children's literature

C. S. Lewis Letters to Children

October 17, 2012 by Andy Naselli

Jenni and I recently read this book:

C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis Letters to Children. Edited by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead. New York: Macmillan, 1985. 120 pp.

Tim and Kathy Keller mention it in The Meaning of Marriage:

As a girl of twelve, Kathy wrote to C. S. Lewis and received answers from him, which she taped to the inside covers of her copies of the Narnia Chronicles. His four letters to her (to “Kathy Kristy”) can be found in his Letters to Children and the third volume of Letters of C. S. Lewis. (p. 245, note 2)

C. S. Lewis wrote his third and fourth letters to Kathy less than a month before he died.

Lewis’s letters are fun and instructive to read. They are filled with his typical wit, and Lewis models how adults should treat children with respect.

11 excerpts: [Read more…] about C. S. Lewis Letters to Children

The New City Catechism and 5 Related Resources

October 15, 2012 by Andy Naselli

Last week Tim Keller asked “Why Catechesis Now?”

This morning TGC introduced the New City Catechism, adapted by Tim Keller and Sam Shammas from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.

TGC explains that catechisms have at least three purposes:

Comprehensively explain the gospel, including the building blocks on which the gospel is based.
Address and counteract the heresies, errors, and false beliefs of our time and culture.
Form a distinct people, a counter-culture that reflects the likeness of Christ individually and communally.

The New City Catechism adapts three other catechisms:

Calvin’s Geneva Catechism
the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms
the Heidelberg Catechism

It has 52 Q&As, one for each week of the year.
The answers have two levels: a simpler version and a more complex one (e.g., for children and adults).
Each Q&A includes commentary from a historical preacher and a short video from a TGC council member or pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
The catechism is available online.
The Q&As are available in a 7-page PDF.
The interactive iPad app is free.
You can change the settings online and in the iPad app:

5 Related Resources

Four recent books:

DeYoung, Kevin. The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism. Chicago: Moody, 2010. (Cf. the first ever rap song about the Heidelberg Catechism.)
Johnston, Mark G. Our Creed: For Every Culture and for Every Generation. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2012.
Piper, John, ed. A Baptist Catechism. Minneapolis: Desiring God, 2012. (Free 40-page PDF)
Trueman, Carl R. The Creedal Imperative. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012.

Questions with Answers by Dana Dirksen

(From #3 in “Bible Memory for Young Children“)

A mother and her children sing Bible verses and Q&A taken from a digest of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Stephen Hildebrandt’s The Catechism for Young People). Some are more catchy than others (e.g., “How can you glorify God,” sample 3 here).

The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Graphic Novel

October 3, 2012 by Andy Naselli

Our family loves John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed four book versions of it, and we’ve added a fifth:

John Bunyan. The Pilgrim’s Progress. Edited by Lee Tung and Johnny Wong. Illustrated by Creator Art Studio. 2 vols. Leesburg, FL: Kingstone Comics, 2011. 304 pp. [volume 1 | volume 2]

The story changes several characters from boys to girls (e.g., Help is a leggy fairy, and Hopeful is a petite young lady!), but it hits the highlights and follows Bunyan’s basic storyline. (Some of the illustrations of women seem to cross the line by being too revealing, especially for a children’s book.) [Read more…] about The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Graphic Novel

How Story-Bible Books for Children Work

August 3, 2012 by Andy Naselli

The latest issue of Themelios includes a gem for those who care for young children: David Shaw’s “Telling the Story from the Bible? How Story Bibles Work.”

Shaw includes lots of pictures from popular story-Bible books for children to illustrate his points. This is by far the most thoughtful piece I’ve read on this.

Here’s Shaw’s outline:

1. Did God Really Say . . . ? The Relationship between Story-bible Text and Scripture

1.1. Story Bible and the Story in the Bible

1.1.1. Omission
1.1.2. Addition
1.1.3. Reformulation
1.1.4. Transposition

1.2. Story Bibles and the Story of the Bible [Read more…] about How Story-Bible Books for Children Work

iPad App for Champ Thornton’s God’s Love: A Bible Storybook

July 19, 2012 by Andy Naselli

Last month I interviewed Champ Thornton about his children’s book God’s Love: A Bible Storybook.

Now the book is available as an iPad app.

Features include

120 interactive story pages with text and spoken audio
Beautiful illustrations with full pinch and zoom
Presentation mode for teachers who want to display the artwork over AirPlay or through a VGA adapter

It’s well-done. [Read more…] about iPad App for Champ Thornton’s God’s Love: A Bible Storybook

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

June 15, 2012 by Andy Naselli

I read these 18 stories to my daughter recently, and we both enjoyed (most of) them:

Peter Leithart. Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life. 3rd ed. Moscow, ID: Canon, 2003. 148 pp.

We also listened to the stories.

They are fairy-tale type stories that are generally captivating and end with surprising twists, always ending with a proverb from the Book of Proverbs that is the moral of the story. [Read more…] about Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

A Bible Storybook: An Interview with Champ Thornton

June 11, 2012 by Andy Naselli

I finished reading this new children’s book to Kara last week:

Champ Thornton. God’s Love: A Bible Storybook. Whitakers, NC: Positive Action Bible Curriculum, 2012. 245 pp.

It’s well-done: very understandable for young children and theologically informed.

(The cheapest place to buy the book is directly from the publisher. And if you use the coupon code “Love1” during check out, you can get free shipping and handling.)

The author is my friend. [Read more…] about A Bible Storybook: An Interview with Champ Thornton