Teen/YA
Hattie Ever After: A Review
By emily |
Today, I'm happy to welcome our current intern,Hayley Schoeppler, again. You guys may recall that she did a review of Mara, Daughter of the Nile ...
Read More Gifts for Grads: Our Picks
By Janie Cheaney |
For a parent, there’s nothing scarier than sending a high school graduate out into the world—and in fact, the world looks pretty scary these days. ...
Read More No Battlefield Like Home
By Janie Cheaney |
Chasing Jupiter, by Rachel Coker. Zondervan, 2012, 221 pages. Age/interest level: 12-up. Our story begins in small-town Georgia, 1969—but 16-year-old Scarlett’s world seems even smaller ...
Read More Interview with Judah Ben: Kai’Ro, Christian Rap and the Progress of Urban Pilgrims
By emily |
Introduction There are very few modern books that I see as really significant. But I see the Kai' Ro series--an urban interpretation of Pilgrim's Progress--by ...
Read More Bible Review: NIV Rock Solid Faith Study Bible for Teens
By Janie Cheaney |
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. ...
Read More Shark Girl: Drama in Real Life (and in fiction)
By Betsy Farquhar |
This post has been planned for a couple of weeks, but I wanted to acknowledge a potentially sensitive connection with the victims of the recent ...
Read More Good Old Fashioned Adventure
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Poetry Anthologies
By Megan Saben |
A good poetry anthology is like going to a friend's house with a basket, and being told, "Oh, you must read this one, and this one, and ...
Read More The Real Sherlock Holmes
By Janie Cheaney |
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, ...
Read More New Nonfiction: Titanic, Moonbird, and Bodyguards
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More The Hard Work of Growing Up
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Ancient History: Mara, Daughter of the Nile
By emily |
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 ...
Read More The Real George Washington
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Looking for Love . . . in All the Weird Places
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More What is Virtuous Romance? A Discussion with Gina Dalfonzo and Rea Berg
By emily |
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 ...
Read More Wholehearted Romance: Living Book Library Picks
By emily |
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 ...
Read More Love in the Age of Roe
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Unstoppable by Tim Green
By Janie Cheaney |
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, ...
Read More Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert
By emily |
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 ...
Read More The Roe Effect
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Web Newberys and RR News (Plus Giveaway!)
By emily |
It feels wrong to merely skip over Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, especially with President Obama's inauguration today, and yet with Black History month coming ...
Read More Identity and Revolution, part 1
By Janie Cheaney |
“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 ...
Read More Gabrielle Douglas: Grace, Gold, and (God’s) Glory
By emily |
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 ...
Read More On All Fronts: New Nonfiction of World War II
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Kids–Try This at Home
By Janie Cheaney |
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, ...
Read More Grace and Law and Two Silver Candlesticks
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More 16th Century Travels: Jepp and Will Sparrow
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Other Lives: Reading and Watching Anna Karenina
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More O Come, Emmanuel
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More The Giver Concludes
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Dragon Tale: Seraphina
By Janie Cheaney |
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, ...
Read More The Drowned Vault by N. D. Wilson
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Origin by Jessica Khoury
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Solomon Kane, Puritan Avenger
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Hand of Vengeance
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Burdens of the Past
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl
By Janie Cheaney |
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, ...
Read More Crying Hard: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Survival and Rescue
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More The Invasion of Fairyland
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Facts of Life
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Swash and Buckle: the Chronicles of Egg
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Insurgent: A Summer Review
By emily |
Hayley Schoeppler is a 20 year old college student, the oldest in a family of seven kids, and an astute Christian book reviewer at her ...
Read More Catching Up with YA Fantasy
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Hoping Against Hope: Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Hard Science
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More The Notorious Benedict Arnold by Steve Sheinkin
By Janie Cheaney |
The Glorious Fourth, as they used to call it, celebrates the birth of a nation whose independence was only declared with the signing of a ...
Read More Crazy Dangerous by Andrew Klavan
By Janie Cheaney |
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: Coming up on Friday, an interview with Andrew Klavan himself! And we have a copy of Crazy Dangerous to give away!! Read on ...
Read More Thriving at College: An Interview with Alex Chediak
By emily |
A handbook of practical wisdom for the would-be college student. Essential summer read for every incoming freshman.--Dr. Gene Veith, provost of Patrick Henry College About ...
Read More Bad Trips
By Janie Cheaney |
Summer is the traditional time for road trips, and road-trip novels traditionally roll out in the spring. A title from this year and one from ...
Read More To The Avengers…and Beyond!
By emily |
COMICS: Guy Kryptonite? Why do guys like comics so much? Especially the super-hero variety? It's an enigma I spent quite a lot of energy trying ...
Read More Graduation Gifts for Teens
By emily |
We're fast approaching graduation day at many schools, so I thought it might be worth tossing out a few books to brighten your celebrations. 1. ...
Read More Wonder
By Janie Cheaney |
Wonder, by R. J. Palacio. Knopf, 2012, 320 pages. Ages 8-up August (Augie) Pullman obviously doesn’t remember the day he was born, but in the ...
Read More The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
By Janie Cheaney |
As Jesus takes us to the cross this week, I’d like to spend some time looking at recent and classic children’s literature that addresses the ...
Read More Blue Like Jazz
By Janie Cheaney |
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts On Christian Spirituality, was published in 2003 by Thomas Nelson. Since then it has become a staple of Christian college ...
Read More Kingstone Part 2: Interview and Babylon
By emily |
By Redeemed Reader intern Jack Mertens Today I continue my series on Kingstone Comics, begun on Monday with reviews of two of Marvin Olasky's graphic ...
Read More Kingstone Part 1: 2048 and Echoes of Eden
By emily |
Today's reviewer, Jack Mertens, is a 17 year old high school student living in Louisiana where he is, among other things, an avid reader and ...
Read More Real or Not Real? The Hunger Games Movie is Good For Teens….
By emily |
***SPOILER ALERT: SOME PARTS OF THE END OF THE STORY REVEALED BELOW To read Janie's review of the book, see Hungry. Today, the much anticipated ...
Read More The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson
By Janie Cheaney |
The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary E. Pearson. Holt, 2008, 265 pages. Reading Level: Young Adults, 15-18 Recommended for: ages 15-18 and up Bottom ...
Read More Unwind by Neal Shusterman
By Janie Cheaney |
Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Simon & Shuster, 2007, 352 pages Reading Level: Young Adults, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 15-18 Bottom Line: Unwind presents a ...
Read More Talking Over the Hunger Games, Part One
By Janie Cheaney |
Since Susanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy (reviewed here) has sparked so much discussion in school cafeterias and dorm rooms (not to mention break rooms and ...
Read More Hungry
By Janie Cheaney |
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games, Scholastic, 2008, 374 pages. Catching Fire, Scholastic, 2009, 391 pages. Mockingjay, 2010, 387 pages. Age/interest level: 14-up. READER ADVISORY: This ...
Read More Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
By Janie Cheaney |
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George. Harper Collins, 1972 (paperback reissue 2003). 208 pages Reading Level: Middle Grades, 10-12 Recommended for: Young adult, ...
Read More Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
By Janie Cheaney |
The Apothecary, by Maile Meloy. Putnam/Penguin, 2011, 353 pages. Reading Level: Young Adults, ages 12-15 Maturity Level: 5 (ages 12-14) Bottom Line: The Apothecary is ...
Read More Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Africa: A Literary Adventure and Podcast!
By emily |
This month my local public library is offering a marionette show of African folktales starring Anansi the spider. It's a unique way to celebrate Black ...
Read More A Roundup of Dickens Resources: Books
By Janie Cheaney |
My first exposure to Charles Dickens was the original Classics Illustrated edition of A Tale of Two Cities. The last panel of Sidney Carton climbing ...
Read More Pleasures and Distractions
By Janie Cheaney |
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, by Alan Jacobs. Oxford University Press, 2011, 150 pages. Age/interest: adult. Heads-up: Watch for our interview ...
Read More Dystopian Download
By emily |
Yesterday on our site, we offered a review of both book and movie, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But of course, it's not the ...
Read More My Dragon Tattoo: A Book and Movie Review
By emily |
Last Wednesday, I sat down with a friend at the Regal Cinema nearby to watch "the feel bad movie of Christmas." For the uninitiated, that's ...
Read More What’s Lefse?
By Janie Cheaney |
The Invention of Lefse: a Christmas Story, by Larry Woiwode. Crossway, 2011, 63 pages. Age/interest level: 8 and up. “Lefse? What’s lefse?” is the epigraph ...
Read More Winter Audiobooks (and More) for Kids
By emily |
Ah, winter...Christmas parties, New Years resolutions, dashing through the snow to Grandma's house with a minivan full of sugar-crazed kids. What better time for a ...
Read More War Horse
By Janie Cheaney |
War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo. Scholastic, 2011 (originally published 1982), 192 pages. Age/interest level: 8 and up. Michael Morpurgo was already established in the UK ...
Read More POW! The Comic-Book Surge
By Janie Cheaney |
The December 21 opening of The Adventures of Tintin: the Secret of the Unicorn, should focus attention not only on the boy from Belgium ...
Read More Recommendations for Teens
By Janie Cheaney |
As reported by the L.A. Times only a week ago, “Young adult continues to be the literary world’s fastest-growing genre.” There are a lot of ...
Read More Salem’s curse
By Janie Cheaney |
Wicked Girls, by Stephanie Hemphill. HarperCollins, 2010, 389 pages. Young Adult Father of Lies, by Ann Turner. HarperTeen, 2011, 326 pages. Young Adult There are ...
Read More Hall of Heroes
By Janie Cheaney |
Reformation Heroes, by Diana Kleyn with Joel R. Beeke. Reformation Heritage Books, 2009, 250 pages. Age/interest level: 11-up. October 31, 2017 (only six years from ...
Read More The Pilgrim’s Progress: Introduction
By Janie Cheaney |
John Bunyan was a dissenting pastor of the mid-17th century: “dissenting” meaning that some of his biblical interpretations differed from those of the established (state-supported) ...
Read More Columbus and the Founding of our Nation
By emily |
COLUMBUS The first time I browsed through Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire's biography, Columbus, I purchased it for my kids on the spot based largely ...
Read More Autism: Fiction and Fact
By Janie Cheaney |
Marcelo in the Real World, by Francisco X Stork. Scholastic, 2009, 312 pages. Age/interest level: 14-up. Dancing With Max, by Emily Colson. Zondervan, 2010, 200 ...
Read More The Use and Abuse of Youth Literature
By Janie Cheaney |
Much of our coverage of “Banned Books Week” has centered on the territory known as YA, or Young Adult, which has for the last ten ...
Read More The Lord Saves
By emily |
The Lord Saves: A Reflection on "YA Saves" Francis Schaeffer's Insight Francis Schaeffer once wrote that in his generation, serious art required someone standing on ...
Read More Interview With Meghan Cox Gurdon
By Janie Cheaney |
Early last June, the YA publishing world was rocked by a column in the Wall Street Journal by Meg Cox Gurdon, who reviews children’s books ...
Read More Lord of Light
By Janie Cheaney |
They had guessed before that this was an island: clambering among the pink rocks, with the sea on either side, and the crystal heights of ...
Read More The Meaning of Life
By Janie Cheaney |
Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley. Atheneum, 2011, 240 pages. Age-interest level: 16-up. UPDATE: Where Things Come Back has won a gold medal ...
Read More Homelanders Series by Andrew Klavan
By Janie Cheaney |
Homelanders, by Andrew Klavan. Published by Thomas Nelson in four parts: The Last Thing I Remember (2009), The Long Way Home (2010), The Truth of ...
Read More That Hideous Strength 3: Climax
By Janie Cheaney |
Previous posts: Introduction, Part One: Setup, Part Two: Development. Climax? Isn’t it a little early for that? Most of us have the idea that the ...
Read More Close to Famous by Joan Bauer
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer
By Janie Cheaney |
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 ...
Read More That Hideous Strength 2: Development
By Janie Cheaney |
Previous Posts: Introduction Part One: Setup Almost all the main characters have been introduced and the potential conflicts are in place. Now development: that phase ...
Read More *The Dragon’s Tooth by N. D. Wilson
By Janie Cheaney |
*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 ...
Read More That Hideous Strength 1: the Setup
By Janie Cheaney |
Beginning our first-ever Readalong: here's the Introduction. The action takes place at three fictional locations: Edgetow, a university town similar to Cambridge, but smaller; St. ...
Read More That Hideous Strength: An Introduction
By Janie Cheaney |
In the summer of 1945, George Orwell wrote a review for the Manchester Evening News, beginning, "On the whole, novels are better when there are ...
Read More On Eagle’s Wings
By Janie Cheaney |
Book 2 of the epic adventures of the three children who are heirs to a kingdom, sought by the Fangs of Dang, and as normal ...
Read More Shakespeare R Us
By Janie Cheaney |
Dallas, 1970: Storm clouds gather over the Texas prairie, where the students of a small junior college are presenting A Midsummer Night's Dream in an ...
Read More Breakpoint’s Youth Reads with Sherry Early
By emily |
Last week, Janie had the privilege of sharing radio waves with Chris Fabry on his national radio show. You can find out more about the ...
Read More God-Haunted
By Janie Cheaney |
The death of God has been announced since the beginning of time (see Ps. 14:1), but God doesn't seem to stay dead--not even with Darwinism and nihilism ...
Read More Is Historical Fiction Dead?
By Janie Cheaney |
Short answer: no, but it's showing signs of dementia. Historical fiction has one of the longest roots of any literary form. You might say that ...
Read More Free Audiobook: BBC’s Romeo and Juliet
By emily |
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Overdrive software in relation to online library rentals of audiobooks. Today Sync Audiobooks, a website that offers free ...
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