Read for the Heart

New site!

This blog was the first draft of the website I've had in mind for quite awhile now.

I cordially, and very eagerly invite you now to the finished site, the butterfly emerged from the cocoon:

Storyformed!

Christmas Book Special!

Update: the special is over, but what fun. Thanks you all! If you would like to order the book, you can get it at wholeheart.org.

It's here! Nearly three years went into the writing of this "book on books," and I am so excited to finally be able to offer it to you. This volume is basically my tribute to the power of books in shaping my life. I feel passionately that great stories are one of the most compelling ways to shape great souls. I want to help families get the best children's literature into their homes and into the hands of their kids.

So, as part of the celebration of the book release, and in the spirit of Christmas revelry, I am offering a Christmas special on this book. If you place an order through the button below by Dec. 15, I will send you a signed copy of the book along with a beautiful Christmas card and a carefully selected quote on the glories of reading. You can place your order here. The books will be shipped out as soon as I receive them from the printer, around Dec. 6. A description of the book and table of contents is below. (If you want the book signed to a particular person, please specify that in the "special instructions" box into the Paypal checkout.)

 

From the back cover of Read for the Heart: A great book spurs the imagination in childhood, inspires our dreams in adulthood, and nourishes the soul with depictions of life fully and courageously lived. Among the greatest gifts you can bequeath to a child are a love for reading and a passion for books. Yet this is easier said than done. how do you sort through the many thousands of books at your bookstore or library to find those that are worthwhile?

Read for the Heart is the answer. Owning this volume is like having a children's librarian as a best friend. From timeless classics, to modern favorites, from picture books to adventure novels to read-aloud favorites, Read for the Heart is your guide to the best in children's literature for the Christian family. The finest authors and illustrator and more than 1500 great stories for young people are recommended with these pages.

Table of Contents:

Chapter One   Introduction: Reading to Live
Chapter Two   Reading Lost: The State of Literacy in America
Chapter Three   Life by Books: How to Begin
Chapter Four   A Roadmap: Getting Started with This Book
Chapter Five    Picture Books
Chapter Six   The Golden Age
Chapter Seven   Children’s Fiction
Chapter Eight   Fantasy and Fairy Tale
Chapter Nine   Historical Fiction and Literary Biography
Chapter Ten   Spiritual Works
Chapter Eleven   Poetry
Chapter Twelve   Nature & the Arts
    Part One: Art
    Part Two: Music
    Part Three: Nature

 

On Choosing Pictures Books

I apologize for the length in between posts! I am working hard on a book deadline which means I am distracted, but all for the sake of great literature. I've just been finishing up a chapter on picture books and have had ample time to think about what constitutes a classic in that genre. The following thoughts for your consideration are what I have decided are basic hallmarks:

• Artful Illustration: There is a wondrously wide field of painting, drawing and artwork that could be considered beautiful in the realm of children’s illustration. Some books reflect a near classical artistry while others are chock full of whimsy, fun, and downright silliness. My personal rule of thumb is to seek out illustration reflecting God’s created beauty, pictures that honor the human form and refrain from distortion or the absurd. I do have a personal disgust for books that are marked by inanity, seeming to assume a child incapable of deep thought or a developed sense of beauty. Whimsy is fun, inanity is not. That said, there are countless great illustrators. My favorites are Barbara Cooney, P.J. Lynch, Michael Hague, Thomas Locker, and Tasha Tudor to name a few.

• Simplicity of Story: Part of the delight of a great picture book is its ability to convey meaning and to communicate a heart-affirming story in words simple enough to captivate the mind of a child. While never simplistic, the best stories have depth and interest while remaining accessible to a child’s growing comprehension.

• Redemptive Endings: Childhood is, in its essence, the time of innocence. Thus, I am careful to stock my shelves with stories that, while not avoiding the reality of grief and struggle, choose to dwell on what is good and to end in hope. In their littlest years, children need to be formed mostly by goodness and beauty. In their innocence, they understand good and evil more in terms of nice or naughty, and it is vital to give them a foundation of what is healthy, moral, and beautiful before exposing them too early to more explicit evil.

Of late, a few of my favorite picture books:

Yonder by Tony Johnston

When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest and P.J Lynch

The Money Tree by Sarah Stewart

Reading About Reading

One of the boons of researching the book I am writing (a handbook guide to children's literature) is that I've done an awful lot of reading ON reading. I've found some brilliant books that use profound and poetic persuasion (there's a bit of aliteration for you!) to convince their readers of the central, soulful importance of books in the making of a great human heart. Two of them have been the sort of reading that ends with my pulse being a little stronger; great ideas ought always to do that. I thought you might enjoy a bit of their vim as well:

A Landscape with Dragons by Michael O'Brien
Eloquent, intuitive, O'Brien talks in the book about the vital importance of fairy tales throughout history and their powerful use of spiritual images. He vividly illustrates the long tradition of symbols used to portray goodness (light, beauty, bravery, prince/princess, unicorn) and evil (dragon, ogre, darkness, ugliness), and the way that they created clear ideas of morality within the children to whom they were so faithfully told. His evaluation of postomdern thought in children's literature is succinct and compelling.

Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian
The fascinating result of the author's (also a professor of literature) combining of two college classes, one on ethics and one on classic children's literature, this book illuminates how powerfully classic stories kindle morality in the heart of a child. With each chapter written around a specific classic story (such as The Velveteen Rabbit, or The Little Mermaid) , this is a practical and insightful guide into the moral universe of children's literature.

Book Review: Brambly Hedge

There are a few series of books throughout my childhood that were so intricately illustrated and vividly told that I remember them as if they were a place I visited, some perfect little corner of the earth. Such is the Brambly Hedge Series. The author, Jill Barklem, spent years in researching country customs and crafts, living the happy, creative life portrayed in her books before she set to illustrating them in her books. Such was her success that there is a near tangible quality to my memories of her books, and that is high recommendation indeed.

These picturesque  tales are set in the English countryside and are the ongoing adventures of a close-knit community of forest mice; their celebrations, escapades and family dramas. The Hedge is quite gently governed by Lord and Lady Woodmouse from their home in the Old Oak Palace, but the community as a whole lives quite close, all sharing from the communal Store Stump, the gathering place for the bountiful fruit, nuts and goods gathered through the bright summer days and run by Mr. Apple.

The illustrations are a visual feast of homes crammed to the corners with delightful books, pictures and bits of nature, and the stories are rich in their affirmation of life, family, simple living and the joy of natural beauty in the midst of community. I have to admit that I have found myself really drawn to these again as I have gotten older and found that it isn't always easy to maintain so lovely a view and practice of life as these darling mice. I yearn to live a bit more as they do in Brambly Hedge, to celebrate the seasons, cook well, live in community, explore. These stories are adorable, yes, but they're also inspiring, even if peopled by fluffy white mice.

You could start with any of the books, though the four seasonal stories were written first:
Spring Story
Summer Story
Autumn Story
Winter Story
The High Hills
The Secret Staircase
Sea Story
Outings For the Mice of Brambly Hedge
Baby Mice in Brambly Hedge
Poppie’s Babies
Wilfred to the Rescue

Head here to visit the official Brambly Hedge Site.

Summer Picture Books!

Here are some of my long-time favorite picture books to companion the hot, bright days of summer fun. Perhaps they'll inspire you to some new adventures... or some lazing about.

When the Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
The perfect tale to begin the summer. Rollicking illustrations and humorous storytelling all about a big, laughing family and their summer reunion.

Roxaboxen by Barbara Cooney
Just in time for the long, warm days of summer, a delightful little book about imagined worlds crafted from the stuff of the outdoors. Roxaboxen was the imagined world of a group of children at the turn of the century with streets made from the rainbow glimmer of broken glass, currency in black pebbles, and a whole desert for countryside. Read this to your kids and then send them outdoors.

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
A classic by much-beloved author Robert McCloskey. The humurous tale of a little girl enamored of the fresh blueberries all round her, and her encounter with a bear who feels the same way.

When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant
Cynthia Rylant's picturesque memoirs from her years growing up in Appalachia.

All Those Secrets of the World by Jane Yolen
A slightly contemplative, sad/sweet picture book from the viewpoint of a little girl during the two years her father is away in WWII. Luminous illustrations, poignant.

Through Grandpa's Eyes by Patricia MacLachlan
A gentle story of a grandfather's love for his grandson and the beauty they find together.

Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge
The adorable tale of a little boy determined to help an old woman regain her memory.

Heart Awake

Having recently reread at least a little bit of the Chronicles of Narnia (you know, the whole movie thing) I have been immersed all over again in the stories that shaped a lot of the way I view life, Prince Caspian definitely being one of them. I have been a little astonished to realize how strongly the vivid, imaginative stories I read as a child have formed my view of myself in the way I picture heroism or courage or even morality. It helped me to realize, yet again, that childhood reading isn't just a fascinating or entertaining or educational activity, it is deeply moral.

I remembered today that I read first, to waken my heart. As a child, my moral imagination was kindled by the stories I read. Even in the first books I encountered as a child, picture books and short tales, I learned to love beauty. The great stories of children's literature provide me with an introduction into a world that is fundamentally moral, a world meant to be good despite the evil lurking in the corners. As an adult, those same stories keep my heart alive to goodness. Those stories crafted an inner world of my heart from which, even in adulthood, I make my decisions and form my values. It is to this world that I turn again and again to convince me of a beauty that is still to be desired, a greatness to still be hoped for despite the ruinous days of life in a fallen world. The great stories were my first building blocks in the construction of a strong, redemptive soul. I will never escape the first, vivid beauty of those tales.

It's something to think about.

Good Reads

I've just discovered a really great book networking site, Goodreads. It's just a way to keep a list of all the great books you and your friends are reading, post quotes, reviews, and share all sorts of fun literary information. I'm working on listing all the books I've read in the last couple of years, and have also started a group for this blog if anyone is interested in joining. Have fun!

The Much-Desired Book List

For all of you who requested... here 'tis! And for all of you who didn't, well, have fun anyway. You can never know about too many good books now can you? I began this list for the talks I did at the WHM conferences this year. I tend to talk too quickly in my speeches for people to write everything down, so here is the list in its completed glory:

Picture Books
1. When I Was Young In the Mountains (Cynthia Rylant)
2. When the Relatives Came (Cynthia Rylant)
3. Bunny Bungalow (Cynthia Rylant)
4. Miss Rumphius (Barbara Cooney)
5. Roxaboxen (Barbara Cooney)
6. Only Opal (Barbara Cooney)
7. The Brambly Hedge Series (Jill Barklem)
8. The Boy Who Held Back the Sea (Thomas Locker)
9. The Young Artist (Thomas Locker)
10. Fritz and the Beautiful Horses (Jan Brett)
11. The Bear Who Heard Crying (Natalie Kinsey Warnock)
12. All the Places to Love (Patricia MacLachlan)
13. A Song for Lena (Hilary Horder Hippely)
14. Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown)
15. Make Way For the Ducklings (Robert McCloskey)

Children's Classics
1. Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie)
2. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)
3. The Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
4. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
5. The Tales of Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)
6. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Beatrix Potter)
7. The Anne Series (L.M. Montgomery)
8. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
9. Little Men (Louisa May Alcott)
10. Kidnapped (Robert Louis Stevenson)
11. Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
12. The Water Babies (Charles Kingsley)
13. The Railway Children (E. Nesbit)
14. The Treasure Seekers (E. Nesbit)
15. Heidi (Johanna Spyri)

Children's Fiction
1. The Little Britches Series (Ralph Moody)
2. All of A Kind Family (Sydney Taylor)
3. Caddie Woodlawn (Carol Ryrie Brink)
4. The Winter Cottage (Carol Ryrie Brink)
5. Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes)
6. The Good Master (Kate Seredy)
7. Carry On Mr. Bowditch (Jean Lee Latham)
8. Ellen (E.M. Almedingen)
9. Across Five Aprils (Irene Hunt)
10. I, Juan de Pareja (Elizabeth Borton de Trevino)
11. The Journeyman (Elizabeth Yates)
12. Escape from Warsaw (Julian Padowicz)
13. The Trumpeter of Krakow (Eric Kelly)
14. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken)
15. Because of Winn Dixie (Kate DiCamillo)

Fairy Tale/Fantasy
1. The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
2. The Princess and the Goblins (George MacDonald)
3. The Princess and the Curdie (George MacDonald)
4. At the Back of the North Wind (George MacDonald)
5. The Light Princess (George MacDonald)
6. The Lost Princess (George MacDonald)
7. Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
8. The Redwall Series (Brian Jacques)
9. Dangerous Journey (John Bunyan)

Kim Lewis

Sorry for the terribly long time in between posts!

It's taken me a couple of weeks to get my world to stop whirling after the summer in England. But now that I'm relatively sane again, I'm excited to show you a few of the literary treasures I found during my summer adventure. There are bookshops galore over there and I certainly explored a bunch and found a few out-of-print beauties. But the books I'm featuring today were an entirely accidental find in a Lake District shop.

I knew of Kim Lewis from the single book of hers that made it into our library: First Snow was one of Joy's (my little sister) and my favorite read-alouds. We both loved the simply told tale of a little girl and her mother on a hill farm in England and of their foray out into the pastures to herd in the sheep as the first snowstorm crept in. Joy loved the sheepdog especially. The pictures were half the appeal of the book with their realistic, but lovely portrayal of life in the hills, all drawn in warm, earthy colors.

Thus, imagine my surprise and delight when, rumbling through the corners of a print shop, I found four Kim Lewis books on half price sale and so bought the last four titles they had. I don't know why I had never searched to find more of her titles before, but I've been thoroughly delighted to discover that she has a large body of work. Her books are simple, wholesome, based on the English farm life that she and her husband actually live. The realistic, wholesome nature of her pictures and the warm colors she chooses are perfectly suited to the eyes of little children as they begin to discover the wonder of the real world around them. (A quality which I find quite refreshing in an age of illustration whose whimsy sometimes borders on inanity.)

I'm eager to add more of these to my collection, but for now, am quite content to sit down with my four lucky finds:

Emma's Lamb
Floss
The Last Train
Friends

If you're interested, head over to Kim Lewis' quite welcoming website. You'll find a full page of her books with samples of story and picture, as well as a little more information on her life in the hills of England. Meanwhile, I'm off to enjoy the first of September with a cup of tea and these beautiful books.