character values

In this digital world of ours, I can post this blog entry "on" Labor Day without having to do any work on Labor Day: I'm ...

Tea Rex, A Visitor for Bear, and The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig are lively variations on the traditional tea party. My ...

A gentle chapter book that explores family emotional issues with a big dose of furry love on the side. White Fur Flying by Patricia MacLachlan. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Last Thanksgiving, Janie and I had the privilege of speaking with Susan Hunt on the subject of encouraging thankfulness in kids...and in ourselves!  We thought ...

THE NATION: Sacrifice How can an unholy people approach a holy God?  Leviticus helped God's people answer that question many years ago, and even though ...

May B., by Caroline Starr Rose, Schwartz & Wade, 2012, 225 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, Ages 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 and up Bottom Line: ...

Gary Paulsen's classic survival novel Hatchet offers a realistic--as opposed to romantic-- view of nature and what it takes to survive in the wild. Hatchet ...

Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys.  Penguin/Philomel, 2011, 338 pages. Reading Level: Young Adults, ages 12-15 Maturity Level: 6 (ages 15-18) and up  June ...

A Nest for Celeste: A Story About Art, Inspiration, and the Meaning of Home by Henry Cole.  HarperCollins, 2010, 336 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, ...

I'm sitting in an upstairs bedroom as the smell of pumpkin pie wafts up the stairwell. Tomorrow the family will arrive, starting around noon: not ...

Last week, Janie and I had the privilege of speaking with Susan Hunt...and happily for you, we managed to tape our conversation!  For those of ...

Close to Famous, by Joan Bauer. Viking, 2011, 250 pages.  Reading Level: Middle Grades, 10-12 Recommended for: ages 11-13 Bottom Line: In this feel-good middle ...

Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer. Speak, 2005. 208 pages Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 12-16 Bottom Line: Good-hearted Jenna ...

*The Dragon’s Tooth (Ashtown Burials, Book One), by N. D. Wilson.  Random House, 2011, 482 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages ...

The Luck of the Buttons, by Anne Ylvisaker. Candlewick, 2011, 224 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages  8-10 Recommended for: ages 8-12 Bottom Line: The ...

*The Charlatan's Boy, by Jonathan Rogers.  WaterBrook Press, 2010, 305 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 and up Bottom Line: ...

Prom and Prejudice, by Elizabeth Eulberg.  Point (Scholastic), 2011, 227 pages.  Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 and up Bottom Line: ...

*The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg.  Clarion, 2011, 241 pages with author note. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages ...

Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Katherine Tegan Books (HarperCollins), 2011, 487 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 15-18 and up Bottom Line: ...

*Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword (graphic novel), by Barry Deutsch. Abrams (Amulet), 2010, 139 pp. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: Ages 8-10 ...

Beautiful: Truth's Found When Beauty's Lost, by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma.  Thomas Nelson, 2009, 272 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 and ...

Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book, by Nancy Rue.  Zondervan, 2010, 211 pages.  (Real Life series #1) Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ...

A Dog's Way Home, by Bobbie Pyron.  HarperCollins, 2011.  321 pp.  Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 Bottom line: When Abby ...

Peak by Roland Smith.  Harcourt: 2007, 246 pages.  Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 and up One-line summary: Fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello's ...

An 11-year-old boy flees revolutionary Cuba with his brothers and learns American enterprise in this vivid, fast-paced middle-grade historical novel. 90 Miles to Havana, by ...

The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001, 288.  Age/interest level 12-up. Reading Level: Teens/Young Adults Recommended for: Ages 15-18 Bottom line: ...

The Year Money Grew on Trees by Aaron Hawkins.  HMH, 2010. 301 pages Reading Level: Middle Grades, 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 Bottom Line: Middle-grade ...

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen. Random House (Wendy Lamb Books), 2007. 88 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Maturity Level: 4 (Ages 10-12) Bottom ...

In The King of Mulberry Street a 9-year-old Italian immigrant realizes the American dream in 1890s New York through a combination of luck, ingenuity, and ...

Sneaky Sheep is a light-hearted book about two silly sheep who go astray. The illustrations are worth the price of the book. *Sneaky Sheep by Chris ...