Book Reviews

Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski

By Betsy Farquhar | Apr 8, 2013

Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. Houghton Mifflin, 2009. 32 pages. Reading Level: Picture Books, ages ...

Waxing Poetic: a pop quiz and some homework from the teacher

By Betsy Farquhar | Apr 8, 2013

It's National Poetry Month! Who cares, right? Well, YOU should care. Not because it's "National Poetry Month," per se, but because poetry is worth enjoying ...

Poetry Contest and Challenge for National Poetry Month!

By Betsy Farquhar | Apr 6, 2013

April is National Poetry Month, and we here at Redeemed Reader love to be in on any literary action. Therefore, Megan and I are sponsoring ...

Final Four (Plus One)

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 5, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

*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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

*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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

*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, ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

*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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

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 ...

Sorting Out the Children’s Bible Market

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 3, 2013

*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: ...

Choosing Your Child’s First REAL Bible: Some Considerations

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 2, 2013

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 ...

*Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

By Megan Saben | Apr 1, 2013

Tops and Bottoms is a clever folktale that illustrates the wisdom of diligence and warning against laziness in the book of Proverbs. *Tops and Bottoms ...

*My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza

By Megan Saben | Apr 1, 2013

My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza. Puffin, 2005. 32 pages. Reading Level: Picture Books, ages 4-8 When a fat pig shows up at a hungry ...

Proverbs, Tricksters and Fools

By Megan Saben | Apr 1, 2013

The book of Proverbs is full of instructions for the simple to obtain wisdom and avoid disaster. Stories about tricksters demonstrate common-grace examples of using ...

*The Gardener by Sarah Stewart and David Small

By Betsy Farquhar | Mar 27, 2013

Lydia shares her efforts to bring beauty to the world around her in this epistolary picture book. *The Gardener by Sarah Stewart and David Small. ...

Toddling into the Word: First Bible Storybooks and Early-Reader Bibles

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 26, 2013

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 ...

Easter Picks from the New Crew

By emily | Mar 21, 2013

We thought we'd kick off our new partnership with Megan and Betsy with a few Easter book recommendations. (If you missed their introduction, read about ...

Food for the Soul–and for the Reader

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 15, 2013

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 ...

New Nonfiction: Titanic, Moonbird, and Bodyguards

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 12, 2013

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 ...

The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus 3) by Rick Riordan

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 8, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 8, 2013

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), ...

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 8, 2013

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 ...

Classics for Kids: The Greek and Romans

By emily | Mar 7, 2013

Introduction With the popularity of Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series , kids' books containing themes and allusions to Greek and Roman mythology and culture ...

The Hard Work of Growing Up

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 5, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 5, 2013

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 ...

Ancient History: Mara, Daughter of the Nile

By emily | Mar 4, 2013

This week, we'll be looking at several books that deal with ancient history--including Greek and Roman culture. Toward that end, I asked our intern, Hayley ...

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 3, 2013

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 3, 2013

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 ...

By emily | Mar 3, 2013

*Greek Myths by Marcia Williams. Candlewick, 2011. Ages 4-up. Reading Level: Picture Books, Ages 4-8, Ages 8-10, Ages 10-12 Marcia Williams' Greek Myths is a ...

Three for Black History Month

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 1, 2013

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 ...

ALA Awards: Newberys and Caldecotts, Splendors and Glooms

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 26, 2013

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 ...

The Real George Washington

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 21, 2013

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 ...

Words and Pictures: a Talk with Doug TenNapel

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 20, 2013

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 ...

Metaphysics, Graphics-Style

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 19, 2013

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 ...

Looking for Love . . . in All the Weird Places

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 15, 2013

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 ...

What is Virtuous Romance? A Discussion with Gina Dalfonzo and Rea Berg

By emily | Feb 13, 2013

What is Virtuous Romance? Tonight at dinner, my husband, two daughters and I had our first conversation about...boys. They had curled up with daddy on ...

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 12, 2013

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 ...

For Beginners: ALA Geisel Award Winners

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 8, 2013

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 ...

Wholehearted Romance: Living Book Library Picks

By emily | Feb 7, 2013

Many of you may remember our interview last fall with Liz and Emily, proprietors of the Living Books Library website. They were kind enough to ...

Legends Told and Re-told

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 5, 2013

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 ...

Love in the Age of Roe

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 1, 2013

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 ...

Unstoppable by Tim Green

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 31, 2013

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, ...

Valentine Books for Little Ones

By emily | Jan 28, 2013

VALENTINE'S DAY PRESENTS With Valentine's Day creeping up on us, I thought I'd throw out a few of my favorite Valentine books for the little ...

Identity and Revolution, part 2

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 25, 2013

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 ...

Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

By emily | Jan 24, 2013

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. Crown and Covenant, 2012. 154 pgs. An Anomaly In the 1990's, Rosaria Butterfield was ...

The Roe Effect

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 22, 2013

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 ...

Identity and Revolution, part 1

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 18, 2013

“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 ...

Gabrielle Douglas: Grace, Gold, and (God’s) Glory

By emily | Jan 17, 2013

Into the Spotlight Sixteen-year-old Gabrielle Douglas's jaw-dropping performance in the women's all-around gymnastics competition, just edging out her closest Russian competitor to win gold, was ...

On All Fronts: New Nonfiction of World War II

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 15, 2013

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 ...

Going to the Dogs

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 11, 2013

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 ...

The Wimpy Kid and His Imitators

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 8, 2013

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 ...

Kids–Try This at Home

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 4, 2013

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, ...

Grace and Law and Two Silver Candlesticks

By Janie Cheaney | Dec 21, 2012

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 ...

A Very LOGOS and Parnassus Christmas, Part Two

By emily | Dec 17, 2012

If you missed it, Part One of this series detailed my trip to a fantastic Nashville bookstore, Logos Bookstore. Today, I follow up that Christian ...

Picture Books for Sharing and Giving, Part Two

By Janie Cheaney | Dec 15, 2012

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 ...

16th Century Travels: Jepp and Will Sparrow

By Janie Cheaney | Dec 14, 2012

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 ...

Picture Books for Sharing and Giving, Part One

By Janie Cheaney | Dec 10, 2012

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 ...

Other Lives: Reading and Watching Anna Karenina

By Janie Cheaney | Dec 7, 2012

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 ...

A Very LOGOS & Parnassus Christmas, Part One

By emily | Dec 6, 2012

One Hip Town. Two Bookstores. And Lots of Great Books for Kids! Here in Nashville, we have at least two exceptional bookstores: Logos Bookstore and ...

A Cold Night in Boston

By Janie Cheaney | Dec 4, 2012

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 ...

Hobbit Read Along, Week 5: The One True Myth

By emily | Dec 3, 2012

Other Hobbit Read Along posts: 1) Introduction, 2) Week One, 2) Week Two, 3) Week Three, 4) Week Four, 6) Finale, pt 1: Andrew Peterson's ...

O Come, Emmanuel

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 30, 2012

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 ...

The Giver Concludes

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 27, 2012

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 ...

Hobbit Read Along, Week 4: How to Make Hobbit Feet and More!

By emily | Nov 26, 2012

Now that the turkey feathers have settled, it's time to get back to The Hobbit! In case you're running behind, here's a recap: 1) Introduction, ...

Spunky Siblings

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 16, 2012

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 ...

Dragon Tale: Seraphina

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 9, 2012

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, ...

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 6, 2012

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 ...

Origin by Jessica Khoury

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 6, 2012

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 ...

Solomon Kane, Puritan Avenger

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 2, 2012

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 ...

Quiet Time For Kids – Part Two

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 26, 2012

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 ...

The History of Faith: Wiliam Boekestein’s and Simonetta Carr’s New Books for Kids

By emily | Oct 25, 2012

This week in our library month theme, Janie took us back to the 8th century in a review of Hand of Vengeance by Douglas Bond. ...

Hand of Vengeance

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 23, 2012

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 ...

Hobbits, Hot Chocolate, & The Bookshelf Giveaway

By emily | Oct 22, 2012

The Hobbit Read Along Two weeks from today on Monday, November 5th, our Great Hobbit Read Along Adventure begins! We'll cover two or three chapters ...

Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing: Savoring Sally Lloyd Jones’ New Book

By emily | Oct 20, 2012

This October, the team that brought you The Jesus Storybook Bible released a unique new book, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing. At 224 pages, ...

Quiet Time for Kids

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 19, 2012

“Thy word have I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin . . .” (Ps. 119:11) More than anything, Christian parents want ...

Shopping for Bible Storybooks

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 17, 2012

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 ...

Burdens of the Past

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 9, 2012

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 ...

God’s Time to Make a Change

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 2, 2012

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 ...

Flannery O’Connor & The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Book Review

By emily | Sep 28, 2012

Our book reviewer today is Autumn, one of our current interns here at Redeemedreader.com. She is a sophomore at a small liberal arts college here ...

Before the Boxcar

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 21, 2012

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 ...

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 17, 2012

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, ...

Crying Hard: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 14, 2012

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 ...

Just Because: a Roundup of New Picture Books

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 11, 2012

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 ...

Kids and 9/11

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 7, 2012

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 ...

Dangerous Journey: Shepherding A Child’s Imagination

By emily | Sep 6, 2012

Pilgrim's Progress Party? Next week, I've been asked to lead a Pilgrim's Progress event at a church in South Carolina. One of our devoted readers ...

Survival and Rescue

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 4, 2012

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 ...

The Invasion of Fairyland

By Janie Cheaney | Aug 31, 2012

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 ...

By emily | Aug 30, 2012

A Few Recommendations Last year Janie and I put together a post on football books for kids and young adults, Tim Tebow to Justin Tuck: ...

By Janie Cheaney | Aug 28, 2012

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Aug 24, 2012

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 ...

By Janie Cheaney | Aug 21, 2012

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 ...

By emily | Aug 16, 2012

We've already covered a lot of ground on the Fifty Shades trilogy by E. L. James. We interviewed Tim Challies on the theology of pornography, ...

By Janie Cheaney | Aug 10, 2012

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 ...

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