Instrumental Musicians: Innovators, Performers, Change Makers
The books below celebrate visionaries who persevered in developing and sharing their God-given abilities in the realm of music, the divine gift that touches heart, mind, and spirit.
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Review: The Story of Juneteenth
Combining gentle illustrations and simple sentences, The Story of Juneteenth summarizes the basic history behind the celebrations that have marked the nineteenth of June for over one hundred years.
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Lois Lenski’s Little Books
Toddlers may be the funniest people you’ll ever meet. They know exactly what they want and have no idea what they want. They take everything seriously, and they take nothing seriously. They can go from laughing uncontrollably to crying uncontrollably and back to laughing in an instant. Everything in this world is still new to…
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Summer Reading… from Chore to Adventure
When someone mentions a summer reading list, I think of the year I switched schools. It was before fifth grade, and I had never heard of a summer reading list. I felt the full impact of that terrible list. The books were hard. They were boring. They were long. “But you love reading!” my mother…
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Reading with Remmy: A Review
Between mouthfuls of oatmeal, my daughter handed me a book. “Can you read this tome?” she said, “It’s my favorite book!” It was Gina Gallagher’s sweet book, Reading withRemmy.Three things I should tell you about our family before I continue: For us, Reading with Remmy brings all of this together. Remmy is a dog who,…
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The Life of Chesterton: A Review
Perhaps one of the most quotable writers of all time, Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s size and body of work are hard to match. His work included about 4,000 essays, 200 short stories, hundreds of poems, eighty books, and five plays. He engaged with many of the intellectuals of his day and continues to shape the readers’…
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Adventure and Courage and Friendship, Oh My!
A Review of The Beastie of Brambly Bald Visits to the library often find my tween daughter strolling the stacks, eager to discoverher next read. She’s unearthed many favorite stories this way. But she’s also uncovered somefinds that I’m uncertain of. I’ve spent lots of time searching the Internet and online groups tohelp my daughter…
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The Mythmakers
On John Hendrix and why you should read all of his books I never know where to begin when reviewing a John Hendrix book. They are consistently among my favorites, and yet, there’s something undefinable about them. When I finish I’m left not so much with thoughts as with a breathless, hand-wavy feeling, something ephemeral…
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A Pocketful of Wonder: A New Adventure Guide for Families
Second grade science has not been very methodical at my house. Everyday, I hand my son a notebook and tell him to go observe something, draw it, and come talk to me about it. No matter the season, he heads out the door, pencil in hand, compact microscope in pocket, and looks for something amazing….
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Joni Eareckson Tada
On picture book biographies and imagining adulthood When our kids were little, I found it hard to imagine them as big kids, let alone teens or—gasp!—adults. But they’re prone to point out things like, oh, that our second-born daughter will be old enough to vote in the next presidential election, or that when our youngest…
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Nanette’s Baguette, Attachment, and Connection
I have a new favorite children’s book – it’s one that has been on my mind a lot recently. As I’ve shared here at Story Warren, The Napping House, by Audrey Wood is an absolute favorite (http://www.storywarren.com/playing-favorites-the-napping-house/). And Mo Willems’ imaginative retelling of a classic tale, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, is also at the…
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Tenacious Women in History
List-making is practically a hobby with me, and books are a passion, with children’s literature a high-ranking subcategory. Creating lists of the latter is thus a delight accompanied by the danger of disappearing into long, winding passageways papered over by picture books. This is especially true of a topic as fascinating and fruitful as women’s…
