TOS Review: Progeny Press

I’ve reviewed for Progeny Press before, with the book Dragon’s Hoard, an E-Guide on Little House in the Big Woods and Uncle Jed’s Barbershop, and a study guide for Miss Rumphius. When a review for The Sword and the Tree E-Guide came available, I didn’t hesitate; we love Progeny Press! Since this one was written for grades 4-6, I had Eden, age 11 and having completed 6th grade, do this study.

I received the PDF from Progeny Press via email. I forwarded the email to Eden, she put it on the Kindle, and off we went. We owned the Kindle version of The Sword and the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla, but since she was working on the review on the Kindle as well, I requested it from the library. When that took forever and I was afraid it wouldn’t be here before the start of the review, I bought it used online for very little – and the Progeny Press PDF, the book I bought, and the library requested book all showed up within a day of each other. We now have three The Sword and the Tree books floating around… no excuses now!

The Sword and the Tree is about a boy who wakes up in the night to find his estranged uncle at the gate, unscrupulous and after the boy’s father’s title. Suddenly his father disappears and the boy must flee to save his and his mother’s lives, to claim his father’s sword, and defend the castle. Knights, bravery, and courage are main themes of the story.

Eden worked in a notebook to record her answers. She read the book cover to cover first – because it’s Eden, and books are her thing. She’s gone back through, rereading twice more and other parts as needed to answer the questions. The E-Guide tells more about the story, digging deeper into the setting, listing other books to learn more about the topics in the story, and explains terms like resolution, climax, etc. With Progeny Press, Eden has explored first, second, and third person perspective, etc. She’s rewritten chapters in a different perspective than the one found in the book to practice, compared the story to Biblical accounts, and explored Biblical responses to situations in the story. She’s learned about context and vocabulary, and she’s answered questions about the story.

In short, she’s learning to examine books in a Biblical way, from a Biblical worldview, and not just take what she reads at face value. For the bargain price of $17.99, the Progeny Press E-Guide is helping me teach Eden to read the way I wish all of my children would – with an eagle eye toward learning, understanding, and knowing what she believes and examining the books in light of that. This is why we love Progeny Press!

I have loved everything we’ve received from Progeny Press. They all have the same theme, of teaching the student to examine what they read more carefully and not accepting what they read for mere face value. They dig deeper into the setting and characters and encourage learning. They’ve introduced us to a few quality books and covered a few books we know and love already. Our homeschooling journey is richer because of Progeny Press.

Progeny Press is on the web! Find them on Facebook and on Twitter @progenypress.

Ninety-five members of the Review Crew Reviewed this and seven other E-Guides – in all age categories from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Check out what they thought too!