It has been ten years since Emily and I opened the front door of our home to let 11 families in to borrow books. The families have multiplied, and the books have multiplied, and we have moved from that home to three other locations with its growth. But the work goes on. Week after week,… Read More Ten Years of Living Books
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As the year gently passed from summer to fall, I traveled through the turn of the season with many diverse novels, adult and children’s, that each kept me company in this swiftly passing September. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. I was told to read this book immediately, that I absolutely HAD to read… Read More Reading into Fall
Remember Mary Poppins’ sage advice? “A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down” and King Solomon’s wisdom: “A merry heart does good like medicine,” not to mention, “There is a time to laugh?” Are you, like me, often so consumed with the execution of daily duties, you forget that life should have a bit… Read More Just for Laughs
An author is nearly always that shadowy soul behind the story, a mysterious creator of the tale that comes alive for us and sticks with us after we have read to the last word. I mentioned that reading the Letters of E. B. White was a wonderful way for me to come to know one… Read More From A Writer on Writing
Most seven-year-olds would agree that reading is work. Those among them who love reading, having had many pleasurable hours in company with books, nevertheless, tackle the task with gusto. Few pleasures in life come to us without some effort—even experiencing nature takes deliberate preparation, time, and attention to be fully enjoyed. Still, with reading, I… Read More The Labor of Reading
As my son and I put his schoolbooks away together yesterday, I was telling him about my own seventh grade year. He was amazed at the differences. That I went off to school and shared classrooms with two dozen other students and had a different teacher for each subject, wasn’t surprising news to him; rather,… Read More A Living Difference
My 30-year-old son found out yesterday he probably has cancer, had surgery this morning, and while I was talking with him in the recovery room, he mentioned staying up very late the night before. He wasn’t worrying, he was writing. It seems he once read a book where a dying father with many young children… Read More Living the Tales Told (Ps. 90:9)
Like it or not, school is in session or nearly so. Homeschooling moms all over the country are scurrying to make final book choices. The last question turned in for my summer reading input concerns books for mom: “What should we moms be reading? How many books and on what subjects?” Good question. I am… Read More What About Mom’s School Books?
At the 2016 CMI conference, a mother approached me to share her reaction to my lecture the preceding year. I was awed and humbled, once again, to realize the tremendous impact that story has on our lives as persons—my story on her, and stories in general on her family. I asked her if she would… Read More Vision for Children—Or Parents?