Too Tired to Read? You’ve likely heard of “stress baking.” Have you thought about “stress reading”? Essentially, it’s reading differently because you’re stressed. Some will binge read light, fluffy novels while others will plow through their long list of to-read titles. But others won’t read at all. As adults, we’ve all been there: stressed over health concerns, financial worries, job issues. We’ve been too tired to read at night before dropping into bed, too brain dead from a busy day at work to pick up Les Miserables (which we were determined to finish this year), or too invested in learning something practical that we didn’t pick up a fiction read…

In this classic survival story, Karana learns to fend for herself on an island after her tribe leaves for the mainland. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. HMH Books for Young Readers, 2010 (originally published 1960). 192 pages. Reading Level: Ages 10-12 Recommended For: Ages 10 and up Karana’s tribe has lived on the Island of the Blue Dolphins for generations. When the Aleuts come again this year to hunt otter, Karana and the rest of her people are vigilant, afraid the Aleuts will cheat them out of their agreed price. Vigilance doesn’t always prevent violence, though, and many of the village’s men (including Karana’s father) die trying…

Epic takes readers around the globe tracking down fascinating artifacts of Church history. *Epic: An Around-the-World Journey through Christian History by Tim Challies. Zondervan, 2020, 167 pages. Reading Level: Teen, ages 15-18 Recommended for: ages 12-up This unusual history book is the result of an unexpected meeting between Tim Challies and a stranger who was “just passing through” and wanted to meet for breakfast. Over bacon and eggs, Challies’ new acquaintance posed a question most of us can only dream of hearing: “If you could take on any project, and money was no object, what would you want to do?” Turns out, there was a group of Christian businessmen who…

Epic Poetry in School Do you remember reading (or being assigned to read) one of the following in school? The IliadThe OdysseyThe AeneidBeowulfYour teacher might even have assigned something like Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha or Evangeline. Perhaps you read Whittier’s Snowbound. Are you shuddering yet? Unfortunately, these lovely epic poems are often presented in school as follows: a fair-to-middlin’ introduction on the importance of said poem, a schedule of reading assignments, frequent comprehension quizzes, and analyzing the poem “to the pain” for its allusions, literary style, poetic techniques, and themes. You, like me, may have assumed that epic poetry just wasn’t your thing, even if you love to read.…

Soul-Shaping Poetry Have you ever stopped to think about how much poetry has shaped the Christian soul? Poetry is an intrinsic part of our worship services, whether through a responsive reading of a Psalm or the “singing of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” Paul describes. Poetry occurs throughout Scripture, most notably in the Psalms, but it is not limited to the Psalms. Miriam and Moses pour forth poetry at the Red Sea, Mary praises the Lord in the Magnificat, Song of Solomon is a long love poem, Job is replete with poetry, and even the epistles contain poetry and hymns (most notably, Philippians 2). Throughout history, Christians have been pouring…