A Film Review? Film reviews are not prominent here on Redeemed Reader. However, we all enjoy a good film adaption of a favorite book or series! And, we have strong Opinions on the “right” film versions of some classics. You are our people if you prefer the 1995 BBC Version of Pride and Prejudice or the 1985 Anne of Green Gables mini-series with Megan Follows. Another family favorite in the Farquhar household is the Muppets’ version of Treasure Island, reviewed below by Betsy’s teenaged daughter. We’re recommending movies like this as family activities for those participating in our summer reading program, Hope on the Horizon, this summer! Muppet Treasure Island…

Lois Lenski books continue to be enjoyable and insightful reading for all ages. Lois Lenski Books Yesterday I shared a long-overdue introduction to an author who has greatly influenced my life. Isn’t it funny how it happens? First, Mom read Puritan Adventure and Strawberry Girl aloud. Then, because most of Lenski’s regionals were housed in my room, I read and re-read Judy’s Journey, Mama Hattie’s Girl, Blueberry Corners, Indian Captive, and others. While pursuing my M.A. in Children’s Literature at Hollins University, I decided to examine Lenski’s female characters for my thesis. Six of her books paired very conveniently for my purposes, and I was thrilled to find redemptive patterns…

Who was Lois Lenski? Lois Lenski was a prolific author who lived from the end of the 19th-century long into the 20th. She was a Midwesterner, daughter of R.C.H. Lenski (a Lutheran minister whose commentaries were regularly mentioned from the pulpit by my non-Lutheran pastor), and a Newbery-award winner whose line drawings enhanced all of her books. Why Lenski Matters to Me Lenski’s work has made a deep impression on me. My mother read Puritan Adventure, Indian Captive, and Strawberry Girl aloud to us; I devoured many others on my own, including Judy’s Journey, Mama Hattie’s Girl, and Coal-Camp Boy. I wrote my master’s thesis on Lenski’s strong female characters,…

Mañanaland presents a dreamlike Latin-American landscape and a young boy taking a giant step toward adulthood. Mañanaland by Pam Muños Ryan. Scholastic, 2020, 247 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10 Recommended for: ages 10-14 Somewhere in the Americas, many years after one-upon-a-time and long before happily-ever-after, a boy climbed the cobbled steps of an arched bridge in the tiny village of Santa Maria, in the country of the same name. The boy is Maximiliano Cordoba, or Max, the only son of a stone mason who has inherited his father’s and grandfather’s talent for (and love for) soccer. He’s secure in his small village with good friends and a loving…

The Brendan Voyage is the real life adventure story of a man who tried to recreate a Medieval legend: sailing across the North Atlantic from Ireland to America in a small leather boat. The Brendan Voyage: Sailing to America in a Leather Boat to Prove the Legend of the Irish Sailor Saints by Tim Severin. Modern Library, 2000 (first published 1978). Reading Level: Adult, ages 16 and up Recommended For: Ages 12 and up When I was in school, we learned that “Columbus discovered America.” But most scholars now are pretty sure Vikings reached the Americas before Columbus… and some of the Irish. The Brendan Voyage is about one man’s…

I am not a reader. I am not a writer, despite childhood ambition. I am not a knitter, though I used to claim that identity. I am not a homeschooler, a baker, or a pianist. (There are other things I could wish I were: a gardener, a runner…but I am not.) A recent severe identity crisis challenged these assumptions with a sobering reminder that my overwhelming sense of hopeless failure was a manifestation of one recurrent habit: claiming too many nouns instead of verbs. What difference does that make? If I say that “I am a reader” I tend to feel guilty if I am not reading the right books…