Whenever I mention that good books are disappearing, someone is sure to bring up Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451. I remember avoiding that book because I wasn’t much of a science fiction aficionado; however, when I did finally read it, I couldn’t put it down. Of course it seemed ludicrous that firemen instead of putting… Read More Is Truth Stranger Than Fiction?
Don’t forget to leave a comment on this post about a favorite mother you know from literature to be included in the give-away drawing for a chance to win a book for yourself or a mother you know.
Yesterday we heard one of the most exciting sounds to us, the kind that arrests our attention, brings an instant smile of joy and skip of the heart: it was the in-drawn audible gasp of delight of a five-year-old boy in our library. He had spotted a book he had never read by an author he loves and he was rapturous.… Read More How Can I Get my Child to Read?
If you’ve read a lot of books, you’ve met a lot of characters. Some of the people we get to know in books remain with us for life, fond memories. The examples they set for us often are just as influential as some living people we’ve known. When I mention “Marmee,” do you know right off who I… Read More Famous Mothers I Have Known
If you enjoy reading, or would like to, you might find yourself pulling books off your shelf, checking them out from the library, or borrowing them from friends and setting them on the bedside table with the best intentions of reading them. If your life is even a little like mine, your days are packed and by the time… Read More Guilt Piling Up on the Nightstand
Little Britches (and others in the series) by Ralph Moody When the family moves to Colorado in hopes of a curative effect on his father’s health, Ralph learns that he must step up to help the family survive. Through the first few books Ralph’s character is honed, and by the end of the series we… Read More Top Picks: Dealing with Adversity
“I always thought that libraries were repositories of all the best in literature that had ever been written,” my friend Michelle Miller shared, “but then I started noticing that a lot of the good old books just weren’t there anymore.” She began doing a little detective work about their mysterious disappearance. Before disclosing her findings,… Read More So Where Have All the Good Books Gone?
Sometimes children have trouble with reading and sometimes their parents do. Today’s parents are the first generation who do not remember life without televisions and computers. This is partly responsible for a decline in reading in general, and the kinds of books we read in particular. It is encouraging that so many parents today still… Read More Trouble with Reading
After I share my conviction that children need narrative to effectively learn, it is inevitable that some moms respond to me with their difficulty in implementing story in their children’s lives. Their concerns or objections vary in detail, but generally boil down to their child’s own assertion that they don’t like to read. This is not necessarily because they lack the… Read More I get what you’re saying, but…
Several years ago at a workshop Emily and I were holding on Charlotte Mason’s method of education, we were addressing her way of teaching the Bible. A mother who was there shared a revelation she had recently had while reading a biography of the poet, William Blake, to her children. It dawned on her suddenly as she read of… Read More A Book for Good Friday