Book Review: The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

The Secret Chapter

by Genevieve Cogman

Book 6 in The Invisible Library

I have loved this series from the beginning. Irene is a cross between a librarian and a secret agent. Such fun!

In Cogman’s world, or worlds, there are humans, which includes librarians, Fae who are chaotic, and Dragons who represent order. There are a multitude of worlds, exactly like the Earth, that can be traveled between. Events on the worlds often diverge at different points in the timeline, and Librarians can travel in time as well. Librarians can also travel to, and through, The Library, where books from the different worlds are held. This helps to keep the balance between chaos and order in some way.

There is a truce in force between dragons and Fae, and the librarians are the neutral party. Irene is the library representative to a tripartite commission to handle irregularities, Prince Kai, son of His Majesty Ao Guang, and Irene’s live-in lover, is the dragon representative.

We start with a Fae party, with all the debauchery and danger inherent therein. Then Kai and Irene arrive home to find her parents there. This is the first time we are meeting them and they are surprisingly ordinary. She has some very serious questions for them regarding her parentage. She knows she was adopted but she wants to know how it happened.

Irene is sent on a mission to negotiate for a book and Kai decides to accompany her. This is where it gets really interesting. Irene and Kai head to a high chaos world where a Mr. Nemo (who reminds me very much of a certain villain in old movies like the James Bond classic Goldfinger) entraps them in a plot of his own. (The Fae tend to take on stereotypical archetypes, it’s part of their nature.)

Of course, it’s not as simple as that but the action and intrigue only get better from there. I highly recommend all the books in this series and this one is perhaps a little more light and fun.

Adventures in Home Learning: Episode 1

Hi Folks –

I guess there are a whole lot of us out here right now trying to keep our kids learning, or at the very least, keep ‘em occupied so they don’t burn down the house or drive us crazy. Right?

I have one daughter at home, nine years old. We're taking it slow and trying to do things to practice skills she already knows, but a homeschooling mom I know said it can take THREE weeks to ramp kids up to actual home schooling! (Here’s hoping we’re back to normal life in close to that time.)

Full disclosure, I have a teaching degree, I substitute taught in every grade and subject, and I taught library skills for two years. This is different. I'm referring to all of this as home learning because it’s not regular classroom time and I’m not creating lesson plans with objectives.

We're taking it nice and easy and trying to make learning as self-directed as possible because that creates investment. (And I still have to do my own work from home.)

I let her have a couple days off, until the packet arrived from her teacher. We waited for the packet to arrive from her teachers, but I also had her make a list of all her school subjects. Every day she lists the date and the subjects, and picks something to work on.

I am mostly letting her self-direct because she is capable but I am adding things and checking her work. (This is most necessary in math as she will gloss over the meaning of what is being asked and come up with the wrong answer.)

We have a FANTASTIC packet from all her teachers at the elementary school where we live. She has been working on pages from it every day, but that doesn’t account for all that much time.

Now, she would be very happy to spend her WHOLE day playing Minecraft and watching videos. Mommy would not be so happy.

I figure it’s great to incorporate real world activities and skills, home ec., like cooking and sewing, and there are certainly a ton of virtual tours and activities online. For Science, she has watched a Nova on the planets and listened to a program on Einstein while she made something with Perler beads. (I’m trying to sneak that learning in, but she is NOT impressed, I can tell you.)

Some things we’ve done over the past week –

·       Math worksheets from her teacher.

·       Coloring pages from her art teacher.

·       Perler bead crafts.

·       Started plants indoors.

·       Exercise bike, noting down time, distance, speed, tension, to try to build up and beat it.

·       Watched parts of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from the Royal Ballet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq8zqhqjUIo

·       Watched videos from the Cincinnati Zoo about their hippo, Fiona, and then looked up Hippo facts. https://www.youtube.com/user/CincinnatiZooTube/videos

·       Watched a science experiment from my library and tried to duplicate it. https://www.facebook.com/124737347603282/videos/237619140968664/

My goal is that learning be mostly fun and self-directed, because I have to work too and I don’t want to hear whining.

How are you all handling the "home learning”?

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens

I have to confess that while I found the book mildly entertaining, maybe even diverting, I did not find it the riveting read some other people did. It did not grip me with the fervor other books have over the past couple years.

The most interesting aspects to me were how the main character, Kya, survived in the swamp, her ingenuity as a child, and the descriptions of the swamp land itself.

It was a coming-of-age story, but again, I just wasn’t riveted.

There was a murder mystery to the story but it was very mild. I wasn’t all that curious to know who had done it. It had to be one of a half dozen people, but I just didn’t care enough to find out who it was. Still, I read on.

I did listen to this on audio which slows things down a bit. Maybe if I’d been reading it in hard copy, I would feel a little differently.

Kya is a young girl living in the swamps of North Carolina. Everyone seems to leave eventually, from her mother at first, then her siblings one by one, and finally her father. But Kya doesn’t leave. She survives, by her wits, and with a bit of help from a local man who runs a small boat refueling station and store. She grows, thrives, and meets a couple young men. They both promise her things they don’t deliver on, but she keeps going.

There are beautiful descriptions and turns of phrase, to be sure. The setting was the most wonderful part of this book. The plotting left a good bit to be desired. The characterization was, for me, a little two dimensional.

I would give it three stars. If you’re looking for a quiet book with lovely descriptions, something comfortable and diverting, this is a nice book for that.