One of the perennial gripes of homeschoolers is *Books for Kids*. Quality books. Books with good morals. Books that have real sentences in them. And don't start with conjunctions. Books that engage our kids & teach without moralising.There are books we all have on our shelves ~ the Little H0use books, the Anne books, perhaps some Meindert deJong, or Patricia St John, Madeline L'Engle, Johanna Spyri's Heidi, perhaps even some Elfrida Vipont ~ yes, well I used to work in the children's section of the library. I own a lot of classics. However most of us are always on the lookout for books we've missed that fit our critea. The Billabong Books are just such books.
Now unless you're Australian you have probably never heard of these books but they are Australian classics. More about them can be found here & they are available on~line 2nd hand. You can learn quite a bit about life on a large cattle station from the books but they are engaging stories in & of themselves. The time period extends from pre WW1 to the Depression era.
4 comments:
Madeline L'Engle was a huge fave of mine during my teen years... i devoured the Wrinkle in Time series, but to be perfectly honest, my real favorites were the books she wrote about girls in European boarding schools. "And Both Were Young" was one I read and reread until i wore the book to tatters.
Interestingly enough, my English teachers at my teensy tiny school (graduating class of 24!) were actually good friends with her. They offered to have me over for dinner once when she was visiting them, but I declined... I think I was too nervous and thought I'd betray my silliness and ignorance.
one of the decisions I still regret:-(
Yes, I loved these too. Liddy rather liked her mystery ones & the Austin Family but I am a fantacist (could never guess, eh, what!)but I am still working on these with Ditz. I like them so they couldn't possibly be any good. They're old!!!!!
I should have loved to have met her.
wow! you've heard of them! i'm so glad i could hug you:-) most people are unaware of those earlier books of hers... i actually had someone tell me i *must* be mistaken about their authorship because "girls in european boarding schools was not a topic that would have interested ms. l'engle in the slightest"
i think i *will* hug you ((hugs))
Heard of them? I've read them, girl! :) I think (from her biography) they were based on her own experiences ~ if I have remembered correctly. After all, it *was* a long time ago & I am no longer as young as I once was. I always found it so refreshing to see neither science nor the arts were scorned by a professing Christian writer.
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