Study Guides for Literature from Progeny Press {Curriculum Review}

Prior to this review, I had actually never heard of Progeny Press. A quick look at their website though and I knew I wanted to know more. “Study guides for literature, from a Christian perspective” is the tagline listed at the top of their website. For me, any curriculum that I can find that includes a Biblical perspective is a good thing. I had one daughter who was particularly interested in working on this review with me, so we quickly purchased a copy of the book and accessed The Scavengers – eGuide.

What Is Progeny Press?

As I said, I had never heard of Progeny Press, so one of the first things I needed to do was learn more about the company themselves. Progeny Press is run by Michael and Rebecca Gilleland. Their mission is to help children learn to think clearly, better understand literature, and rely on scripture for both truth and values. Since this closely lines up with my mission as a homeschooling parent, I felt this company would be a good fit for us.

Contained within their website you will find a wide variety of both e-guides and CD-based versions. The guides are sorted by grade and cover everything from lower elementary literature to high school literature. Progeny Press works hard to ensure the books and novels they are selecting are quality literature. Often the study guides are for award-winning books and novels. Browsing the list of options you will see many familiar favorites, and I’m sure more than a few that you even forgot about!

In addition to the current selection, Michael and Rebecca are actively adding to the list of available study guides. However, because of the detail and care that they put into these guides, there are typically only 2-3 new guides added per year.

Getting Started

The first thing we had to do was get the book. We live in a small town and the local library did not have this book nor could they find a copy through the loan program. So, we bought it.

The Scavengers by Michael Perry is a novel that my oldest daughter was quite interested in. Progeny Press described it as “Laura Ingalls Wilder meets Mad Max in this gripping dystopian tale of survival and intrigue.” Upon reading more about the novel, I got the impression that it was similar to some other books that while popular, are not quite appropriate for her yet. It sounded like this novel would give her the opportunity to read something a little different than her typical options while making sure the content was still appropriate.

The Scavengers – eGuide that we received was not your typical book project or guide that you would expect. It was 73 pages in length and included things such as background information on both the author and the story. Recommended pre-reading activities are included to help you understand the story, the setting, and elements contained in it. Vocabulary activities are included as well as general questions related to the content of the story. Additional questions are used to check for understanding writing technique and also helps the student learn how to use it. And critical analysis questions are intended to have the student dig deeper into intellectual, moral, and spiritual issues that are present in the story.

Also included is an answer key to help you out!

Students are expected to use these study guides over a period of 8-10 weeks. It may seem like a long time to be working on one book but the purpose of this guide is to get your child thinking about more than just the information presented on the surface. It is recommended that they read through the book in its entirety prior to starting the study guide. As they work through the guide they can then reread the sections of the book that are being discussed.

Diving Right In

When the book came she started reading it immediately. It was new and different, and she loves to read. I printed off the first part of the study guide for her and she got to work. Since we could not complete all of the prereading activities I simply had her work on the ones we could.

The one she found most fascinating was studying GMOs. As a child who is set on becoming a doctor, the information and controversy surrounding GMOs really intrigued her.

The Scavengers – eGuide is set up as an interactive PDF. This means she could simply complete the guide on the computer. It’s a great feature but one we did not use. For us, printing the guide in sections was much easier. This allowed my daughter to work on the guide on her own time as we are on a summer schedule. She could work on it outside, at night, or while we were in the vehicle. Printing it off in smaller sections made it easier to see how much to work on in that one week.

The eGuide is broken up into seven sections with each section covering several chapters at a time. Each section covers vocabulary activities and basic questions to check for comprehension of the book. Additional sections include thinking about the story to get your child thinking about how the story is unfolding and linking relevant clues. The dig deeper section really stretches your child and often asks them to think about how they would react in a similar situation and to search for Biblical answers relating to conduct and behavior. Optional activities are also included with each section.

A final overview of the novel – themes, characters, and writing style – is also included to wrap up the eGuide, as are some post-reading activities.

Overall Thoughts

This study guide is well laid out and a great way to do an in-depth book study. It urges your child to think critically about the story, the setting, the characters. And to think deeply about how the story is played out. Bringing in Biblical thinking allows them to consider if the actions of a character should be applauded or not, and helps them think with a Christian mind about a story.

As a homeschooling parent, I really enjoyed The Scavengers – eGuide from Progeny Press. My only complaint is that due to our schedules we were not able to complete it during the course of this review!

My daughter also really enjoyed the guide and the opportunity to not only read a new book but look at it in a new and different way. This was more in-depth than many other reading guides we have worked with in the past and she really enjoyed the challenge.

You can check out the wide variety of Progeny Press reviews that the Homeschool Review Crew worked on here!