Simple and beautifully illustrated, William R. Osborne’s God, You Are: 20 Promises from thePsalms for Kids is a small but worthy little volume. Based on twenty “You are _” prayers andpraises from the Psalms, each identifier is drawn out into a simple meditation followed by asentence prayer. While it could be read by older kids…
In some previous stage of my theological thinking, I conceived of the spiritual realm as an arena essentially separate from the materiality of daily life. More recently, influenced by the writings of N.T. Wright among others, I have come to realize the significance of the existing Creation as part of God’s eternal grand design. The…
This review first appeared on The Gospel Coalition on July 11, 2023. Colleen Chao has walked through the valley of the shadow of death and knows its hazards and heartache. When her little boy was only 6, her cancer diagnosis overwhelmed her family like a flood. Chao dutifully endured multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy, with all…
I am extremely pleased to tell you that I’m celebrating an addition to my personal list of books that I think of as “quintessentially boy.” My list of books for boys, featuring characters that are “quintessentially boy,” runs something like this: The Hardy Boys (classic), The Sugar Creek Gang, Soup, The Three Investigators, Farmer Boy,…
Very few things give me a bright burst of nostalgia like listening to “Fireflies” by Owl City. Not only does the ridiculously catchy 2009 hit remind me of a simpler time, but it also fills me with a sense of awe at simple things now. It’s hard to express the impact this imaginative and odd…
Imagine every character in your favorite story exists — not between the bindings of their book, but in an entire separate world. A world where characters learn how to be Heroes and Villains, how to sword fight, how to inhabit the world of books and tell their stories rightly. Now imagine a girl from our…
Discipling tweens is tough. In the younger years, it’s easy to enthrall kids with the vast assortment of storybook Bibles that line Sunday school bookshelves. Featuring brightly-colored illustrations and maybe a rhyme or two, these books coax kids to lean forward mid-bite during lunch or to fall silent during Sunday school in their eagerness to…
Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. It feels like the very pinnacle of summer. In our home, planning and preparing for next year’s school year doesn’t happen until after July 4 — even when I was homeschooling five kids at a time. Below you’ll find some books about the USA and its history,…
As the days lengthen and grow warmer and we are drawn more and more outside, I begin to reflect back on the magic of my own childhood. I have fond memories of long summer days swimming in the creek for hours on end, hiking and camping, playing in the woods, canoeing down the river, riding…
C. S. Lewis once wrote that “a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story. The good ones last.” I am inclined to agree with him. My favorite books are the ones that I liked at age 12, love at 22, and will probably treasure at 42. They are books…
Hercules Beal is not the strongest kid in his class. He is, in fact, the shortest, still waiting on his growth spurt. He is also, thanks to a drunk driver, newly an orphan. As a result, he has to transfer to a closer middle school for his sixth grade year because his older brother (now…
Adding a new baby to the family can be exciting, and older siblings often get swept up in the joy and anticipation. But what may seem fun and games at first can become tedium as kids adjust to mom not feeling well, frequent doctor’s appointments, and endless waiting for the big day. And then, when…
