Carolyn Leiloglou is the author of Library’s Most Wanted and the Noah Green Junior Zookeeper series. Her poems and stories have been published in Highlights, Clubhouse Jr., Cricket, and more. You can find her on her blog, housefullofbookworms.com, where she reviews her favorite children’s books each month.
Finding the Right Words: A Review of Little Prayers for Ordinary Days
As a child, I was terrified of being asked to pray aloud. It always seemed like other people—usually adults—knew all the right words and how to string them together. And even if I thought my everyday words were good enough, there was the problem of focusing so hard on finding those words that I was no longer praying with my heart, only my mouth. If you assume this is something I just grew out of, you’d only be partially right.
Read More ›Reading with Open Eyes & Hearts: A Review of Steeped in Stories by Mitali Perkins
Mitali Perkins is the author of many wonderful books for children ranging from picture books to young adult novels. But I first heard of her not through her books but through this article she wrote for Christianity Today in which she claims the classic books she read as a child paved the way for her to later accept Jesus. When I learned she’d be discussing these classic children’s novels in more depth in her new book, Steeped in Stories: Timeless Classics to Refresh Our Weary Souls, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
Read More ›The Heart of a Child: A Review of Hand to Hold by JJ Heller
When my kids were little, they loved when I read to them—they still do—and they especially loved when I sang to them, even though my voice is nothing special. But putting those two activities together, a book you could sing, that was a favorite that they would beg for again and again.
Read More ›When Words Become Art: A Review of Go and Do Likewise
John Hendrix has created his own unique style by blurring the boundary between text and art, melding it into cohesive story. Nowhere is this more evident than in Miracle Man, his first picture book about Jesus, where Jesus’s very words become an integral part of the illustrations, showing the power of the man who was the word made flesh. When I heard that Hendrix was creating a follow up book, Go and Do Likewise: the Parables and Wisdom of Jesus, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
Read More ›ADVENTure of the Unexpected: A Review of Slugs & Bugs’ “Make Ready for Christmas”
It’s 2020 and the holidays this year will look different for most of us. Events we look forward to all year may have been cancelled: family Christmas parties, church cookie exchanges, and *sniff, sniff* the Behold the Lamb Tour.
Read More ›Recover Wonder: A Review of Jesus and the Very Big Surprise
When I first read Jesus and the Very Big Surprise by Randall Goodgame, illustrated by Catalina Echeverri, I didn’t expect to actually be surprised. But I was.
Read More ›Jack and his Brother: A Review of Finding Narnia
If you’re reading this, I think it’s safe to assume you love C. S. Lewis and are familiar with at least some of his work, if not his life. Perhaps you are also an artist of some kind, and you long for that Inkling-like fellowship with other artists that Lewis and Tolkien seemed to have enjoyed and that many of us find at Hutchmoot. But what we don’t often consider is that one of Lewis’s primary relationships was not with another artist but with his very practically-minded brother.
Read More ›The Power of Story: A Review of Slugs & Bugs Books
Our family has long enjoyed Randall Goodgame’s Slugs & Bugs albums, and even though my older kids have outgrown asking for them, you might still overhear my 14-year old singing “Tractor Tractor” on occasion. What makes those albums so appealing is Goodgame’s ability to draw kids in with his just-right balance of silliness and sincerity, laughter and lesson.
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