Family Reading Crate is a monthly book box for the whole family from Build Your Library, a secular literature-based homeschool curriculum, that sends out 3-5 books based on the featured theme or topic. In addition to books for different levels of young readers, each box also includes a handpicked book just for parents, pertaining also to the box’s theme. It costs $26.99 per box plus $8 shipping.
FYI: Family Reading Crate is not yet a subscription – you must purchase it each month.
The box is filled with green squiggles!
This month’s theme is Diversity #OwnVoices!
Family Reading Crate box includes a booklet with ideas about this month’s featured books and to whom they are for.
It includes a special web link for you in the booklet that will direct you to a printable.
The booklet includes curious questions that help unravel the lessons you can learn from each story.
At the end of your book reading, you should be able to answer all the questions from each and every book.
They also provide book reviews to help parents get a good idea of what the story is about and how to navigate it when reading to their kids.
Everything in the box!
Of course, every book lover has a collectible bookmark and the box provided us three with different designs about diversity.
Kid Fun Inflatable Clear Globe – SIMILAR ($7.03) To let our kids understand diversity, they must understand how big the world is. As we learn about different cultures through books, it will help them relate to the character’s experiences by knowing where in the globe it is inspired from.
It is different from the normal blue globes and I tried to inflate it so you can appreciate the size but I ran out of air (I really can’t blow things up). My husband had no problems and we are thrilled to add this globe to our school area!
We Came To America By Faith Ringgold ($8.98)
A timely and beautiful look at America’s rich history of immigration and diversity, from Faith Ringgold, the Coretta Scott King and Caldecot Honor winning creator of Tar Beach
From the Native Americans who first called this land their home, to the millions of people who have flocked to its shores ever since, America is a country rich in diversity. Some of our ancestors were driven by dreams and hope. Others came in chains, or were escaping poverty or persecution. No matter what brought them here, each person embodied a unique gift—their art and music, their determination and grit, their stories and their culture. And together they forever shaped the country we all call home. Vividly expressed in Faith Ringgold’s sumptuous colors and patterns, We Came to America is an ode to every American who came before us, and a tribute to each child who will carry its proud message of diversity into our nation’s future.
This is the back of the book were illustrations of children in different races saying we are all Americans.
It is a very timely book because it allows us to discuss issues in immigration, racism, and diversity with our kids.
We loved that this selection was aimed squarely at the diversity of how people were brought to America – including as slaves (and, not pictured, some people were here before immigrants – forced or not). We have lots of conversations with our kids on this topic and we want to keep on discussing our nation’s history and current events.
It is great to see proper representations of different immigrants.
We can start teaching our children at a young age that we are created equals and we are all Americans regardless of where we came from. Although the scope of the book is limited and the topic is broad, it is a good start. My favorite line – “Our food, our fashion, and our art Made America GREAT.”
The author, artist Faith Ringold, was born in Harlem and we can’t wait to find more of her books.
The Gauntlet By Karuna Riazi ($6.45)
A trio of friends from New York City find themselves trapped inside a mechanical board game that they must dismantle in order to save themselves and generations of other children in this action-packed debut that’s a steampunk Jumanji with a Middle Eastern flair.
Nothing can prepare you for The Gauntlet…
It didn’t look dangerous, exactly. When twelve-year-old Farah first laid eyes on the old-fashioned board game, she thought it looked…elegant.
It is made of wood, etched with exquisite images—a palace with domes and turrets, lattice-work windows that cast eerie shadows, a large spider—and at the very center of its cover, in broad letters, is written: The Gauntlet of Blood and Sand.
The Gauntlet is more than a game, though. It is the most ancient, the most dangerous kind of magic. It holds worlds inside worlds. And it takes players as prisoners.
I’ve always loved fictional adventure books and this can be an interesting read aloud for the family. My generation has Jumanji and my children have to have their version as well. It is about Farah’s frustration on the new home and the adjustments it entails. It has also had a Bangladeshi twist which makes it a perfect fit for the diversity theme.
Farah is a relatable character for many who experience adjustments on coming to a new place without knowing anyone and forced to establish new relationships. She wasn’t open minded at first, hides and clings to her old friends and old life. It also talks about the fears of being alone, sacrifice and friendship. Nothing can prepare us for the adventures ahead but better to face it head-on.
The author, Karuna Riazi, is a Muslim-American and I think she published this book while an undergraduate! This book is intended as a read aloud, but my daughter grabbed and devoured it before we even got to that!
Challenger Deep By Neal Shusterman ($11.99)
National Book Award and Golden Kite Award Winner
A captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman.
Caden Bosch is on a ship that’s headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.
Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior.
Caden Bosch is designated the ship’s artist in residence to document the journey with images.
Caden Bosch pretends to join the school track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head.
Caden Bosch is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny.
Caden Bosch is torn.Challenger Deep is a deeply powerful and personal novel from one of today’s most admired writers for teens. Laurie Halse Anderson, award-winning author of Speak, calls Challenger Deep “a brilliant journey across the dark sea of the mind; frightening, sensitive, and powerful. Simply extraordinary.”
This book leads you to see the truth on how a mind of a person with Schizophrenia works. This is a heartwarming book because it is based on the father and the son’s first-hand experience.
This is a very interesting read for a teen. It does open a lot of doors for discussing the stigma of mental illness.
This book showed another side of a real person’s life and shared his own voice. It can get confusing as it has a descriptive variety of scenarios like he was weaving in and out of hallucinations but you will understand it as your reading progresses.
This book also features artworks of the author’s son drawn while in the throes of mental illness. It is shown in a heartfelt, no judgment way and makes it a powerful book. It can certainly leave a strong impression on a young one’s mind about the grip of psychosis.
When Dimple Met Rishi By Sandhya Menon ($5)
The rom-com everyone’s talking about! Eleanor & Park meets Bollywood in this hilarious and heartfelt novel about two Indian-American teens whose parents conspire to arrange their marriage.
Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?
Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.
The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?
Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.
I was curious when I found out that this book is chosen for the parents because it is a teen romance novel. When I read it I realized the book offered a perspective from different ends of the spectrum, the parents and their children’.
It’s well rounded because it talks about what love means in different perspectives and has a cultural aspect to it. It will make you think about the dilemma of making things go your way because of tradition or following what makes your children happy.
It has different chapters from different points of view which makes it an interesting read. Although we do have different opinions on what is right and wrong and what traditions can or can’t be followed, it is good to know and to understand differences from a reader’s standpoint.
The theme is timely and eye-opening and a great way to start or continue the conversation about having respect for different cultures, working their way through change and adjusting to it. This box stimulates conversations and sharing of opinions. I also get to know more about my children and their perspectives and how I as a parent can guide them. Challenger Deep was an unexpected selection for this box but I appreciate bringing this perspective into a discussion about differences and uniqueness.
What do you think of this month’s box?
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