When Laura Brodie decides to homeschool her eldest daughter, her husband isn't the only one to cast her a wary glance. Countless friends and relatives question Brodie's sanity, but, after years of watching her eldest daughter struggle in the rigid public school system, she knows Julia needs a break from the uninspired and overcrowded routine threatening to drag her into depression. "One Good Year" is a lyrical memoir that recounts the battles and joys that emerge between a mother and daughter when they embark upon a year of homeschooling; steeped in the colors and characters of a small Virginia town, Laura and Julia's story deals in human foibles as much as human potential, describing love and anger along with reading and math. When many think of homeschooling, they envision a fundamentalist Christian mom sitting at her kitchen table, teaching creationism alongside algebra, or a family of bohemian unschoolers, tending a vegetable garden with fertilizer. But today, home education has taken hold among America's mainstream, with more and more parents turning to homeschooling as an attractive solution for short-term educational problems.
As homeschooling gains legitimacy, Brodie offers once-reluctant parents a do-it-yourself solution to overcrowded public classrooms and expensive private schools. While most of us consider even one snow day a particular form of parental hell, Brodie embraced the challenge to do what traditional education could not: give her daughter a sabbatical to explore, learn, create, and grow-a year of independent research and writing to rejuvenate Julia's love of learning. It was anything but easy, but through the laughter and tears (and, of course, yelling), they forged an invaluable bond that will undoubtedly last a lifetime.