Story Warren

Kindling Imagination for Kingdom Anticipation

The Warren & The World Vol 12, Issue 36

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I was delayed in preparing this email because my wifi died. When I called the service provider after an attempt to resuscitate it on my own, the woman on the other end of the line repeated in a tone of awe: “Your device is from 2016! 2016!” After she gave me a spiel about updating it, I thought, “Well, of course, that all makes sense, and it’s lovely that you’ll cover the new device, but if it hadn’t stopped working, how would I know I needed an updated device?” It’s simple to remain with the familiar, even when it’s outdated. And sometimes it’s better. But, I suppose, not when it’s your internet provider.

Around the Web

History Picture Books

Janie at Redeemed Reader recommends several picture books.

  • Three outstanding picture books introduce young readers to Walt Whitman, Gilbert Stuart, and Mozart.
    Read more

What Is Reading?

Selah Bell reminds us of the wonder of an ordinary thing.

  • No, I’m serious. How often do we really take the time to think about it? We all just blindly accept the fact that, at some point, we were taught that certain combinations of letters equal certain sounds, which equal certain meanings. It’s incredible and a little (or a lot) weird when you think about it.
    Read more

The Gift of Crisis

Lynne Rienstra reminds us what crisis can be.

  • I was at our denomination’s General Assembly when I received the call from my radiologist: “Mrs. Rienstra, your tests reveal that you have breast cancer.” Fast forward to six weeks later. As my husband was driving me home from the surgery that removed my cancer, a car ran a stop sign and slammed into us, right in front of where I was sitting. Within minutes I found myself in an ambulance on my way to yet another hospital.
    Crisis. It’s the gift none of us wants. Because when crisis comes, it broadsides us. It reminds us that in spite of our best efforts, we are ultimately out of control. Crisis exposes us as those who are in deep need and unable to help ourselves. It causes us to cry out to God.
    Read more

Why, My Soul, Are You Dejected?

Scott Hurst considers sadness.

  • I’ve only been a lead pastor for three years, but in that time, I’ve heard more people apologize for crying than in the 32 years prior.
    Some people beat themselves up for feeling sad. Recently, an older Christian shared with me the many ways they do this. They said, “I know it’s bad, I should be happier if I have faith in God, right?” They treated their sorrow with gut punches of shame. Some medicate it with distractions. Some do all they can to avoid it. Sadness surprises and embarrasses them.
    It shouldn’t.
    Read more

Around the Warren

Autumn Picture Books: Going Out In a Blaze of Glory

A.C.S. Bird reviews picture books on the season.

  • As an adolescent I skipped over the fascination-with-death phase. Horror movies repelled me, gore disgusted me. I forged on well into my twenties, thousands of miles from elderly relations and still in possession of most of my grandparents, in blithe denial of mortality.
    It caught up with me, of course, at times slow and furtive and at others with breath-taking abruptness. To say I have come to terms with death would be overstating. But in the course of close encounters spread over several decades, I have laid hold of hope—one that persists in the face of fear, grief, loss, and all the other realities inseparable from death.
    Read more

Tumbleweed Thompson Comes Home

Andrew Mackay welcomes Tumbleweed Thompson back to the homestead.

  • Hi there,
    I’m Andrew Mackay and I’m the publisher at Story Warren Books. I don’t get to spend too much time over here at StoryWarren.com, but it’s always a joy to read the good work that James and the many contributors are doing over here.
    I’m here today because we’ve got exciting news: Story Warren Books is now the home of the Tumbleweed Thompson Adventures. This is a uniquely Story Warren story: If you aren’t familiar, Tumbleweed Thompson started as a series of short stories written by Glenn McCarty for this very website. Joe Sutphin provided some illustrations for those posts… Yes, that Joe Sutphin, the Eisner award-winning illustrator of the Watership Down graphic novel, as well as other books you love like the Little Pilgrim’s Progress, Little Christmas Carol, and the Wingfeather Saga. And Glenn went on to publish, with the help of some of you via Kickstarter, The Misadventured Summer of Tumbleweed Thompson.
    Read more
Tumbleweed Thompson Adventures… classic americana for a new generation.

Something to Do with Your Kids

Blackout poetry is a fun way to bring poetry into your young readers as well as providing an artistic outlet!

Something to Watch

Since we’re celebrating Tumbleweed Thompson, I thought we might enjoy an adventure to the Old West with a time-traveling sheriff.

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side. 

–The Story Warren Team

Carolyn Clare Givens
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