One of the things I love about homeschooling is making sure my children get lots of great literature and Progeny Press makes it so easy to study literature in a Biblical context – even if it’s a secular book. I was given Hall of Doors: The Dragon Hoard’s unit study and the print book to use for 4 weeks and review it. Hall of Doors: The Dragon’s Hoard is an imaginative book that reminds the reader of The Hobbit as it draws the reader in and takes them on a wonderful journey of imagination, character building and allegory. The suggested grade level is grades 2 to 4, and I read the book aloud to all three of my children ages 11, 8 and 6 while having my 11 year old do the study guide portion.
The book description from Progeny Press’ website is:
Upon walking into a hidden hall of doors in their barn on a rainy day, Kennan and Beth are propelled into an adventure beyond their expectations. They choose a door and find themselves on a windswept mountain summit with a dragon flying all too nearby. As they travel across this land following the clues they’ve been given, they encounter a lost pony, talking crows, elves, and the spiders of Mirkwood. Realizing they are in a story from a book, they must follow the clues to the end to return home, having learned a special lesson in courage along the way. This courage will help them to serve “The King they already know.”
The first in the Hall of Doors series.
The book is relatively short, at only 64 pages divided into 7 chapters it can easily be read in just few hours. I know once we began the book my children didn’t want me to stop but I wanted to carry on the suspense a little while longer, so I carried it out over a period of two days. I too found myself getting very carried away in the story of Kennan and Beth as they enter this new world and embark on an adventure to carry on a King’s Quest and also learn more about themselves on the way. It is also beautifully illustrated with black and white pictures depicting Kennan and Beth’s adventures. The illustrations are done by Mary Duban.
The book provided my entire family with an exciting tale about characters they could relate too as they were right around my children’s ages and since there was a boy and a girl as the main characters my daughters and my son could relate to that. The adventure kept us turning the pages so we could figure out how they would get back as well as how they would complete the quest that they were on. You can buy the book for $6.99 but if you’d like the author to sign it add another $2.50 and if you’d like the author and illustrator to sign it then it’ll be an extra $3.50 – it’s always a nice touch, especially when giving as a gift.
The study guide is an important part of really understanding and digging deep into the book. The guide covers all seven chapters and gives questions, vocabulary, word find, critical thinking, and other ways to really dig into the meat of the book, which was once a short, fun, read aloud has become a complete study on literature using the Hall of Doors: The Dragon’s Hoard. I had my daughter work on it little by little every day for a few days – knowing that we were supposed to use it for four weeks, but she finished it quicker than that. I think it only took her a week and half to finish it because it was something she actually enjoyed having added to her school day.
The study guide can be purchased via PDF download ($15.99), on CD ($15.99) or printed booklet ($16.99) – we were given the PDF document version along with answer key. I saved a file using my daughter’s name and Dragon’s Hoard, so the original is still as it was when I downloaded but all her answers were saved making it easy for me to ‘grade’ her work. All she had to do was get into the folder and open her own document and begin working then I’d open her document and the answer key and go over her work. I’m happy to say she did very well with only few corrections needed on my end.
Here is what my oldest had to say about the book and study guide:
I really, really liked the book- not to mention the fact that I liked the fact that Mrs. Gilleland didn’t over exaggerate, nor under exaggerate. I’m not sure what chapter I like best, though!
The study was fine as well, and I liked the formatting she used for it. Some of the questions were slightly hard, but over all it was enjoyable. I really like the chapter seven questions on the study- not too easy, not too hard, and it was really fun.
I loved The Dragon’s Hoard very much!
If you’d like to read what other homeschool parents had to say about this and other Progeny Press products visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.
GrowingForChrist 