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
How to Help Your Kids Love History
- I love to find ways in my homeschooling and in my parenting to make learning fun! I also love to find wonderful resources to make that happen. That is why I am so excited to tell you about a Christian company called Heirloom Audio. They create Audio Adventures for homeschool families. These adventures are fast moving audio dramas designed to teach Christian history in a very fun and engaging way. The productions also include a free study guide that many parents use as curriculum for a “living” lesson in Christian history.
How Schools Can Help Notice and Serve the ‘Quiet Kids’
- When Lily Shum was little, she dreaded speaking up in class. It wasn’t because she didn’t have anything interesting to say, or because she wasn’t paying attention or didn’t know the answer. She was just quiet.
“Every single report card that I ever had says, ‘Lily needs to talk more. She is too quiet,’ ” recalls Shum, now an assistant director at Trevor Day School in Manhattan.
She doesn’t want her students to feel the pressure to speak up that she felt.
That’s why she’s joined more than 60 educators in New York City recently at the Quiet Summer Institute.
Teach Children the Bible Is Not About Them
Our friend Sally Lloyd-Jones shares why she wrote the Jesus Storybook Bible.
- When I go into churches and speak to children I ask them two questions:
First, how many people here sometimes think you have to be good for God to love you? They tentatively raise their hands. I raise my hand along with them.
And second, how many people here sometimes think that if you aren’t good, God will stop loving you? They look around and again raise their hands.
These are children in Sunday schools who know the Bible stories.
It is risky to pray for justice, but we should do it anyway
Denny Burk reminds us of the good, and the risk, of praying for justice.
- I’m thinking about Habakkuk today, an Old Testament prophet who had the audacity to ask God for justice. Habakkuk took a long hard look at systemic injustice in Israel—social division, violence, oppression. His depiction of the nation is one of total moral and social upheaval: “The law is ignored and justice is never upheld” (Hab. 1:4). Because justice has become so “perverted,” Habakkuk cries out to Yahweh for help.
If Habakkuk teaches us anything, he teaches us that it is good and right to pray for justice. But he also teaches us something else. Praying for justice is risky precisely because God might answer our prayer.
Around the Warren
Making Things Matters
Glenn McCarty reminds us of the value of creating.
- I recently read The Song Machine, John Seabrook’s startling book about the state of pop music in the digital era. Among other topics covered in the book, Seabrook spends quite a bit of time talking about the process of making hit songs for chart-topping pop acts like Katy Perry and Britney Spears.
I’ll spare you the long version, but in essence, Seabrook describes the songwriting process now as an assembly-line system, where “beats” – intricate combinations of drum sounds – are created on computers, then emailed in batches to “hit factories” in California or New York, where another group of people – not the recording artists yet – are brought in to take the beats and add “lyrics.” These words are usually created to fit within the existing framework of the beats, with primary emphasis placed on rhyme and rhythm, not actual meaning.
In short, Seabrook explains, songs aren’t really written any more; they’re assembled from parts created around the world by people who might not even know each other.
Does that sort of process make you feel a little sad? Me, too.
Kate DiCamillo’s Raymie Nightingale
Laura Peterson recommends Kate DiCamillo’s new book.
- A forthcoming Kate DiCamillo book is always a cause for celebration in my household, so I was excited to see her newest for middle-grade readers, Raymie Nightingale, on the shelf in my library. DiCamillo is a master of the meaningful story; her books inspire deep feeling, and have made me cry, laugh, and everything in between. This story is probably most similar in tone to Because of Winn-Dixie; both feature a quirky collection of supporting players, and a missing parent.
Something to Do with Your Kids
If you’re looking for a fun activity for long car rides this summer, consider printing up these Bible Trading Cards to learn about various biblical characters.
And Something to Watch
Eric Landon creates gorgeous ceramics at his store in Copenhagen, Denmark, and films the process. Watching a potter throw clay is a lovely thing.
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 5 - February 15, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 4 - February 1, 2025
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 3 - January 25, 2025
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