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As a homeschooling veteran, I review middle-grade stories to help parents, librarians, and teachers choose good books.

Look for author news here too!

 

Author Staci Stallings on the little girl who wanted two pieces of candy

She said, “I just feel so greedy wanting it all.” As if the Holy Spirit opened a lesson book, she went on, “It’s like the other day. I was at the store, and there was this little girl in front of me in line. She walked up with two pieces of candy. The cashier rang it up and said, ‘That’ll be $1.93.’ Unfortunately all this little girl had was $1.

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Jerram Barrs on the importance of story

Jerram Barrs, a professor at Covenant Theological Seminary, thinks we need to be reading stories. But not just any stories.

“The greatest stories not only entertain and enlighten us, but also teach us something about who we are–and how we fit into God’s True Story of a redeemed creation.” That’s from an article just published in the seminary’s magazine, Covenant, fall/winter 2011, p. 10. He goes on to quote Tolkien’s “On Fairy Stories,” and urges us to read not only the gospel story but “many other stories as well that echo its joy and hope.”

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The Writer, Your Servant

I had a big hurdle to get over when it came to becoming a writer—someone who wrote seriously and often, as opposed to someone who just scribbled down thoughts now and again or played endlessly with stories in her head.

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