Category: Young Adults fiction

Lee’s Homeschool Reading List (7)

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The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (ages 12 and up)

Did King Richard III really murder his two nephews, “the princes in the Tower”? Classic mystery writer Josephine Tey didn’t think so, and in 1951 she wrote and published a book to prove it: The Daughter of Time. “Truth is the daughter of time”–and in time the truth comes out.

But history can be very, very tricky. Finding out “what really happened,” Thucydides wrote, over 2,000 years ago, is the hardest thing about studying history. And he ought to know!

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is just about the best week in the year–at least in the Northern Hemisphere, when it’s so terribly cold–for snuggling up with a good book. And given that the mortal remains of King Richard were only recently discovered under an English parking lot, this 15th-century mystery seems quite timely.

In Tey’s novel, Inspector Alan Grant (not the one from Jurassic Park) of Scotland Yard, laid up with a broken leg, applies modern police methods to investigate the claim against Richard. All I can tell you about it, without spoiling the fun, is that he does a very thorough job and I find his conclusion 100% convincing. So do a lot of people. The book is full of insights into history–how facts are gathered, the role of propaganda, how to decide whom to believe and whom to dismiss… I mean, how do we “know” what we think we know? How many things that we’re sure we know… just ain’t so?

History is chock-full of stuff like that. That’s why I love it.

Many critics think Daughter of Time is one of the four or five best mystery novels ever written–out of many thousands. I’ve probably read hundreds… and I agree!

 

My Favorite Books

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Of course, if I were to list all my favorite books, we’d be here all day and I’d still be far from being finished. So I’m going to name only a few of them. And why not? Books make great Christmas presents (hint, hint).

*Freddy and the Ignormus, by Walter R. Brooks. This is my favorite Freddy book, and its theme couldn’t be more timely. It’s all about being afraid of something that isn’t real! If that doesn’t sum up 2022 in seven words, I don’t know what could.

*Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy L. Sayers. This intimate peek into the advertising business is just endlessly fascinating! You almost forget there’s a murder to be solved, you get so wrapped up in slogans, jingles, etc.

*The Chessmen of Mars, my all-time favorite Edgar Rice Burroughs book–even more than Tarzan of the Apes. All that need be said is that “This book puts you there”–“there” being a Martian backwater where the game of chess is life and death. Really, if you’ve never met Ghek the Kaldane, you’ve really missed something.

*Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton, exposes the destructive hubris that underlays our worldly business and scientific triumphs. Talk about building foundations on sand! Ours are built atop a sinkhole.

And is it really necessary for me even to mention Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia?

All these books are, in their own way, parables. Maybe the authors didn’t know that they were writing parables–but that only makes their achievement more impressive.

‘When Is a Good Book Not So Good?’ (2015)

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Not all the books that I enjoy reading would I recommend. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is one of them.

When is a Good Book not so Good?

I admit it: I don’t turn away from cheap thrills. I don’t gorge on them any more than I’d eat a whole package of chocolate chip cookies at a sitting. If it’s going to unsettle your faith, or get you hung up on alien ideas that no Christian should have room for… then it’s best to stay away. Don’t court temptation.

Scary books won’t hurt me. I know of other things that can, so I avoid them.

Plus! This book makes for an interesting study of popular culture in what was once a Christian nation. Our America is following Britain down the tubes: we need to wake up to the danger, slam on the breaks, turn around, and go the other way. Fast!

Another ‘Bell Mountain’ Illustration

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Here’s another drawing for Bell Mountain by 9-year-old Kerolyn in Brazil. It’s a scene from Book No. 2, The Cellar Beneath the Cellar–Obst and Uduqu giving King Ryons a much-needed bath.

I like the idea of illustrating my young readers’ books with pictures drawn by children! I don’t think it’s been done before, and I wonder why not? I’d love to see more pictures done by young readers themselves, all around the world. Hey, is this way cool, or what?

I wonder if I can get a picture of the Baluchitherium in The Thunder King (Book 3) emerging from the river with King Ryons on its back, scattering the Thunder King’s army just as it’s about to take the city of Obann.

Another Bell Mountain Picture

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This drawing is by Kathleen’s sister, Kerolyn, who’s only nine years old. It shows Ellayne and Jack drinking tea with Hesket the Tinker, who turns out to be a very nasty villain. Kathleen and Kerolyn live in Brazil. These are very accomplished kids!

A book for young readers… illustrated by children. Why hasn’t anybody done that before? I’d love to see that for Bell Mountain.

Girls, hang on to those drawings! Who knows? We may be able to put them in the books someday.

‘Another Big Piece of the Story’ (2016)

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Good lord! Was it really seven years ago, that I was writing The Silver Trumpet? How many years ahead will it be, the next time I wake up in the morning?

Another Big Piece of the Story

The people of Obann dread the sea. They don’t even like to look at it from the safety of the shore. And I didn’t know why. I never sat down to hash it out. I waited for God to make it clear to me.

Which He did!

I’m not the only writer who’s had this experience. We’ll all tell you–it’s positively great when it happens.

‘So You Want Your Teen to Be Reading… This?’ (2015)

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This was a “Kids’ Daily Deal” on amazon.com a few years ago, and supposedly a New York Times Best-seller.

So You Want Your Teen to be Reading… This?

Hey, let’s glamorize serial killers! They’re not all bad! There’ve gotta be some good ones, right?

And so we drift imperceptibly into situational ethics–which is a euphemism for no ethics, no moral standards, at all. Real standards don’t change from moment to moment, according to whatever’s most convenient.

There are a lot of people warning us that we’re in danger of breaking our civilization.

We should listen.

Lee’s Homeschool Reading List (6)

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That Hideous Strength (Literature) - TV Tropes

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis (12 and Up–all the way up!)

This book blows my mind. Written in 1943, it only grows more applicable–and more alarming!–with each passing year.

Some of it will slide past you if you’re only 12 years old; but you won’t be 12 forever. There’s always more to this book, every time you read it. I’m 73 now and still learning from it–currently re-reading it, and still picking up tidbits I didn’t get the last time.

This is a story of Scientific Progress as performed by the Devil, featuring a sophisticated young married couple who have a lot of growing up to do but are very, very far from knowing it. Their desire to conform, to be with it, to hang out with the really cool people, almost kills them.

Science, higher education, government, bureaucracy, the whole academic world–Lewis just plain fricassees them all. He takes no prisoners.

His vision scares the daylights out of me. How did he see so clearly, so far into the future? There’s much in here to remind one of George Orwell’s 1984; only of course That Hideous Strength is a fantasy featuring a resurrected Merlin.

There is a bit of twaddle at the end; but maybe after another ten years I’ll find some merit in it. But 99% of the book is pure rocket fuel.

Disney Does It Again (Grooming Children for Sex)

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Baymax Or Bust - Disney To "Soon" Have Huggable Robots | Futurism

It’s got a computer in it, so you know it’s gotta be great

Oh, boy! There’s a new Dizzy Studios superhero movie coming out–Baymax, featuring an inflatable computerized robot superhero [barf bag, anyone?], pitched to an audience of children as young as two years old…

And featuring “men” who supposedly menstruate. Take that, families! Investigator Chris Rufo saw leaked footage, and spilled the beans (https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/status/1542141246944296961).

Well! We can’t have that! Quick, someone find us an oracle! Got one? It’s… a self-published romance writer? That’s our oracle?

Well, anyway, she says “It’s not the ‘idea’ that men can have periods: it’s a fact.” So there! The oracle has spoken! It’s a fact!

The movie also features “the Transgender flag” and so-called “men” shopping for maxi-pads.

What is our society supposed to get out of this?

Why does anyone but a Far Left wacko patronize Disney movies?

Time to Start Typing

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My allergies having abated to the point where I can go back to work, I’ve got seven chapters of a new book to type up and send to my editor, Susan. Ozias, Prince in Peril–I hope you like the title.

It’s not easy, shifting gears, when you’ve just been reading and covering the dark and dreary nooze of this dark and dreary age. Ozias lived in such a time, but God put him there for a reason. I pray my description of his life and work will inspire sane and decent people to put their trust in God and do their best.

Even as David did, and Joshua, Moses, Peter and Paul, and all the other heroes we encounter in the Scriptures.