Book reviews

Anyone who has spent time with young children in the days leading up to Christmas knows the energy that they bring to the season. The wonder with all the lights, the charge as the decorations trim the tree, the excitement while decorating cookies- there’s nothing...

There is a handful of book series that my children adore; The Chronicles of Narnia, The Penderwicks, Harry Potter, and anything by Robert McCloskey and Virginia Lee Burton. They have created many impromptu plays around the stories, recreated the worlds from the...

We all know the pithy saying from Benjamin Franklin about what is certain in life; death and taxes. I would add that pain is something else that is common to the human condition. There are varying sources, degrees, and manifestations of pain, but it comes to us all....

Remember the television show, Cheers? Remember how a certain character would walk into the place and everyone would call out, “NORM!” That’s me when I walk into a library or our local bookstore. I rarely leave home with a book, and that’s because I usually leave with...

There was an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Penny accidentally shot Sheldon’s favorite couch cushion with a paintball. Penny winds up taking the cushion to the dry cleaner, and Sheldon has a hard time adjusting to a different seat while he waits for its return....

I am not a person who lays down rules when teaching a class. I find them to be prescriptive, and not of the behaviors we desire in the classroom community, but of the ones we try to prevent. I also find that they create an environment where children are either nervous...

I have a lovely stack of what I refer to as ‘boosters’. These are resources that fill in gaps, go more deeply into topics, and are versatile enough to be the spines of lessons as well as excellent support resources. They boost up just about anything I need to use with...

I began a new position a week ago, and as is wont to happen when you walk into a new space, you find that you have closets, classrooms, and other areas to sift through and organize. I had just finished pulling out a box filled with catalogs and magazines from 1989,...

If you ever want a good laugh, you should gather my older three children and have them do a live action version of The Pilgrim’s Progress. We have read many different adaptations of this book over their childhoods, really sinking into the original when they got...

It gets tiring as a children’s minister and as a parent having to constantly check for proper representation of God’s children in books. Combing through curriculum, finding ways to supplement so that every child can see him/her/themself in the lessons takes a lot of...