I encourage you to use your public library
and build your own library . . . .
topic to book topic; rather, a combination
of a topic match and choosing books of
unforgettable, richly developed characters and plot is essential. For “Obedience:
Horses,” one would think Black Beauty
by Sewell would be a natural, but King of
the Wind goes past being a heartwarming story. It is a Newbery Award-winning
true story written in novel format about
a heroic horse that founds the lineage of
thoroughbred horses. I never read it to
my kids without crying. The Wheel on
the School by DeJong, about six Dutch
school children trying to find a wheel for
the roof of their school to attract storks to
their village, is memorable for the wonderfully crafted characters and the plot of
childlike means to find a wheel—perfect
for the “Bird” unit!
things we do not want to experience, but
we do want to understand. Literature
provides readers vicarious living for historical units. I would not teach the Civil
War without including Hunt’s Across Five
Aprils. Not only does it chronicle the five
years of the Civil War, but through one
family’s saga, you understand feelings
of Northerners, Southerners, and those
pulled both ways by the war. Through
Corrie ten Boom’s eyes in The Hiding
Place, you understand the atrocities of
Hitler’s concentration camps. Newbery
Award winner Out of the Dust by Hesse,
written in free verse, paints a picture of
how teenager Billie Jo fought economic
and mental despair during the Depression. My mother gave Hesse’s book to me
with this note penned: “So you will know
what I lived through.”
ily. That wonderful quote by Scout Finch
from To Kill A Mockingbird at the end of
the book is equally true of literature: “
Atti-cus was right. One time he said you never
really know a man until you stand in his
shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.” I encourage you to use your public library and
build your own library, so your children
can stand in others’ shoes and on others’
porches through literature.
Vicarious Living
Through Literature
We cannot go back and experience his-
toric events firsthand, and there are many
If you read Taylor’s Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry, you climb into black skin
and vicariously experience 1933 racial injustice endured by a Mississippi farm fam-
Jessica Hulcy, co-author of KONOS Curriculum, the first curriculum written for homeschool, is an educator, author, and formerly
popular national homeschool speaker prior
to her near-fatal wreck in 2009. A graduate of the University of Texas, mom to four
grown sons, and “Grandear” to grandchildren, Jessica lives with her husband Wade
on acreage in Texas. Recently Jessica and
Wade started the ultimate online help for
homeschooling moms called Homeschool
Mentor. Visit www.homeschoolmentor
.com and www.konos.com.
FUTURE HEAD OF WORLD OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE
DREAM BIG WITH
www.apologia.com 888-524-4724
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
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