$129.00 

For Hire: A Literary Travel Guide

Explores a new novel each month 
Confidently leads through lush language landscapes 
Offers a detailed account of rare punctuation and grammar sightings 
Shares engaging discussion prompts 
Investigates literary themes with flair!

Meet: Boomerang

The Boomerang is your boots-on-the-ground master tour guide, intrepidly leading you through the challenging terrain of high school literature.

Each month, your language arts field guide:

• Chooses a powerful novel to read
• Selects four insightful passages for copywork and dictation
• Offers expert, easy-to-understand language notes for you and your teen
• Guides students in literary analysis
• Plans book club parties so you don’t have to!

How it works

• Each Boomerang is a digital PDF file that includes four weeks of instruction
• New Boomerangs are uploaded to a private folder on the first of each month
• Check your email (once your purchase is complete) for login instructions
• Download the Boomerang Guidelines anytime after purchase
  
• Download the released Boomerangs at your convenience anytime after August 1
• Print or read on your device (you own them)
• No matter when you purchase, you’ll have access to all ten Boomerangs by May 2022
• See the tab at the bottom of this page for in-depth Program Details.

2021-2022 program begins August 1, 2021.

The 2021–2022 Boomerang Book List

We encourage you to review the books yourself to be certain that you are comfortable with the content before giving them to your teens.

August: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition) (William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer)
September: The Beast Player (Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano)
October: Bamboo People (Mitali Perkins)
November: The Sea in Winter (Christine Day)   
December: Great American Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions) (edited by Paul Negri)  
January: The Barren Grounds (David A. Robertson)   
February: Hidden Figures (Young Readers Edition) (Margot Lee Shetterly)
March: Dragon Hoops (Gene Luen Yang) 
April: Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots (Margarita Engle)
May: Fever 1793 (Laurie Halse Anderson)

Books are not included with purchase of the Boomerang. 

Book list contains Amazon affiliate links. Brave Writer receives compensation at no extra cost to you.

Support indie bookshops! Our friends at Here Wee Read have listed all of the 2021–2022 Brave Writer Dart, Arrow, Boomerang, and Slingshot books in the Here Wee Read bookshop! 

The Boomerang appears in our Middle School Writers Bundle and our High School Writers Bundle. 

Find single issues of the Boomerang here. 

Check out the Boomerang Book Club for students interested in online class discussion! 

All purchases of digital products are FINAL. No refunds.

Join us in funding Summer Camp Reading! Let’s bring great books to everyone! Learn more and donate here!

• Age/Format
• Sample
• Program Details

• Age: Ages 13–14 (around 7th–9th grades), or any Jr. high or high school student interested in the literature.

  Format: PDF files, downloadable to your computer or tablet. Permission to print also included.

  See https://thehomeschoolprintingcompany.com/ for good prices and quality printing.

• Download a Sample here

  The Boomerang Guidelines that explain how to use the Boomerang are included with each Boomerang purchase but are not included with the sample.

• What is the Boomerang?

  The Boomerang shows you, the homeschooling parent, how to bring language arts and literary analysis to life for your teens through living literature, copywork, and dictation.

  The Skinny

  • Each month, your teen will read the selected work (novel or short story).
  • Each week, your teen will examine a selected passage from that novel.
  • The weekly passages are accompanied by notes that detail spelling, punctuation, grammar, writer's craft, and literary analysis.
  • Each Boomerang provides "Think Piece" Questions that provoke deeper investigation of the novel’s themes, plot, and characters through discussion and freewriting.
  • Each month students are encouraged to select “Golden Lines”—their favorite passages from the novel, to keep in a special notebook.
  • Each Boomerang includes a Book Club Party Ideas section to help you celebrate the book.

  How do I use it?

  • Read the Guidelines (separate download, included with purchase) to understand how to make the most of your Boomerangs.
  • Read the first week’s passage and the accompanying notes. Investigate the passage with your teens, highlighting the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and literary devices.
  • Consider the “Inside Scoop” and “Beyond the Passage” sections for insights into literary analysis, author background, and cultural context.
  • Give your teens the opportunity to copy the passage or to write it from dictation.
  • Invite your teens to discuss and write about some of the Think Piece questions.
  • Select a “Golden Line” (favorite passage) and hold a book club party!

  How the Boomerang fits into a Complete Writing Program

  The Boomerang is one part of a three-part complete writing and language arts curriculum, meeting the need for instruction in writing mechanics and the reading and study of quality literature.

  A three-part Brave Writer writing program for ages 13–14 includes:

  1. A tool for mechanics and literature (punctuation, grammar, spelling, literary style).
  2. A tool that teaches the writing process for original writing (The Writer's Jungle and/or Help for High School).
  3. A tool that supplies writing projects (assignments) that makes use of mechanics and original writing skills (Faltering Ownership and/or online high school writing classes).