Although not a favorite, reading George Orwell’ s Animal Farm with my teens was definitely not a waste of time. It allowed for many discussions about  the evils of communism,  the importance of freedom of speech and thought, and even the value of education without indoctrination.  Animal Farm is a classic  and one to consider reading as a family during highschool years because it allows for yet one more world view lesson before homeschool graduation.

While reading Animal Farm the proverb, “Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely” comes to life through a barnyard of animals who decide to start a revolution and overthrow their human owners replacing them with a whole new system led by the more intelligent and “educated”  pigs who eventually evolve into evil tyrants.  This short novel if read like a literature professor would,  is actually a history lesson about the failures of communism or if simply read without analysis; a silly fairy tale about barnyard animals.  Read this novel with your family and talk about liberty and how it can easily be lost.  Talk to them about our leaders today and decide which ones resemble the lazy dictator pigs in this story. Talk to them about the elitist attitudes prevalent in our society today and about those who actually still believe in the utopian communist ideal. Although this was not my favorite book…. it was an important book and worthy to have in one’s library…one to discuss around the kitchen table…perhaps while eating bacon. 😉

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My boys and I finished reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom over a month ago, and still I’m reflecting, talking, and even praying about these amazing God-fearing people who lived not so long ago in Holland. Oh Lord I pray, let me respond to difficult circumstances and unkind people as Betsie did. Help me to have a grateful heart and to look for the good in every situation like she was able to do. Oh Lord, please allow me to learn to forgive those who have hurt me…just as Corrie learned to forgive. And Lord may our home be as welcoming to friends and strangers as their quaint Dutch home was during the scary years of the Nazi invasion in Holland. I remind my teenage young men to have grateful hearts and to display more grace with others just as the Boom family did.
This moving story will change your life if you allow, and it will give you powerful tools to use when you face persecution, hardship or tribulation of any kind.
It begins in such an ordinary homey yet pleasant setting where you get to know the everyday comings and goings of the ten Boom family. You learn they are devoted to practicing hospitality with all who enter their home and watchmakers shop. You get to know their dear father who read from the scriptures each evening after dinner. Mostly though, you learn that these folks lived out their faith by loving all people regardless of ethnicity, religion or position. To the ten Boom family, each person they came into contact with was worthy of respect and love because they were created in the image of God.
Even though Corrie ten Boom and her family were regular folk they performed amazing and extraordinary tasks because they walked by faith all while being committed to simply doing the right thing. Because they hid many Jews whom they called “The apple of God’s eye” during the Nazi occupation of Holland, they were sent to concentration camps where they experienced profound horror, humiliation, and hunger. Even in the midst of so much evil they continued to show God’s love and practice forgiveness. How they could pray for, love and even forgive the Nazi soldiers is beyond my comprehension but they did this not through their own strength or will but through the power of Christ.
I highly recommend this book to homeschooling families. Please read this to your children so that they will know more about this period of history and so that they will be able to see true Christianity in action.
By the way, did you know that this book has been banned at the Springs Charter school in Temecula, California? Can you imagine a book about a family helping others escape the horrors of the Holocaust being pulled from the school shelves? Evidently the library attendants were told to remove all books with a Christian message, by a Christian author, or published by a Christian publishing company. How ignorant and sad for these folks. Perhaps they do not realize that much of the greatest literature of Western Civilization was written by people of faith. Indeed,they must eliminate many many wonderful books if this is their standard.
For more information and to visit the Ten Boom Museum click here.