John Wayland (for Christian Liberty Press) and on the right is Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith.
Dr. Wayland's book is part of my son Bruce's homeschool curriculum for 3rd grade (since the children are expected to read each book cover to cover...as their teacher, so am I). I remember history in school as memorization of facts, dates, military action and the like. This book takes a story telling approach to history. Beginning during Biblical times and ending with President Ulysses S. Grant, many of the chapters begin with "Once..." or "One day..." or "Did you know..." and end with a brief vocabulary summary and questions for discussion. Gone are the paragraph after paragraph of dry facts that bored me to tears when I was a child! And the style of this book is such that my children are also increasing their reading and vocabulary skills. So far I'm thrilled with Christian Liberty Press' curriculum!
Well now...what to say about the alterna-history Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter! To start its an incredibly easy read. I see it as a good vacation book, reads fast and is not heavy on needing to think! Its pretty interesting the way fictional vampires fit so nicely (and darkly) into the civil war. The book is a good cross between fact and fiction and i'm curious to read a true Lincoln biography to figure out how much of non vampire info in the book is fact (remember I use to memorize history which means ultimately I forgot it all!).
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| The horrifying back cover |
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