All Mockingbird and No Black Ships Before Dawn ~August 2019

Middle School Language Arts will begin this semester with one of the mysteries in my education: The Iliad. So I'm employing my first 'career ideology' -- teach only up to what grade you know. At 10 years old, I figured I was safe with 3rd grade math. So, I'm using that plan and sticking with what I believe will share the story of 'The Illiad,' and then a few poetic passages from the original transalations. These kids don't know how lucky they are! Dan Stevens is the most recent favorite narrator we'll listen to, and we'll be reading, Black Ships Before Dawn, by Rosemary Sutcliff. The story is simplified, a few of the more adult themes are toned down, but the epic is clear and readily available to a wider range of capabilities and literary foundations. I'm doing my best to keep up with the live stream today from Roman Roads Read Aloud, 'Homer's Iliad.' 
How did I get this far and not have read the 'Big 3,' Ancient Epics? 
Well, could it have any connection to a bit of a scattered highschool experience? Dad would apologize now, but the truth is, I think I got the better part. In highschool, I remember lying on our divan (the long formal sofa we inherited from Grandma Bassett,) and literally looking over my shoulder as I read To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. I remember when Scout was stumbling in the dark in her ham costume, all the while Mr. Ewell was stalking after she and Jem. Please, I read all night. 
I really don't remember reading that many books as a kid. But I do remember reading A Little Princess, by Francis Hodges Burnett. I imagined more than once what that must have been like, to live in an attic, cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Of course, I didn't have to imagine much. The year I read that, we lived in a farm house in Ohio. My brother, Drake, and I could see our breath in our bedrooms. I believe he actually scratched frost off the wall of an early morning. Dad, again, would say he had regrets, and I would say in reply, how I would have never learned to ice skate on a pond in sub-zero weather, at the horse farm across the street, had he not pursued his education in such a cold climate. I would have never had the the exact experience of sharing a library with amazing childhood friends, as well as a lunch table in highschool with my book buddies who read and munched our pizza and green bean lunches in the cafeteria. 
While my Dad was studying ancient Hebrew, I was learning about medieval history in Mrs. Shield's Honors World History class. I really don't know how I made it into that class, except my advisors felt sorry for me and thought I needed to stick with my smart friends. But Dad made a functioning catapult for with me, and I learned chainmail wasn't a folded middle school note shared with multiple friends. 
I love knowing a book by heart. I can 'book/chapter/verse' many a tale or saga. But the thrill of sharing a new-to-me-and-you book with a student-- *that* is exciting. Maybe one day, students in this class will dive into The Eagle of the Ninth or King Arthur  with a new eye for reading with an unknown story, remembering all the while  the Trojan Horse and reading  Black Ships Before Dawn, with crazy Mrs. Sherman. 
What I've found only at age 50+ ~~ 
'Reading is Posession.' 
Now I can't stop. And I have no plans to try.