The Selection book series review

Posted on October 19, 2022 by ofamily

A few months ago I heard about this book series that is popular with young teen girls. Its called The Selection. It is essentially about how a Prince chooses his bride by doing a version of The Bachelor. Now I must admit I was amazed that it was so popular with this generation of girls (I thought we were over this whole boy gets to chose whatever girl he wants idea). Anyway I decided that I needed to read the series so I could have a proper informed opinion about these books.

First things, there are quite a few books in this series and I have read the first 3 which are the original books in the series. Each book took me an afternoon to read – they are a very easy read.

The basic story. This is set in a Dystopian world where there is a country ruled by a Royal Family and everyone in the country is bound by their caste. Your caste is determined by who your parents are and it determines what job you can do and hence your income and living conditions. The people in the lower castes have a really hard time, they survive on little food and little money, often going hungry and will sometimes steal food. I must admit the lower castes did remind me of the districts in The Hunger Games (which honesty if you are looking for a Dystopian series, The Hunger Games books are a far superior series to read.)

In this world the young Prince needs to find a wife and he does this via a process called The Selection. All the girls in the country of a suitable age (between 16 and 20) submit an application and he then chooses 35 to come to the Palace to meet him. America Singer, the main character is 16 years old and although she is in love with another boy she is persuaded to submit her application and ends up being one of the 35 chosen (have to admit first alarm bell for me – she is only 16 years old and is being “pushed” into this selection where she has no real power). She goes to the palace, with no intention of winning the prince over but over time she falls in love with him (although she does keep stringing her former boyfriend along – another thing which I did not like was how the “heroine” treats the former boyfriend, just stringing him along – not a good role model).

That is the rough outline.

From a Dystopian angle it is an interesting look at the concept of forcing people to live in a caste system, where your caste determines everything about you and limits your future. It is an interesting idea and one that would spark thoughts about how we treat people without even getting to know them, or how some people have an advantage purely based on the family they are born into. From this point of view I do not mind the story and think it is interesting concept for a Dystopian story but it is the idea of the selection that really concerns me.

During this selection the Prince dates a number of girls, while they act in a very submissive, doting manner, competing for his attention. There is a scene where one of the girls in the selection falls in love with someone else and she and her boyfriend are beaten in public for shaming the prince. I struggled with this concept, the idea that all these girls are at his disposal and he gets to choose who he wants. It is a concept that I found unsettling because it is written in a way that young teen girls are loving it. The prince is on the whole, kind and his relationship with the main character is intriguing. So I can see why young teens find this entertaining. But that for me is the problem. This is not the kind of situation you would ever want your daughter to be in so why is it being romanticised in this way. Why is the competition between these girls for the attention of this Prince something that we would want out teens to read? The entire message of dating several people at once, being in a contest for affection, not feeling secure in your relationship, being inferior to the dominate male, this for me is troubling.

I really do struggle with this. I believe that what we read is important (just like what we watch on TV). What we put into our brains makes a difference.

The other thing that concerns me is I have seen suggestions that this series is for kids aged 11 and over. Nope, sorry I would say more like 15 years. Just based on content and how relationships are portrayed I really would not be comfortable with an eleven-year old girl reading this. There are some scenes which are quite explicit and I really do think this is more for an older teen.

I would never ban my daughter from reading this series but I am also not going to encourage her to read it. However if she does chose to read it I will make a point of discussing the selection process with her, and I will highlight a few of the very negative relationships that are depicted in this book.

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IGCSE English Language Student Book and Workbook

Posted on October 17, 2022 by ofamily

One of the IGCSE’s (the International version of GCSE’s) that my daughter is planning on writing is English Language. And I thought that finding some sort of course work (ie activities to work through before we focus on past exam papers) would be easy to find, because it is English Language, but actually this has been one of the subjects that I have really struggled with. Right from the beginning I knew what I wanted – a student book which discusses the different topics that we need to work on (ie how to structure a diary entry or synthesising information) and then a linked workbook which had practice activities on the student book. I wanted the student book and the workbook to be linked, so that I could easily say go to the activities in the workbook and complete them, and my daughter would be able to easily find them. I did not want her to have to rely on me searching and finding everything on the internet and then waiting for me while I figure out what we needed to do next. I had already spent quite a bit of time looking at English Language past papers so I knew what we were working towards and what sort of activities I was expecting to see.

Anyway after quite a bit of searching (and I looked at books for GCSE English language as well) I decided that the Collins Cambridge IGCSE Student book and Workbook looked good and I approached the publishers to see if I could get a review copy (they kindly sent us these).

So First Thoughts on getting our books – I loved the format, the pages just looked easy to use and immediately I could see how well the workbook and student book fitted together. I knew straight away I was not going to waste time searching for anything. It was laid out in a very easy to use manner. I was also impressed with how much they have covered and after going through the contents there were no major gaps that I could think of (as we work through the books I will let you know if I find gaps).

What exactly does this student book (and workbook) cover?

That is really all that you want to cover in your Year 10/ Year 11 course work. And I have to say I like the way they start the book by focusing on key skills needed for the questions (this is actually what I felt like a few other books missed out).

Student Book Layout. Very user friendly. Pages are inviting, they tend to have smaller paragraphs, or bullet points, there are headings which help to break it down into nice manageable chunks, they include pictures and they use subtle colours to highlight items. So overall the pages are easy to navigate and in no way overwhelming.

Workbook Layout. The workbook is black and white but they still keep it very user friendly by limiting what is on a page (there is no cramming too much onto one page in this workbook). They do highlight important parts in grey. But the main thing that I really like is at the top of the page they tell you very clearly which page in the student book the activities are linked too. (I know this sounds very simple but you would be amazed at how many books do not do this).

I know everyone will be wanting to know – what about Answers. I have double checked with the people at Collins and answers for the Student Book activities are included in their Teacher’s Guide. I have not seen the Teacher’s Guide but the feedback I did get about it as that there are some suggestions in the Teacher’s Guide on how to extend the activities that are included in the Student Book (again I want to stress I have not personally seen the Teacher’s Guide). But it does sound like it may be a useful resource. Then I have been informed that you can request the answers for the questions in the Workbook and they will be given to users.

Okay so we have only just started using this but so far – my daughter is finding it easy to use, she is working through the first chapter independently. She tends to do a double page out of the Student Book one day and then on the following day she will work through the linked pages in the Workbook. She likes the explanations and the layout and is happy with the activities. I will admit that we have already done quite a lot of work on the first 7 topics covered in chapter 1 so I have not felt like we needed to extend it in any way (ie I have not felt like I needed to find her extra activities on what has been covered). However whether that will be the case as we progress I am not sure about. I think with some of the topics I may want to give her extra practice, but only time will tell if we do.

We do have the answers for the workbook questions, so she marks those herself and I must admit I find having those answers very useful so if you do get the workbook I would strongly suggest requesting the answers.

We do NOT have the Teacher’s Guide and at the moment I am reading through the answers she writes for the activities from the Student Book and then giving her any feedback that I think she needs.

So far this is ticking all the right boxes for us and I actually feel like they have taken a bit of a weight off my shoulders. We have a clear logical guide on what we need to work through, I feel like it build nicely, we have explanations, examples and then activities to practice. My daughter is happy with the structure and I am thrilled that we found these two books.

You can get both of these books directly from the Collins website – Cambridge IGCSE English Language Student Book, Cambridge IGCSE English Language Workbook.

You can also buy them from Amazon – here are the links – IGCSE English Language Student Book, IGCSE English Language Workbook.

Admin – Like I mentioned above I approached Collins to ask if we could these books for a review because I thought they looked good. All opinions expressed are mine or my daughters. This is NOT a paid for post.

I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and love.

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Loving our Year 7 Maths Books

Posted on October 12, 2022 by ofamily

One set of resources that I am really loving at the moment are my son’s Year 7 Maths books. For the simple reason that they require no prep work on my side, so they are really saving me time.

Honestly we choose our chapter – we are not working through the chapters in the order of the book (personal preference), then he reads the explanations, goes through the worked examples, if he has any questions he comes to ask me otherwise he starts working on Band 1 and Band 2 of the questions. Once he has finished he marks his own work (if there is anything he does not understand he checks with me). Then the next day he normally does the questions out of his practice book, again he marks it himself. And the following day he goes back to the student book, works through Band 3 (possibly extra questions if we think he needs it) and then he is really to start the next sub-topic. Really straight forward, he can work though it as his own pace, he asks when he needs help but otherwise everything he needs is there.

Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education

These books always have an explanation of the Maths concept followed by multiple worked examples. And these worked examples are key because they show the kids how you would actually tackle a question step by step.

Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education

Then the combination of using the Student book with the practice book (or practice books there are 2 practice books to choose from), means the kids get lots of different questions so they get a lot of practice. And the practice is laid out from easy to hard so the kids can start with the easy questions, build up their confidence and then work up to the harder questions.

The whole set up is just working really well for us.

I know that if we work through the entire book we have covered all the Maths we need to for this year.

  • Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education
  • Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education
  • Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education

So really it is my one-stop Maths.

This series comes with two different Practice books and the idea is you choose the practice book based on the level that you kiddo is working at. I have to admit we like having both practice books. I use the Secure and Develop questions after he has worked through Band 1 and Band 2 from the student book (although I don’t always get him to do all the questions) and then I like getting him to work through the Extend practice book after he has tried Band 3. My son does have a good Maths brain, so I do like having the Extend questions as a way of challenging him.

Mastering Mathematics Book 1. KS3 Maths resource perfect for Year 7 home education

In the past I used a wider range of books with my son and it worked perfectly fine but it did mean that I would have to spend quite a bit of time prepping what we actually did day in day out because we would dip in book 1 and then go to book 2 and possibly book 3. It worked really well but it was time consuming and as I am now guiding my oldest through her Year 10 course work, time is becoming more and more precious and having a resource that I know covers everything, has the explanations and questions (You download all the answers from the Hodder site) has just been a massive help.

If you are a home educator these books really do cover everything you need for Year 7 Maths and I highly recommend them.

Here are the Amazon Links for our Year 7 Books

Mastering Mathematics Book 1 – the student book

Mastering Mathematics Practice Book 1 – Secure and Develop

Mastering Mathematics Practice Book 1 – Extend

For those of you wondering about the actual series – the entire series covers all three years of KS3 – Year 7 (book1), year 8 (book 2) and Year 9 (book 3). We I did use the Year 9 books with my daughter and we really enjoyed them, we used a few sections of out the Year 8 book – think it was 2 chapters.

Mastering Mathematics KS3 Maths series for Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9

Admin – I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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The Percy Jackson series

Posted on October 11, 2022 by ofamily

I am always searching for good book series, books that grip the kids have the start and keep them reading book after book and I have to say this one did not disappoint. It was perfect for my 11 year old son. He devoured book after book, not wanting to put them down.

Percy Jackson starts off as your average kiddo, living in New York, with his mom and struggling at school. He is dyslexic and struggles with his school work (it turns out that actually he struggles because everything is in English and he reads Greek perfectly – a little detail that my son just loved). Anyway his normal life is turned upside down when someone steals Zeus’ lightning bolt and for some reason he gets blamed. He ends up being whisked off to a half-blood camp (kids who have have a Greek God as a parent) where he starts training and learning about his abilities only for that to be interrupted when he decides to go on a quest. And of course the quest involves lots of adventure but is all turns out okay, which of course means he is around for a bunch of other adventures all detailed in the subsequent books.

Both my son and I read all 5 of the books. I started reading them, because I was not sure how I felt about the stories. My son loves Greek Mythology but a lot of Greek Mythology is questionable and can sometimes be a bit too spiritual, in a negative way for us. So I read the first one, loved it and ended up reading the entire series while he chased me to finish them (it was a bit of a competition seeing if I could read the book quick enough for him). Yes there is Greek Mythology, yes they talk about the fact that the kids are born because the Greek Gods have affairs but there is nothing graphic. And although it does deal with Greek creatures and strange mythical events I did not feel like there was a funny spiritual vibe about the books like I have felt with some other stories. For me they were great adventures with a fun twist of kids who have some unusual powers.

I also thought the quality of the writing was excellent. I really appreciate it when kids’ authors write good quality books – books with well crafted, rounded characters, characters who you end up loving but characters who are not perfect and who make mistakes. I loved the way the author described scenes and events, he used some brilliant imagery and powerful words. I really was impressed with the writing and think it is a great example for kids to read (I really do believe if our kids read high quality books it helps them with their own creative writing because they have examples to base their stories on).

My son loved the stories but he does know his Greek Mythology really well and he did pick up that a few of the details in the stories did not quite fit in with the original Greek Myths (honestly I think most kids would not pick this up these small details but for him that was the one thing he did find fault with the books). He did however say that if there were more books in the series he would have happily read more (which is a big compliment coming from him as he often reaches his limit of books around the 4th or 5th).

If you have a kiddo around 10/ 11 (and older) who loves a good adventure and finds mythical creatures interesting then this series is going to be a massive hit. Both my son and I highly recommend it.

Admin – This is just a post about some books that my son LOVED and that I think are really well written.

Book sets from the Books2Door website
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An Inspector Calls Workbook for GCSE or IGCSE English Literature

Posted on October 6, 2022 by ofamily

Just to clarify – We are only going to start working through an Inspector Calls after Christmas but I have already done all my prep work for it and I have my resources all lined up so I am sharing the resources that we are planning on using now and when we actually work through it I will write update posts giving extra feedback that I think is needed. I am doing it this way so the readers looking for options can read the posts now.

I knew I wanted a workbook for An Inspector Calls based on the fact that we used a workbook when we did Macbeth and both of us (my daughter and myself) found it incredibly useful. As we worked through the different activities in the workbook I definitely saw our understanding deepen, so for all of the texts that we are going to be covering for our IGCSE English Literature course I will look for workbooks (but workbooks where I think the activities extend our understanding). My first pick was the Oxford Workbook because I have the Oxford Literature Companion (so I assumed the two would work well together) and because the Macbeth workbook that we used and found so useful was an Oxford one (so I assumed this one would be of the same standard).

This workbook is split into 7 main sections and I have to save I appreciate all 7 of these sections.

Plot, Context, Characters and Themes – these are all the areas that I was expecting. I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on them (I have already done a lot of research and prep work for An Inspector Calls) but even so I like the activities, the way they have broken these down and then built them up. I like the fact that as we start discussing these topics I can open up this workbook and get my daughter to work through an activity. And yes even though my daughter and I do a lot of her literature verbally (ie we discuss it together) I still like her to sit down and write out her thoughts. I found with the Macbeth workbook that just sitting down and putting pen to paper really solidified her thoughts and her understanding.

Language – this is probably the area that I was most concerned about, helping my kid discuss the use of language, understanding why the writer used the language he did. So to say I am thrilled with this section is an understatement. The way it is set out is perfect, it just makes sense and I know working through this section will really help her answer any language linked question in a paper.

Performance. Both my daughter and I are more comfortable discussing novels as opposed to plays so I am really thankful they have included this section. I found looking at this activities really enlightening and I had a few “ahh, I get it now” moments. So for us this section is going to be brilliant.

And then finally the Skills and Practice section. This builds on the activities that the kids have done in the workbook, it takes that understanding they have been cementing and helps them start thinking about structuring their answers.

So content wise I am beyond satisfied with this workbook, it is what I was hoping for and more.

Activity wise, I like the varied activities, I like that they get the kids to think even more deeply about the play and I do feel like they have are really well chosen activities and activities that are worthwhile doing.

But a few extra points. First there are no answers for this. I am not too fussed about that at this stage as we are planning on working through the play together and it will be a case of – try these activities, now lets discuss your answers and see if there is anything extra that we could add. So it suits our style of English Literature.

Also throughout the workbook they have included little blocks called Upgrade. These are exam tips and I have to say some of them seem so self-explanatory but when you read them you do think – Yip I do need to remember that, glad I was reminded of that.

So thoughts on this workbook – I think it is going to be an incredibly valuable resource for us and good value for just £5.99.

We got our Workbook directly from Oxford University Press – here’s their link – An Inspector Calls Workbook.

I have also seen it in a few bookstores and you can get it from Amazon – OUP’s An Inspector Calls Workbook

Admin – A few months ago Oxford University Press did send me some resources for us to use in our home education. Which resources we used, and which resources we choose to write reviews and the opinions expressed in the review was al up to me. This is NOT a paid for post.

I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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