Story Warren

Kindling Imagination for Kingdom Anticipation

The Warren & The World Vol 12, Issue 35

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I drove through the mountains yesterday—a different route than my normal because of Helene’s damage, but still winding roads with rocky humps around me. There’s something about the mountains that brings me to life, waking my soul up in new ways. My ancestors lived there, so perhaps it’s my blood singing out to a place from whence it came.

Around the Web

Heaven Is A Homeplace

 Amanda Held Opelt reminds us of our homeplace.

  • On the morning of Friday, September 27, I sent a frantic text message to my cousin Paul:
    “Been thinking of Granny’s house and hoping it survives this storm! Let us know!”
    It wasn’t long after I sent the text that the lights went out, along with the internet. And cell signal, already spotty in the mountains, seemed to drop altogether. There we were: me and my husband and our two small children, alone with the wind, the rain, and our worry.
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Rosa by Starlight by Hilary McKay

Janie at Redeemed Reader recommends a middle grade novel for both the cat lovers and everyone else.

  • Rosa by Starlight is a sweet story of an orphan finding her way home, with the help of a host of sympathetic cats.
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Happy New Year!

Annie Beth Donahue proposes that fall is the start of the year.

  • I’ve always intuitively felt fall was the beginning of a new year. As a child, it made sense that the cycle of the school year dictated your beginnings and endings. Sometime around the end of summer, I’d open the newspaper to find the printed lists of home rooms – my first glimpse of who would be in this year’s supporting cast of “the story of my life.” (Not to mention the power those lists wielded over the destiny of who I would get to sit with at lunch.)
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One Voice, One Hope

Jessica Roan reminds us that singing together brings us together.

  • For one night, a few times a year, a shabby 60-year-old auditorium stage is transformed into a magical scene where a group of ragtag students from all nationalities, academic levels, and socioeconomic groups come together  to make beautiful music. As a public school teacher and a parent of students in the school in which I teach, my emotions always run high at school music concerts. Unlike many in the audience, I know how truly remarkable this moment is. I know that on this night the valedictorian, the child with a math disability, the outcast, the orphan, and a student from one of the most prominent families in town will come together as one. Thanks to the school’s affordable rental program for instruments and even suit jackets and dresses, the ground is even on that stage. All of the drastic differences in finances and home situations vanish when the director raises her hand and the members play Vivaldi as one. 
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Around the Warren

The Corner of Sanity

Sarah Hohner carves out a corner for herself.

  • Around the dawn of our first daughter, a friend shared a brilliantly shining jewel of wisdom with me, a concept that has been a loving lifeline and a joy ever since: the Corner of Sanity.
    To explain, let me take you back to a hot Phoenix afternoon in 2012. The details of the afternoon are mostly lost in the ether of time and many sleepless nights since, so let me treat you to a creative reimagining: I was shown into my friends’ living room and invited to sit down. 
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Review: Through the Keeper’s Door

E. G. Runyan reviews Melissa D. Kline’s middle grade fantasy.

  • Recently I had the pleasure of reading Melissa D. Kline’s middle-grade novel Through the Keeper’s Door. Middle-grade is my favorite age group and fantasy is my favorite genre, so naturally I was excited to read Kline’s debut! The book arrived right before my family and I left for vacation so I had plenty of time to read while curled up on the porch of our beach house.
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Review: Two Delightful Forest Books

Aimee Davis introduces us to two forest books.

  • These two books called out to me as possible additions to our second-grade study of animals and habitats. Each provides beautiful illustrations, created with different mediums, which is always intriguing for me to show and talk through with students. Each provides clever prose that lends itself to enjoyable, repeatable read-alouds as we think and study on the wonder of God’s creation.
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I Don’t Want to Be Taught!

Erica Robertson learns a lesson.

  • “I don’t want to be taught!” my four-year-old yelled through tears. Her older sister was attempting to teach her chess, but my youngest thought the rules did not apply to her. She stole pieces left and right, sending her Bishop straight ahead to snatch the Queen instead of methodically moving diagonally. Her goal was total domination, no matter how it happened. She had no need (or patience) for learning the rules. The game ended rather quickly as my older daughter was discouraged by the unfairness and refused to play with a rule-breaker. Chaos ensued, feelings were hurt, breakfast was delayed.
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Something to Do with Your Kids

If you’re looking for an art project to help improve the skills of your young artist, try this method of drawing enlargements using a grid.

Something to Watch

Destin at Smarter Every Day performed experiments while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side. 

–The Story Warren Team

Carolyn Clare Givens
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