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Echoes Among The Stones by Jaime Jo Wright
Not Over Echoes Among The Stones by Jaime Jo Wright is a marvellous dual timeline Christian suspense that will completely consume your heart, soul and emotions. One character straddles the two timelines. She is a teen in 1946 and a grandmother in present day. The past intrudes on the present as old crimes need solving […]
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Bible Review: CSB Seven Arrows
CSB Seven Arrows: the How-to-Study Bible for Students. B&H Kids, 2019, 1350 pages (9.5-point font) Reading Level: Teen, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 13-18 “Seven Arrows” is an approach to Bible study developed mainly (I think) by Matt Rogers, of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. From that angle, this Bible is well-titled. All in-text features are intended to instruct the reader how to ask seven questions (represented by arrows) meant to get to the meaning and application of the passage. The questions are What does the passage say?What did it mean to the original audience?What does it tell us about God?What does it tell us about man?What does it demand of…
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CSB Heart of God Study Bible for Teens
CSB Heart of God Teen Study Bible. Baker, 2019, 1712 pages (9-point font) Reading Level: Teen, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 12-18 The theme of this teen Bible comes through loud and clear: the Bible is a book about God, and rather than starting with our feelings and responses to it, the place to begin is with God’s purposes and actions. Extensive book introductions summarize the theme and message of each book, then provide back-matter in the form of author, audience, and probable date or dates. An outline of the book and its place in the biblical narrative rounds out the introduction. The text is divided up into separate readings,…
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Exploring the Bible Together by David Murray
Exploring the Bible Together launches families on a year-long journey through Scripture in a way that’s both practical and effective. Exploring the Bible Together: a 52-Week Family Worship Plan by David Murray, with artwork by Scotty Reifsnyder. Crossway, 2020, 219 pages. Recommended for: All ages, targeted at children ages 4-12. In the introduction to this devotional guide, David Murray points out three potential problems with family worship time: overambitious plans (trying to create a mini-church after dinner), no plans (Scripture readings with no focus), and questionable spiritual benefit (lack of application or interaction). Exploring the Bible Together addresses these shortcomings with a structured plan that takes families through major themes…
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Lost Down Deep by Sara Davison
Receive His Gift Lost Down Deep by Sara Davison is a marvellous Christian contemporary suspense that will have you on the edge of your seat as you read. It is part of the Mosaic Collection. The novel concerns temporary amnesia as a character forgets their recent past but remembers their relationship with God. This […]
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*Get Your Story Straight by Kristen Hatton
Get Your Story Straight is a straightforward devotional guide that invites teens to study the story of Scripture, focusing the real hero of the story. Hint: it’s not them. *Get Your Story Straight: A Teen’s Guide to Learning and Living the Gospel by Kristen Hatton. New Growth Press, 2015. 288 pages. Reading Level: Ages 12-15 Recommended For: Ages 12-15 (and up) Today’s teens are growing up in a narcissistic culture: selfies are a primary mode of expression. Social media is essentially a collection of monologues rather than old-fashioned conversation. And nothing “counts” if we don’t Instagram it (or Snapchat or fill-in-the-blank new version). Humanity has always been this way, though.…
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Everywhere Holy by Kara Lawler
Standing On Holy Ground Everywhere Holy by Kara Lawler is a powerful book about finding God everywhere. – He is in the mundane as well as the miraculous. We find Him in the valley and on the mountaintop. We meet with God in nature and in church. God is everywhere we are. He is nowhere […]
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A Family Easter
What were you doing last February? Possibly, after Valentine’s Day passed and stores cleared their shelves for St. Patrick’s, you were seeing some Easter chicks and ducks, lilies and daffodils peeking out from the green. You might have started working on your church’s annual Easter cantata, or (if you’re a traditionalist) thinking about for new dresses for the girls and dress shoes for the boys. Easter dinner might have been lurking in the back of your mind: who to invite, what special dessert to serve. Or the Saturday egg hunt, the biggest community outreach of the year. Now what? For the secular world, Easter is going to follow St. Patrick’s…
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Dark Corners by Darren O’Sullivan
Building Suspense Dark Corners by Darren O’Sullivan is a cracking psychological thriller that will have the hairs on the back of your neck rising as the tension builds. The novel has two time frames – now and twenty one years earlier – the action is inextricably linked. The reader holds their breath as the novel […]
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The House At Silvermoor by Tracy Rees
Riveting The House At Silvermoor by Tracy Rees is an epic historical novel set in the south Yorkshire coalfields and beginning in 1897, moving into the new century. The reader sees the hardship of the time. The miners are at the mercy of their superiors and the coal face. Their days are long and dangerous. […]
