Posts by Janie Cheaney
Bible Review: NIV Rock Solid Faith Study Bible for Teens
Rock Solid Faith introduces teens to the principles and characters of the Bible in a generally helpful way. Rock Solid Faith Study Bible for Teens. Zondervan, 2012, 1650 pages. Recommended for: ages 12-15 Rock Solid Faith is Zondervan’s “non-gendered” teen Bible, with standard study helps meant to help readers strengthen their faith. The book introductions…
Read MoreA Novel in Verse and Verse in a Novel
We’re rounding out our Poetry Month coverage with three books for middle-graders: Gone Fishing: a Novel in Verse, by Tamera Will Wissinger, illustrated by Matthew Cordell. Houghton Mifflin, 2013, 120 pages. Age/interest level: 6-up. The night before, Sam and his dad hunted night crawlers: Grass slick/ Worms thick/ tiptoe near and grab them quick. (This…
Read MoreHail and Farewell: Maurice Sendak
I first encountered the Latin phrase Ave Atque Vale in a historical novel whose appeal (the novel’s, that is) was almost entirely nostalgic. It means “hail and farewell,” a way of saluting the past while at the same time leaving it behind. A valedictory is a farewell address, and right about now high schools and…
Read MoreGood Old Fashioned Adventure
The False Prince (2012) and The Runaway King (2013), by Jennifer A. Nielson. Scholastic, about 350 pages each. Age/interest level: 10-up. When we first encounter the orphan known as Sage, he’s running full-tilt with a cleaver-waving butcher at his back and a stolen beef roast clutched in his arms. It seemed like a good idea…
Read MoreLoving Your Library
I’ll bet most of us have warm memories of the local library. I grew up in Dallas, where one of the many benefits of the big city was the library system. The local branch was great, but we also took advantage, on many Saturday mornings, of the main library downtown, easily reachable by bus. I…
Read MoreDestiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice
Destiny, Rewritten, by Kathryn Fitzmaurice. HarperCollins, 2013, 335 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-12 (especially girls) Bottom Line: Destiny, Rewritten offers middle-grade readers some intriguing questions about free will and predestination, with literary references thrown in. Emily Elizabeth Davis knows the destiny her mother has in mind for her—to be…
Read MoreA Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff
A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff. Philomel, 2013, 233 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-12 and up Bottom Line: A Tangle of Knots light-heartedly takes up for middle-schoolers the serious question of whether fate or free will control our lives. A little of both, maybe? The air was thick…
Read MoreThe Real Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle published the first Sherlock Holmes story in a British periodical in 1887, to moderate interest. Three novels and fifty-odd short stories later, the great detective’s creator killed him off in order to devote more time to other writing projects. But by then Holmes had become beloved of high and low alike, and…
Read MoreFinal Four (Plus One)
This post should have gone up during March Madness, but even if the NCAA tournament is over this weekend, the NBA has few months to run. And we have new basketball books, from the history of the game to the joy of playing! H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination, by Christopher Meyer. Edgemont, 2012,…
Read MoreBible Review: The Deep Blue Kids Bible
The Deep Blue Kids Bible (CEB), 2012, Abingdon Press, 1526 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: no one Bottom Line: The Deep Blue Kids Bible uses a questionable translation and supplements the text with too many features, some of them unhelpful. If you go Bible shopping at a Christian bookstore there’s a…
Read More*Bible Review: ESV Grow! Bible
*ESV Grow! Bible. Crossway, 2011, 1600 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-12 and up Bottom Line: The ESV Grow! Bible takes particular care to link the Old and New Testaments with its “Cross Connection” feature. This edition of the English Standard Version is available in a choice of colors and…
Read MoreBible Review: NLT Hands-on Bible
NLT Hands-on Bible, Tyndale for Kids, 2010, 1440 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: ages 8-10 Bottom Line: Though it leads off with some useful informational features, the text of the Hands-on Bible includes too much clutter and cartoon illustrations. Busy, busy, busy! It’s like a never-ending Vacation Bible School between two…
Read More*Bible Review: NKJV Early Readers Bible
*NKJV Early Readers Bible. Thomas Nelson, 2006, 1664 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: ages 8-14 and up Bottom Line: This New King James Version for young readers contains excellent, age-appropriate study helps in a sound translation. It’s attractive but not flashy: red-letter with 9-10 point font, two columns. There are no…
Read MoreBible Review: The One-Year Bible For Children
The One-Year Bible for Children by Gilbert Beers. Tyndale, 2001, 432 pages. Reading Level: Chapter Books, ages 6-8 Recommended for: ages 6-8 Bottom Line: Though not a complete Bible, and not a translation, the NLV One-Year Bible introduces beginning readers to the inductive method of Bible study by questions at the end of each reading.…
Read MoreBible Review: NIV Faithgirlz! Bible
NIV Faithgirlz! Bible. Zonderkidz, 2012, 1504 page. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-12 (especially girls!) Bottom Line: The Faithgirlz! Bible, geared to tween girls, includes some thoughtful devotional features, but takes an almost exclusively subjective approach to scripture. If the boys have one, the girls gotta have one, too. Faithgirlz! is…
Read MoreBible Review: NIV Boys Bible
NIV Boys’ Bible. Zonderkidz, 2012, 1504 pages. For ages 9-13. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-12 (obviously, boys) Bottom Line: The Boys Bible includes some good though standard features on the model of the NIV Adventure Bible, but tries a little too hard to pander to its audience. The Boys’ Bible…
Read More*Bible Review: ESV Children’s Bible
*ESV Children’s Bible. Crossway, 2008, 1648 pages. Reading level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10. Recommended for: ages 6-10 Bottom Line: The ESV contains excellent study helps, including over 200 full-color illustrations of exceptional quality and relevance. Geared toward a slightly young age group than the ESV Grow!, this Bible has verse and chapter numbers in red…
Read More*Bible Review: HCSB Illustrated Study Bible for Kids
*The HCSB Illustrated Study Bible for Kids. Boardman and Holman, 2007, 1104 pages. Recommended for: ages 7-12. Available in a variety of covers to appeal to both boys and girls, this children’s version of the HCSB is a good all-around study Bible for a wide age group, from beginning readers to ‘tweeners. In spite of…
Read MoreBible Review: The Kids’ Devotional Bible NIrV
Kids’ Devotional Bible, NIrV. Zonderkidz, 2006, 1664 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: ages 6-10 Bottom Line: The Kids’ Devotional Bible is one of the better Bibles available in the easy-reader NIrV translation, though it could be more visually appealing. The New International Readers’ Version (NIrV) is a scaled down NIV for…
Read MoreBible Review: Adventure Bible NIV
Adventure Bible, NIV. Zondervan, 2013 (latest edition), 1459 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: ages 6-12 Bottom Line: The Adventure Bible set an early standard for children’s Bibles that has been surpassed by other versions and editions, but it’s still useful for beginners encountering scripture for the first time. This is the…
Read MoreSorting Out the Children’s Bible Market
Yesterday’s post addressed the general subject of children’s Bibles and how to evaluate them for the particular needs of each child and family. But all that is rather abstract unless we have actual Bibles to evaluate. Today’s list is by no means exhaustive, but I’ve tried to find worthy examples of the good, the popular,…
Read More*Bible Review: The HCSB Illustrated Study Bible
*The HCSB Illustrated Study Bible for Kids. Boardman and Holman, 2007, 1104 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-14 Bottom Line: The HCSB Illustrated Study Bible for Kids offers a reliable translation and interesting study features appropriate to 4th-6th-graders. The Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) is one of the more recent…
Read MoreChoosing Your Child’s First REAL Bible: Some Considerations
Last Tuesday we looked at a range of new Bible storybooks and early reader “Bibles.” On Friday, we picked our way through the field of Bible translations and compared the most popular for accuracy and readability. Today we’re ready to get down to the meat and bones: just how to you choose a Bible for…
Read MoreAnd the Best Bible Translation Is . . . ?
Warning: Long post, no pictures. Deal! The word is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Heb. 4:12 No book has ever outsold it, no avowed readership exceeds it, no text…
Read MoreToddling into the Word: First Bible Storybooks and Early-Reader Bibles
What could be more appropriate for Holy Week than a survey of children’s Bibles and Bible storybooks? That’s what I foolishly thought, treatment but this project became a version of The Blob the deeper I waded into it. Amazon.com has over 100 pages under the heading “Children’s Bibles, medical ” though many of those are…
Read MoreThe Announcement
Good morning! It’s a beautiful day in the Ozarks: Spring is officially here, and Easter is just around the corner! (No, the picture was not touched up or taken last month–this is actually what it looks like outside my window, today, March 22, 2013.) I know everybody is anxious to hear who won our HUGE…
Read MoreSpring Break, Big Changes, and One Huge Book Giveaway!
****THIS BOOK GIVEAWAY IS OVER. BUT THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED! **** As Emily promised a couple of weeks ago, we have some exciting news to share about Redeemed Reader. First and most significantly, we’re thrilled to welcome Megan Saben and Betsy Farquhar to our staff, or masthead, or whatever you call the contributors to…
Read MoreFood for the Soul–and for the Reader
My mother-in-law once observed how different life would be if we didn’t have to eat. She might have been having a bad day, because in the context she meant different for the better: no shopping, penny-pinching, scrounging; no cooking (cooking was not her forte), no fighting with the kids over eating their liver—most of all,…
Read MoreNew Nonfiction: Titanic, Moonbird, and Bodyguards
These three books have nothing in common except their general category and the fact that the first two won honors in the ALA Youth Media awards for nonfiction this year. The fact that both Titanic and Moonbird won in two age categories–middle-grade readers and young adults–makes me wonder if there’s not that much quality nonfiction…
Read MoreThe Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus 3) by Rick Riordan
The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus #3), by Rick Riordan. Hyperion, 2012, 608 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Maturity Level: 4 (ages 11-12) and up Bottom line: The Camp Half-Blood gang is back with the Heroes of Olympus series, but the Percy Jackson franchise may be getting a little tiresome. After an…
Read MoreZeus, King of the Gods by George O’Connor
Zeus, King of the Gods, (#1 in The Olympians graphic-novel series) by George O’Connor. First Second, 2012, 80 pages. Reading Level: Picture books (graphic novel), ages 9-12 Maturity Level: 3 (ages 8-10) and up Bottom line: This series by a popular children’s illustrator is a great way to introduce middle-grade comic-book fans to the Olympian…
Read MoreThe Adventures of Achilles by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden
The Adventures of Achilles, by Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden, illustrated by Carole Henaff. Barefoot Books, 2012, 96 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages10-12 Maturity Level: 3 (10-12) and up Bottom line: This retelling of The Iliad, illustrated in the classic style. serves as an effective introduction to the story for middle graders, in spite…
Read MoreThe Hard Work of Growing Up
It’s what every child has to do, and they accomplish it with varying degrees of success. In a sense, “growing up” is the theme of every children’s book, either obviously or not so much. The best of them show the main character or characters changing in some significant way, usually through conflict. What the character…
Read MoreCake: Love, Chickens, and a Taste of Peculiar by Joyce Magnin
Cake: Love, Chickens and a Taste of Peculiar, by Joyce Magnin. Zonderkidz, 2013, 221 pages. Age/interest level: 8-14. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: ages 8-12 Bottom line: Wilma Sue, a foster child, learns the value of love through baking in this whimsical story with a Christian theme. When it’s time for Wilma…
Read MoreBible Review: KJV Kids’ Study Bible
KJV Kids’ Study Bible. Zonderkidz, 2001. 1600 pages Reading level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 (for study features) Recommended for: ages 8-12 Bottom Line: Child-friendly activities and line drawings help make the Authorized Version accessible for 4th-5th graders. The colorful Noah’s Ark cover (in the edition I reviewed) will appeal to the lower ages of this…
Read MoreBliss by Katherine Littlewood
Bliss, by Kathryn Littlewood. HarperCollins, 2012, 374 pages. Age/interest level: 10-14. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-14 Bottom Line: Bliss mixes fantasy elements with a likeable family and the art of baking, with fun but somewhat predictable results. We know from chapter one that the Bliss family is a little different. …
Read MoreThree for Black History Month
I know—Black History month just ended. I’m not a fan of segregated “histories”: in case you haven’t noticed, this is the first day of Women’s History Month and we’ll have a chance to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month beginning in mid-September, which overlaps with LGTB History month in October, which is also Filipino American History Month.…
Read MoreALA Awards: Newberys and Caldecotts, Splendors and Glooms
One month ago was “Oscar night for Librarians,” when the American Library Association announced their “best of” picks for children’s literature. We’ve given some space to reporting on some of these awards, while waiting for the winners I reserved at my local library to trickle in. The oldest and most coveted award is the Newbery,…
Read MoreThe Real George Washington
When did history get so complicated? Not too long ago, “The father of his country” was a monumental figure deserving nothing but praise. Now, depending on who you talk to or read, he’s either the “Indispensable Man” or a wealthy slave-owner (of the 1%, no less) who used his influence to his own advantage. History…
Read MoreWords and Pictures: a Talk with Doug TenNapel
Yesterday we reviewed two graphic novels by a rising star in the world of “comics” who also happens to be a Christian and a homeschooling dad. Doug TenNapel, California-born and bred, began his career as an animator and moved into video game design. In that world he’s probably best known as the creator of Earthworm…
Read MoreMetaphysics, Graphics-Style
For some folks, graphic novels are actually a discipline to be learned—their eyes don’t know where to go first and they tend to jump from word to word. It takes a little effort for them (okay–for me) to slow down and glean from the pictures. But we all know people, of the male persuasion particularly,…
Read MoreLooking for Love . . . in All the Weird Places
Since I first wrote about teen paranormal romance–the spark that became a blaze with the Twilight series and all its imitators–we’ve seen the entire Bella-Edward saga translated to film. Yesterday another big-screen treatment of human/inhuman love opened: Beautiful Creatures, based on a wildly popular YA series that somehow escaped my notice. I’ve tried to find…
Read MoreHappy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln
I’ve heard that aside from William Shakespeare, more books have been written about Abraham Lincoln than any other historical figure. That makes it difficult to come up with a fresh angle, but Lane Smith has succeeded, and Russell Freedman has at least written a readable history that opens up a few windows for fresh air.…
Read MoreFor Beginners: ALA Geisel Award Winners
The Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal (featuring a bas-relief of Dr. Seuss himself) is given by the American Library Association every year for outstanding books for beginning readers. They’re usually clever and engaging and loads more fun than Dick and Jane. Here are the picks for this year: Up! Tall! and High! by Ethan Long. Putnam,…
Read MoreLegends Told and Re-told
Robin Hood, by David Calcutt, illustrated by Graham Baker-Smith. Barefoot Books, 2012, 112 pages. Age/interest level: 9-up. Everyone knows—or do they?–how the hooded stranger showed up at Nottingham Fair and challenged the Sheriff’s men to an archery contest. He landed three arrows—whizz whizz whizz–in the black center of the target—according to some accounts, his second…
Read MoreLove in the Age of Roe
In our posts over the last two weeks, Emily and I have suggested that Roe v. Wade has changed America profoundly in the ways we think about sex, gender, and parenting. But how about love? That’s a word that doesn’t often figure in the discussion of Life vs. Choice or Our Bodies, Ourselves. But the…
Read MoreUnstoppable by Tim Green
A middle-grade boy’s football ambitions crash against a cancer diagnosis in this frank tale by NFL star Tim Green. Unstoppable, by Tim Green. HarperCollins, 2012, 352 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 12-15 It doesn’t seem like life could be any worse for Harrison Johnson, a kid too big for his…
Read MoreThe 2013 ALA Youth Media Awards: It’s the Bomb!
Only total kidlit geeks would do this: click the live webcast link on the American Library Association website and watch an hour of book geeks (I say that nicely, patient being one myself) announcing the winners of their Youth Media awards, while their peers clap, gasp, whistle, and cheer. Only a tiny slice of the…
Read MoreIdentity and Revolution, part 2
Last week we looked at some YA titles that celebrated the “coming out” of gay and lesbian characters. “Young Adult” has traditionally been the accepted age category for exploring these themes, but since homosexuality is considered a civil rights issue rather than a privacy issue like abortion, the dogma is bound to extend to middle-grade…
Read MoreThe Roe Effect
On Friday I wrote about the treatment of homosexuality in youth literature, a topic I’m not quite done with. We notice more novels that normalize homosexual behavior popping up on bookstore and library shelves, but there’s something about them that doesn’t get much comment. The quantity of titles doesn’t equal quantity of readers. There’s a…
Read MoreIdentity and Revolution, part 1
“We will triumph with our tongues. We own our lips—who is our master?” Psalm 12:4 We live in an age where reality can be easily disconnected from imagination, where pharmaceutical or electronic aids provide a back door for escaping real life when it gets too tough. It’s an age full of words—spoken, written, texted—that can…
Read MoreOn All Fronts: New Nonfiction of World War II
My sister, who serves at a docent at a prisoner-of-war museum in Texas, says that her most eager listeners are pre-teen and teenage boys. When she talks about the War in Europe, they know exactly what she’s talking about because they’ve landed on Normandy or outfoxed Rommel in their video games. The big battles and…
Read MoreGoing to the Dogs
Of all four-legged mammals, I estimate that dogs get the most exposure in fiction, with horses and mice tying for second and cats a distant third. I read somewhere that dogs are valued as companions only in countries influenced by western culture; elsewhere in the world they’re treated like . . . well, like dogs:…
Read MoreThe Wimpy Kid and His Imitators
Jeff Kinney currently sits at the top of a $550 million empire, and it all started with a web comic. When Kinney’s ambition to write a comic strip for syndication floundered on his limited art ability, he started posting a strip called “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” on FunBrain.com, the website arm of the educational…
Read MoreKids–Try This at Home
Got a novel idea? It’s easier than ever to get published, but if the imprint on the spine of your masterwork is Xlibris or iUniverse, don’t expect placement on the New York Times bestseller list. There are always exceptions, such as Christopher Paolini, a hardworking homeschooler who completed his first dragon novel (Eragon) at the…
Read MoreGrace and Law and Two Silver Candlesticks
I love musicals—always have, ever since my sister and I sang along to original cast recordings and movie soundtracks for Rogers & Hammerstein and Lerner & Lowe. The classic age of Broadway is considered to be roughly from Oklahoma! to Fiddler on the Roof, but the 1980s brought a cornucopia of all-out, lavishly-staged West End…
Read MorePicture Books for Sharing and Giving, Part Two
The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau, by Michelle Markel, Illustrated by Amanda Hall. Eardmanns, 2012, 32 pages. Age/interest level: 4-8 “Henri Rousseau wants to be an artist. Not a single person has ever told him he is talented. He’s a toll collector. He’s forty years old.” A more unlikely subject for exhibit fodder could hardly…
Read More16th Century Travels: Jepp and Will Sparrow
Jepp, Who Defied the Stars, by Katharine Marsh. Hyperion, 2012, 369 pages plus author note. Age/interest level: 12-up. Jepp’s diminutive size has always been a source of amusement and comment for the travelers who frequent his mother’s tavern in Astraveld, Holland, but she loves him and defends his dignity. So it’s a bit of a…
Read MorePicture Books for Sharing and Giving, Part One
A post for grandmas out there: when we go to the bookstore at this time of year to pick out something with no plastic in it, we’re certain to be bombarded with the latest movie-franchise offering or celebrity vanity-stoker. Better books are doubtless tucked away behind the splashy displays, but time is limited and who…
Read MoreOther Lives: Reading and Watching Anna Karenina
The latest movie version of Anna Karenina is not for family viewing, because it deals with “adult” themes more graphically than it needs to. The original novel deals with profoundly adult themes as well, in a profoundly adult way. It’s on every Great Classics list, which brands it as a novel that well-educated people are…
Read MoreA Cold Night in Boston
Two hundred and thirty-nine years ago this month, a band of New England Patriots (not the NFL team) disguised as Indians swarmed aboard three ships in the harbor and dumped a cargo of tea. It wasn’t the shot heard ’round the world, but the line from Boston Harbor to Lexington is pretty straight. A good…
Read MoreO Come, Emmanuel
Every year advent takes me by surprise–otherwise I would have posted this last week! Family advent readers come down from the shelves this time of year, and many of them are good for more than one go-round. As the children grow up, it’s good to look around for new advent books to suit their growing…
Read MoreThe Giver Concludes
Son, by Lois Lowry. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, 393 pages. Age/interest level: 12-up. Lois Lowry’s The Giver, published in 1993, has become an iconic title in the kidlit pantheon. Winner of the Newbery medal and countless other honors, devoured in community reads across the country, debated by 7th-graders nationwide, The Giver was dystopian before dystopian…
Read MoreSpunky Siblings
Brother-Sister duos are a staple in children’s publishing ever since the Bobbsey Twins—a way of stretching the appeal, I suppose. These new series try to do a little something extra: explore the past, introduce literary classics, or indulge in the joys of wordplay. The Treasure Chest series, by Ann Hood. Grossett & Dunlap, 2012, about…
Read MoreDragon Tale: Seraphina
There’s a grand slam (plus one) among children’s book reviewers: Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. All of these publications stick a star on their reviews of outstanding children’s books, but as tastes and opinions vary, new books that gather more than…
Read MoreThe Drowned Vault by N. D. Wilson
The Drowned Vault (Ashtown Burials #2) by N. D. Wilson. Random House, 2012, 447 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, 12-15 Recommended for: ages 12 and up Bottom Line: The Ashtown Burials series continues with Cyrus and Antigone Smith making ultimate choices to stand against the world. Installment two of The Ashtown Burials begins with Cyrus…
Read MoreOrigin by Jessica Khoury
Origin, by Jessica Khoury. Penguin, 2012, 393 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 16-up (please note: the recommended age is not the same as the reading level) Bottom Line: Origin sets out intriguing ethical questions in this story of genetic engineering, but it doesn’t quite carry through. Pia, born and raised…
Read MoreSolomon Kane, Puritan Avenger
We’re closing out Halloween week with something a little different. About two years ago, I began hearing of a new movie called Solomon Kane, based on a late-1930s pulp fiction series by Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian. Conan made a big splash on silver screen (at least the first time around), which…
Read MoreLit! – An Interview with Tony Reinke
Most of the readers of this blog would accept the title of bibliophile. But have you ever thought about your bibliophilosophy—why it exists, what it does for you, and how to manage it? Tony Reinke, currently a member of the staff at Desiring God Ministries, is a guy who’s spent so much time thinking about…
Read MoreQuiet Time For Kids – Part Two
Last week’s post ran so long I had to cut it short in order to attend to other business. But close readers may remember a promise I made to finish up the subject. Since posting our intentions, several of our readers have suggested other children’s devotional guides or related materials that we might want to…
Read MoreHand of Vengeance
Tomorrow we have a real treat for you: two Christian dads, one a pastor and one a teacher, who both happen to write books for young people. William Boekestein and Douglas Bond, together in one podcast, chat with Emily about the value of historical fiction, reading in the gospel light, and reading classics with your…
Read MoreQuiet Time for Kids
“Thy word have I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin . . .” (Ps. 119:11) More than anything, Christian parents want their children to treasure God’s word in their hearts, so it will be a guide and defense through the pitfalls of life. Starting them out right often includes a simplified…
Read MoreShopping for Bible Storybooks
In keeping with our home library emphasis this month, most of our readers would probably agree that the first items on our list would be Bibles, Bible Story books, and Bible References. But if you type in any of those categories in Amazon.com, be prepared for the deluge. How do you pick and choose among…
Read MoreBurdens of the Past
Seventy-three years ago, on September 1, German tanks rolled across the border of Poland and the conflict that soon became known as World War II officially began. The literature is vast, even for children. The weight is vast, too, with a level of destruction and death that we find hard to imagine. War stories aren’t…
Read MoreGod’s Time to Make a Change
I was alive during the Civil Rights struggles of the mid-50s and 60s, but wasn’t personally affected by them. So the history of those years can be a revelation, particularly in a recent nonfiction book for children: *We’ve Got a Job: the 1963 Birmingham Children’s March, by Cynthia Levinson. Peachtree, 2012, 160 pages + index…
Read MoreThe Long Truth of Short Stories
Non-writers, or writers who don’t do fiction, often have a misconception about fictional forms. Short stories are seen as an apprenticeship of sorts—you start out writing them, and then graduate to writing novels. It makes sense, but it’s totally untrue. Short- and long-form fiction (i.e., stories and novels) are different in form, not just length,…
Read MoreWhat Flannery O’Connor Can Tell Us About Teaching Literature
Near the beginning of her essay, “The Teaching of Literature” (in Mystery and Manners), Flannery O’Connor writes that fiction has no dearth of critics, because everyone considers himself an authority on fiction’s central subject. That is, life. So readers tend to be looking for something in particular when they pick up a novel, “and if…
Read MoreBefore the Boxcar
The Boxcar Children Beginning: the Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm, by Patricia MacLachlan. Whitman, 2012, 121 pages. Age/interest level: 7-10 The Boxcar Children have had a long run, from 1924 to the present, from nineteen titles by the original author to over a hundred by various other authors. The National Education Association, in a 2007…
Read MoreKeeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl
Keeping the Castle: a Tale of Romance, Riches, and Real Estate, by Patrice Kindl. Viking, 2012, 261 pages. Age/interest level: 13-up. Althea Crawley, age 17, acknowledges the universal truth that a man of fortune must be in want of a wife, and she’s an ideal candidate: beautiful, intelligent, and penniless. In the very first chapter…
Read MoreCrying Hard: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Another popular YA novel is soon to be a “Major Motion Picture,” opening next weekend. It’s not likely to be a blockbuster like Twilight or The Hunger Games, partly because the original book is 13 years old. I am not recommending either the book or the movie, but as a cultural indicator it might be…
Read MoreJust Because: a Roundup of New Picture Books
The picture book is alive and well, to judge by the way the publishing industry keeps pumping them out. Here are some of the more recent (and one more that’s not so recent) offerings, all recommended: Jonah’s Whale, by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Giuliano Ferri. Eerdmans, 2012, 32 pages. “God made Whale. God gave Whale…
Read MoreKids and 9/11
To our children it’s already history, but to us it seems like “only yesterday.” Too soon, really, to come to an informed conclusion about what it all meant and whether the response was justified or not. Or even whether it “changed America forever,” as every commentator claimed at the time. But it happened, we know…
Read MoreSurvival and Rescue
Rescue from certain destruction is the great theme of the Bible. When it happens in real life, it should remind us of how blessed we are, and what we all escaped . . . Last Airlift: a Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War, by Marsha Skrypuch. Pajama Press, 2011, 99 pages plus historical notes. Age/interest level:…
Read MoreThe Invasion of Fairyland
Tuesday’s post about “Twisting Mother Goose” was headed down an alley I didn’t have room to address. So today’s post springs off YA lit-blogger Georgia McBride’s offhand comment about the dark side of the “Disney stories,” and why they are never cited for their disturbing elements. I’m assuming she means fairy tales, and her mention…
Read MoreTwisting Mother Goose
We have something to look forward to this fall: a new publishing house called Month9Books which will specialize in fantasy fiction. First title, due in October, is Two and Twenty Dark Tales: Dark Retellings of Mother Goose Rhymes. Besides the annoying redundance, the title is an obvious rejoinder to that Wall Street Journal column by…
Read MoreLegends in their Own Minds
Captain Awesome (series), by Stan Kirby, Illustrated by George O’Connor. Little Simon, 2012, approx. 110 pages. Age/interest level: 5-7 According to many K-3 teachers I’ve talked to, the early reader market needs a little more attention, especially for boys. That’s a need Simon & Schuster is trying to fill with Captain Awesome, a series that…
Read MoreRocket Reads and Writes; Charlie Joe Does NOT
In keeping with our back-to-school focus: if you haven’t met little Rocket, you really should. As for Charlie Joe, well . . . How Rocket Learned to Read, by Tad Hills, Schwartz & Wade, 2010, 32 pp. Age/interest level: 4-7 Rocket is a loveable gray-and-white crewcut mutt who enjoys his doggy life—mostly chasing leaves and…
Read MoreCore Conundrum
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s back-to-school time. We will observe the season with curriculum-related posts this week and next. First, a look at the Core Curriculum State Standards that supposedly have nothing to do with the federal government . . . There are two kinds of cores: the kind that forms the center and…
Read MoreFacts of Life
Our 50 Shades of Gray discussion this week demonstrates how our sin nature turns God’s gifts into perversions. But sex is still a gift, and part of parental responsibility is teaching children to respect it as such. Christian publishing has acknowledged that need with “guides” for young people over the years, of varying quality and…
Read MoreSwash and Buckle: the Chronicles of Egg
Deadweather and Sunrise, by Geoff Rodkey. Putnam, 2012, 296 pages. Age/interest level: 10-up. Thirteen-year-old Egbert Masterson, or Egg as he will soon be called, is the youngest son of a glum and taciturn plantation owner on Deadweather Island. The product of the plantation is ugly fruit, and instead of slaves old Masterson hires pirates for…
Read MoreCatching Up with YA Fantasy
Readers of this blog may not believe me when I say I’m not a big fantasy fan. Then why so many fantasy reviews? Because that’s what’s hot, friends. I hear that the pendulum is about to swing back to realistic fiction, but I’ll believe it when I see it. The good news is that some…
Read MoreRemarkable Happenings
Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley. Dial, 2012, 325 pp. Age/interest level: 9-13 Jane is remarkable in her town for being unremarkable. In fact, she and her grandpa are the only people she knows who aren’t world famous or incredibly gifted. But “everybody is so busy being talented, or special, or gifted, or wonderful at something…
Read MoreBible Reading Challenge, Week 28
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Read MoreHoping Against Hope: Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt
Doug Swietek finds a new life in his new town, despite his boorish father. Perfect for fans of The Wednesday Wars. Okay for Now, by Gary Schmidt. Clarion, 2011, 368 pages. Okay For Now: Featuring Holling Hoodhood’s friend Doug Swietek Gary Schmidt’s Newbery-honor-winning The Wednesday Wars featured 13-year-old Holling Hoodhood, a child of the mid-1960s…
Read MoreThe Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy
The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy (drawings by Todd Harris). HarperCollins, 2012, 436 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-14 (especially boys) Bottom Line: A Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom offers a slightly snarky sendup of some beloved fairy-tale characters for middle-grade readers. First, we need…
Read MoreTuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
Tuesdays at the Castle, by Jessica Day George. Bloomsbury, 2012, 225 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12. Recommended for: Ages 8-14 Whenever Castle Glower became bored, it would grow a new room or two. The castle has a mind of its own, which can be frustrating when you want to redecorate. But it’s extremely…
Read MoreDystopia, Junior
Dystopian fiction for middle-grades isn’t new: Lois Lowry’s The Giver is a classic of the genre. The success of The Hunger Games means similar titles for younger ages would be showing up soon. These two are good examples, even though each comes with a little twist–the first stirs in a generous measure of magic, and…
Read MoreHard Science
God particle, Higgs boson—it’s been news since Independence Day (no relation to said holiday) and most of us scratch our heads. It’s too hot to put our brains in gear! But discovery has a way of grinding on, whatever the season, and every time some big news in physics pops up, the religious skeptics pop…
Read MoreWe Hold These Truths
“If men were angels,” wrote James Madison in The Federalist #51, “government would not be necessary.” While understanding what Madison meant, he wasn’t quite accurate. Even angels are governed. Government was established before the fall, not after (see Genesis 1:28), and if human history proves anything, it proves that humans tend to order themselves whenever…
Read MoreAmerican Originals
Those delegates to the Second Continental Convention probably had no idea what they were creating when they signed a certain document back in July of 1776, but the American dreams have come true in unexpected ways ever since. Here’s a roundup of recent picture books on the varieties of American experience: Write On, Mercy! The…
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