The Homeschool Liberation League

by Lucy Frank and Ana Huang

After a summer at Wilderness Camp, thirteen year-old Katya decides that she absolutely cannot go back to school. At school she can t eradicate invasive alien plants, go on foraged-food-finding... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803732309
• ISBN13: 9780803732308
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Dial Books
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Long live the Homeschool Liberation League!

Katya is a great character. She learns a lesson during the summer before her 8th grade year that a lot of kids have forgotten or never learned. She realized that learning was fun and that it should be fun, and that it should never be boring, and that as a kid with an inquiring mind, she should never have to settle for less than what her inquiring mind could absorb. Katya is so on fire with her passion for learning and her new found interest in nature and the sciences that on that fateful first day of 8th grade, she turns around and goes back home and begins her plan to convince her parents to homeschool. What Katya really wants is Unschooling and if there was ever a kid perfect for unschooling it's her. I have met many kids like Katya who always seem full of facts and are eager to correct the adults in their lives when they find mistakes. There is much to admire in Katya; her unrelenting persistence, her intelligence and her growing empathy. She is portrayed in this story warts and all, so by the end you can really see the growth she has achieved. This story is at times a condemnation of the public school system, a classic coming of age story and an examination of early teenage girls and their sometimes inexplicable behavior. The author writes with a narrative voice that rings so true that if you are an older reader like me, you will instantly find yourself transported back to middle school! This book is an easy recommend for any 5th through 8th grade girl. Katya meets a boy Milo who enables us to examine some of Katya's problems from the other side of the fence. They make a cute couple in that they are so opposite. They engage in a couple of "spine shivering" kisses but that's about it. There are no language issues here, and aside from the aforementioned kisses, no sexual situations. Finally, let's hear it for the parents! They are portrayed as kind and caring people who want the best for their daughter and finally do a great job of paying attention and listening to her! Yeah! I love good parent characters... So, Bravo to the Homeschool Liberation League and all the kids out there who decide they no longer want to play the game and all the parents who listen.

One size doesn't fit all

I found this book in the Juvenile section of the library. The story is about a girl, Katya, who simply walks out of her public school on the first day of 8th grade. The freedom she feels is immediate, but how can she talk her parents into letting her do what she is planning - homeschooling generally, and unschooling specifically. She had just come from the best summer ever at a wilderness summer camp, where she learned about unschooling from a fellow camper. The book follows Katya's path through the first months of this new adventure. During which her parents try a very rigid schedule (basically public school at home) and a point at which they actually send her back to Middle School. But this book is not all about unschooling. Not at all. It's about how there are many ways to learn and everyone has different needs. A wide range is covered and no learning experience is touted as better than another. Some of the book IS very cliché, parents not "getting" it, Katya being under-challenged in public school and "creatively" filling her time there in ways that get her in hot water, a musical genius longing for a normal life, Katya stumbling over the perfect mentors with hardly any effort at all, grandfather who thinks homeschoolers are hippies and an all too happy ending for all. But beyond the clichés there are deep feelings that quickly draw you in and keep you interested (and worried!) until the end. It was an enjoyable read, worthy of 5 stars!

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

After spending a great summer at Wilderness Discovery Camp, thirteen-year-old Katya doesn't want to go back to school and will do anything to avoid returning. She convinces her parents to try homeschooling for one month. Homeschooling, she thinks, will allow her to explore what she wants to learn about. She even meets a cute boy named Milo and starts dating him. Best of all, she doesn't have to set foot in a stuffy school and learn what she's forced to study. Her parents, however, have different ideas of what her education should entail. Instead of exploring science and nature out where it counts, she's stuck in her mom's beauty shop studying in front of the DIM (Daily Instructional Matrix). With the help of a mysterious new friend and Milo, she forms the Homeschool Liberation League to help her parents see her idea of education. Will Katya convince her parents that she deserves to learn how she learns best? Will Katya get to stay homeschooled or will she have to go back to public school? A funny, unique approach to seeing education through a teen's point of view. The author does a great job of creating engaging characters whose emotions and struggles seem to capture what being a teen is like. Readers will have an easy time relating to Katya and will enjoy reading this story cover to cover. Reviewed by: Kira M

Interesting take on liberty and freedom in education.

I thought this was an interesting and well-written book. I did not find the passage a previous reviewer thought was inappropriate to be so, I thought that it was at a level that thirteen to fourteen year olds would understand. In this book, the main character is on a merry-go-round of sorts concerning her education. She spends a month doing "school-at-home" with her parents. They clash frequently over their ideas of education versus hers, while trying to come to a resolution that works for everyone. While I didn't find this book to be perfect, I felt it was well-written and examinated several viewpoints besides the main character to make you understand how and why it came to the conclusions it did for the various characters. I'm very interested in the homeschooling and unschooling movements and this is a book I'm hoping for my fiance to read, since many of his objections mirror Katya's parents objections and concerns.

Unlike anything I've read before!

This is a great story for anyone who has ever questioned how they learn best. Sometimes school is just right, sometimes it's not. Meet Katya, a popular 8th grader who loves science (which is NOT popular in junior high) and decides she wants to try homeschooling. Her decision leads to adventures, choices, new friendships, and even romance. A great read!