Oodles of Resources at Discount Prices!
Before I tell you more about the specific materials my family ordered from Library and Educational Services LLC, I want to explain a bit about the company.
Library and Educational Services LLC is a family-owned company based in Michigan that has been around for 40 years. The company sells materials at 30%-70% off to libraries, schools, resellers, specialty stores, churches, missionaries, daycare centers, ministry leaders, and - how awesome is this - homeschoolers!
They ship all over the world, including to military bases, have oodles and oodles of choices in their catalog, and are known for their knowledgeable, courteous, and outstanding service, with real, live people who answer questions and help you with your orders if you call.
Gotta love a wide selection of wonderful quality materials at low prices with real live people to help!
Something for Everyone
For our review, we were given a gift certificate of about $70 to spend on materials directly ordered from Library and Educational Services LLC.
After browsing the amazing amount of materials the company offers, I ended up picking the audiodrama myself - a dramatization based on truth called Hiding in Plain Sight - and, then, had each of my children pick one other book or series that they thought looked interesting.
This took some time since the company offers so many resources - paperbacks, CD's, DVD's, hardcovers, devotionals, Bibles... history, science, geography, nature, sports, fiction, children's books... and all vetted with the promise that:
"The CDs, DVDs, and books we choose to distribute are carefully selected to ensure they are not contradictory to Biblical standards and values.”
Finally, my youngest asked for Who Was Alexander the Great, my middle child picked a 4-volume That's Me in History Series, and my oldest picking a 5-volume History's Greatest Warriors series.
Pleased with Our Selections and the Service
Once we ordered our materials, they came in super quickly, so we dove right into them.
My youngest immediately picked up one of his big brother's books and began reading it.
Then, since we had to head out that day, we popped Hiding in Plain Sight into our minivan CD-player and began listening to it.
My children had this to say about the audiodrama:
My youngest immediately picked up one of his big brother's books and began reading it.
Then, since we had to head out that day, we popped Hiding in Plain Sight into our minivan CD-player and began listening to it.
My children had this to say about the audiodrama:
"I liked it. It was about a slave couple that escaped from Georgia in 1848."
"I really like it! It was an audiodrama with many people doing voices and with sound effects.
I also liked that they touched based on how slaves were punished, but had characters go away before it got too bad, so you heard about it, but not so graphically. It was realistic, but not overly gruesome.
In the audiodrama, one slave had a white parent, so she looked white and, one day someone said, 'If I didn't know better, I would think she was white.' That sparked an idea. She and her husband decided that they would run away with her dressed up as a white man with a bad arm so she wouldn't have to write and a stinky poultice for at terrible toothache so people could not see she had no facial hair. Along the way, there were close calls, but they made it to freedom."
"It was about two slaves who escaped and pretended to be a white man and his slave. They went on trains and stuff and made it the north, but, then, had to go to England to escape slave catchers and laws. I liked it. It had action and character voices."
I found the story engaging and well told myself - with enough realism not to gloss over true history, but enough sensitivity to keep it family friendly. I also liked the clear faith in Christ the main characters had!
(There is also a Ninja book, but, after it traveled through the hands of all three of my children, "wasn't me" misplaced it before I could get a picture of it. We think it is at a friend's house, since one of my children brought it to a friend's to show them some cool parts.)
As for the other selections we picked, my oldest had this to say:
"I picked the History's Greatest Warriors Series because I liked the picture of the guy with the battle ax, and it looked like it might information for the fantasy novel I am in the midst of writing.
When the books came in, I read every single one of them and found new facts in most of them. The Samurai and Ninja ones were the most informative for me, because I have not studied Asian warriors as much, but I liked the Gladiators one the best. It had the best images and was well written.
Some interesting facts that were in the books were:
- Ninjas could dislocate their jaws.
- Gladiators were sometimes hired by emperors and politicians as bodyguards.
- Samurai were mostly archers.
- European doctors during the knights era knew little about medicine so many knights died from battle wounds.
- The god Odin had nine daughters that flew over battle fields on winged horses and decided which vikings would live or die."
"I picked Who Was Alexander the Great, because I like him.
I learned that he killed his best friend in anger, because his best friend was saying that Alexander should not act like he was a god. Then, he lived in his tent with no food or drink for three days for penance.
I also learned that there was a city on an island that no one could get to. Alexander wanted to conquer it, so he has his men dump rocks in the water and cover them with dirt and stuff to make a bridge to conquer it.
I liked that there were larger font words and pictures.
I also read my brother's books about Ninja, Samurai,Vikings, Gladiators, and Knights. I liked how they were written, and I liked the topics. I have already read them twice!
I also read some of the Egypt and the Inquisition books my sister got. They are interesting."
My middle child has this to say:
"I picked the That's Me in History Series, because they looked easier to read than some books but did not look boring.
I was right. I read parts of all of the books and they had stories and history.
I liked the cover art and how they start out with a story, so it's like someone talking to you instead of just dry history.
I also like that almost every page has some sort of illustration or picture to go with what they are saying.
I also read my little brother's book Who Was Alexander the Great. I enjoyed it, because the Who Was series focuses on one person but includes little bits from the time period and how the person's life changed parts of the time period.
When Alexander the Great's temper flared up, you did want to be the person he was angry at. He killed two people - once when he was drunk and once in a fit of rage. He did good stuff, too, but this is what stood out to me.
I liked that the chapters were not that long and that there was a lot of white space on each page. The That's Me in History book had a smaller font and not as much white space.
I also read parts of my older brother's Ninja book. It was neat the way they started off with the last ninja, but it was pretty disgusting that Ninja's dislocated their arms and jaws.
The quality of all these books are good. They are informative."
Without question, I am glad we did this review and am well-pleased with the quality of the materials we received and with the speedy service Library and Educational Services LLC offered.
The fact that the company sells at wholesale prices to homeschoolers thrills me and I definitely recommend checking them out as you plan for your fall needs as well as for gift giving times.
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You can also click over to about other resources that Library and Educational Services LLC by reading the other Homeschool Review Crew reviews since we each picked different products to check out.
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