Recap Book Chat

Recipe for The Hungry Place Recap   Ingredients: 1 horse lovin’ girl without a mom aka Rae 1 hard working creative dad  1 wise grandma aka Gammer 1 beautiful pony - Princess 1 kind hearted sickly owner - Roland 2 unsavory hired hands - Charlie, the trainer & his wife, Darlene 2 encouraging friends - Tully & Sam 1 concerned owner of pony camp - Tish Mix together a girl who yearns for a pony...

Join us as we discuss Little Pilgrim on his arduous trip to the Celestial City. Will he be able to navigate through the many dangers that thwart his forward progress? This beautifully illustrated allegory was derived from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, but Helen L. Taylor’s use of anthropomorphism makes Bunyan’s amazing story easily understood by children. Animals that are characters make t...

Travel back in time with us as we discuss Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. This book has more plot twists than a roller coaster. It begins in the year 1961 as 16 year old Laurel is watching from her treehouse not wanting to join the family in her little brother’s birthday picnic. Her mother returns to the house with the birthday boy on her hip to get the special birthday knife to cut Gerry’s cake. La...

In this podcast episode, we open up our Kid Lit Locker delve into the world of Ted Hughes' classic novel, The Iron Giant . With our special kid guest we explore the themes of environmentalism, friendship, and the power of imagination through the story of a giant metal robot who arrives on Earth. Join us as we discuss the significance of the Iron Man's most memorable moments, from his fiery battles...

Andy Crouch gives readers a plethora of ways to put technology in its proper place in his book, The Tech-Wise Family. "To be a child, teenager, or young adult these days is to navigate a minefield of potentially life-altering choices." His daughter wrote in the forward explaining "...the best part of tech-wise parenting is focusing on something older and better than the newest thing. The key word...

Join us as we discuss a kid friendly gem similar to the classic, Robinson Crusoe. Michael Morpurgo, War Horse author, spins a tale of wonder and suspense in  Kensuke's Kingdom , which is based on a true story.  After young Michael's parents simultaneously lost their jobs, his dad shocked the family by using their savings to buy a yacht. After 6 months of training, their journey around the world be...

West With Giraffes follows a 17 year old dust bowl orphan across America in the journey of a lifetime in the company of a couple of Giraffes. Based on a true story, Lynda Rutledge beautifully weaves together fact and fiction in this adventure packed story of healing, hope, perseverance and love.

A foundational and illuminating read from one of the great intellectual giants. C.S. Lewis takes us on a journey of unpacking and unlearning misconceptions we have been taught about Christianity and uncovering it’s simplicity and beauty. Lewis is an allegory master, breaking complex ideas into understandable and relatable bites.

This classic 1883 iconic pirate adventure story did not disappoint! Robert Louis Stevenson created pop cultures vision of a buccaneer with his character Long John Silver. This book was a swashbuckling fun ride full of great quotes and memorable adventures.

Utterly charming and captivating, Maisie Dobbs will forever have a place in our hearts. Jacqueline Winspear does and excellent job of melding historical fiction and mystery. Maisie Dobbs is set post WWI in London England, but has flash backs before the war and during the war where we get to see pivotal moments of her childhood and youth and young adulthood.

In this episode we throw out a reading challenge to you, literary warrior. We go over our list and share books we have read from each category. Enjoy this free printable from our website to help you stay on track and keep track of your reading goals. I also provided links to the versions of each book we recommend and the link to the episode if we have reviewed it on the show. You are welcome, that...

A beautiful, intense and thought provoking novel from Kristin Hannah left our tissue boxes empty but our hearts full. The Great Alone set in Americas last frontier, follows a girl named Leni who is 13 at the beginning of the book. We get a look into her tumultuous childhood and her transition into womanhood amid the beautiful yet brutal Alaskan landscape. Leni's dad came back from the Vietnam war...

The Blackout Book Club is a unique WWII story set on the coast of Maine that highlights the power of books and the importance of connections. The story follows five main characters who are all dealing with secret issues that are all brought to light. Amy Lynn Green beautifully weaves their lives together and shows how we all need community to thrive.  This is our first Amy Lynn Green novel but for...

Well all have giants in our lives that taunt us and try to crush us. Some mock us or pretend to be our friend yet all of these giants ultimately want our destruction.  Louie Giglio does an excellent job in Goliath Must Fall of bringing an awareness to these giants and a strategy to not let them have a place at our table.  Fear, rejection, addiction, anger and comfort are the giants that are discus...

Reading takes time so why not get the most bang for your buck and the greatest return on your investment. Today we discuss three different ways to do that with reading strategies. These strategies help strengthen our connection to the text and have a more impactful reading experience. 1. Upside down Triangle -student preferred strategy 2. CSI - Color, Symbol, Image 3. SPW - Sentence, Phrase, Word...

Today we wrap up the epic classic, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. The link to the book is the exact version and translation we read and thoroughly enjoyed. We discuss some new characters that show up in the second half of the book and talk about our favorite quotes. Also discussed are themes of betrayal, vengeance, retribution, wealth and power.  Although this novel was completed in...

A must read for parents, grandparents, teachers and anyone else with children in their life. The 5 Love Languages of Children  is full of insightful and uber beneficial information that helps us connect and love our kids to the max. In this episode we give real life examples of the benefits of understanding love languages and learning to speak our children's primary language. We discuss ways to he...

We opened up our kid lit locker today and discussed the final book in the Whole Nother Story series. Such an adventurous, fun and intriguing book. It wrapped up all of our unanswered questions very nicely. Our two kid consultants joined us in talking about our favorite parts and in singing the Fighting Paper Clip anthem. No Other Story begins in “some times” a time were all of history is occurring...

Written 180 years ago we step back in time through the pages of the classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. This is such a hefty book and contains so much we wanted to talk about we decided to break it up into two parts. We are really enjoying our Penguin Classics version of the book that features the A Storm with Smuggler's Landing on the cover. The artwork was done by Philip...

Today we discuss a small yet impactful book called Keeper of the Doves.  This book was written by Betsy Byars a prolific children’s author, winner of the Newbery Medal and National Book Award and many others. Betsy Byars passed away at the age of 91 in February of 2020, however her lifetime of work lives on. We were grateful to experience her writing in Keeper of the Doves . The novel follows Amen...

Come check out our recap of People Fuel by Dr. John Townsend ! It was an invigorating and grounding read. People Fuel helped me acknowledge and appreciate my need for people and how to better relate and maintain relationships.  Townsend talks about how when we receive the right nutrients we are able to produce good fruit in our life. The opposite is also true, if we are missing one of the key nutr...

Today we dive into our Kid Lit Locker and explore the InvestiGators series by John Patrick Green. We have two special kid guest on the show to get their opinion of the series from a kids perspective. John Patrick Green is a brilliant wordsmith who creates witty and engaging stories and pictures in this graphic novel series. The InvestiGators is full of fun word play, witty phrases and unexpected p...

An epic read of how a simple mindset change has a major life impact! Unoffendable is a witty, insightful, life changing beautiful book! We highly recommend it to everyone. It is in my “read once a year” list. We can’t wait to read more of Brant’s novels. Brant is a raw and authentic author as well as a nationally syndicated radio host and lover of toast. I love the way he breaks down misconception...

So excited to recap The Bible today! My mom and me did The Bible Recap chronological reading of the Bible in 2022 and today we talk about what we learned and how we liked the reading guide. We used a mix of the bible app, physical ESV Bible, and The Bible Recap podcast. Below are links if your interested in joining us this year as we go through the Bible again with Tara Lee Coble and the The Bible...

Happy 2023! We ended 2022 reading this book and started 2023 by recapping it!  Words on Fire is a historical fiction novel written by Jennifer. A. Nielsen . The story takes place in the 1800's during Russia's occupation of Lithuania. In order to help Lithuania assimilate, Russia has insisted every Lithuanian become Russian. They have banned their language, religion, culture and their books. The st...