A year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, here is an updated booklist from Hayley’s 2014 series of posts about Ukraine. In 2014, as Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula, Redeemed Reader provided a series of posts to help readers understand Ukraine and the conflict occurring in Europe. Some of the titles were Ukrainian-specific while others helped shed light on eastern Europe, Slavic culture, and the forces and history motivating Russia. As war continues in Ukraine, this booklist remains helpful. Today we’ll start with the fiction side. Picture Books The Birds’ Gift: A Ukrainian Easter Story by Eric A. Kimmel (Excellent and overtly Christian, this beautifully illustrated book tells the legend behind pysanky, the…

Editor’s Note: The universe began with spoken words (“And God said . . .”) and in a sense, so do we. We wrap up this month’s -Honey for a Child’s Heart Read-along with two meditations on the unique power of language to the human soul. The Music of Words Originally published on the Tumblon website October 17, 2008 There is a kind of magic in words. God spoke and created a world, the Bible says. In the same sense, you and I speak and we create a world, too –a world for someone else to live in. Think back in your own life and remember the times when words created…

History and a summer adventure combine in an engaging, slim, novel-in-verse for middle grade readers. When Winter Robeson Came by Brenda Woods. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2022. 176 Pages. Reading Level: Midde Grades, Ages 10-12 Recommended For: Ages 10 and up Eden Louise Coal is excited. Her cousin Winter is coming for a visit, all the way from Mississippi to Los Angeles, California. It’s 1965, and Winter is excited to see California. It seems a far cry from Mississippi. Take the buses: … as we climb aboard, Winter notes, Y’all never had to sit in the back of the bus out here, huh? No, no back of the bus, Mama echoes,…

Three books from New Growth Press are helpful for teaching children who Jesus is and what he has done for us. The Darkest Night/The Brightest Day: A family devotional for the Easter season by Marty Machowski, illustrated by Phil Schorr. New Growth Press 2022, 64 pages. Reading Level: Middle grades, Ages 8-10 Recommended For: Ages 8-10, Ages 10-12 Machowski weaves together accounts of each day of Passion Week from the three Synoptic gospels, but he doesn’t end with the empty tomb. If you flip the book over and begin at what was the back of the book, you find a narrative of the first week after Jesus rose from the…

The Lost Year uses multiple voices to narrate a sad chapter of history: Stalin’s deliberate starving of Ukraine. The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh. Roaring Brook, 2023, 368 pages. Reading level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 12-15 History at eye-level Matthew is confined to his New Jersey house by an overprotective government and overattentive mother, while his divorced father is reporting on the Covid crisis in Europe. After finishing his online schoolwork, Matthew has nothing to do but level up in Zelda, but his mother has other ideas. His great-grandmother GG has moved in with them, along with boxes of memorabilia…