Unschooling and home schooling fiction
Ahna
I was just researching fiction that my kids and I could read about unschooling.
I just thought I'd share here what I found in our library system (and Amazon's).
It's quite long so just skip it if you're not interested in home schooling novels.
(Only one seems to be about unschoolers, as far as I can tell).
Title : Surviving the Applewhites / by Stephanie S. Tolan.
Author : Tolan, Stephanie S.
When Jake Semple is kicked out of yet another school, the Applewhites, an
eccentric family of artists, offer to let him live with them and attend their
unstructured Creative Academy. Twelve-year-old E.D., the only non-artistic
(and organized) person in her family, feels like "the invisible Applewhite" and
is wary of Jake. Through Jake and E.D's alternating perspectives, Tolan (The
Face in the Mirror) introduces the outrageous titular clan. E.D.'s pompous
father directs a local production of The Sound of Music, while her mother
breaks from her popular mysteries to write the Great American Novel; her
uncle carves a coffee table that her poet aunt defends to Jake, "Well, you
couldn't put a cup of coffee on it, of course, but then who would want to? It's
wonderfully soul-filling, don't you think?" Some of the plotting feels unfinished:
E.D. and Jake don't formally make peace and the Applewhites never come to
terms with their individual narcissism. Jake's transformation too seems
unconvincing. But humor abounds in the ever-building chaos: a writer coming
to interview E.D.'s mother stays to do a slew of projects on the famous family,
including inviting a television crew to document their lives. In the end, it's the
antics of the cast of characters that keep this show on the road. Ages 10-up.
(Aug.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.Description : 216 p. ; 22 cm.
Title : What would Joey do? / Jack Gantos.
Author : Gantos, Jack.
Modern literature's unlikely hero Joey Pigza is back in Jack Gantos's grand
finale to the award-winning trilogy that began with Joey Pigza Swallowed the
Key and the Newbery Honor book Joey Pigza Loses Control. Joey, the
sweetest, funniest kid on meds you'll ever meet, has enough trouble trying to
keep his "active" self together. How can he win in his new, self-assumed role
as "Mr. Helpful" when his divorced parents are out of control, his Grandma is
surly and morbid, and Olivia, the mean blind girl he's forced to homeschool
with, calls him a "hyper retard"? Even Olivia's religious mother can't save him
with her "What would Jesus do?" refrain. As his world of flawed adults spins
around him in carnivalesque chaos, Joey has to decide on a daily basis what
he, Joey, should do. At least he has Pablo, his loyal Chihuahua mutt, his lucky
charm. Or at least he does until his maniacal father (complete with restraining
order) kidnaps the dog to lure Joey out of the house.
Joey is a wonderful character, and his first-person narrative is both hilarious
and heartbreaking. Sadly, it is his dying grandmother who knows him best:
"You know, Joey, if you didn't wear those med patches, you'd just be thinking
about yourself, and you wouldn't care about making everyone happy. Your
problem is that you got better, and the rest of the world didn't." While it is more
rewarding to have read the previous Joey books before this one, it is not
mandatory. Still, all three Joey books are memorable, honest, fresh, exciting,
truly eye-opening, and should not be missed by child or adult. (Ages 10 and
older) --Karin Snelson
Description : 229 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes : Books in this trilogy: Book 1. Joey Pigza swallowed the key -- Book 2.
Joey Pigza loses control -- Book 3. What would Joey do?
Joey tries to keep his life from degenerating into total chaos when his mother
sends him to be home-schooled with a hostile blind girl, his divorced parents
cannot stop fighting, and his grandmother is dying of emphysema.
Title : Swimming in the starry river : a novel / by P. Carey Reid.
From Publishers Weekly
A father's love for his dying daughter illuminates this heartrending first novel.
Jim Kaldy, who narrates in a careful, steady voice, tells us at the beginning
that his family's story is not an easy one. Kim and his wife Marsha's only child,
six-year-old Stella, suffers from a lethal, painful, congenital skin disease that
has has left her hideously deformed. Jim quits his job as a government
financial analyst to care for Stella, allowing Marsha to resume her career.
Forced to confront the pain and humiliation his child endures on a daily basis,
Jim takes Stella out of school to teach her at home. Yet just as Stella begins to
blossom under his care, they are faced with a difficult decision about a skin-
graft operation that could alleviate the effects of Stella's disability but would
subject her to risky side effects. Without sentimentality or melodrama, Reid
creates a harrowing yet immensely moving story. The Kaldys' dilemma is
made palpably real, along with their quiet heroism in bearing the terrible
burden, and their mutual love. Drawn in by Reid's unflinching, often lyrical
prose, the reader gets through it too, and emerges humbled by this story of
ordinary people with extraordinary hearts.
Alice, I think
by Susan Juby
Ever since Alice arrived at first grade dressed as a hobbit and endured a
week of increasingly violent peer rejection, she has been home schooled by
her hippie mom and indifferent dad, leaving her with what her therapist calls
"a shocking poverty of age-appropriate real-life experience." Now Alice's
inept new therapist, Death Lord Bob, has cornered her into agreeing to go to
the public high school. Actually, this fits right in with Alice's career aspirations
to become a cultural critic, and her eighties style statement would be working
out pretty much all right (especially after she gets a great haircut somewhat by
accident) if it weren't for her old nemesis Linda, now grown seriously
homicidal, and her two head banger henchmen. Alice's sensible observations
are a rich source of humor in this very funny first novel, as she tries to get her
life together in spite of the peculiar aberrations of the "normal" teen and adult
population of Smithers, a small ingrown town in British Columbia where
entertainment opportunities are limited to excuse-to-drink events like the
Northern Saddle Sores' Family Trail Ride. Her mother is the kind of tie-dye
clad woman who holds a sage-burning ceremony for safety before starting out
on a back-to-school shopping trip, and her friends include bookstore owner
Corinne, who is allergic to books. Her romance-writing father's poker cronies
are equally colorful: gay but style-challenged Finn and taxi-owning Marcus,
who has a succession of twenty-years-younger girlfriends who need a ride.
When Alice's sullen girl cousin Frank arrives, a parents' nightmare with her
bizarre outfits and stuffed-animal backpack filled with bottles and baggies,
Alice observes the resulting hullabaloo with amused satisfaction, and after a
hilarious, precarious car trip to a Fish Show and Drum Workshop, she finds
herself well on the way to acquiring a friend and a boyfriend. Older teens will
enjoy the story and the many descriptions of wacky clothes if they can get past
the misguided cover, a picture of five-year-old Alice's chubby hobbit-clad legs.
(Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell--This text refers to the Hardcover
edition.
290 p. ; 19 cm.Notes:
Previously published in Canada : Thistledown Press, 2000.
I just thought I'd share here what I found in our library system (and Amazon's).
It's quite long so just skip it if you're not interested in home schooling novels.
(Only one seems to be about unschoolers, as far as I can tell).
Title : Surviving the Applewhites / by Stephanie S. Tolan.
Author : Tolan, Stephanie S.
When Jake Semple is kicked out of yet another school, the Applewhites, an
eccentric family of artists, offer to let him live with them and attend their
unstructured Creative Academy. Twelve-year-old E.D., the only non-artistic
(and organized) person in her family, feels like "the invisible Applewhite" and
is wary of Jake. Through Jake and E.D's alternating perspectives, Tolan (The
Face in the Mirror) introduces the outrageous titular clan. E.D.'s pompous
father directs a local production of The Sound of Music, while her mother
breaks from her popular mysteries to write the Great American Novel; her
uncle carves a coffee table that her poet aunt defends to Jake, "Well, you
couldn't put a cup of coffee on it, of course, but then who would want to? It's
wonderfully soul-filling, don't you think?" Some of the plotting feels unfinished:
E.D. and Jake don't formally make peace and the Applewhites never come to
terms with their individual narcissism. Jake's transformation too seems
unconvincing. But humor abounds in the ever-building chaos: a writer coming
to interview E.D.'s mother stays to do a slew of projects on the famous family,
including inviting a television crew to document their lives. In the end, it's the
antics of the cast of characters that keep this show on the road. Ages 10-up.
(Aug.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.Description : 216 p. ; 22 cm.
Title : What would Joey do? / Jack Gantos.
Author : Gantos, Jack.
Modern literature's unlikely hero Joey Pigza is back in Jack Gantos's grand
finale to the award-winning trilogy that began with Joey Pigza Swallowed the
Key and the Newbery Honor book Joey Pigza Loses Control. Joey, the
sweetest, funniest kid on meds you'll ever meet, has enough trouble trying to
keep his "active" self together. How can he win in his new, self-assumed role
as "Mr. Helpful" when his divorced parents are out of control, his Grandma is
surly and morbid, and Olivia, the mean blind girl he's forced to homeschool
with, calls him a "hyper retard"? Even Olivia's religious mother can't save him
with her "What would Jesus do?" refrain. As his world of flawed adults spins
around him in carnivalesque chaos, Joey has to decide on a daily basis what
he, Joey, should do. At least he has Pablo, his loyal Chihuahua mutt, his lucky
charm. Or at least he does until his maniacal father (complete with restraining
order) kidnaps the dog to lure Joey out of the house.
Joey is a wonderful character, and his first-person narrative is both hilarious
and heartbreaking. Sadly, it is his dying grandmother who knows him best:
"You know, Joey, if you didn't wear those med patches, you'd just be thinking
about yourself, and you wouldn't care about making everyone happy. Your
problem is that you got better, and the rest of the world didn't." While it is more
rewarding to have read the previous Joey books before this one, it is not
mandatory. Still, all three Joey books are memorable, honest, fresh, exciting,
truly eye-opening, and should not be missed by child or adult. (Ages 10 and
older) --Karin Snelson
Description : 229 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes : Books in this trilogy: Book 1. Joey Pigza swallowed the key -- Book 2.
Joey Pigza loses control -- Book 3. What would Joey do?
Joey tries to keep his life from degenerating into total chaos when his mother
sends him to be home-schooled with a hostile blind girl, his divorced parents
cannot stop fighting, and his grandmother is dying of emphysema.
Title : Swimming in the starry river : a novel / by P. Carey Reid.
From Publishers Weekly
A father's love for his dying daughter illuminates this heartrending first novel.
Jim Kaldy, who narrates in a careful, steady voice, tells us at the beginning
that his family's story is not an easy one. Kim and his wife Marsha's only child,
six-year-old Stella, suffers from a lethal, painful, congenital skin disease that
has has left her hideously deformed. Jim quits his job as a government
financial analyst to care for Stella, allowing Marsha to resume her career.
Forced to confront the pain and humiliation his child endures on a daily basis,
Jim takes Stella out of school to teach her at home. Yet just as Stella begins to
blossom under his care, they are faced with a difficult decision about a skin-
graft operation that could alleviate the effects of Stella's disability but would
subject her to risky side effects. Without sentimentality or melodrama, Reid
creates a harrowing yet immensely moving story. The Kaldys' dilemma is
made palpably real, along with their quiet heroism in bearing the terrible
burden, and their mutual love. Drawn in by Reid's unflinching, often lyrical
prose, the reader gets through it too, and emerges humbled by this story of
ordinary people with extraordinary hearts.
Alice, I think
by Susan Juby
Ever since Alice arrived at first grade dressed as a hobbit and endured a
week of increasingly violent peer rejection, she has been home schooled by
her hippie mom and indifferent dad, leaving her with what her therapist calls
"a shocking poverty of age-appropriate real-life experience." Now Alice's
inept new therapist, Death Lord Bob, has cornered her into agreeing to go to
the public high school. Actually, this fits right in with Alice's career aspirations
to become a cultural critic, and her eighties style statement would be working
out pretty much all right (especially after she gets a great haircut somewhat by
accident) if it weren't for her old nemesis Linda, now grown seriously
homicidal, and her two head banger henchmen. Alice's sensible observations
are a rich source of humor in this very funny first novel, as she tries to get her
life together in spite of the peculiar aberrations of the "normal" teen and adult
population of Smithers, a small ingrown town in British Columbia where
entertainment opportunities are limited to excuse-to-drink events like the
Northern Saddle Sores' Family Trail Ride. Her mother is the kind of tie-dye
clad woman who holds a sage-burning ceremony for safety before starting out
on a back-to-school shopping trip, and her friends include bookstore owner
Corinne, who is allergic to books. Her romance-writing father's poker cronies
are equally colorful: gay but style-challenged Finn and taxi-owning Marcus,
who has a succession of twenty-years-younger girlfriends who need a ride.
When Alice's sullen girl cousin Frank arrives, a parents' nightmare with her
bizarre outfits and stuffed-animal backpack filled with bottles and baggies,
Alice observes the resulting hullabaloo with amused satisfaction, and after a
hilarious, precarious car trip to a Fish Show and Drum Workshop, she finds
herself well on the way to acquiring a friend and a boyfriend. Older teens will
enjoy the story and the many descriptions of wacky clothes if they can get past
the misguided cover, a picture of five-year-old Alice's chubby hobbit-clad legs.
(Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell--This text refers to the Hardcover
edition.
290 p. ; 19 cm.Notes:
Previously published in Canada : Thistledown Press, 2000.