October 2022 Monthly Newsletter

October 3, 2022

The following post will be a blog archive copy of Build Your Library’s October 2022 Monthly Newsletter. If you missed the email, you can subscribe to our mailing list here. [Scheduled to be sent 10/1/22 8:00 AM EST]

[October 1, 2022 ] – Welcome to our October Video Newsletter!

You should have gotten our regular monthly e-mail newsletter in your inbox if you subscribed. But you can now watch the video highlights and read the full details below or watch the BYL October 2022 Video Newsletter on Facebook.


Hey everybody, it’s Emily from Build Your Library! If you are just going to skim the beginning, here are the main topics in this month’s newsletter:

Now that I have your attention, here are the details on those items and more.

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
― L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Monthly Newsletter

And somehow it’s already October! I don’t know about you, but my September was a whirlwind! I spent the first half prepping for a trip to VA for my baby brother’s wedding, then a long weekend spent visiting everyone, then the rest of it recovering from the trip. Now suddenly a new month is upon us and I don’t quite feel ready. Luckily October is one of my favorite months. Who else is ready to dive full-on into spooky season?

As far as the newsletter goes, we have some new information to share, as well as some reoccurring monthly reminders!

Announcing our Newest Lit Bite: Towers Falling

Lit Bites are small literature unit studies, based on just one book. These bites contain everything you need to study a piece of literature with your child. They include vocabulary, discussion questions, and activities based on the story. We released four Lit Bites already, with more coming soon!

Our latest Lit Bite: Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes has just been released!

This story is a great way to introduce the events of September 11 to your elementary-aged children.  This story does so many things, but all of them in a gentle and respectful way. Jewell Parker Rhodes is fantastic at taking a difficult topic and writing about it in a way that children can understand and empathize with.  Through Deja’s story, they will learn about 9/11, but also poverty and the unhoused, immigration, and discrimination. The Towers Falling Lit Bite is flexible age-wise, but best for ages 7 – 10.

Have you tried a Lit Bite yet? Lit Bites are literature units focused on just one book. These bites contain everything you need to study a piece of literature with your child. They include vocabulary, discussion questions, and activities to help you get more out of the story.

These short units are perfect when you just want to study a specific title, or when you need to swap a book out of a level. Now you will have a ready-made literature unit to use instead of having to come up with something on your own!

Our first 6 Lit Bites are available in our store and I plan to add more soon! These are becoming the next evolution of our Read Aloud Book Clubs, as instead of buying the whole package, you can just order the “unit study” portion and source the book yourselves. This opens it up for you to either purchase the book online, locally, or borrow it from your local library. Or even download the audiobook version. Sadly, you will have to make your own bookmarks, although that sounds like a fun activity!

This also makes them available to our overseas customers who were unable to get the book club packs sent internationally. Now you can order the PDF lesson plans, and find the book on Amazon.UK or whichever vendor is local to you, without exorbitant shipping costs! We expect to be able to offer new Lit Bites approximately as frequently as the RABCs were offered in the past. So stay tuned for upcoming releases!

Build Your Library Updates

In an attempt to answer when the next level update will be ready, we have compiled our projected schedule into a post for easy reference. We will periodically update the chart when we make progress or have any changes to our tentative schedule.

I am currently plugging away at the Level 9 update. The high school level updates are going to be a slower process than the younger levels, but I still hope to move through them at a good pace. I am anticipating having Level 9 finished in late January 2023.

I’m also hoping to get to the Darwin and Evolution unit soon. It should also be a pretty quick update as the majority of the books will be staying as is. I mostly need to update links in that unit study. There are also a few new Lit Bites in various stages of completion from concept to rough drafts. So hopefully we will get some more of those out in the not-too-distant future.

I am always brainstorming and collecting books for various unit studies too… lots of exciting new things in the works! I hope to be able to share more about those projects soon!

October Giveaway

Congratulations to all of our winners of last month’s Anniversary Giveaways!

good-luckThis month we will be giving away a copy of our History of Thanksgiving Unit Study, just in time for your November studies! Actually, it will be a BYL gift card for $7.95, which you could either use to purchase another unit study or just put it towards your next purchase of whatever. But we will say that is the suggested prize for the drawing on November 1st. 🙂

Each action gives you entries into this month’s drawing, with some allowing for daily clicks. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

Check out the contest page for more details, and come back each month for new opportunities!

October Bookish Holidays

October has a bunch of fun book-related holidays. The entire month has been designated Children’s Magazine Month, National Book Month, National Cookbook Month, and National Reading Group Month. The first full week of October is Mystery Series Week, the second week is National Newspaper Week, the third week is Teen Read Week and Friends of Libraries Week, and the last Friday of the month (Oct 28) is National Frankenstein Day.

Not exactly a holiday, but nominations are open for the Cybils Awards from October 1 – 15! Did you read an amazing children’s or YA book this year that was published between October 16, 2021 – October 15, 2022? Go nominate it! I’ll be a first-round judge for Middle-Grade Fiction this year, so I’m going to be happily buried in books from October – December!

For author birthdays, we have Anne Rice (Oct. 4, 1941), R. L. Stine (Oct 8, 1943) and Oscar Wilde (Oct 16, 1854).

History Book by Book (HBBB)!

We have recently started to create some blog post articles on HBBB! You can check out our first couple on our HBBB Blog.

History Book By Book is our database collection of engaging, entertaining, and educational books about various historical topics. Whenever possible, we have cross-referenced topics, internally linked additional suggestions based on like subjects, and created useful categorized lists for you to search and browse. Hopefully, you will be able to glean a vast amount of information and find as many history-related books as you would ever want to find. We discussed it in depth during a recent Tea With Emily Livestream on Facebook, you can view the recording here.

As a long time homeschooling parent, and the author of literature-based homeschool curriculum, we designed HBBB to help:

(1) homeschooling parents looking for additional resources to read to their children,
(2) homeschooling parents looking for more historical based books to give their children to read themselves,
(3) any teen or adult looking for categorized historical reading material for their own enjoyment and knowledge.

Reading your way through history… one book at a time.

History Book By Book Main page

Homeschool Tidbits Blog and Video Series

We have an ongoing series on both our blog and YouTube channel called Homeschool Tidbits!

In this weekly video series, I will briefly discuss a homeschooling-related topic and will share some of my knowledge and expertise as a long-time homeschooling mother of 4 children, Three of whom have graduated high school, and one is also a brand-new college graduate!

This series will consist of an approximately 10-minute “quick-bit” YouTube video and a corresponding blog post article.

Our next Homeschool Tidbit will be up on September 2nd!

Most Recent Episodes:

“Tea with Emily” Facebook Live Streams

We hope you all enjoyed our last “Tea with Emily” Facebook Live Stream. If you missed our “Getting Excited for the New Homeschool Year! in August, you can find a recording by scrolling through our Facebook or direct links on our past events page.

Our next Livestream will be on Friday, October 7th at 1pm (EST), and I’m going to do a Q&A! Got a question for me about BYL, homeschooling, or books? Come to the live stream and ask away!

Every other month, I host a 30-60 minute Build Your Library homeschooling chat. You can ask questions about homeschooling, using Build Your Library curriculum, book recommendations, etc. We will announce the date ahead of time, and you will be able to submit questions you would like to cover. Additionally, you can also ask questions during the interactive live stream. Grab a mug of tea (or coffee) and cozy up with our virtual hangout!

Build Your Library Support

Are you looking for help or advice on your homeschooling journey? We have compiled all of our helpful resources into one blog post for you. From the many BYL-related Facebook groups to my book A Literary Education, there is a treasure trove of information and helpful parents out there to help guide you along your homeschooling adventure. If you have any questions, just ask!

For a comprehensive, everything you ever wanted to know about homeschooling with Build Your Library, check out our “Build Your Library University (for Parents).” We have collected the definitive list of articles, videos, and books about Build Your Library, Charlotte Mason, and general homeschooling, all categorized in a logical order for you to peruse.

BYL Social Media Shout Out

We always have our Social Media “chicklets” at the bottom of our newsletters and web page, but we wanted to ensure you follow us on our other platforms. The Build Your Library Facebook is our go-to social media site, and we post there frequently with cool Amazon products and book recommendations we think you would like, as well as all of our Read Aloud Book Club announcements, blog posts, full-year and unit study product releases and updates, and more.

Our Build Your Library Instagram page regularly posts pictures and insider info about projects I’m currently working on or what I’m doing with my kids.

Although not 100% exclusively Build Your Library related, our Arrrgh Schooling YouTube channel has videos about books and homeschooling, but let’s be honest, it’s mostly books. If you want to see what I’m reading, join my Arrrgh Booked Book Club – we are reading The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson in October. It’s our last book club selection for 2022!

Or if you just want ideas for books to read (either for you or your children) you are sure to find something useful! We also have a BYL Twitter feed where I share links and information about BYL and homeschooling. Or you can stay subscribed to our email list and browse our monthly newsletters.

Wrap Up

I hope you have a wonderful October! I can’t wait to see what this new month brings!

“October, crisp, misty, golden October, when the light is sweet and heavy.”
― Angela Carter, The Magic Toyshop

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments

If you are looking for some more inspiration, here are some articles you might find helpful:

We have well over 100 blog posts on various homeschooling and book-related topics if you want to browse for more.

I think that is about all for this month. Again, please follow us on whatever social media you frequent, there will be periodic updates posted there as well, but we will try to keep everyone in the know wherever you are surfing!

Thanks and Happy Reading! Emily


See Also:

September 2022 Monthly Newsletter

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Have you been looking for a literature based homeschool curriculum that is secular? How about a way to incorporate narration, copywork, dictation and memory work into your child’s education? Or art study that ties into history?

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