Everyday Education - Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers Review

Disclosure: I received this product free through the Homeschool Review Crew.

We recently had the opportunity to review Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers from Everyday Education.  This has been a great addition and reference to help our writers both in school, but also into adulthood.

We received the PDF of Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers.  It is a unique one-stop reference for how to write essays, use proper punctuation, style, and usage of punctuation.  It was created to use along with the Excellence in Literature curriculum, but we used it independently.

Lydia struggles in this area.  She has been using a personal tutor for the past few weeks to help her with sentence structure, forming paragraphs, and smoothing out her final drafts of papers.  Needless to say this has cost us an absolute fortune.  

After reviewing the materials we received from Everyday Education, I was thrilled to see how she can use the Handbook for Writers Excellence in Literature to keep building on the foundation that the tutor has been helping her put in place.  

Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers has two main sections.  The first provide detailed samples for how to build your papers and write essays.  The second part hits the mechanics.  This book is not to be an independent instructional curriculum, but actually as a reference.  I had a book similar to this when I was in high school.  I was able to use it to correct my writing, and make sure that I was actually creating my writing project in the correct form.  I used that book for several years, even after graduation and when I was working I would use this book also.  I like the layout.  The ease of using the index and table of contents to seek out the section you are looking for.  

Even as a parent, I can use the Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers to make sure that the girls are completing writing project properly. There are rules of grammar that have changed since I was in high school and college.  So I can make sure they are doing thing accurately.

Even though it is not an "instructional" manual, Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers really can help student construct an argument, debate or research paper through suggestions and the examples provided.  It breaks the materials down paragraph by paragraph in some cases.  It helps the student to really break down their writing and make sure that they are getting their point across.  

The Handbook for Writers Excellence in Literature would even make an excellent gift for students who are entering high school or college.  It can give them a guide to their future success in writing.  I encourage you to visit their website and explore the Table of Contents and see all that is available.  Since we did receive the PDF, I have the pages printed and put inside of a large binder so that we can keep it on the shelf for referral.  

Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers will definitely be our go-to for literature and writing assignment for a long time to come.

Everyday Education gave several members of the Homeschool Review Crew the opportunity to review various products from their catalog.  Click on the link below to see how they felt about the products they reviewed and how they used them in their homes.

12 Gates Publishing - Hamelin Stoop: The Ring of Truth Review

Disclosure: I received this product free through the Homeschool Review Crew

We recently had the opportunity to review the third book in the Hamelin Stoop series - Hamelin Stoop:  The Ring of Truth.  This series is published by 12 Gates Publishing.  You can purchase this series from major online book retailers.

                                       
The Hamelin Stoop series is based off of the story of Hamelin Stoop.  His parents were forced to make a drastic decision to protect him by secretly leave him on the porch of an orphanage.  

There are two other books in this series,  Hamelin Stoop series - Hamelin Stoop:  The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge and Hamelin Stoop:  The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna.  I do recommend that you collect the whole series.

In Hamelin Stoop: The Ring of Truth you will be taken on an adventure of mystery and intrigue, and a healthy side of adventure as Hamelin is pursued by the evil Chimera and his agents.  Hamlin suspects his friend Layla is the lost princess form the Land of Gloaming.  Hamlin's stories trigger memories with Layla.  Is Hamelin alone in his quest?  Or does he now have a friend by his side in the question for the Ancient One's purpose? 

The Hamelin Stoop series is written for kids roughly late elementary through middle school.  I would say actually suggest they are at a Young Adult/early high school.   Lydia and Caty have been reading through our copy.  It will take the average reader a bit longer to read this story.  Which is great for Caty, but more frustrating for Lydia.  The story though has kept her attention, which is great.

12 Gates Publishing along with Robert Sloan are working on a Readers Guide to help students with their literature studies and they will be releasing this soon.

Caty and Lydia are truly enthralled with this new series.  They both love other science-fiction monster or ancient gods series fantasy series, and the Hamelin Stoop series has become a favorite with the girls.  In fact, Caty and Lydia have both asked me a couple times if they are going to be making a movie from this series.  This fantasy series is a definite read for tweens!!

Click on the link below to see how other members of the Homeschool Review Crew enjoyed this series and what they families thought of them.