The Angel Orphan: Charlotte Mason Finds Her Way Home by Leah Boden

The Angel Orphan introduces kids to the life and work of Charlotte Mason in this volume of the Tales of Boldness and Faith Series.

The Angel Orphan: Charlotte Mason Finds Her Way Home by Leah Boden. Christian Focus, 2009. 168 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended For: ages 10-12

Charlotte Mason was a British educator at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. Her methods are still followed today by both homeschool families and traditional schools. She’s perhaps most well known for her emphases on “living books” and “nature study” by those outside the Charlotte Mason circles, but her views on education and the child extend far more broadly.

Very few biographies of Charlotte exist, although that may change as her educational philosophy is undergoing a bit of a revival; to my knowledge, though, there is no other biography of Charlotte for young readers. Leah Boden herself is a champion of Miss Mason’s methods and educated her own children following Mason’s principles. Thus, she is an excellent candidate to write this (first?) biography of Mason for children.

Boden begins Charlotte’s story with her childhood. We see how quickly Charlotte took to school, and reading in particular. She also quickly took to education as a vocation, teaching other young students at quite a young age. Both of her parents died when she was a young woman, barely begun in her teaching career. Her friends rallied around her, and she pursued her training.

Eventually, Charlotte settled at a place called Ambleside, educating young people and training others to do so according to her thoughtful principles. She never married but devoted herself to her work and her students. Charlotte’s faith undergirded her life and her approach to education, and Boden tries to draw this out.

As with the other Tales of Boldness and Faith, this is a “fictionalized biography.” Boden writes, “it mixes historical facts with imaginative storytelling to bring a real person’s story to life.” In the sense that Boden brings to life Charlotte’s world, she succeeds admirably. Readers gain a real sense of where Charlotte grew up and lived, what the time period was like, and how she was a real person from a real time and place. Where fictionalized biographies struggle is ascertaining what was factual and what was supposed about Charlotte’s own feelings and thoughts. Thankfully, we have a wealth of Charlotte’s own writing from which to draw, and, since I have read much of her work, it seems that Boden’s portrayal of Charlotte is consistent with the way Charlotte’s own writing portrays herself.

Bottom Line: This will make for an interesting read for students interested in a future teaching career or who have been educated by Mason’s methods.

Related Reading From Redeemed Reader

• A Review: John Bunyan – a biography of the author of Pilgrim’s Progress for this same age group
• A Review: Bright Stars of Black British History – more British history that’s well-told
• A Resource: Niche Nonfiction for Teens – a roundup of titles that exemplify Charlotte Mason’s idea of “living books”

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