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
Parents, Follow This North Star
Chap Bettis writes at The Gospel Coalition about navigating through the pressures of parenting.
- I can still remember May 24, 1991, like it was yesterday. For months I’d known we were going to have a baby. But the first time my daughter was placed in my arms, I felt something like a kick to my stomach.
The blow was me realizing God had entrusted us with a beautiful baby who entirely depended on us. Of even greater weightiness, God had put into our hands a human soul who would live forever.
A few years later, we began to experience typical parenting pressures. Will she take dance? Will she play soccer? Where will she attend kindergarten? Public school, private school, or homeschool? Those pressures were just the beginning.
We face myriad decisions as parents. We want to give our children the best, but what exactly is the best?
30 Beginning Chapter Books with Diverse Main Characters
Melissa Taylor has a great book list at Imagination Soup of books with diverse main characters. She talks about the importance of kids reading books about kids who look like them, but I think it’s also equally important for kids to read books about kids who look different–if only to discover how alike they really are.
- When kids read stories with characters that look like them or that look like kids in the world around them, it’s affirming and empathy building. Which is why we need quality books with diverse main characters. Try these beginning chapter books with diversity for your growing readers, around ages six to nine.
The other kind of miracle: the one you don’t think to pray for
Jenny Simmons has a guest piece at A Holy Experience about the unexpected miracles.
- My dad’s mom died in April as they were painting her toenails.
It didn’t matter if Mamaw was ever getting out of that bed again or not; there would be nail polish and perfectly primped hair.
Three months later, my mom’s dad was next. Losing Grandpa wrecked me.
Life can be so deathy.
After Grandpa’s funeral my mom said, “Enough with dying, on to living!”
When you’re not wanting people to see your mess.
Alison writes at Courage for a Better Story about being willing to show others your mess.
- It feels like pure GRACE to be able to say we are moving. And soon.
As in tomorrow.
The Lord has worked a series of events (that I would call miracles) to orchestrate us closing on a house this past Monday. I can hardly believe that what felt like a far away dream is happening.
But what doesn’t feel like a dream is being sick as of Tuesday.
As in the day after we bought our house.
The day I waited for came. But as soon as it was time to pack and do something other than wait and pray, I lacked the strength and energy to do anything. It has been incredibly frustrating to sit and rest and ask for help and pray, when all I want to be doing is cleaning and packing, organizing and sorting.
Around the Warren
Beautiful Books
So, I wrote at Story Warren this week, which was fun! I wrote about the need for beautiful books in our reading diet.
- “I just needed to read something beautiful.” I said it with a little sigh. It had been a rough few weeks and I was out to coffee with my friend, the mother of three kids in elementary and middle school, telling her about the book I’d devoured that afternoon.
She lit up. “Tell me the name again?” she said. “We need some beautiful books to read.”
My friend has mentioned to me multiple times her frustration with the books assigned to her kids for school. They’re not bad books, she says, but does every book have to be about some sad, tragic, awful thing? In one a kid is dealing with the death of a pet, in the next, with parents whose marriage is on the rocks, in the next, a difficult foster care situation.
A Beautiful Book List
And then I got my friends to help me make a list of beautiful books for you. I know you like book lists.
- On Monday we had a piece on “beautiful books” and the need of them as a portion of your reading diet. The following list are suggestions from members of the Story Warren team of some of our favorite beautiful books for all ages. Also, check out the comments section of Monday’s post for recommendations from other readers.
Something to Do with Your Kids
Looking for something to do this weekend? My family were game players when I was growing up, and many of my favorite memories are from around the table. Here’s a list of some cheap and fun game ideas for the family.
And Something to Watch
Do you wonder what guinea pigs would have to say about the whole pumpkin spice craze? You didn’t know you needed to know.
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
Carolyn Clare Givens is a displaced Northerner exploring the foreign ways of the South. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her literary cat, Lord Peter Wimsey. She's the author of The King's Messenger and Rosefire and in her free time helps run Bandersnatch Books.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
Latest posts by Carolyn Clare Givens (see all)
- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 13 - April 19, 2025
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