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
Watch Your Mouth
Kimberly Gillespie shares at The Gospel Coalition on the power of words.
- “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
How many of us believe this lie? Even worse, how many of us perpetuate it? We feebly recite this ditty to our children while remembering the scars of our own verbal wounds.
But this convenient untruth is not just for kids. In the age of social media—the age of the soundbite—disagreements about politics, policy, race, and patriotism are everywhere. We can be tempted to think that stridently airing our opinions is not harmful. But all too often when engaging those who disagree, we do not seek conversion, compassion, or understanding. We seek victory.
And so our words become weapons.
Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry
Betsy at Redeemed Reader recommends a middle grade biography of Harriet Tubman.
- “She had always had the makings of a legend in her: the prodigious strength, the fearlessness, the religious ardor, the visions she had in which she experienced moments of prescience.”
Harriet Tubman, aka Araminta, Minta, Minty, and, finally, Moses, looms large on the landscape of our country’s turbulent 19th century. Born to slaves on a Maryland plantation, she learned the meaning of hardship and hard work from birth.
For Father’s Day…
Sally Lloyd-Jones shares books that celebrate dads.
- One of the most beautiful titles God ever gives himself—along with Defender of Widows—is Father to the Fatherless. Isn’t that wonderful? And he loves us not because we do it right. Not because we do anything.
He loves us just because he loves us.
It’s the best news for each of us this Father’s Day.
In Defense of Preachy Children’s Books
Lindsey Brigham Knott defends the many favorites, like Anne, Little Women, Little House on the Prairie, and more, from the charge of “preachiness.”
- “Kids can smell morals. And they smell like Brussels sprouts.”
That line summarizes, more pithily than most, the general attitude towards “preachy children’s books” reflected in a cursory Google search. It comes from an article by a published author giving tips for writing children’s books, and most articles of that sort seem to include, fairly high on the list, the admonition to avoid preachiness at all cost.
Around the Warren
Reaching for Light
Sarah Hohner writes about the hard work of reaching for light as a busy parent.
- Our first child began sometime during her third month of life waking up every day at 5 am. We tried putting her back down, we tried letting her fuss for loooong minutes, we tried bribery, prayer, pleading… but there she was, red-faced and shaky-smiling at us, reaching out for that connection with us, no matter what we tried. So I gave in.
I’ve always been a morning person; the sun is up and so am I, as Anna in Frozen would say. These early golden dawning hours were always my time with my Heavenly Father; I would sit and let the light slowly fill the living room while I sipped coffee and read His words, as I reached for relationship, as I poured out my heart and learned to sit still and listen for His. For a while our little Glory-girl could join me in those devotions, no problem: she would nurse and I would read, or pray, or just gaze at her and try to fathom why God would bless me with this miracle… fast forward five years, and those wheels are just all the way off.
A Child’s Garden of Verses
James Witmer recommends Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry collection for children.
- Would you like to hear your children spontaneously quoting stanzas of poetry? (Real, meter-and-rhyme verses about real things?) I know I do! And when certain poems become a part of your family experience, quoting snippets at each other can be like an affirmation of love.
What surprises me into gratitude is how easily – not quite accidentally, but with very little stress – it happened for my family.
Something to Do with Your Kids
Summer is in swing for most of us, and if your kids are out of school, you may be looking for good activities to keep the days going. The Artful Parent has a list of 100 summertime activities for you to explore!
And Something to Watch
This week is the beginning of one of my favorite months: the World Cup. It comes around only once every four years, and if you’ve got any soccer (football) fans in your life, they’ve likely been salivating for the past few weeks for this tournament. So what makes the World Cup so great? The folks at FIFA made a video to tell us.
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 22 - June 21, 2025
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- The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 20 - June 7, 2025
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