Reflections

Prognosticating the 2018 Newberys

By Betsy Farquhar | Feb 12, 2018

We're posting our best guesses for the 2018 ALA Youth Media Awards just a half hour before the awards ceremony begins. And then I (Betsy) ...

Getting to Know Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943)

By Hayley Morell | Feb 7, 2018

"My dear Eric, Once upon a time there was a frog called Mr. Jeremy Fisher . . ." A day earlier, Beatrix Potter had written ...

2018 Newbery Buzz #4: One Last Word and I’m Just No Good at Rhyming

By Betsy Farquhar | Feb 2, 2018

Betsy, Megan, and Janie continue our Newbery Buzz discussions with One Last Word and I'm Just No Good At Rhyming, poetry books that are quite different from ...

2018 Reading Challenge Check-In: January

By Betsy Farquhar | Jan 31, 2018

Reading Challenge Check-In: January Well, readers, we're a month into year 2018. A month!?! It seems like a good time to take the pulse of ...

Welcome to Lizard Motel by Barbara Feinberg

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 20, 2018

Barbara Feinberg's memoir offers a fresh look at realistic children's fiction and how much literary suffering children should bear. Welcome to Lizard Motel: Children, Stories, ...

2018 Newbery Buzz #2: Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder

By Betsy Farquhar | Jan 18, 2018

We're back for our second Newbery Buzz discussion of 2019. Last week, Hayley and Janie discussed Tumble and Blue. This week, Hayley and I (Betsy) discuss Orphan ...

2018 Newbery Buzz #1: Tumble & Blue by Cassie Beasley

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 12, 2018

It’s that time of year again! The American Library Association Youth Media Awards will be announced on Monday, Feb. 12, including the coveted Newbery Medal. ...

Reading Goals for the New Year

By Betsy Farquhar | Jan 4, 2018

Reading Goals for the New Year It's that time of year, folks! Everyone is making resolutions and goals for the New Year. I used to ...

*Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt

By Betsy Farquhar | Dec 8, 2017

Honey for a Child's Heart was one of the first books advocating for building a Christian family culture around books. *Honey for a Child's Heart by ...

The Literary Nightstand

By Betsy Farquhar | Dec 8, 2017

The Literary Nightstand: Our Professional Reading The Literary Nightstand is a peek into what's on our professional nightstands. Most of us here at Redeemed Reader ...

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson: the Kids Discuss….

By Betsy Farquhar | Dec 5, 2017

Four middle grades kids discuss The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: what stands out in this funny, modern Christmas classic? The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara ...

Dame Agatha: Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None

By Betsy Farquhar | Nov 6, 2017

A Scene of Terror Sitting alone in the dark house, I gripped the book tightly, desperate to finish and petrified at the same time. Was ...

Sola Scriptura: The Bible is Pre-Eminent Among Books

By Betsy Farquhar | Oct 30, 2017

500th Anniversary of the Reformation Tomorrow is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's famous act: the nailing of his 95 Theses on the church door in ...

Reading Diana Wynne Jones: an Author Portrait

By Hayley Morell | Oct 19, 2017

You just finished a good book. Now what? Many book lovers can relate to this sad, unsatisfied feeling. But what if you banished that feeling, ...

Portrait of a Reader: The Adventurer

By Betsy Farquhar | Oct 13, 2017

Portrait of a Reader is a new feature in which we try to "unpack" a particular kind of reader. The portraits will overlap; most people will ...

On the Nightstand: One Family’s Current Reads

By Betsy Farquhar | Oct 5, 2017

"What are your kids reading these days, Betsy?" My friend and I were sitting at the park this week on a gorgeous afternoon while the ...

Labor Day Repost: Heart of a Shepherd

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 4, 2017

(Originally published on Labor Day 2012) Labor Day, according to Wikipedia, was born of the Management/Labor battles of the late 19th century--particularly the Pullman strike ...

Are Your Kids Reading-Ready for College?

By Janie Cheaney | Aug 19, 2017

Do you have a high school senior who plans on heading out to college But wait! Do you or your kids know what it takes ...

Wisdom & Wonder Week 6: Generosity and Love in Literature

By Betsy Farquhar | Jul 26, 2017

Betsy: It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of our Wisdom & Wonder Summer Reading Challenge! On a personal level, this has been a ...

Wisdom & Wonder Week 4: Which Path and With Whom?

By Hayley Morell | Jul 10, 2017

Welcome to Week 4 of Wisdom and Wonder! We hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July. Now, back to the reading challenge! For a ...

Responding to Correction: What does it look like in books?

By Megan Saben | Jun 28, 2017

This week the team discusses how characters respond to correction not only in our anchor books, but also in other literary or popular titles. In Wise ...

Wisdom & Wonder Week 3: Responding to Correction

By Megan Saben | Jun 24, 2017

Welcome to week 3 of our Wisdom & Wonder Summer Reading Challenge! In Week 1, we learned about turning to God and away from sin. ...

The Source of Wisdom: What does it look like in books?

By Betsy Farquhar | Jun 22, 2017

The Redeemed Reader Team is discussing books this week in light of our Wisdom & Wonder Week 2 Theme: God’s Word! In particular, we’re looking ...

The State of our Heart – Virtual Discussion

By Alysha | Jun 14, 2017

The Redeemed Reader Team is discussing books this week in light of our Wisdom & Wonder Week 1 Theme: Turning to God/Away from sin. We ...

Wisdom and Wonder: Linked Reads – Week 1

By Alysha | Jun 13, 2017

This week's theme: Turning to God and Away From Sin To further engage with the theme, here is a list of archived posts that we feel ...

Wisdom and Wonder: Week 1 – Turning Towards God and Away from Sin

By Alysha | Jun 12, 2017

Welcome to week 1 of our Wisdom & Wonder Summer Reading Challenge! Wisdom and Wonder Week 1: Turning to God and Away from Sin! This ...

Toward a Positive Multiculturalism in Children’s Books (and a Book List)

By Janie Cheaney | May 17, 2017

It’s no wonder classic children’s books feature characters with racist attitudes—the authors of those books also had some racist attitudes. We looked at the problem ...

Sad Dog Stories: They’re a Thing—and a Necessity

By Betsy Farquhar | May 15, 2017

Does the Dog Die? (The Saddest of Sad Dog Stories!) "Miss Wanda," I stage-whispered to the children's librarian across from me, "I need to know. Does the ...

Historical Racism in Children’s Books–What do we do?

By Janie Cheaney | May 10, 2017

The website Reading While White dedicates itself to issues involving the dreaded “-isms” in children’s literature: racism, anti-Semitism, ableism, classism, sexism, and more. A post ...

Peter Spier, Reissued

By Janie Cheaney | May 9, 2017

Yesterday we received the sad news that Peter Spier, illustrator of classic children's books, had passed away on April 27. Given his age (89) and ...

Unreal Feminism: Here We Are–But Who Are We?

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 18, 2017

The suffrage movement in the early 20th century was about giving women the vote. The feminist movement of the 1970s, beginning with Betty Friedan’s The ...

Musical Mondays and Theology Thursdays: How to Use Christian Resources with Kids

By Betsy Farquhar | Apr 10, 2017

We love to track down solid biblical resources for you to use with your families, Sunday School classrooms, and Christian school classrooms. Not only do ...

Don’t Take Yourself (or Your Reading) Too Seriously!

By Betsy Farquhar | Apr 1, 2017

Today, in my leisure reading, I came across some good "fifty cent" words: pandemonium, benefactors, stratosphere, maligned, facilitate, photons,... I also noticed some terrific literary ...

Beauty and the Beast Devotional # 5 – Love

By Alysha | Mar 31, 2017

This is the fifth devotional we've had on the key themes in Beauty and the Beast. To see links to previous three as well as ...

Cruel Beauty: a Redeemed Reader Discussion

By Alysha | Mar 30, 2017

Some of the staff here at Redeemed Reader decided to discuss Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge as it relates to the story of Beauty and ...

Till We Have Faces: a Redeemed Reader Discussion

By Megan Saben | Mar 29, 2017

Before you read Till We Have Faces, you must first know the myth. You can either read a picture book version or the one by ...

Beauty and the Beast – Devotional #4: Redemption

By Megan Saben | Mar 24, 2017

This is the fourth devotional we've had on the key themes in Beauty and the Beast. To see links to previous three as well as ...

To See or Not To See: The RR Team Reflects on the New Beauty and the Beast

By Betsy Farquhar | Mar 22, 2017

This discussion is part of our Beauty and the Beast Adventure this month. The text below reflects several ongoing discussions the Redeemed Reader team has had via ...

The Queen of Attolia: A Beauty and the Beast Discussion

By Hayley Morell | Mar 21, 2017

As part of our Beauty and the Beast Adventure, Megan, Betsy, and Hayley are discussing The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. Redeemed Reader's ...

Beauty and the Beast – Devotional #3

By Hayley Morell | Mar 17, 2017

Once upon a time there was beautiful girl who became a queen. . . . And her name was Esther. There's a definite fairytale quality ...

Every Falling Star: A Beauty and the Beast Discussion!

By Betsy Farquhar | Mar 15, 2017

Like our Newbery Buzz discussions, Janie and Betsy discuss Every Falling Star "virtually" in light of our Beauty and the Beast Adventure this month. We hope these discussions help ...

Beauty and the Beast – Devotional #2: the Beast

By Betsy Farquhar | Mar 10, 2017

See our first Beauty and the Beast Devotional if you missed it! This is part of our Beauty and the Beast Adventure which is focusing ...

Exploring Ugliness

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 9, 2017

As part of our “Beauty and the Beast” focus this month, our staff got together and brainstormed books and other resources (such as movies) that ...

Beauty and the Beast – Devotional #1

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 3, 2017

Me and My Mirror Is there anyone reading this who has never, in their lives, spent time staring into a mirror seeking out all the ...

Valentine’s Day 2017 – We’ve Been Here Before!

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 14, 2017

All of us here at RedeemedReader.com love a good romance, and over the years we've written about some of our favorites. Not all romance is ...

Straight Talk About the Birds and the Bees

By Betsy Farquhar | Feb 5, 2017

This is a review specifically for parents; librarians and teachers may benefit as well, but children should ask their parents first before reading further. This is also ...

Why Black History Month?

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 1, 2017

If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands ...

Teaching Discernment: Bad Words in Books

By Betsy Farquhar | Jan 30, 2017

True Story: We're getting in the car after a park date with our homeschool friends, and one of my 9-year-old sons says: Mom! We learned some ...

And the Winners Are . . . .

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 23, 2017

Last Friday, Janie and Betsy gave their best guesses as to which books the ALA would delight to honor in their annual Youth Media Awards. ...

2017 Newbery Buzz: Some Writer! and Snow White

By Betsy Farquhar | Jan 14, 2017

Historically—and overwhelmingly—the Newbery Award has graced the covers of fictional prose novels. And yet, even “back in the day,” there were some outliers. Nancy Willard’s A ...

Farewell to Richard Adams

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 13, 2017

The last week of the year was an unusually intense news cycle, with a presidential transition, annual wrap-ups, and two prominent celebrity deaths back to ...

2017 Newbery Buzz: Ghost and Booked

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 11, 2017

Janie: Last Friday, we discussed two middle grade novels that were filled with sadness. Today we turn to a couple of sports-related novels by authors ...

2017 Newbery Buzz: Pax and Wolf Hollow

By Betsy Farquhar | Jan 6, 2017

January is Newbery month—that is, when the American Library Association holds their annual winter conference, the highlight of which is the ALA Youth Media Awards. ...

“Just believe”–in Christmas!

By Janie Cheaney | Dec 22, 2016

Recently it struck me that in no other religion is faith so central as Christianity. Think about it: generally speaking, Buddhism stresses contemplation, Islam action, ...

Twelfth Night: Shakespeare’s Christmas Play

By Betsy Farquhar | Dec 12, 2016

Twelfth Night, or What You Will is not exactly a Christmas play, I'll admit. But "Twelfth Night" does refer to the 12th night of the ...

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is: Christmas Gifts!

By Betsy Farquhar | Nov 28, 2016

Upholding My Reputation I've written before about the reputation I must uphold each year with my nieces and nephews. And it's that time of year ...

Support Redeemed Reader!

By Betsy Farquhar | Nov 23, 2016

Dear Faithful Readers, Those of you who have been reading and interacting with Redeemed Reader for more than a year get a gold star ...

Should You Read Rick Riordan’s Latest: Magnus Chase?

By Alysha | Nov 23, 2016

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor Rick Riordan’s The Hammer of Thor is the second book in his Magnus Chase ...

Natalie Babbitt, 1932-2016, and The Search for Delicious

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 17, 2016

Somewhere amid the news of the last two weeks (pretty intense news cycle, I understand) came word that Natalie Babbitt had died of lung cancer ...

Church History with Tim Challies

By Hayley Morell | Oct 28, 2016

Today we are happy to bring you a virtual interview with pastor, author, and blogger extraordinaire —Tim Challies. Tim serves as a pastor at Grace ...

Getting to Know A. A. Milne (1882 – 1956)

By Hayley Morell | Oct 15, 2016

It began with a poem. A poem about a little boy saying his prayers. A. A. Milne gave it to his wife, and she mailed ...

The Virtual Nightstand

By Betsy Farquhar | Sep 16, 2016

In lieu of our former "Book Bits" and "Web Newbery" posts, we're going to share a bit more of our personal reading lives with you, ...

Talking about Books That Talk about Race

By Janie Cheaney | Jul 23, 2016

Not a "Newbery Buzz" post because these titles were published before 2016 and are already award winners! But, for similar posts in which Janie and Betsy ...

Reading Roald Dahl Redemptively: Two Thoughts

By Megan Saben | Jul 5, 2016

First posted in 2013. Summer is a great time for relaxing and reading of all kinds of fun books not usually assigned in literature class, ...

Ask a Librarian: Peter Pan

By Megan Saben | Jun 27, 2016

We love hearing from our readers! Ask-a-Librarian is an occasional feature in which we answer a reader’s email query. There are plenty of books we ...

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 28, 2016

The Michael J. Prinz medal is awarded every year by the ALA for excellence in YA literature. "Excellent," to the ALA, often means edgy, trendy, ...

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 16, 2016

Of all the charges hurled against Christianity in the modern age, one of the most potent is "paternalistic." Christianity, it's said, has kept women in ...

The 6 Risks of Reading Old Books

By Betsy Farquhar | Feb 29, 2016

I am a book list professional. I read, save, research, create, and share book lists. I own books of book lists. And I'm concerned with ...

Good Reading for Teens–Except for One Thing . . .

By Janie Cheaney | Feb 24, 2016

Lately I read two books for teens, one fiction and one nonfiction, that conformed to time-honored, even classic, storylines. The novel, A Step toward Falling, ...

Romance + Reading = Love

By Hayley Morell | Feb 12, 2016

Once Upon a Time... ... there was a little girl who loved stories and fairytales. She discovered Andrew Lang’s colored fairy books and read through them—pretty ...

One Reader’s 10 Most Memorable Books of 2015

By Betsy Farquhar | Jan 18, 2016

As a professional reviewer, book award committee member, teacher, and bibliophile, I read a lot of books in a given year. A. Lot. I recorded ...

The 2016 ALA Youth Media Awards–What happened??

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 13, 2016

As we were saying last Saturday . . . you just can’t predict what the Newbery committee is going to do. Trends have been toward ...

Caldecott Buzz and Possible Picks

By Megan Saben | Jan 9, 2016

Book award committees have such a delightfully difficult task. The ALA Caldecott awards will be announced, among others, on Monday, January 11, and there is ...

By Janie Cheaney | Jan 9, 2016

On Monday, the American Library Association will announce the winners of their annual Youth Media Awards. The oldest and most prominent of these is the ...

What Makes a GREAT Novel?

By Janie Cheaney | Dec 9, 2015

When was “The Novel” as a literary form invented? The answer is, it wasn’t. The type of long-form fiction we call a novel was not ...

By Alysha | Dec 4, 2015

One of the high school classes I teach is devoted to helping students become discerning readers. Modern young adult fiction can be a minefield of ...

By Betsy Farquhar | Dec 2, 2015

I'm all for diversity in books--after all, God's creation is full of so many different kinds of people and they are all created in His image. We ...

By Megan Saben | Nov 25, 2015

Alice in Wonderland turned 150 years old this year! Here are seven of the many reasons I believe Alice is worth celebrating with a tea ...

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 11, 2015

As a book reviewer, I have stars in my eyes. That is, I watch for stars when scanning book review journals, because they are an ...

By Alysha | Nov 6, 2015

As a teacher, I’ve had various conversations with parents about how to get their children engaged in reading. The flip side of that conversation comes ...

By Janie Cheaney | Nov 4, 2015

We live in the Age of Narrative. And increasingly, novels stop telling stories and become about story, gazing at themselves with calm adoration. This is ...

By Betsy Farquhar | Nov 2, 2015

Do Picture Books Retire? Petunia, that silly goose, is turning the ripe old age of 65 this year, the same age as my father-in-law who ...

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 29, 2015

Yesterday I made a distinction between “terror” stories and “horror” stories—the latter based squarely on our elemental fear of death, often with buckets of blood ...

Scary Stuff

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 28, 2015

In honor of the holiday this week that celebrates spooks and skeletons, here's a post from a few years ago. Everybody has their favorite C. ...

By Alysha | Oct 16, 2015

Five years ago I picked up a middle grade fantasy book called The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan and was hooked by the end of ...

By Janie Cheaney | Oct 14, 2015

I've been thinking a lot about movies lately--perhaps because my latest novel, published this month, is set in the early days of the silent film ...

Four Ways to Enjoy Fall Reading

By Hayley Morell | Oct 2, 2015

While summer is a nice time to read —fall is here. A season of chilly nights and hot cups of tea, fall brings the perfect ...

Laid-Back Homeschooling: a Word of Encouragement for the Year Ahead

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 9, 2015

I’m not quite ready to retire to a rocking chair in front of the general store, bending the ear of hapless passers-by: Yessir, it was ...

By Betsy Farquhar | Sep 3, 2015

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the closed doors of a book award committee's deliberations? How a group of people can, with confidence, ...

By Janie Cheaney | Sep 2, 2015

It’s not easy being selective, especially when perusing book titles for the honor of World Magazine Children’s Book of the Year. For last year’s pick, ...

By Janie Cheaney | Apr 28, 2015

In 2008, a middle-grade novel called Savvy swept numerous awards lists and was anointed with the silver medallion of Newbery runner-up. The first-time author, Ingrid ...

By Betsy Farquhar | Apr 13, 2015

A Childlike Attitude My friends, there is an enormous difference between the childish and the childlike. George MacDonald famously commented that he didn't write for children but for ...

By Betsy Farquhar | Apr 2, 2015

Examining School Reading Lists Emily wrote a marvelous series in the fall on the complications typicalhigh school reading lists might pose for Christians, sensitive students, ...

By Betsy Farquhar | Mar 20, 2015

Periodically, Janie and Betsy discuss great middle grades literature, trying to figure out what makes it so great. Today, the charming Penderwicks clan are held ...

By emily | Mar 14, 2015

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/195843489" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /] Thanks to Megan Saben, Betsy Farquhar, Kristen Eicher (producer!) and my daughter, Rebecca, for making this review possible! ...

This Thing Called Diversity

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 13, 2015

Book Expo America (BEA) is a big event in the publishing world—the biggest, in fact. It’s a hodgepodge of authors, industry professionals, book reviewers, and ...

By Betsy Farquhar | Mar 13, 2015

Why Cinderella? —a joint post from Betsy, Hayley, and Megan We at Redeemed Reader love a good fairy tale. Cinderella is perhaps the quintessential fairy tale ...

By Janie Cheaney | Mar 6, 2015

The American Library Association (ALA) stages a huge event every winter when it names the winners of its coveted John Newbery and Randolph Caldecott awards. ...

The Topography of Memory

By Betsy Farquhar | Mar 2, 2015

The Topography of Memory Over Christmas my family made a significant transition: we moved from East Tennessee to Central Washington. Some complicating factors meant we ...

How Long, O Lord? When Bibliotherapy Isn’t Enough

By Megan Saben | Feb 21, 2015

These are dark days. I received an email this week expressing familiar anguish over the haunting reports of 21 followers of Christ who were martyred ...