Wisdom & Wonder Week [1] Booklist:

Weekly Theme: Turning towards God and Away from Sin

Wise-Up #1 (Real Wise Man) and #2 (Heart of the Problem); NavPress #1-#2 (Wisdom’s Benefits, parts 1 and 2)

Each of these books below ties in with this week’s theme. Pick and choose from what’s available at your local library and what suits your family’s interests.

Additional Proverbs to Read and Think About

3:5  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
15:33  The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
23:17  Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.
28:26  Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

Ages 0-10
Picture books, easy readers, chapter books, read alouds that work for this age group

• Jasper John Dooley, You’re in Trouble by Caroline Adderson (Kids Can Press, 2015). Chapter book. Jasper John Dooley does something he knows isn’t right, but he just can’t help it… or can he? 
• The Tanglewoods’ Secret by Patricia M. St. John.(Moody Publishers; Reissue edition July 1, 2001). A tender story of a brother and a sister who befriend a local boy and learn about the Good Shepherd along the way. Note: a child dies at the end, but it is handled well and in light of the gospel.
• The Golden Plate by Bernadette Watts (NorthSouth, 2014). Picture book. A young girl “borrows” a special doll house plate only to experience remorse and repentance.
• The Biggest Story by Kevin deYoung (Crossway, 2015).  Kevin deYoung sets the table for a study of God’s wisdom by taking readers through the “big story” of God’s great love and redemptive plan.   
• Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd Jones (Zonderkidz, 2012).  To quote from our review, the purpose of this devotional-style book is “to whet [children’s] appetite for thinking God’s thoughts after Him, and to help them apply the balm of the gospel to their own lives in fresh ways, day by day.”
• Jonah’s Whale by Eileen Spinelli (Eerdmans, 2012).  We all know the story of how Jonah tried to run away from God, but this story takes the whale’s point of view!  His creatures obey him–shouldn’t we?

Ages 8-14
Children’s novels, middle-grade novels, sophisticated picture books; note age range if a book is not appropriate for younger half and/or too “tame” for older.

• Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim’s Progress by Oliver Hunkin (Eerdmans, 1985).  (or other Pilgrim’s Progress version). Terrific picture book version of Pilgrim’s Progress that showcases Bunyan’s original word.
• Making the Team by Perry and Stephanie Moore (Lift Every Voice Books, 2011).  A Christian fiction chapter book series in which a young boy must reckon with his own bad attitude about his dad being the principal at his school and his parents’ recent separation.
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis (HarperCollins; Reprint edition (July 1994). Eustace’s experience as a dragon is a classic metaphor for the condition of our own heart.
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (HarperCollins; Reprint edition (January 2, 2008). Aslan is a picture of the “real” wise man in his wise words to the children and his sacrificial act on their behalf.

Ages 12 and up

• Secret Thoughts of a Reluctant Convert by Rosaria Butterfield (Crown and Covenant, 2012).  A former liberal lesbian college professor recounts how she turned away from sin and toward God.
• Unbroken (Young Adult Adaptation) by Laura Hillenbrand (Delacorte 2014).  The amazing true story of Louis Zamperini’s early Olympic success, World War II ordeal as a POW, and eventual coming to Christ.
• Throwing Strikes: My Quest for Truth and the Perfect Knuckleball by R. A. Dickey. (Dial, 2013). (autobiography) Dickey’s quest for truth leads him to Christ and the Bible, but it’s a rough road all the way from childhood, with many ups and downs.

*Images taken from Amazon.com