Reading takes time so why not get the most bang for your buck and the greatest return on your investment. Today we discuss three different ways to do that with reading strategies. These strategies help strengthen our connection to the text and have a more impactful reading experience.

1. Upside down Triangle -student preferred strategy

2. CSI - Color, Symbol, Image

3. SPW- Sentence, Phrase, Word

Sheila has used these strategies frequently in her classroom and ministry and has seen great results and a deeper level of learning. Here is a link to a free printable PDF file to help you start incorporating these strategies!

We recently started a new resource page on our website with a reading strategy free printable. Be sure to check back often as more bonus material will up soon!

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Be sure to let us know if you have read this novel or if you have books you would like to recommend.  You can join our Facebook Group, Recap Book Chat or leave us a voice memo.

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Connect with Kate and Sheila online at www.recapbookchat.com

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too! Keep those pages turning and those book lights burning!

Today we wrap up the epic classic, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. The link to the book is the exact version and translation we read and thoroughly enjoyed. We discuss some new characters that show up in the second half of the book and talk about our favorite quotes. Also discussed are themes of betrayal, vengeance, retribution, wealth and power. 

Although this novel was completed in 1844, it still brings impactful and relevant messages for us today. Dumas shows us how vengeance is never as sweet as we think it will be. 

The Count of Monte Cristo is an insightful, educational, and intriguing read that we will carry with us as we journey down our literature road. 

The book ends with a beautiful quote, “All human wisdom is contained in these two words: ‘wait’ and ‘hope’!”

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Be sure to let us know if you have read this novel or if you have books you would like to recommend.  You can join our Facebook Group, Recap Book Chat or leave us a voice memo.

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Connect with Kate and Sheila online at www.recapbookchat.com

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too! Keep those pages turning and those book lights burning!

A must read for parents, grandparents, teachers and anyone else with children in their life. The 5 Love Languages of Children  is full of insightful and uber beneficial information that helps us connect and love our kids to the max.

In this episode we give real life examples of the benefits of understanding love languages and learning to speak our children's primary language. We discuss ways to help our kids take more responsibility for their homework, chores, and after school activities.

The website for 5 Love Languages of Children also has a lot of additional resources to help us embrace and use these languages in our daily relationships.

Briefly we mention the drama triangle. Check out this pdf for more information on what that is and how to recognize if you or your kids are in it.

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Be sure to let us know if you have read this novel or if you have books you would like to recommend.  You can join our Facebook Group, Recap Book Chat or leave us a voice memo.

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Connect with Kate and Sheila online at www.recapbookchat.com

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too! Keep those pages turning and those book lights burning!

We opened up our kid lit locker today and discussed the final book in the Whole Nother Story series. Such an adventurous, fun and intriguing book. It wrapped up all of our unanswered questions very nicely. Our two kid consultants joined us in talking about our favorite parts and in singing the Fighting Paper Clip anthem.

No Other Story begins in “some times” a time were all of history is occurring at the same time. This setting leads the Cheeseman family into crazy circumstances that had us on the edge of our seat and laughing a lot.

If you are interested in reading the series here are links to book one A Whole Nother Story, and book two Another Whole Nother Story. 

If you missed our reviews of the first of the series I have links to those below.

A Whole Nother Story episode.

Another Whole Nother Story epsisode.

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Be sure to let us know if you have read this novel or if you have books you would like to recommend.  You can join our Facebook Group, Recap Book Chat or leave us a voice memo.

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Connect with Kate and Sheila online at www.recapbookchat.com

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too! Keep those pages turning and those book lights burning!

Written 180 years ago we step back in time through the pages of the classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. This is such a hefty book and contains so much we wanted to talk about we decided to break it up into two parts. We are really enjoying our Penguin Classics version of the book that features the A Storm with Smuggler's Landing on the cover. The artwork was done by Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740-1812) 

In part one we try to give an overview of the story and lay the foundation by introducing characters and historical happenings. Our discussion covers the background on Alexandre Dumas and his struggles as a mixed race author. Dumas was inspired to pen The Count of Monte Cristo by a true story of an innocent man who was imprisoned unjustly.

The story begins in 1815 and takes place in France, islands in the Mediterranean and Italy. Chapter one is the day that Napoleon left his first island of exile, starting the hundred days period when Bonaparte returned to power. Dumas expertly tied the plot of the story to actual events in history.

The main character is Edmond Dantès, the wide-eyed, hard working, honest, handsome, naïve sailor who is unjustly imprisoned in the The Château d'If which is the equivalent of Alcatraz in the United States.

The story follows Edmonds journey through insurmountable joy, confusion, devastating grief, harrowing loneliness, the life giving light of hope and the hardening of revenge. 

The Count of Monte Cristo is our first French novel to read. We like to watch videos on Course Hero to help us learn how to properly pronounce the names in the book.

Here is the podcast episode we mentioned from Politics By Faith with Mike Slater. 

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Be sure to let us know if you have read this novel or if you have books you would like to recommend.  You can join our Facebook Group, Recap Book Chat or leave us a voice memo.

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Connect with Kate and Sheila online at www.recapbookchat.com

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too! Keep those pages turning and those book lights burning!

Today we discuss a small yet impactful book called Keeper of the Doves. 

This book was written by Betsy Byars a prolific children’s author, winner of the Newbery Medal and National Book Award and many others. Betsy Byars passed away at the age of 91 in February of 2020, however her lifetime of work lives on. We were grateful to experience her writing in Keeper of the Doves.

The novel follows Amen McBee, the youngest of 5 sisters who is a deep thinker, a poet, a lover of words and seeing beauty where others do not. Amen uses her words for good. To bring beauty and life to difficult situations.

We make some connections with People Fuel and East of Eden with Amen’s older sisters possibly being contaminates.

Keeper of the Doves helps us look beyond our prejudices and first impressions. There is a mysterious character called Mr. Tominski, a hermit old man who lives in the woods nearby and tends to a flock of doves. Things are not always as they seem and Amen is able to discover another side of Mr. Tominski.

Through a series of events there is a tragic death in the family that was caused by words. Words are so powerful and in our modern society we often forget this. An overarching theme of this book is that words can hold the power of life and death. Amen brings life with her poetic words while others bring death.

Be sure to let us know if you have read this novel or if you have books you would like to recommend.  You can join our Facebook Group, Recap Book Chat or leave us a voice memo.

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too! Keep those pages turning and those book lights burning!

Come check out our recap of People Fuel by Dr. John Townsend! It was an invigorating and grounding read. People Fuel helped me acknowledge and appreciate my need for people and how to better relate and maintain relationships. 

Townsend talks about how when we receive the right nutrients we are able to produce good fruit in our life. The opposite is also true, if we are missing one of the key nutrients our quality of fruit will be affected. On Dr. John Townsend's website he provides free relational nutrient cards to be printed and put somewhere to help us remember the four quadrants. 

Some of our favorite quotes from the book are below.

"Weakness is normal and a good part of life."

"We need to experience grace before we are ready for truth."

"Individuals who do well in life tend to be accountable to time."

My mom first heard about this book from a podcast on Focus on the family where they discussed a few of the quadrants. If you want to listen the that episode you can check it our here. 

In the novel Townsend mentions a couple of videos that we mentioned in the show. Links to those are below.

*Its Not About the Nail video

*Empathy video by Brene Brown

Also we discussed the importance of being accountable to time and one way to help us do that is with a days of life poster. 

People Fuel is a very significant read that can change your perspective of people and how we relate to each other. Townsend was a coauthor of the Boundaries book with Dr. Henry Cloud. Boundaries are briefly discussed in People Fuel. If you are interested in learning more I will link to the book and workbook. 

Be sure to let us know if you have read these novels or if you have books you would like to recommend.  You can join our Facebook Group, Recap Book Chat or leave us a voice memo.

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too! Keep those pages turning and those book lights burning!

Today we dive into our Kid Lit Locker and explore the InvestiGators series by John Patrick Green.

We have two special kid guest on the show to get their opinion of the series from a kids perspective.

John Patrick Green is a brilliant wordsmith who creates witty and engaging stories and pictures in this graphic novel series.

The InvestiGators is full of fun word play, witty phrases and unexpected plot twist. It is a great series for young and older readers alike.

These books started as great read aloud books for us and my older son is now going back and reading them on his own now.

At the back of some of the books, John Patrick Green has added a "How to Draw" section where he shows kids how to draw different characters. My kids love this and it is one of the things that helps lessen the sting of finishing a book and having to wait on the next one to be released.

Here are the books in the series that we have read so far and highly recommended.

1. InvestiGators

2. InvestiGators: Take the Plunge 

3. InvestiGators: Off the Hook

4. InvestiGators: Ant In Our P.A.N.T.S

5. InvestiGators: Braver and Boulder

6. InvestiGators: Heist and Seek 

Also coming out in February 21, 2023 John Patrick Green is starting a spin off series call Agents of S.U.I.T which follows some of Brash and Mango's co-workers. We are excited to check see where this new series will take the Agents of S.U.I.T.  The seventh book of the InvestiGators is also coming out this year. It is called InvestiGators: All Tide Up and is set to be released September 26, 2023. 

Be sure to let us know if you have read these graphic novels or if you have other kid books you would like to recommend.  You can join our Facebook Group, Recap Book Chat or leave us a voice memo. 

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too! Keep those pages turning and those book lights burning!

An epic read of how a simple mindset change has a major life impact! Unoffendable is a witty, insightful, life changing beautiful book! We highly recommend it to everyone. It is in my “read once a year” list. We can’t wait to read more of Brant’s novels.

Brant is a raw and authentic author as well as a nationally syndicated radio host and lover of toast. I love the way he breaks down misconceptions and inspires change in a beautiful and memorable way. Additionally Brant talks about how much more peaceful and fulfilling his life has been after implementing the major yet simple concept of being unoffendable.

In this recap we make connections to other books we are reading and discuss our biggest takeaways. Mom mentions reading this book in her other book club with fellow teachers and how impactful if was. Recently an Unoffendable Study Guide was released and would be an awesome tool for any book clubs or small groups to dive deeper into the concepts explored in the novel.

Correspondingly Unoffendable does not shy away from heavy issues such as trust, forgiveness, laziness, anger, grace and addiction but meets them head on and sheds light and hope where we need it the most.   

The high and increasing anger in our society led Brant Hansen to release an updated version of Unoffendable at the beginning of 2023, hoping to remove some logs from the perpetually burning fire. 

If you have read Unoffendable we would love to hear from you and your big takeaways. You can leave a voice memo, contact us on our website or join in and share your thoughts on our Facebook group Recap Book Chat.

My favorite way to read is curled up with a soft blanket and a hot cozy drink in my hand. Currently my go to beverage is decaf coffee with Earth Echo's Cacao Bliss blended in. Ten powerful, organic superfoods that help with relaxation, joint pain, weight goals, and mental focus. Use my coupon code KATEM10 to get 10% off your order when you try their products.

Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too!

So excited to recap The Bible today! My mom and me did The Bible Recap chronological reading of the Bible in 2022 and today we talk about what we learned and how we liked the reading guide. We used a mix of the bible app, physical ESV Bible, and The Bible Recap podcast. Below are links if your interested in joining us this year as we go through the Bible again with Tara Lee Coble and the The Bible Recap team. 

 * The Bible Recap website 

* Link to Bible app 

 * Link to The Bible Recap podcast 

* Link to The Bible Recap book  

* Link to prayer journal mentioned  

Mom discussed a helpful way to connect with any text you are reading is to find your favorite line, favorite phrase and favorite word.  I will try to be more intentional about doing this and will let you know how it goes. 

Mom also shared the acronym SPA to help us remember to have a SPA day everyday. 

 -Study 

-Pray

 -Act  

We discuss some big takeaways and broken misconceptions that were discovered this year through the reading. 

Mom pulled out some sayings from the bible that we might not realize originated in the bible.  

"Clear out the old, make way for the new." 

"I took my life in my own hands."

 "Like a drop in a bucket"

 "Out of the mouths of babes."

 "Hanging on his words." 

"We brought nothing into this world and can take nothing out."

 "Like mother like daughter."

 "See him eye to eye."

 "A house divided against itself wont stand." 

 "Share and Share alike." 

 We also talked about our word for the year. We would love to hear your word for the year. You can let us know by leaving a voice memo or by posting a message on the the Recap Book Chat Facebook group. Note that some of the links above are affiliate links to books and brands we love and ones we think you will too!