Poetry (that’s not just) for Children

Confession: I enjoy poetry. Sure, I studied it in college, but more than analyzing and critiquing poems, I love to read them and hear them read. Poetry has a kind of music and expressiveness to it that delights my ears, and the powerful word combinations that condense a large idea into a few lines are an endless source of fascination. I want my children to love poetry, too, so we’ve been reading poetry together at the start of each school day. It’s one of our favorite parts of school, and when I finish reading, the kids invariably ask me to read more. (I often indulge them.) If you want to introduce your children to poetry but don’t know where to […]

The Hunger Games: A Call to Think

Because of all the buzz about The Hunger Games with the movie release this weekend, a friend of mine asked me to blog about it. I have read the trilogy, and literarily I could write a tome on the subject. But I don’t think that would be helpful here. There is something you must know about me: as a Christ-follower, I can’t read anything without intellectually and spiritually engaging with it and analyzing it in light of scripture. Now, my B.A. in English certainly aids me in the process, but I am convinced that this mental engagement should be true of every Christ-follower, regardless of education. Here is my previous blog post explaining why. Now, one might argue that the […]