Archive for the ‘Boomerang’ Category

Registration is OPEN for our Arrow and Boomerang 2016-17 Book Clubs

Arrow Boomerang 2016-17 Book Clubs

Rather than reading in isolation, without the benefit of examining the writing and the layers of meaning novelists intend their readers to experience, The Arrow and Boomerang Book Clubs provide a forum for that opportunity.

Homeschool students especially need the chance to talk about what they read—yet the busy mother-of-many doesn’t always have time to read those lengthy dense books, let alone discuss them in depth!

Brave Writer provides you a virtual coffee house—where students gather to freely discuss the novels they read at home.

The 2016-17 Books

ARROW

August: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
September: The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate)
October: Homer Price (Robert McCloskey)
November: Carry On Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham)
December: The Birchbark House (Louise Erdrich)
January: The Green Ember (S. D. Smith)
February: Bud, Not Buddy (Christopher Paul Curtis)
March: Out of My Mind (Sharon M. Draper)
April: A Long Walk to Water (Linda Sue Park)
May: The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

BOOMERANG

August: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)
September: Julie of the Wolves (Jean Craighead George)
October: The Prince and the Pauper (Mark Twain)
November: Moon Over Manifest (Clare Vanderpool)
December: American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang)
January: Mountains Beyond Mountains (Tracy Kidder)
February: The Crossover (Kwame Alexander)
March: Divergent (Veronica Roth)
April: The Chosen (Chaim Potok)
May: Echo (Pam Munoz Ryan

Sign Up Today!

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2016-17 Arrows and Boomerangs Titles!

2016-17 Arrows and Boomerangs
Presenting the 2016-2017 book lists for our literature program!

(3rd-10th grades)

Full Year On Sale in June
Arrow: $69.00 (regularly $79.00)
Boomerang: $89.00 (regularly $99.00)

The Arrow (3rd-6th) and The Boomerang (7th-10th) are our language arts tools (digital magazines) that teach grammar, spelling, punctuation, and literary elements using living literature (a la Charlotte Mason). We pick books for you to read that represent a diversity of perspectives and writing genres to expand the horizons of your young charges. From those books, we select four passages for copywork and dictation, paired with easy to understand notes written in a conversational and engaging style.

The practices of copywork and dictation powerfully teach the mechanics of writing to your kids, without the emotional toll of critiquing your children’s original writing! They allow for the brain to encode proper usage, spelling, and syntax by marrying transcription skills to sentences loaded with meaning.

Try it this year, and see the difference!

2016-17 Arrows

August: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
September: The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate)
October: Homer Price (Robert McCloskey)
November: Carry on Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham)
December: The Birchbark House (Louise Erdrich)
January: The Green Ember (S. D. Smith)
February: Bud, Not Buddy (Christopher Paul Curtis)
March: Out of My Mind (Sharon M. Draper)
April: A Long Walk to Water (Linda Sue Park)
May: The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)

2016-17 Boomerangs

August: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)
September: Julie of the Wolves (Jean Craighead George)
October: The Prince and the Pauper (Mark Twain)
November: Moon Over Manifest (Clare Vanderpool)
December: American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang)
January: Mountains Beyond Mountains (Tracy Kidder)
February: The Crossover (Kwame Alexander)
March: Divergent (Veronica Roth)
April: The Chosen (Chaim Potok)
May: Echo (Pam Munoz Ryan)

Each issue publishes on the 1st of the month and will be available for download from a private folder on our Brave Writer Website. (Books, teacup, and frog not included.)

To purchase the books (all in one place for ease of ordering), use our Amazon Store (affiliate links)!

Want to know more? Watch the scope below to learn how the Arrow and Boomerang programs work and a little about each of the book selections!

One last caveat: We are offering Arrow and Boomerang book clubs for ALL 20 titles next year. If you decide you want your kids to be in our book discussion clubs, know that the issues of the Arrow and Boomerang are included for the price of the club.

We’re excited to read with your family during the coming year!

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Happy Birthday, Elizabeth George Speare!

The Witch of Blackbird PondIn celebration of Elizabeth George Speare’s birthday (born November 21, 1908), we’re making a special offer! The Boomerang for her novel, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, is:

HALF PRICE ($5.95) till Monday,
Nov. 23 at midnight EST

Elizabeth George Speare was born in Melrose, Massachusetts. She lived in New England until her death in 1994. Most of her novels, including The Witch of Blackbird Pond, take place in her native homeland. Inspired by the wild woods and headlands of her home, Speare began writing her stories at age 8. Later, she earned first a bachelor’s degree from Smith College and then a master’s in English from Boston University.

In 1936, she married a man named Alden Speare and they had two children together. From all accounts, Elizabeth never stopped writing and led a happy life with her family in Connecticut. Starting with her novel Calico Captive in 1957, Speare began her career. Her works are usually based on historical happenings, and, as in the case of her first book, the real journal of a girl captured by Indians.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth’s second novel, was not based on a real person, but instead focused on the colonial time period and the fear of witchcraft that plagued Massachusetts. Speare won the 1959 Newberry Award for her work. Later, she would win another for her book The Bronze Bow. While not a prolific writer (she wrote four novels in her lifetime), Speare’s influence continues in a brilliant legacy of words.

“Everything in our lives leads up to everything else in our lives. So a moment in the present has a reference point, both in the past and in the future. I want you to know that you–as you are right now and as you ever will be–are fully enough for this moment.” ― Elizabeth George Speare

So, celebrate Elizabeth George Speare’s birthday and take advantage of this special offer today!

Also, if you’d like to buy a copy of the novel, it’s available through Amazon: The Witch of Blackbird Pond (affiliate link).

The Boomerang is a monthly digital downloadable product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel. It is geared toward 7th to 10th graders (ages 12—advanced, 13-15) and is the indispensable tool for Brave Writer parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context.

Image is of the 1958 first edition cover published by Houghton Mifflin.

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Happy Birthday, Suzanne Collins!

Hunger Games Boomerang Sale

In celebration of Suzanne Collins’ birthday (born August 10, 1962), we’re making a special offer! The Boomerang for her novel, The Hunger Games, is:

HALF PRICE until Tuesday midnight EDT! ($5.95)

Suzanne Marie Collins spent her childhood traveling. Her father was an Air force officer who served in the Vietnam War. In 1980, she graduated from the Alabama School of Fine Arts with a degree in theatre. Her career began not in books, but in TV. She worked for Nickelodeon on projects such as Little Bear, and Clarissa Explains It All. She has also written for Scholastic kids, and was head writer for Clifford’s Puppy Days, and received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America award.

You probably know Collins best for her famed trilogy, The Hunger Games. The first book, published in 2008, rocketed her to fame, and her stories have continued to captivate through not only the end of the book series, but three movies (and a fourth to be released November 2015).

There are certain books that are meant to be savored and others that are better devoured. The Hunger Games fits both categories. Devour it once, and then read it a second time, more slowly, delving deep. Either way is a fantastic experience.

So, celebrate Suzanne Collins’ birthday and take advantage of this special offer!

If you’d like to buy a copy of the novel, it’s available through Amazon: The Hunger Games (affiliate link).

The Boomerang is a monthly digital downloadable product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel. It is geared toward 7th to 10th graders (ages 12—advanced, 13-15) and is the indispensable tool for Brave Writer parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context.

Image by Carissa Rogers (cc cropped, filtered)

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2015-16 Arrow and Boomerang Titles!

2015-16 Arrow Titles

2015-2016 Arrow Book List (books not included):

August: The Mysterious Benedict Society (Trenton Lee Stewart)
September: Flora and Ulysses (Kate DiCamillo)
October: How to Eat Fried Worms (Thomas Rockwell)
November: Wonder (R. J. Palacio)
December: Poppy (Avi)
January: Love That Dog (Sharon Creech)
February: Courage Has No Color (Tanya Lee Stone – Non-fiction)
March: Understood Betsy (Dorothy Canfield Fisher)
April: Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam (Cynthia Kadohata)
May: Love Ruby Lavender (Deborah Wiles)

The Arrow is the monthly digital product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel (you purchase or obtain the novels yourself). It’s geared toward children ages 8-11 and is an indispensable tool for parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context.

2015-16 Boomerang Titles

2015-2016 Boomerang Book List (books not included):

August: The Sea of Monsters (Rick Riordan #2)
September: I am Malala (Malala Yousafzai)
October: Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
November: Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
December: The Pearl (John Steinbeck)
January: The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
February: Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson)
March: Paper Towns (John Green)
April: Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
May: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)

The Boomerang is the monthly digital product that features a classic work of fiction each month. These novels are used to teach teens the mechanics of writing (grammar, spelling, punctuation, and literary elements). In addition to the weekly passages used for copywork and dictation, The Boomerang includes ten “think piece” questions which are used to enhance a student’s comprehension of the novel’s themes and construction.

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