Book reviews

There are floor to ceiling bookshelves in every room of my home and they are all filled with books that we love. We read a LOT and we quote a LOT and we dramatize scenes from our favorite fiction a LOT. In the mid-aughts of 2000, my three oldest children made their...

My kids are currently listening to Queen’s Greatest Hits album on repeat. They’re big fans of “You’re My Best Friend”, and we’ve had a bunch of conversations as we drive to field days and swimming and piano about what makes someone a best friend. What character traits...

Perhaps you, too, have your cell phone in use more than you would like? Perhaps you, too, continue to work on finding ways to leave it behind, only to find that you need to keep it close because you know one of your children or your aging parents will be calling and...

I’ve been working in children’s and family ministries for over two decades and have been parenting for an almost equal number of years. So many children’s Bibles have come across my desk in those years, and sadly, very few are worth using. The Peace Table, from Shine...

I spend a LOT of time with children; reading with them, tying shoes, hiking, cleaning up with them, and answering their questions. I work really hard at being present to answer their questions and talk about what matters to them, but there are times where I’m...

Full disclosure: I practice yoga. It is a respite for me, despite the fact that I often have a toddler hanging off my back as I move from down dog to a lunge into warrior one. I appreciate how there is flux in my practice, never moving through the series of poses the...

Twenty years ago, I served as the director of Christian Education in a congregation in the town where I lived. Whenever the kids would see me out at the grocery store, the library, or playground, they would get all flustered because they thought I actually lived at...

I spend a lot of time with children. In fact, it would be fair to state that I binge-watch kids. I love to hear about what matters to them, I love to be involved in their wonderings, I love watching them gain new skills and develop into the humans God created them to...

Have you ever hedgehogged a book? Put so many sticky notes and bookmarks in it that there are pieces of paper sticking out in every direction, akin to the quills on a hedgehog? That’s how my copy of The Purpose Gap; Empowering Communities of Color to Find Meaning and...

I think it’s fair to say that everyone has a subtle rhythm to their households, myriad little practices that flow into one another that help us make room for what matters, equip us to get the small tasks that make up the flow of our lives completed. I am hearing over...