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Five gifts for his birthday: seaweed, a whistle, a metal brooch, a broken horse, and his sister’s scarf. A cloud hangs over him as he remembers his sister, Bethan, who disappeared four years ago on this very day. Yet, Gwyn’s grandmother, Nain, informs him it is time to give his gifts to the wind and to find out…

(Your Name) and the King Have you ever had a scene from a movie stick with you? There’s one from the movie Anna and the King that I just love. Let me set it up for you. Anna arrives in the tiny country of Siam to teach the king’s children. She is ushered into court…

Susan Campbell Bartoletti’s Boy Who Dared presents the Holocaust from the perspective of a young German national, Helmuth Hubener. Bartoletti discovered Helmuth’s story while researching a book on the youth movement in Nazi Germany and offers his account in fictional form. Watch Helmuth grapple with the changing government and Hitler’s rise to power. Observe his struggle…

Heavenly Conference Calls Working in my pajamas—it’s one of the perks of working from home. Though I work from home every day, my husband works at home on Fridays only. Though he chooses not to stay in his pajamas, a normal work-at-home Friday includes conference calls. Conference calls allow a business to conduct a meeting,…

Though the story line of A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning may dampen an otherwise bright day, author Snicket’s style of writing is so much fun, the book refuses to let you go. A horrible fire has taken the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Beaudelaire, leaving Violet, Klaus, and Sunny with their new…

God With Skin On Halloween. Glow sticks flash and plastic pumpkins swing, heavy with the weight of rustling candy. Nighttime transforms the kid in jeans and sneakers into a superhero or a fairy princess. Skeletons, football players, and dinosaurs roam the neighborhood. It’s a night to step out of the normal, everyday you and become…

For English school children, the legend of Saint George and the dragon has been recounted for ages. For Simon St. George, it is legend and legend only, until his absentee father arrives and hustles Simon off to take his place in the family business. And just what is this family business? Dragon fighting. Yes, dragons exist…

Across the street from my daughter’s dance studio, a small shop named Cross your Heart Cupcakes creates the best cupcakes ever. When it’s my birthday, their cupcakes are what I’m craving. Now, we also make cupcakes at home. With a box mix and a store-bought tub of frosting, semi-homemade cupcakes work in a pinch. But for special…

Padraic Colum’s The Children’s Homer brings the classic tales of the battle of Troy and the adventures of Odysseus to a young adult audience. My hard-to-please youngest son enjoyed this classic as well as Greek  mythology long before Rick Riordan’s Percy and the Olympians series made them popular. His familiarity with the mythological characters contributed greatly to…

Hold On Turnovers are deadly. Whether the game is soccer, basketball, or football, when you give up possession, you lose the advantage. Let’s look at the prophet, Samuel, as we seek to “maintain possession” of spiritual truth. “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed…