Secular Charlotte Mason

I have to recommend one of the audio books we bought on our trip. And yes, there is a book version as well but I recommend the audio version since the author starts each chapter with some info of how he researched the book. I do wish the author paused less in his speaking but it is only a minor irritation. The book is Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran by Kennet Thomasma. Apparently he actually has a whole series titled Amazing Indian Children so I'll be looking for Lakota and Ojibwe tales at Crazy Horse and the Mille Lacs Ojibwe Museum. Naya Nuki is the story of the capture of both Naya Nuki and her best friend Sacagawea and details their captured life as well as Naya Nuki's eventual escape. Well told and a great story that shows how Naya Nuki's knowledge of the natural world around her saved her life time and again. This book would be great for anyone studying the Shoshone, Sacagawea, Lewis & Clark or survival type nature studies.

I forgot to mention that this book is actually rather old and therefore not politically correct. Here is a link to the publishing company of Thomasma's books: http://www.kenthomasma.com/ .

I should also mention that while these are living books, they are not great books in terms of sentence structure and such but would be good as a chapter book for beginning readers. This limitation did not come across on the audio version.

As expected, this author is panned by the American Indians in Children's Literature blog (for those of you who read that blog). I have noticed that the author of that blog truly believes that no white person can/should write about Native Americans and pans 90% of books written by nonNatives. Most of the Native folks I know aren't nearly as narrow-minded as this lady so I rarely read her blog but thought I would mention it since I happened to come across the review while surfing the net.