What is imagination good for? And why do we need imaginative stories? The real world is full of beauty. Normal lives are full of drama. And beneath it all is Truth; bright, hard, sharp as the point of a spear. So why make stuff up? Why read (or play at) things that aren’t real? Because […]
My Sister, the Story-Thief
At eleven, my older sister was a voracious reader. While I had camped out in Middle Earth, mining every gem from The Lord of the Rings and its appendices for several years after getting my own copy for my seventh birthday, my sister read anything and everything she could get her hands on. Since she […]
Reading With Compassion
My son Oliver has a book on opposites that features old illustrations of Winnie the Pooh characters. He calls it his “Pooh book.” Each part of the book has two pictures that are in some way opposite to each other. For instance, one part shows Pooh and Piglet gathering around a fireplace with the heading […]
Welcoming the Wandering Son
My son broke my heart the other day. He had just finished reading one of my favorite books, The Yearling, and he was telling me how the closing scenes affected him. If you’ve not yet read this classic, I’ll spare you the main spoilers but suffice it to say, the young protagonist Jody Baxter experiences […]
Whatever is Pure and Lovely
At 9:30, my daughter comes downstairs—she can’t sleep. She’ll be seven next month and the world is expanding around her, I can see it. She’s more aware of other people now, more aware of adult conversation, more aware, in this instance, of volcanoes. “Volcanoes?” I repeat, settling down next to her on the couch. “What […]
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