Have you ever heard the story of Dewey, the kitten who was dropped in the book return slot at a library in Iowa on a cold winter night? If not, you need to read Dewey the Cat.
Did you know that the majestic marble lions outside a New York Public Library building have names? World-renowned Patience and Fortitude appear in lovely picture books and even a wordless book.
Snow is drifting down outside. A warm fire is burning in our woodstove. Christmas music is streaming through our speakers. It’s the time of year when I want to spend all my time curled up under a fuzzy blanket, with a mug of hot tea in one hand and a Christmas book in the other….
I would never have guessed I would be buying graphic novels for my children. But that’s because I mistakenly equated graphic novels with comics. I now know graphic novels aren’t just collections of comic strips like Peanuts or Family Circus (though our whole family loves the works of Bil Keane and Charles Schulz!); graphic novels…
Someday we should open a bookstore… We’ve said it to each other for years, from our first dates (siblings in tow!) at The Book Bin, to our honeymoon when we found every used bookstore in each town we visited (and came home with a stack of children’s books). We repeat it when we leave the…
When a friend pulled her kids out of public school to homeschool them last November, the first thing I did was gather a stack of books about homeschooling to loan her. But what I really wish I’d added to the pile is a few picture books about homeschooling for her kids. That was pre-pandemic. Now…
I grew up less than a mile from our local public library. It was back in the day when there were rows and rows of little drawers holding the card catalog, each card representing a book on the library’s shelves. To check out a book, you signed your name on the card you pulled from…
I may have spent the better part of my childhood pretending I was Queen Lucy, but the Chronicles of Narnia and George MacDonald’s Scottish tales were as close as I got to Medieval fiction. Until our pastor’s wife offered me a copy of her book, Sirocco Wind from the East. And as I delved into…
“Any letters?” One of my children asks the oh-so-hopeful question almost every single day when they see me walking back from the mailbox, flipping through the mail. And oh the delight–the raptures–when an epistle has arrived from one of their pen pals! My children come by it naturally. I’ve been writing letters to my pen…
Herbert and Alma were married on September 26, 1929. Just over one month later, the stock market crashed. By the time the effects of the Great Depression were felt in Ohio, Herbert was out of work and he and his new bride had to move in with his parents, Marion and May. They hadn’t fared…
I was Lucy the Valiant, Queen of Narnia. In one hand I grasped my shield–a metal garbage can lid–and in the other I held a wooden sword. Together with my brother, Peter, High King of Narnia, we vanquished the White Witch and brought spring to Narnia once again. The books I read as a child…
I met my husband when we were thirteen years old. Our families exchanged mailing addresses after a “chance” meeting and a few hours’ conversation in Yellowstone National Park. His big sister became one of my many pen pals. Soon so did his little sister. And then one day, when I was 17 years old, I…
At any given hour of the day, you can hear Thornton W. Burgess audiobooks in one room of our home, Jim Weiss’ reading of Story of the World in another. Other times it’s The Wingfeather Saga in the girls’ room, and The Tales of Larkin in their brother’s room. I have to ask them (approximately…
The End.
The End.