Off the screen. Onto the fridge.

Mark a story from 0 to 10 before anyone presses play. 10 means the story loves this and leaves you more able. 5 is the middle. 0 means it teaches the opposite.

1. 1.Industry. Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?
2. 2.Household. Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?
3. 3.Piety. Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?
4. 4.Courage. Does anyone risk something they would miss, or is it only noise?
5. 5.Republic. Does anyone owe a neighbor, a law, or a town — or is every person out for themselves?
6. 6.Temperance. Is appetite shown and then put down, or are you being trained to want the next one?
7. 7.Truth. Does a promise still hold, and does a lie come with a bill?
8. 8.Stewardship. What is left for the people who come after — a place, a craft, a name?

Add the eight marks. Divide by eight. Multiply by ten. That is your number.

80 and above is fit to keep. 65 is worth an evening and a conversation. 45 means watch it awake, or not at all. Under 45, it will not make you better.

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1. 1. Name the work out loud. A film, a show, a book. One, not a pile.
2. 2. Read the eight questions on the checklist. Do not start the story until someone can say them.
3. 3. Watch or read it together, or agree who will, and when it stops.
4. 4. Each person marks the eight measures alone. Five is the middle. Moving a mark is a claim.
5. 5. Say the number. Then say the measure you were hardest on, in one sentence.
6. 6. Only then open the desk’s review. The difference is the conversation, not a grade.
7. 7. Write one line for the hearth: what the house did, not what the internet thinks.
8. 8. Stop. Another episode is a different decision.

A score is not a blessing and not a ban. It is a desk’s answer, and then yours.

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Eighteen titles at 85 or above. A place to start, not a canon. Read the review before you promise the evening.

1. 1. The Holy Bible, King James Version (1611) — 100. The standard itself. Read it. The meter does not improve it.
2. 2. The Declaration of Independence (1776) — 93. A people stating why they are leaving a king. The sheet was heard in a yard, not kept as a private letter.
3. 3. Common Sense (1776) — 91. Plain words, written to be read aloud. The name stayed off the first printing because the charge was treason.
4. 4. Little House on the Prairie (1974) — 91. The standard, filmed. Work, a house, prayer, a town, and something left in the ground for the people after them.
5. 5. Poor Richard's Almanack (1732) — 91. Weather, planting, and a proverb. A tool kept the whole year.
6. 6. Robinson Crusoe (1719) — 91. The work is the glory. The lack of a house to go back to is the hole.
7. 7. The American Crisis (1776) — 91. Written to be read to men who were about to cross a river in the dark.
8. 8. The New England Primer (1680s) — 91. Memorized. The alphabet and a doctrine, in the same rhyme.
9. 9. The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) — 91. Every easy path is a trap. The book says so in plain pictures.
10. 10. A ballad broadside (1776) — 90. How a child learned the new words. He already knew the British melody.
11. 11. A grandfather's war (1763) — 90. No book. Who died, who held the farm, how the family got here.
12. 12. A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744) — 90. The first book meant as a child's pleasure. Morals are sewn on. They are lighter than the Primer.
13. 13. A penny chapbook (1776) — 90. The shelf children actually passed around. Short, pictured, cut down.
14. 14. A town's ghost stories (1776) — 90. The night's entertainment. Superstition was ordinary.
15. 15. Babes in the Wood (1595) — 90. Told so a child would not wander, and would not trust the stranger.
16. 16. Beauty and the Beast (1756) — 90. The one fairy tale here that scores like a novel. A promise is kept, and the sisters' greed is not the prize.
17. 17. Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack (1776) — 90. You met the war while you looked up the frost.
18. 18. Bluebeard (1697) — 90. The murders are the crime. The old tale is more interested in the woman who looked. That is the fault in the tale.

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Eight titles at 80 or above. A fall evening, not a canon. Read the review before you promise the room.

1. 1. Little House on the Prairie (1974) — 91. The standard, filmed. Work, a house, prayer, a town, and something left in the ground for the people after them.
2. 2. A Man for All Seasons (1966) — 89. Keep it. Silence, law, and a conscience that will not be managed.
3. 3. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) — 85. The household, the neighbor, the quiet no to a predator. Keep this one in the house.
4. 4. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) — 85. He kept a town and could not see it. The life was the staying.
5. 5. Cabrini (2024) — 83. A woman, a vow, and an institution she builds on purpose. Keep it.
6. 6. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024) — 83. A congregation that did the hard form of the sermon. Keep it, and count the cost.
7. 7. When Calls the Heart (2014) — 83. A town, a school, and a marriage that has to be lived. Put this on with children in the room.
8. 8. All Creatures Great and Small (2020) — 81. A house, a craft, and a village that still needs both. Put this on with the children.

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Stories that hold on faith and on a household. Sit with one. Then stop.

1. 1. The Holy Bible, King James Version (1611) — 100. The standard itself. Read it. The meter does not improve it.
2. 2. The Declaration of Independence (1776) — 93. A people stating why they are leaving a king. The sheet was heard in a yard, not kept as a private letter.
3. 3. Common Sense (1776) — 91. Plain words, written to be read aloud. The name stayed off the first printing because the charge was treason.
4. 4. Little House on the Prairie (1974) — 91. The standard, filmed. Work, a house, prayer, a town, and something left in the ground for the people after them.
5. 5. Poor Richard's Almanack (1732) — 91. Weather, planting, and a proverb. A tool kept the whole year.
6. 6. Robinson Crusoe (1719) — 91. The work is the glory. The lack of a house to go back to is the hole.
7. 7. The American Crisis (1776) — 91. Written to be read to men who were about to cross a river in the dark.
8. 8. The New England Primer (1680s) — 91. Memorized. The alphabet and a doctrine, in the same rhyme.

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Books at 80 or above. One at a time. The number is a place to start the argument, not the end of it.

1. 1. The Holy Bible, King James Version (1611) — 100. The standard itself. Read it. The meter does not improve it.
2. 2. The New England Primer (1680s) — 91. Memorized. The alphabet and a doctrine, in the same rhyme.
3. 3. The Hiding Place (1971) — 90. Read it as adults first. Then decide which child is old enough.
4. 4. Little House in the Big Woods (1932) — 88. The pattern of a house. Put it in a child's hands.
5. 5. Little Britches (1950) — 85. Hand it on. A father, a ranch, and a boy who is given real work.
6. 6. Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (1955) — 81. A book about a mind put to work. Rare, and worth it.
7. 7. Little Women (1868) — 80. Worth the evenings it takes. The moral is practiced, not announced.

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Title _______________   Date _______________

Who was in the room _______________

1. 1. Industry ____   Desk ____
2. 2. Household ____   Desk ____
3. 3. Piety ____   Desk ____
4. 4. Courage ____   Desk ____
5. 5. Republic ____   Desk ____
6. 6. Temperance ____   Desk ____
7. 7. Truth ____   Desk ____
8. 8. Stewardship ____   Desk ____

Our number ____   The desk ____

The row that split:

Keep this page. It is the house’s, not the site’s. livehistoric.org