Goldtown Beginnings

Our family is always reading, so it's no surprise that we love book reviews! I have a little one just learning to read all the way through a high schooler who is an advanced reader. We have many picture books and even more novels for the older ones, but I've realized it's trickier to find good books for kids who are just venturing into chapters. If your child is ready for more complex sentence structures, a richer vocabulary, and a much heavier emphasis on words over pictures, this new series from Kregel Publications might be perfect for you.

My boys have been enjoying the first couple books in this six-book series: Jem Strikes Gold and Jem's Frog Fiasco.

Kregel Publications was founded in 1949 to provide quality, life-changing, Christian resources to pastors, missionaries, teachers, and leaders. Their mission is "to develop and distribute--with integrity and excellence--trusted, biblically based resources that lead individuals to know and serve Jesus Christ." They now offer over 1,000 titles on Christian education and ministry, contemporary issues, reprints of classic works, and more. Their fiction selections appeal to adults as well as children, as seen in these Goldtown books from author Susan K. Marlow. Along with authoring dozens of books, Susan was a homeschooling mom, taught writing workshops, and cares for a 14-acre homestead. Some of her other books include the Circle C Stepping Stones that we reviewed a couple years ago.

The Goldtown Beginnings series follows the life of Jem Coulter, a nearly 8-year-old boy living in California during the Gold Rush. The stories weave in interesting characters as they teach history in a fun, exciting way. Each book is less than 80 pages long, 10 chapters, and geared toward the lower elementary ages.

My 7- and 9-year-old boys read the stories. I asked the older one to help me with the summaries. Here is what he said about Book one, Jem Strikes Gold:

Jem was panning for gold and found a small gold flake. His fingers were too big to pick it up. His sister Ellie wanted to help, but he wouldn't let her. He eventually gave in since her fingers were smaller. After that, it was time to deliver his mom's pies to the miners. They pulled a wagon with the pies and got gold nuggets as payment. Everyone was living in tents and trying to make enough money to survive. 

Before they finished delivering the pies, a rich boy named Will started picking on them. He tried to steal a pie, so Jem pushed him. Will pushed him back and made Jem fall in the wagon on top of the pies. His pants were covered in mushy blueberry pie. When they got home, Ellie told her mom everything that happened. Their parents comforted him and told him it was ok. They helped cleaned everything up. The Jem and his dad delivered more pies. 

Next, their neighbor had a dog follow him home. Jem and Ellie wanted it, but they knew their parents wouldn't let them have it because they couldn't feed it. The dog kept following them though and would play with them all the time. When they went to deliver pies again, the dog followed and bit Will's pants when he started teasing them. Their mom was happy and let them keep the dog and their dad found some gold. They named the dog Gold Nugget.

 Here is my son's description of Jem's Frog Fiasco:

Jem and Ellie went to deliver pies again. Jem wanted to get another job, so he went to the cafe to ask for one. The cafe owner said he could have a job catching bull frogs to put on the menu. When Jem and Ellie went to catch bull frogs, they saw one. Ellie tried to get it. When she grabbed it, she started screaming. Then it slipped out of her hand. All the other bull frogs hopped away. 

The next time they went to catch them, Jem wanted to do it by himself, but Ellie tried  to help anyway and scared the all the frogs away again. Then he yelled at her and she stomped home. Jem waited a while and caught a lot of bull frogs. After he caught them, he couldn't lift the pail, so he had to drop a few out. When he went home, he realized Ellie wasn't there. Everybody in town went looking for her. Someone told Jem to use Gold Nugget to find Ellie. The dog sniffed Ellie's doll and found Ellie in a coyote hole. He got her out and they went home. Jem realized he wasn't being nice and Ellie forgave him.  

One thing that I appreciate about Susan's books is her passion for teaching. She realizes that books for young kids can be much more than simply entertainment. Each one contains a list of new words that might be more advanced. Vocabulary such as pester, fiasco, hoarse, and tuckered out are listed and given a brief description so the reader can better understand the text. The end of each book contains a short two-page history of a relating topic from the story, in this case, gold miners and coyote holes.

Not only that, but she offers many other learning resources to enrich the experience. There is an activity guide that offers a daily schedule, a lapbook that includes read-to-be-cut colored pages, and coloring pages that correspond directly to the books. The free activity pages include something for each chapter. There is a wide variety of exercises: short answer, vocabulary matching, maze, math problems, writing prompts, Bible lessons, dot-to-dot, and more. There are also activities that involve drawing, cutting and gluing, graphing, and a recipe. A full answer key is at the end of the guides.

The Goldtown Beginnings books are morally sound and filled with much learning. They are great as both read alouds and silent reading for 1st-3rd grade or so. My guys enjoyed the stories and had fun completing some of the activities.

I can't wait to see which adventure Jem has next as the series continues!

 
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You can read more reviews of these books on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.

Circle C Stepping Stones

Reading is a major part of life in our home and the foundation of our schooling. Since the kids fly through so many books in a week, we are always pleased to get new ones to review. This time, we received two new books!

The Circle C Stepping Stones books published by Kregel Publications is a brand new series. Andi Saddles Up and Andi Under the Big Top are books 1 and 2 of the six-book set written by Susan K. Marlow. The Circle C books follow Andi Carter as she grows up on a cattle ranch in California in the late 1800s. There are four levels of books:

• Beginnings -- tells stories of young Andi in easy-to-read text and includes fun illustrations. 
• Stepping Stones -- focuses on 9-year-old Andi. The vocabulary is a little more advanced and has only a few pictures. 
• Adventures -- shares the escapades of Andi at 12 years. The writing and storylines are richer.
• Milestones -- continues with Andi's life as a teenager. These full-length chapter books are nearly twice as long as the other series and are the most advanced of the books.   

Since we received books from Stepping Stones (which are geared toward ages 7-10) and my reading kids are ages 7, 8, and 11, this was the best fit for our family. The books are around 100 pages each and contain 12 short chapters, making them a quick read. The beginning of each one dedicates a couple pages to defining new words that may be confusing to young kids. Vocabulary like alfalfa, conchos, woolgathering, calliope, menagerie, and surrey are listed and given a brief description. The end of each book includes a short 2-3-page history of a relating topic from the story. (Book 1 explains sheep and cattle wars; book 2 describes the circus.)

Andi Saddles Up begins with the celebration of Andi's 9th birthday. She had been hoping for a new special saddle for her horse Taffy since she was finally old enough to be considered a real rider. When her present wasn't where she expected, her was disheartened. She moved from one disappointment to another as she witnessed her brother in a dispute with their neighbor over the boundary line between the two lands. While fighting and sabotage consumed the adults, Andi found her precious saddle, made a new friend in the neighbor girl, and attempted to trick ride against her brother's wishes. It was a fall that resulted in a broken bone that helped the two families resolve their differences.

Andi Under the Big Top is an exciting time as Andi and her friends and family visit the circus. Peanuts, popcorn, a lion tamer, clowns, acrobats, all sorts of animals, and intriguing people all vie for Andi's attention. She meets a boy who ran away from home, a skilled trick rider, trapeze artists, and eventually has her own horse stolen from her barn. She has to fight to retrieve the horse again and learns valuable  lessons in the process.     

There are free activity pages and study guides that accompany each book and can be used as a reading curriculum. The activities cover a wide range of topics, including history, language arts, math, science, Bible, music, art, and more. Each book's activities take 21 days to complete, with an optional lapbook packet bringing the study to 28 days. Not only do the guides include many topic, but they incorporate many different types of exercises, as well: short answer, matching, word search, crossword, maze, poetry encouragement, word pictures, and much more. The guides also briefly expand on topics from the books, like teaching about trout and giving a recipe for dough balls, describing the bones in the arm and showing an x-ray of a broken bone, explaining how and why people used stilts and giving directions to make your own. The study guides are nearly 30 pages a piece and greatly further your learning.     

My kids enjoyed these cute, lesson-filled stories. They are not the style of book that my oldest is drawn to, but he read them for me nonetheless. He's just over the intended age range and read each book in one hour's time. When I asked him what he thought of the books, he nonchalantly replied, "I liked it." He then said he thought they would be best for ages 5-9. My daughter, who is my most avid reader and falls perfectly in the age range, loved both books and eagerly described them to me. The books took her approximately 1 1/2-2 hours to read. My third child falls at the bottom of the range. He's just recently started enjoying lengthy chapter books, so these were more of a challenge for him. Each took about 2 hours for him to read.

The Circle C books are a wholesome collection that would be good for every family. With easy-to-read books all the way through full-length chapter books, there's a fun, Andi story for everyone.


You can connect on the following social media sites:
Kregel Publications: Facebook and Twitter
Susan K. Marlow: Facebook and Twitter


If you'd like to read more reviews of these books, please visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog.