Book Reviews: children

Book Review – Boys Adrift

Something strange is going on with boys today. My memories of boyhood revolve around the great outdoors—running through fields with hockey stick guns, climbing trees, playing any and every sport, getting sunburns, heatstroke, ticks, sprained ankles and all the other bumps and bruises guaranteed to come to an active, rambunctious boy. Though today I live in a neighborhood filled with boys, rarely do I see them out and about; rarely do I see them engaging in the activities we’d expect …

A Family Guide to Prince Caspian

With Disney’s adaptation of Prince Caspian having just arrived on the big screen, we have seen a flood of Narnia-related books hitting the store shelves. Readers who searched for books to coincide with the release of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will be familiar with many of the authors and their books. Devin Brown’s Inside Prince Caspain is written in the same style and format as Inside Narnia. Leland Ryken’s and Marjorie Mead’s A Reader’s Guide To Caspian …

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Book Review – Gum, Geckos and God

I don’t think it takes very many years of child raising before every parent realizes that he is in over his head. I am no stranger to this feeling. As I was walking my eight-year-old son to school just last week he turned to me and said, “Dad, why is it that people think killing one another will solve the world’s problems?” My first instinct was that it would be a simple question to answer. But a moment’s reflection made …

Book Review – “Do Hard Things” by Alex & Brett Harris

I’ve often reflected on an experience I had when I was studying in college. With a busy semester ahead of me, I decided to take “Death and Dying,” an elective that had the reputation of being an exceptionally easy course (a “bird course” we called it back then). On the first day we arrived in the lecture hall, the professor handed out a reading list and what he assured us were the lecture notes for the entire course. With these …

Book Review – “Instructing a Child’s Heart” by Tedd Tripp

Instructing a Child’s Heart has been a long time coming. It was thirteen years ago that its predecessor, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, was published. It was thirteen years ago that Tedd Tripp published his last book. It was no lost on me that many of the book’s lessons and anecdotes now focus on the author’s grandchildren. Thirteen years is a long time by any measure! Instructing a Child’s Heart is a book that focuses on “formative instruction,” a term that …

DVD Review – The Eric Liddell Story

The Torchlighters video series is a series of animated DVD’s dedicated to “Highlighting the honor, integrity and life-changing experiences of those well-known and little-known Christian men, women and children who in response to God’s call, dedicated their lives to a life of whole-hearted commitment and passionate service to Jesus.” The series is targeted primarily at children between the ages of eight and twelve. It is a production of Christian History Institute along with International Films and Voice of the Martyrs. …

Everyday Talk

In recent weeks I have been attempting to make my way through some of the Shepherd Press catalog of books. Many of the titles and some of the authors were unfamiliar to me. Yet it seems that every time I read one of these titles I unearth some new treasure. Books like Polishing God’s Monuments and When Sinners Say “I Do” have blessed me greatly, have stirred my heart and have strengthened my faith. So it was with some expectation …

Book Review – Unprotected

I have a particular interest in books, written from a secular perspective, that say the same things Christians have been saying for years. I enjoy finding these little pears of wisdom, these little bits of common grace, that I can only hope will lead people to see and understand the the Bible truly does present the way humans can live best. One of these books is Unprotected, a book dealing with the problems inherent in campus counseling. In this book, …

What Every Parent Needs to Know About Video Games

I used to be an avid computer gamer. From the time computers became widely available, I was using them to play games. I played them for long enough to know that they don’t make them like they used to. Modern-day games have not risen above the standards set by such classics as X-Com, Railroad Tycoon, Civilization, SimCity and so on. When these games were made, computers were primitive enough that a game had to stand on the merits of its …

Shepherding A Child’s Heart

There are many things in life that are easy to do poorly but are much more difficult to do with excellence. It did not take me long as a parent to discover that it would not be difficult to raise children, but that it would be exceedingly difficult to do it with excellence. In the six years since my eldest child was born I have looked often for help and advice in becoming an excellent parent. Unfortunately my wife and …