Introduction We’ve added a Summer Reading Challenge tab at the top of our website, to help you keep up with the posts as the summer goes on. Here’s a link if you’d like to check it out! This week in our trip Around the World in 60 Days, we’re staying in the U.S. for a [...]
Our Around the World reading challenge book this week is The Middle of Somewhere, and it’s written by . . . um . . . me. If I were not me, I might be objecting right now that assigning one’s own book for a readers’ challenge is incredibly self-seeking (and actually, a small corner of [...]
If you’re new to our Summer Reading Challenge, welcome! If you started our Around the World adventure last week with us, congratulations and let’s continue our journey. This week we’re taking a road trip across Middle America. The Middle of Somewhere by J. B. Cheaney. Knopf, 2007. 224 pages. Worldview Rating: 4.5; Literary Rating: 4. [...]
Earlier this year, when I first heard the name Robert Siegel doing research for these book reviews last April at World Magazine, I learned Siegel was a Christian poet who had recently gone home to his reward. (Not to be confused with NPR reporter Robert Siegel–same name, very different guy.) But he wasn’t just any [...]
***This Giveaway is Now Over. But Please Feel Free to Join the Conversation at the end! Pilipinto’s Happiness: The Jungle Childhood of Valerie Elliot, by Valerie Shepard (Vision Forum, 2012). Reading a book about growing up among the wild animals of the Amazon jungle put my recent concerns about a few black widow spiders in [...]
Throwing Strikes: My Quest for Truth and the Perfect Knuckleball, by R. A. Dickey. Dial, 2013, 296 pages. Age/interest level: 12-16. Last year Dickey’s autobiography, Wherever I Wind Up, won fulsome praise across the reviewing spectrum, from Publishers Weekly to ESPN to WORLD Magazine. The particular qualities praised were the author’s literary style, humility, and [...]
Aside from the beach, nothing says “summertime” and “American” more than a game of baseball, complete with hot dog, iced beverage, bleachers, and the elusive foul ball dropping into the stands. Our local Minor League team has great promotions all summer that include regular fireworks, $1 hot dog night, bring-your-dog night, and many more. AND, [...]
We have some big plans for the summer, which Emily will share tomorrow. For today, here are some great picture books that tie in with some of the themes we’re going to explore. Such as TRAVEL The Not-for-Parents Travel Book, Lonely Planet Publications, 2011, 207 pages. Age/interest level: 6-up. Australians are probably the greatest travelers [...]
Chasing Jupiter, by Rachel Coker. Zondervan, 2012, 221 pages. Age/interest level: 12-up. Our story begins in small-town Georgia, 1969—but 16-year-old Scarlett’s world seems even smaller than the town. Since her rebellious older sister Juli is sneaking out at all hours, so much responsibility falls on Scarlett that there’s no time for friends or extra-curricular activities. [...]
As noted in last Tuesday’s post, I encountered Maurice Sendak when I was myself a child. My acquaintance with Russell Hoban had to wait until I had children of my own, and we met over that classic childhood dilemma: going to bed and staying there. Bedtime for Frances, published in 1960, introduced a self-willed, imaginative, [...]
We’re rounding out our Poetry Month coverage with three books for middle-graders: Gone Fishing: a Novel in Verse, by Tamera Will Wissinger, illustrated by Matthew Cordell. Houghton Mifflin, 2013, 120 pages. Age/interest level: 6-up. The night before, Sam and his dad hunted night crawlers: Grass slick/ Worms thick/ tiptoe near and grab them quick. (Tercet [...]
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