No School Today? A Review

 

AS IN HOMESPUN


I have been meaning to review Christina Ramos-Payne's fine collection of homeschool comic strips for some time now. I have been a big fan of Cristina's blog Home Spun Juggling for some time now. This book, a collection of her early strips is fantastic.

I love comic strips and have most of my life. The Home Spun strips remind me in some ways of the excellent comic strip, For Better or For Worse. But Home Spun is definitely it's own animal.. Cristina really gets to the heart of homeschooling. I relate very easily to her work because my children are much like hers.   But even in the areas I can't can't empathize with she does a masterful job crafting her narrative so that the humor is obvious to all.
 
I guess the best way to review this book is to share some of the strips from the book ad tell you what I think of them. 
 
 
This is a great strip in so many ways. The thing I like most about it is the sentiment.  The Mom is glad that her daughter showed such kindness to her little brother.  At the same time she is bemused that her daughter will not be able to shine as the star of the show.  But you can tell by the wistful glance in the last panel that her daughter’s decision does make her the star of the show. 


I had my daughter write a short review of this  book for her blog.  This is the strip she liked most.  This strip rocks, because proficiency can never replace passion. 



I don’t know the technical terms related to comic strip writing.  So I just make up my own terms.  Each comic strip usually has one main punch line that the strip builds up to.  Sometimes there’s a joke at the end wholly unrelated to the continuity.  I would probably call it the non sequitir if there wasn’t already a strip with that name.  So I’ll call it the late hit.
The strips that I think do the late hit the best are Calvin And Hobbes and Fox Trot.  The above strip is of that caliber.  I also can relate quite well to it as Bunny has finished many a book just checked out from the library before we ever left the building.


I guess I don’t have to say why I like this strip. 

I would strongly recommend this book for both homeschoolers and comic strip aficionados and folks like me who are both.  No School Today can be purchased at Amazon,  Barnes And Noble and Create Space