The Warren & the World Vol 3, Issue 35

The Warren & the World is Story Warren’s weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We’re glad you’re here!

Around the Web

Five Words I Love to Hear: Mom! Please, Don’t Read Anymore!

Sarah Wolfe writes at her blog about the value of savoring the experience.

Each night for the last couple months I have been met by this exclamation from my youngest boy.The lights are dimmed, he is in his bed and the Littlest Princess (I’m still settling on their nicknames for this blog) is in some degree of resting. Prayers are done and we have read one chapter out loud from our latest book.
We have been taking our time, savoring George MacDonald’s books. About Princesses. Yes, reading my boy books about princesses.

But these are George MacDonald books about princesses.

8 Stellar Picture Book Biographies

Melissa Taylor offers some book suggestion at Imagination Soup.

I’m excited to share with you 8 recently published picture book biographies for your classroom (Common Core, anyone?) and for your home. These biographies pair first-rate writing with artwork with outstanding illustrations to engage and inform your children. Enjoy!

growing new eyes.

Mel writes at Needle and Nest Design about how parenting gives us new eyes.

So, when I was young, I knew everything. Now that I’m getting older… I see how much there is to learn.
When I was a teenager, I painted a mural with the quote:
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes” (Marcel Proust) I thought I was painting my sage-like perspective on that canvas.
Now that I’m older, I see those new eyes fluttering open.

Why You Should Not Welcome My Special Needs Child to Your Church

At Love in a Different Language, Nichole looks at some ways special needs children enrich our church ministries and the life and growth of the Body.

I write this from what I believe is a unique perspective. You see, I have worked in ministry for over ten years now. I have been on staff as a youth pastor and a children’s pastor. I have helped to develop a special needs program within a church setting. I have also been a teacher for five years collectively. I have taught classrooms full of children from all kinds of backgrounds, strengths, and weaknesses. Most importantly, I am a mother to two beautiful children, one of whom has Autism. That’s right, I am the parent of a special needs child. So why on earth would someone with my background write a blog like this? Allow me to share my heart with you. These are the reasons I believe you should NOT welcome my special needs child to your church.

Around the Warren

What Isn’t There, But Should Be

Guest Poster Kathleen Shumate explores the power of holy imagination to see what isn’t there.

My husband and I sat together watching a sweet movie where a relationship was unfolding between a young girl, an aspiring story-teller, and her new neighbor, an older disillusioned novelist. She asked him to teach her about imagination, and maybe her earnestness inspired him, because he had a small creative spark left. He told her to look at the empty, dusty street stretching in front of them and describe what’s not there. The girl squinted up the street in confusion, and I chuckled inwardly at what I thought was a cheesy line.But later that evening it got me thinking: what if we take it a step further? What is not there… but should be? That is a holy imagination.

“The great man…”

Words from Mencius. Art by Paul Boekell.

Julie Edwards’ Mandy

Laura Peterson introduces us to one of her favorite characters.

On the scale of my favorite quiet, dreamy, introverted book characters, the protagonist of Mandy, by Julie Edwards, would score pretty high. A long-time resident of St. Martin’s Orphanage, ten-year-old Mandy knows all the staff and children well, but mostly prefers to be alone. She has a bright imagination and enjoys working at the village store to earn spending money. However, Mandy is keenly aware that something is missing in her life. “It was as though she were searching for something, though what or where it was she could not say.”