Brodie, Laura. Love in a Time of Homeschooling: A Mother and Daughter’s Uncommon Year. Harper: HarperCollins. Apr. 2010. c.272p. ISBN 978-0-06-170646-2. $24.99. ED. Copyright © 2010 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

In this memoir, derived from an article that appeared in Brain, Child magazine, Brodie (Breaking Out: VMI and the Coming of Women) explores the year she spent homeschooling her daughter Julia. Writing for parents interested in short-term or supplemental homeschooling, Brodie lists benefits of this method, including increased family quality time and customized education on subjects sometimes overlooked by standardized tests. She also explains the day-to-day realities of short-term homeschooling–what she discovered, what worked, what didn’t, and why. Such case studies are not available in other resources in the field; books on homeschooling are typically designed for long-term students and don’t always include details of how homeschooling impacts family relationships. Brodie references a few of these books, as well as other how-to resources in her bibliography. VERDICT Although this memoir fills a niche, Brodie’s story reads better as a short article than a full-length book. Public libraries with communities of short-term homeschoolers may find it useful.