Saturday, November 29, 2008

A Great Book Series for Middle Schoolers

I have just finished reading a very interesting book written by a home schooled high schooler! It is the first book in The Truth Seekers Mystery Series called "The Missing Link: FOUND". I began reading this book aloud with my 12yo and 14yo, but due to time and us moving this next week, I wanted to finish it in order to share about it with all of you before the Christmas holiday shopping is all done, because this would be a great gift!

First, I want you to know I really did enjoy this book, and look forward to reading the others. I think it is really cool that a 14 year old homeschooler, Christina Gerwitz, took this on, along with the help of her mother, Felice, and has accomplished such a daunting task as writing a mystery novel, let alone a whole series! Truth be told, there are times when you can tell that it is written by a "non-professional" writer, but that actually added to the novelty of the book. I am sure that her writing skills improve with each book of the series as she matured and learned more about writing. I am looking forward to seeing the growth along the way.

Another very interesting aspect to this book is the large amount of scientific information offered about Creation vs. Evolution. This author did a lot of research and provides many details that my children and I were not aware of regarding paleoanthropological research concerning Creation Science (obviously, there is a scientist in this family!)

The main characters are a homeschooling family, the Murphys, whose oldest two children are teenagers and accompany their father on a archeological dig. There is quite a bit of drama and suspense along the way as they work to solve a mystery surrounding "the missing link". I believe this series would best be suited to middle schoolers who love mystery and adventure books. Both boys and girls would like this series and it is also a fun read-aloud for the whole family. There are many interesting discussion topics raised as they learn about the theory of evolution and the missing link "myths" that have been manufactured over the years.

Felice and Jeff Gerwitz are owners of Media Angels, which is a publishing company dedicated to providing quality materials for parents and children. Media Angels publishes study guides on the topic of Creation Science and has accompanying activity packs. You need to visit their website and check out the great products they have. Felice's newest venture is Scholar Square where she hopes to encourage moms and dads to produce teaching videos for the home education and Christian world.

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