by Sarah
Just for curiosity's sake, I'm tracking how many books I read. David and I read daily to the kids, too, so this isn't an exhaustive list. But I'll only note a children's book here if it particularly stands out to me.
Books of Scripture
Note – After completing my latest attempt at reading the Bible cover-to-cover, I took the month of April off.
- Gospel of John
- Gospel of Matthew
Children’s Picture Books
- Patience, Please (The Berenstain Bears)
- by Mike Berenstain
- Follows in the footsteps of the original Berenstain Bears, created by Mike’s parents, Stan and Jan Berenstain. This particular title is part of the “Living Lights, a Faith Story” series by Zonderkidz (Zondervan Publishing). The series advertises itself as “books [that] help children learn how God wants them to live every day.”
- I love the classic/original Berenstain Bears books, and we have a number of them. This particular title is the only one of the “Living Lights” series that I’ve read, so far. And, honestly, this one got a thumbs-down from me. I am hopeful it is not indicative of the quality of the rest of the books in the “Living Lights” series.
- In the story, the three bear cubs are given plots to plant their very own gardens, to teach them patience. Brother and Sister, the two older cubs, toil away meticulously weeding, tilling, planting seeds, and watering. They go back daily and wait impatiently for anything to sprout. Meanwhile, Honey, the youngest cub, simply scatters her seeds around a spot in the lawn (yes, grass-covered lawn), then runs off to chase a butterfly and (as far as we’re told) completely ignores her garden over the coming days. Finally, the big day arrives when Brother and Sister see teeny tiny shoots of green sprouting in the dirt that they worked so hard over and waited so (im)patiently for. As for Honey’s garden plot? Why, it is completely bursting with an overflowing rainbow of fully matured plants and fully bloomed flowers.
- So, my first problem with this book is, what exactly is it trying to teach children? Because the cub in the end who had the biggest reward was the one who put in the least amount of work and who didn’t have to exercise patience because she couldn’t have cared less. Unless this book is supposed to be an allegory for the flowers of the field and the birds of the air (Matthew 6:25-34), but that is more about worry and less about patience. So, I dunno.
- My second problem is that the verses seemed like they were looked up in Google and just plunked somewhere to make the story “Christian.” It felt forced, but I suppose that could just as easily be me.
- Tea Cakes for Tosh
- by Kelly Starling Lyons, illustrated by E. B. Lewis
- This is a poignant story about a grandmother and her grandson and the passing down of family lore and tradition. As Grandma Honey starts to lose her memories, grandson Tosh steps into the breach. This story is particularly meaningful in my family these days, as older family members are cognitively slowing down.
- The pictures are soft and full of love. I particularly like how Mr. Lewis uses different colors to complement different elements of the story. This makes a good discussion with kids about how artwork can enhance a narrative.
- The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real
- by Margery Williams, illustrated by Michael Green
- An old classic that everyone’s probably already read, but is still enjoyable. A story of the transforming power of love, as told from the perspective of a little boy’s beloved stuffed toy rabbit. A little long for antsy littles to sit through, but the narrative is vivid and evocative. The pictures are delightful and detailed; I only wish there were more of them.
- As I look at my grandparents (who hit 90 this year) and recognize the effects of gravity and age starting to show in my own appearance, I particularly appreciate this quote: “Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
- We Are in a Book
- by Mo Willems
- I am ambivalent about Mr. Willems’s Pigeon and Knuffle Bunny books, but absolutely love his Elephant & Piggie books. These are great for preschoolers and early readers, and always tickle my funny bone, too. Stories are engaging and touch on things that may be important in a child’s view but overlooked by an adult.
- The pictures are clean and simple. And yet it is amazing the amount of expressiveness that can be portrayed with a cartoon elephant and pig.
- In this particular title, Gerald (the elephant) and Piggie (I trust you to figure it out) realize that they are literally in a book, and have fun engaging with the reader. (Queen Bee gives giant belly laughs at this part of the story.) The friends are having so much fun that Gerald gets distressed when Piggie tells him the book will come to an end. Fortunately, they come up with a solution. (I won’t spoil the ending for you.)
- What Do You Do With a Problem?
- by Kobi Yamada, illustrated by Mae Besom
- An endearing story about a child who encounters a problem, worries and worries and worries about it, and learns to face it productively. Written in approachable language that is easy to relate to, and a good lesson for children (and adults!) of all ages.
- The illustrations are ethereal and expressive.
- Journey
- by Aaron Becker
- In the tradition of Where the Wild Things Are and Harold’s Purple Crayon, this wordless picture book shows the story of a bored little girl who uses a red crayon and a big imagination to go on adventures and meet new friends (both real and imaginary).
- There are two additional stories in this trilogy, but this one (the first) is my favorite. We’ve read this book so many times, I’ve had to tape more than a few pages back together.
- The pictures are whimsical and imaginative, and the story follows a pattern that makes it easier to “read” if you’re new to the art of storytelling. Think oral traditions or pop songs that tell a story, and find phrases you can repeat throughout the book. For us, those include “just the right size for a little girl with a big imagination,” “looked ahead to see where it would take her,” “beautiful purple bird with three long tail feathers,” “she thought about what she wanted to do,” “picked up her crayon and started to draw,” etc.
- It’s also a good book for teaching some social/emotional skills. “She was frightened because she didn’t want to be in a cage.” “She was excited because she had a new friend.” “Because she was a brave little girl…” “He said, ‘Thank you’ because he was a very polite little boy.”
- The Invisible String
- by Patrice Karst, illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
- This is a really sweet story a mom tells to her two children about the invisible string of love that ties all of us together, no matter where we are, and whenever we are apart.
- Even though there is only one line about death (“‘Can my String reach all the way to Uncle Brian in heaven?’ ‘Yes, even there.'”), this was a comfortable way to introduce the topic to our kids. The author’s note says that a number of people use it in grief groups, with children experiencing separation anxiety, with military personnel, etc.
- Though the word “heaven” is the only reference to a type of religion, the book would also make an easy way to start conversations about how Jesus’ love reaches to us wherever we are and connects us to other believers all over the world.
- The Tiniest Little Star
- by Cynthia Jensen, illustrated by Cynthia Jensen and Katrina Romney
- An affirming story for children who are different and struggling to fit in. A little star who is small and not very bright asks her mom why some things are harder for her than other stars her age. Her mother replies, “You are just right. You were made for a reason.” After making friends with another star who is different, she learns that what matters most is not how big she is or how brightly she shines, but rather the love that is shown from her heart.
Books in General
- The Cartoon History of the Universe III, from the Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance
- by Larry Gonick
- I’ve read all three volumes of Cartoon History of the Universe, now, and enjoyed them all. The book is lighthearted and paints in broad brushstrokes. It doesn’t go into much depth, but gives a good broad overview. The history of the church isn’t a particular focus, but is woven throughout as a tangent to other themes, and I find it helpful to see what occurred from an outsider’s (I’m assuming) perspective.
- One of the fun new facts I learned is that there was a Jewish community established in Ethiopia in the 500s BCE, and was there for millennia. (Most of the community immigrated to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s.)
- My one complaint is that there was nothing about history during this time in the Americas. Or Australia, come to think of it.
- Even though the book was lighthearted, I found myself mildly depressed while reading it. Reading about the endless rounds of war, conquest, sacking of cities, and slaughter of people groups against the backdrop of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine did not inspire much confidence in humanity.
- ADHD, What Every Parent Needs to Know (3rd edition)
- by Mark L. Wolraich (MD, FAAP) and Joseph F. Hagan Jr (MD, FAAP)
- Recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (and David’s mom, a retired pediatrician who worked with developmentally disabled children).
- This is the first ADHD book I’ve read, and I found it helpful. What is said echoes or complements what I’ve learned attending a couple (virtual) conferences and through other misc. readings. It seems pretty comprehensive and is well organized. It is written in an empathetic, approachable, and direct style style. It starts with a chapter on evaluation and diagnosis, proceeds through treatment options, parent and behavior management training, managing ADHD at home and at school, coexisting conditions, and looking ahead to adolescence and adulthood.
- Like the book on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by Temple Grandin (see my review for Quarter One, this one noted, “All children, with or without ADHD, do best when their parents recognize and build on their strengths [emphasis added]. By identifying and nurturing your own child’s special abilities and talents, you can encourage the self-esteem, confidence, and the competence necessary for him to succeed in life despite the obstacles that stand in his way. In a child with ADHD these strengths might include being fast on his feet, seeing things that others do not, using creative thinking, and being family oriented.”
- On that note, my one complaint was how this book handled ASD. It was identified as an “intellectual disability,” with zero mention of sensory challenges, though it did make a token nod to Asperger syndrome (aka “high-functioning” ASD).
- If you want to know why I find this problematic, watch this presentation on Understanding Autism through the Actually Autistic Lens, Forget Behavior: Understanding Autistic Cognition by Oswin Latimer, or any of the other presentations from that conference.
- Rhythm of War (book four of The Stormlight Archive)
- by Brandon Sanderson
- I think this should count as four books, given that it’s 1,219 pages long.
- I’ve been really enjoying this series of fantasy/science fiction novels. They have maps and artwork, too, which always makes me do a happy dance to find pictures in an adult novel. Sanderson tells really complex stories, but manages to hold all the strands together without it turning into Wheel of Time or Game of Thrones (both series of which I gave up on halfway through because it was getting too ridiculous). So far, at least. And, unlike Game of Thrones, it is not full of scenes of gratuitous violence or sex that I need to scrub from my brain afterwards.
- And if you’re skeptical of fantasy as a genre, or whether fiction in general has anything to teach us, let me lay out some of the themes that Sanderson explores in this series in particular:
- leadership (the good and the bad)
- repentance and change
- betrayal (and forgiveness)
- trying (and failing) to measure up to a parent’s expectations
- modesty (women in this series must cover their left hands, because left hands on a woman are unseemly)
- post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues (one major character literally has split personalities. The man she falls in love with is the one who can tell when she’s really herself. Isn’t that a beautiful picture of love?)
- gender roles (men are not allowed to read. Because, well, duh! They’re men!)
- colonialism (two different species have been at war for thousands of years. It’s only in book three of the series that one of the species realizes they aren’t natives to the planet.)
- And a few miscellaneous quotes that really stuck out to me, just for fun:
- “Dalinar had originally tried to regulate the thing. However, while he usually found the Windrunners agreeable to proper military decorum, they had absolutely refused to follow proper quartermaster requisition and mess requirements for their evening stews. Eventually Dalinar had done what any good commander did when faced by such persistent mass insubordination: He’d backed down. When good men disobeyed, it was time to look at your orders.”
- “Few men have the wisdom to realize when they need help. Fewer still will have the strength to go get it.”
- “If you spend your life knocking people down, you eventually find they won’t stand up for you.”
- “Why. So many answers to a why. You want the truest one, but any such truth is also a lie, as it pretends to be the only answer.”
- Where the Light Fell, a Memoir
- by Philip Yancey
- Yancey is one of my favorites; I read his book The Jesus I Never Knew shortly after becoming a believer in my mid-twenties and have read a number of his other books since then.
- This, his latest book, is a memoir mostly of his childhood and teenage years. I read it in the space of about two-and-a-half days, it was very absorbing. He recounts the contradictions he encountered growing up in a strict fundamentalist faith, how he left, and how he returned to a different kind of faith. After reading this, it is easy to see the connections to the questions he tends to ask in the other books he’s written about faith, grace, pain, and the nature of God.
- The book was raw and, at times, heartbreaking. I read it while writing my post on Better Resources for New Moms. Yancey describes the fundamentalist Christian parenting style he was raised under and the effects it had on him, and I’ve encountered a taste of this parenting style in one former church of mine in particular. And I have wanted to shake some of those parents (and the pastors recommending these awful resources) by the shoulders and shout, “In twenty years your children will want nothing to do with you and you will have no idea what went wrong!” Now I want to give them this book, instead. I am debating with myself whether to include it, because I also caution against using resources that include fearmongering, and I don’t want to indulge in fearmongering, myself…
- Twilight of Democracy, The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
- by Anne Applebaum
- Ms. Applebaum draws on her experience as a historian studying the Soviet Union and her personal life living and working in Europe to look at how democracies can turn to authoritarian regimes. Unlike some other political/social commentaries I could name, Ms. Applebaum cites her sources in the back of the book. Because she draws so extensively on her personal experiences, the book also reads a bit like a memoir. As she traces changes in relationships among her circle as politics becomes more polarized, I felt echoes of my own experiences. The book gave me a lot to think about.
- Like the ugliness of the “politics of resentment” (p 31). Or that “Unity is an anomaly. Polarization is normal. Skepticism about liberal democracy is also normal. And the appeal of authoritarianism is eternal” (p 56). The desire to be the group “to make the rules – whether the rules of trade, of economics, of foreign policy – if only their leaders would take the bull by the horns, take the bit between their teeth, if only they would just do it” (p 63). It gave me a lot to think about not just with politics, but also with church. If this is the state of politics in Western societies, how can the church or individual believers stand against this?
- Ms. Applebaum identifies herself as “conservative,” and as someone who grew up in a politically conservative family, I don’t disagree. She also points out several times that there are extremists on both the right and the left, though the focus of this book is more on right-wing extremism. She does write for more politically liberal publications, so there’s that. But, then, shouldn’t political conservatives want people who read politically liberal publications to hear an alternative viewpoint?
- My only complaint was something that jumped out by happenstance. On page 149, she calls Franklin Graham the president of Liberty University. And this brought to my attention that she relies sometimes on secondary sources even when the primary is readily available.
- People outside of the evangelical bubble could probably care less, but both Franklin Graham and Liberty University are big within the evangelical bubble. And Mr. Graham has never been president of Liberty University.
- Because Ms. Applebaum cites her sources (big plus in her favor), I was able to see where she quoted a secondary source (Right Wing Watch, a website suspicious of conservative extremists) who quoted Mr. Graham. If Ms. Applebaum had actually gone one-mouse-click further to the primary source (Washington Watch, a website suspicious of liberal extremists [this is getting fun, isn’t it]), she would have seen that Mr. Graham is actually president of the humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, not Liberty University.
- If Ms. Applebaum hopes to convince conservatives (many of whom identify as evangelical) to be wary of extremists in their midst (honestly, I don’t recall that she says who her audience is for the book), she needs to employ better research assistants or editors (or whoever’s responsibility this is). And even if she wants to thank a liberal-leaning, secondary source for bringing something to her attention, she’d be more convincing if she used primary source material more consistently, particularly when that primary source is someone conservatives are more inclined to trust and the secondary is more likely to put conservatives on their guard.
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
- by Mildred D. Taylor
- A Newberry Medal winner, published in 1976. I don’t know how I’ve managed to not read this book, yet. It’s reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird (I say that not having read the book in over a decade), but from the point of view of an African-American girl in the deep south in the 1930s.
- The book was breathtaking. I have no other words. Read it.
- I marked several passages in the book, but this one made me think of leadership in the church.
- As Mama is describing to African-American Cassie why she must behave respectfully to Caucasian Lillian Jean even when Lillian Jean doesn’t deserve it: “White people may demand our respect, but what we give them is not respect but fear. What we give to our own people is far more important because it’s given freely. Now you may have to call Lillian Jean ‘Miss’ because the white people say so, but you’ll also call our own young ladies at church ‘Miss’ because you really do respect them.”
- Church, what do we want from outsiders? Leaders, what do you want from your congregations? Genuine respect, or fear? (Hint – if you answered “fear,” you have a problem. Please go seek guidance from a licensed counselor.)
- The Confession of Saint Patrick and Letter to Coroticus
- translated by John Skinner, foreword by John O’Donohue
- At less than 100 pages, this is a light little book and maybe a good intro for someone wanting to dip their toes in the waters of early church writings. The foreword and prefaces set a good amount of context for the documents. This particular translation flowed ok, in my opinion, though the particular book I have (published by Doubleday in 1998) seems to have some formatting issues.
- I liked in particular Patrick’s style in his Letter to Coroticus. A Christian, British chieftain (Coroticus) had sent a raiding party to kill and enslave a number of Irish believers whom Patrick had only recently baptized. Patrick’s devotion to his flock (both men and women, some of whom he describes as more teenaged girls) is evident in the passion with which he excoriates Coroticus. Patrick urges all other Christians to have nothing to do with Coroticus until he does “penances so harsh that [his] tears pour out to God” (Part II.7).
- In light of the Guideposts report that was recently released regarding the Southern Baptist Convention, I think we could use a little more of Patrick’s passion.
- Something’s Not Right, Decoding the Hidden Tactics of Abuse and Freeing Yourself from its Power
- by Wade Mullen
- see my review here
- King of the Wind, the Story of the Godolphin Arabian
- by Marguerite Henry
- A Newberry Medal winner and historical fiction account of one of the founders of the Thoroughbred breed of horses. Written for young adults, it follows the story of an Arabian stallion and the boy who loves him from the palace of Morocco to the streets of Paris to the pastures of England. A delightful book to read when you need an escape from reality.
Total (General) for Quarter One – 14
Total (General) for Quarter Two – 9
Total (General) for Quarter Three – (forthcoming)
Total (General) for Quarter Four – (forthcoming)