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:
The Kiddy Pool: The Desire for Parental Approval
Erin Wyble Newcomb examines our desire for parental approval at Christ and Pop Culture. She looks at personae on reality television and fictional characters and realizes that they’re just like the rest of us.
- These personae, shaped by the editing and framing of their respective shows, come from somewhere, and it’s often those stories that viewers find most compelling. I know now that it’s almost impossible, as a parent, not to dream on behalf of my children. It’s one idea that keeps humanity going on both a personal and social level—that I or we can somehow make things better for future generations. And yet intertwined is also the belief that we parents might be doing some things right too, some things worth preserving and passing on. It’s becomes a complicated kind of legacy, to preserve the best of us while leaving room for a brighter, better future. It raises questions about how to want more or better for our children without demeaning what we’ve done, and where we’ve come from.
Ashes to Ashes
As we begin the Lenten season, Kris Camealy introduces her book, Holey, Wholly, Holy: A Lenten Journey of Refinement, currently available for download on Noisetrade.
- I sit in the back row, beneath the balcony where it’s always darker than the rest of the sanctuary. The church is full, but I feel alone. Solitude, a welcome comfort at the end of a day run wild with kids and school work, and all of the other things that rise up demanding attention between dawn and dinner.The service is too late for the little one who will be antsy and melting by 8PM, so my husband keeps the whole brood home and sends me to church. He knows me well, loves me generously.
I scratch a handful of notes during the service, but when I look down this is the one that stands out; “Ashes to Ashes.”
You can read more and get the book and companion workbook here.
How Do I Talk to My Daughter about Sex?
Sissy Goff has some good reminders at Today’s Christian Woman for parents as they shepherd their daughters into puberty.
- As a counselor who has worked with girls for more than 21 years, this sentiment is a tragically apt reflection of how girls often feel about their womanhood and evolving sexuality. For many girls, there is a sense of shame bound up in being a woman. As a mother, you may be lost for how to talk to her about it.
Always a King or Queen: C. S. Lewis on Childhood (PARTS 1 & 2)
Matthew Aughtry guest posts at The Rabbit Room on C.S. Lewis’ perspective on childhood, looking through the lenses of his life and his writings.
- The very act of putting pen to paper in response to a fan letter is in itself a great kindness that very few authors employ as regularly as Lewis did. Additionally, one notices that most of the children who receive criticism from him also write back. More than that, they write back with new pieces of work for him to critique. Lewis could simply have written that their work was good without ever actually reading a bit of it, but his specific notes and suggestions make it clear that he not only read the material but also took the time to offer insight on how to improve it. He believed that challenge and honest criticism is better than faint praise, even for children.Not only does he give tough notes, he also refuses to give easy answers. When a girl named Hila writes to ask him what name Aslan is called by in our world, something he alludes to in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Lewis gives her clues instead of simply telling her the answer, and by doing so he encourages her to utilize her own critical thinking.
Around the Warren:
Adding Beauty
Helena Sorensen writes about what she’s learned as she has practiced adding beauty prompted by Gina Smith’s blog.
- I’m an atypical woman in lots of ways. One of these is my intense practicality. I take exquisite pleasure in cleaning out the house, trashing, donating, re-organizing. I want everything neat and orderly and streamlined. Easy to dust. Un-cluttered. But Gina’s blog drew my attention to the fact that my main concern for my home had been what I was taking out. I hadn’t considered the importance of what I addedin. What message had I been sending to my children by keeping their surroundings so sterile? Could they be learning, in spite of all the things I say out loud, that beauty is a non-essential?
“Beauty is a path…”
Words by Lanier Ivester. Art by Paul Boekell.
Interview With Robert Treskillard, YA Author of The Merlin Spiral
Sam Smith interviews Robert Treskillard, author of The Merlin Spiral trilogy.
- Robert Treskillard is the author of The Merlin Spiral, a YA fantasy trilogy that retells the Arthurian legend in a new, historically-informed way. Robert is something of a Celtic expert (though he would call himself a student, no doubt) and his tales brim with realistic settings and linguistic authenticity. Rob’s work is grounded in his Christian faith and that is evident in this trilogy.
The Knights of the Silver Shield
Something to Do with Your Kids:
Need to help your kids as they grow as storytellers? Melissa Taylor suggests story boarding with photos of small figurines. Read what she has to say about photo story starters.
And Something to Watch
Chris Ballew’s Caspar Babypants sings about Googly Eyes–and it’s remarkably catchy and entertaining. For added fun, get your kids some googly eyes before you watch this video together and let their imaginations go wild afterward, making things come alive.
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 16 - May 10, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 15 - May 3, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 14 - April 26, 2025
We loved the googly eyes video.
Thank you so much for including me among these wonderful links.