For homeschool families
A companion for living books
If your curriculum is built on whole books rather than textbooks, this is the library you already use: 111 classics, complete and unabridged, with a companion in the margins that discusses each chapter with the reader.
Narration, in the margins
Charlotte Mason’s method asks the reader to tell back what they’ve read, in their own words. The margin companion works the same way: your student reads the chapter, then talks it through, asks what puzzled them, and puts their own account of it into words. It never summarises the book so they can skip it. The reading always comes first.
Whole books, not extracts
Every text is complete and in the public domain: Austen, Dickens, Brontë, Stevenson, Alcott, Shakespeare, and the rest of the canon that living-books curricula draw on. Chapter questions and private notes stay with the book, so a term’s reading builds into a record of what your student thought, not a pile of worksheets.
The practical part
A free account includes 3 books and 20 margin conversations a month, with no card details. Paid plans open the whole library from $4 a month, and there’s a one-off lifetime option if you’d rather not add another subscription.
One honest note: the site is designed for readers aged 13 and up. For younger children, the free study guides still make good preparation for your own read-alouds.
Reading with a co-op
If several families in your co-op read the same books together and you’d like a shared arrangement, write to us and we’ll work something out.
support@chatyourbook.com