There are four new books in our store for Month 2.

My World Story Book continues to offer stories from Arthur Mee's 1000 Heroes. This month, learn about men and women from Spain and Holland.

Great Lives-Revised by rotation. There weren't a lot of lives in the original series from Holland and Spain--especially from Spain-- so I added stories from Charles Morris' Historical Tales from Spain.

Imaginative Tales--Folk and Fairy tales from Holland and Spain from a variety of books.

Epic and Legendary Heroes--El Cid, of course! The great legendary hero of Spain who fought for the Christians and then fought for the Muslims and then established a kingdom where they lived side by side together, which obviously didn't last. I have wondered why it has been so difficult to find Art and Imaginative tales and Music  from Spain to share with you--I think it's because they spent all their energies driving the Moors out of Spain, who were evidently more cultured and civilized than they were at the time, and then when they finally drove them out, they were too busy looking everywhere for gold. Spain has raised lots of questions in my own mind that I'm still learning about. Part of the challenge is that Spain was hated for so long, it's difficult to find positive things to read about her in the stories, especially in the literature from the era I draw from. It just means digging a little deeper...which I fully want to do. After all, Spain did give the world the incomparable Cervantes. And he is a true gift!

I've had several people ask, so I thought I'd let you know that you can now buy all the MASB images (or whichever months you want) in the store. You can find it in the Individual Books/Series side of the store under My America Story Book.

It's also not too late to sign up for My World Story Book Images subscriptions to get them in time for the start of September! You can sign up in the red box at the bottom of this page.

We are introducing four new series that are now available in the store, for both individual purchase as well as subscriptions.

Imaginative Series, filled with wonder tales from all around the world, organized around the rotation schedule.

Epic and Legendary Heroes Series, organized by rotation, starting with heroes of Scandinavia.

Revised Great Lives Series, Includes all the stories of the original series sorted by rotation rather than subject.  There are additional stories included in some of the months.  If you already own the other series, we will be making a supplement available to you, if you would like.  In the meantime, of course they are also available in the free digital books. (Note: If you are currently subscribed to the Great Lives series, you will finish out with that version so you have a complete matching set.)

My World Story Book, designed just like My America Story Book only with lives from men and women from around the world.  The stories are taken from Arthur Mee’s 1000 Heroes, which I will tell you about in a bit.  They are stories written to inspire hearts.  Images for notebooking are available, just like MASB.  Access everything at myworldstorybook.com.

Additionally, we are revamping the Nature/Art/Music series. The first 8 books (the nature topics) will remain the same. The last 4 books will be replaced with what is currently the Nature Bundle. The resulting series will just be called the Nature Series. Those 4 art/music books will be implemented in the Appreciation series that will be announced Fall 2022, but in the meantime are available for individual purchase in the "Other" category for those who want them. (Note: If you are currently subscribed to the Nature/Art/Music series, you will finish out the series as it currently stands so that you have a complete matching set.)
 
I am not ready to introduce the Appreciation Series, but there is one book that you can purchase now:  Symphony Stories. (You can find it in the "Other" category of the store.) On the Enrichment pages, I included musical selections with a link to stories for a simple music appreciation session.  These stories came from the North Carolina Youth Concert series notes.  For your convenience, we have now compiled them into one reference book for you, sorted by rotation.  You will also find a corresponding music list in Spotify. Look for "Symphony Stories for WEH."

If you sign up now for a subscription, we will do everything in our power to get books to you before September starts. But please be patient with us if we are unable to do so! We will get them to you as fast as we can!
 

We’ve recently been informed that our store website builder has added a feature where you can check the status of your order by clicking the “View Order Details” button in your order confirmation email. Just a head’s up that that information will not be accurate. Our orders get marked as shipped when our printer has received the order, but he still has to print the books and ship them out. Your actual shipping confirmation will come from Stamps.com with the subject line “Libraries of Hope has sent you a package.” We apologize for any confusion!

We've finished the four new series and they are now available in the store! This includes the individual books, as well as complete series bundle (which can be purchased separately or together in our Family Library Builder).

PLEASE NOTE: Prices will still go up on Thursday, July 15, as per the previous announcement.

​Sunshine Series:  The Golden Name Day is a little book I picked up in a thrift store and fell in love with it, partly because of its Scandinavian culture (I’m pure Swedish), and partly because the story is just so sweet and so WEH-ish.  It was up for the Newbery award the year it was published, but lost to Carry On Mr. Bowditch.  After some research, I found the text has fallen into the public domain, but unfortunately the Garth Williams illustrations are under copyright restriction, so I can’t share the pictures. But it’s so descriptive, it won’t be hard to paint your own pictures.  It’s a great story to start your year, leading into the Month 1 topic that includes Sweden.  You will also find an audio recording in BelMonde I made quite awhile ago. The second book in this volume is a favorite—Heidi—another little girl who finds joy in  simple things.
 
My America Story Book: America in Review.  While you have been picking up pieces of stories and introductions to the men and women of our history, this final volume will pull it all together in a narrative flow.  I chose a book written by Elbridge Brooks who also wrote True Stories of Christopher Columbus, The True Story of Lafayette, and the True Story of U.S. Grant, which are all found in the Freedom Series. The story ends a hundred years ago—when public domain runs out.  You’ll need to fill in the next chapters. 
 
Our Little Cousins takes us to the ancient land of India and the Hindus, which concludes all the little Cousins and Twins books we could find to republish.  Although it’s not a Little Cousins books, we also included a story of Kari, the Elephant which I think your young children will enjoy.
 
Finally, the World Freedom Series takes you back to where we started.  Charles Coffin wrote a sequel to The Story of Liberty called Old Times in the Colonies.  He continues the story up to the days of the Revolution.  As he wrote in his introduction, “Through the colonial period there was an advance of principles which are eternal in their nature.  All through those years conditions and influences were preparing men for self-government…When the world was ready for it, and not before, the American Revolution came, with the announcement that all men are created free and equal, and endowed with inalienable rights.” 

May we not lose that which was bought with so dear a price.

We hate to do it, but we need to raise the prices on our books on July 15. We haven't raised the price in ten years, but rising costs in production as well as shipping necessitate it. The price increases for Individual Books/Series Bundles will be thusly:

-(Most) Individual Books: $14.95 (was $13.95)
-Complete Series Bundle: $175.00 (was $160.00)
-Nature Bundle: $70.00 (was $65.00)
-WEH Reference Bundle: $45.00 (was $39.00); $16.95 per book (was $14.95 per book)
-Shipping: $6.99 (was $5.99) -- Shipping will still be free on orders over $99

We also had to restructure our Subscription prices. Note that if you are currently signed up for a subscription, your price will not change. Only on subscriptions set up on/after July 15. The new prices still include the cost of shipping and are as such:

-1 series: $20.00 (was $18.00)
-2 series: $34.00 (was $31.00)
-3 series: $48.00 (was $44.00)
-4 series: $62.00 (was $57.00)
-5 series: $76.00 (was $72.00)
-6 series: $90.00 (was $85.00)
-7 series: $103.00 (was $98.00)
-8 series: $116.00 (was $111.00)
-9 series: $129.00 (was $124.00)
-10 series: $142.00 (was $137.00)

For those of you who have been ordering the images for My America Story Book, there is only one more packet (for a total of 11) and then you will have them all if you have been getting them from the very beginning. There won't be a packet for Book 12, and payments will automatically shut off. (You may have recently received a notice from PayPal that your automatic payment was changed. That was just changing it from 12 months to 11 months.)

If you want to continue with My World Story Book next year, you'll need to sign up for that separately once it's available.

I know it may appear that we are republishing a lot of random books and collections of stories. But there is a definite design to all of it that I hope will become clearer as we go along.

While we have a Forgotten Classics Family Library page that lists and links all of our books by series, which we recently redesigned so it is laid out developmentally, I have just created a new alternate page where the books are sorted by the monthly rotation. You'll find the books are listed by those with the youngest appeal first.

If you connect to the page by the blue box on the website, it will take you to the rotation page. But you will see a link at the top of the page that will take you to the page organized by series if you prefer that. If you access it through the app, I believe it still goes to the series page first (for now), but there is a rotation link at the top.

I hope it will be useful to you!
​
And PS-- the library isn't done yet. Still filling in gaps! I'll tell you more very soon.

Month 10 new books are in the store.

MASB: American Progress Part 1 Here are stories of America's great writers, thinkers, humanitarians, poets, inventors, etc. that moved us forward in remarkable ways.

World Freedom: The History of Germany--Another contribution of Henriette Marshall.

Little Cousins: We will visit Austria, Romania and Hungary.

Sunshine Series: Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter. This is the last book she wrote. "The tale of a wounded World War I veteran, a beekeeper and an impish tomboy all helped by each other. A book that examines the healing power that nature and kindness can have upon someone’s life. "

The new Month 9 books are now in the store.

We've added another Gene Stratton-Porter book--Girl of the Limberlost to the Sunshine Series. Referring to this book, the author wrote: "The book can, and does, present a hundred pictures that will draw any reader in closer touch with nature and the Almighty, my primal object in each line I write. "

We'll visit Cousins in Argentina, Brazil and Portugal. Portugal??? What does that have to do with South America, you might ask? If you don't know the answer, as you study Brazil, the connection will become clear.

The Story of Rome by Mary MacGregor is this month's selection in the World Freedom Series. No, it isn't directly tied into our Month 9 topic. I couldn't find a good book on South America. But there is much to learn about the study of Rome and I guess you would say Rome's later history of the Catholic church certainly ties into the story of South America.

Finally, My America Story Book takes a look at our War with Mexico, which gave us territories including Texas, Utah and California and also we'll look at key figures in the Civil War.