bench
-
Book Reviews100 Cupboards: the Graphic Novel
by N.D. Wilson illustrated by Forrest Dickison2026 / 240 pagesRating: GREAT When Henry York’s parents mysteriously disappear, the 12-year-old is sent to live with his…
-
Book ReviewsOn the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness: the Graphic Novel
by Andrew Peterson2026 / 224 pagesRating: Great The Wingfeather Saga is getting the graphic novel treatment and the first in the series is both more…
-
Book ReviewsThe Boxcar Children Graphic Novel
by Gertrude Chandler Warneradapted by Meika Hashimoto2026 / 176 pagesRating: GOOD/Great/Give The Boxcar Children first appeared back in 1924, about Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny, four…
-
Book ReviewsRun and Hide: How Jewish youth escaped the Holocaust
by Don Brown 2023 / 190 pages Rating: Great Don Brown gives us a new wrinkle on a story we thought we already knew. When…
-
DramaCitizen Kane
Drama 1941 / 119 minutes Rating: 7/10 It’s a mystery with a moral. Often called the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane is a story told…
-
AnimatedThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Animated / Family 2026 / 97 minutes Rating: 6/10 What they say about sequels never being as good as the original bears out here. Plumbers…
-
Book ReviewsThe Plot Chickens
by Mary Jane and Herm Auch 2010 / 32 pages Rating: Good Henrietta the chicken can read and she wants to write. And though she…
-
Book ReviewsThe Little Ships: the Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II
by Louise Borden illustrated by Michael Foreman 1997 / 32 pages Rating: Good In May of 1940, half a million British and French soldiers were…
-
Book ReviewsA triune tale of diminutive swine
2012 / 42 pages by John Branyan Rating: GIFT What if the Three Little Pigs was retold in Shakespearean English? And what if the third…
-
Adult biographiesThe Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts
by Douglas Bond 2013 / 163 pages Isaac Watts was born in 1674 when the Psalms sung in the English Church were stiff and difficult…
-
Book ReviewsThe girl who never made mistakes
by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein 2011 / 30 pages Beatrice, “The Girl Who Never Makes Mistakes,” doesn’t want to go skating with her friends,…
-
Book ReviewsMr. Pusskins: A Love Story
by Sam Lloyd 2006 / 32 pages Rating: GREAT One of my favorite teachers was an English professor who would point out how the works…
-
Book ReviewsDogger
by Shirley Hughes 1977 / 32 pages Rating: GIFT There are a lot of beautifully drawn children’s books, but not nearly as many that tell…
-
Book ReviewsAlfie – a very likeable little chap
I love children! I love books! And I love it when the two come together! It is indeed a rare treasure to find books that…
-
Adult non-fictionDarwin’s Sandcastle
Evolution’s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence by Gordon Wilson 2023 / 222 pages In the protective bubble of my Christian high…
-
Adult biographiesSeeking Allah, Finding Jesus
by Nabeel Qureshi 2014 / 384 pages RATING: Great Nabeel Qureshi (1983-2017) was a Pakistani-American who was raised as a devout follower of the peaceful…
-
DramaAnastasia
Drama / Mystery 1956 / 105 min Rating: 7/10 In 1918 Communist revolutionaries murdered the Czar and his family, and for years afterwards rumors persisted…
-
DocumentaryThe Homeschool Awakening
Documentary 2022 / 95 minutes Rating: 8/10 A comic popped up in my social media feed last month, that perfectly summed up this documentary. It…
-
Adult fictionWar in the Wasteland
by Douglas Bond 273 pages / 2016 RATING: Gift “Second Lieutenant C.S. Lewis in the trenches of WWI” – if that doesn’t grab you, I…
-
Book ReviewsPrincess Navina visits Malvolia
The most important of topics aren’t always the most interesting. That’s why, instead of writing a textbook on the subject of “how government policy goes…
-
Book ReviewsInnocent Heroes: Stories of animals in the First World War
by Sigmund Brouwer 2017 / 186 pages RATING: Gift Animals had a way bigger role in WWI than you probably ever realized. Sigmund Brouwer’s fantastic…
-
AnimatedUp
Family 2009 / 96 min Rating: 9/10 Boy meets girl, they fall in love, get married, make plans for an adventurous trip, life gets in…
-
AnimatedWall-E
Animated / Dystopian / Family 2008 / 98 min Rating: 9/10 Wall-E is a small robot with a big job – he has to tidy…
-
DramaSands of Iwo Jima
Drama / War 1949 / 100 minutes RATING: 7/10 John Wayne stars in this loosely accurate recounting of the lead-up to, and battle for, Iwo…
-
FamilyIvanhoe
Drama / Adventure 1952 / 107 minutes Rating: 8/10 If you love the story of Robin Hood, this is the sequel (or maybe prequel) that…
-
AnimatedChristmas Carol: the movie
Animated 2001 / 81 minutes Rating: 7/10 Dickens’ classic tale gets a child-friendly brush up, with a couple of cute mice companions added to the…
-
DramaMr. Deeds Goes to Town
Drama/Romance 115 min / 1936 Rating: 8/10 Frank Capra is best known for his 1946 hit It’s a Wonderful Life. But a decade earlier he…
-
FamilyThe Forge
Family / Christian drama 2024 / 125 minutes Rating: 7/10 Isaiah is a high school graduate, unemployed, still living with his mom, and spending his…
-
Book ReviewsThe barber who wanted to pray
by R.C. Sproul 2012 / 33 pages Rating: GREAT R.C. Sproul has written a half dozen picture books to date, all of them great instructional…
-
DramaThey were expendable
Drama / War 1945 / 135 minutes RATING: 7/10 John Wayne stars as one of the WWII naval officers intent on proving that small, fast…
-
AnimatedFinding Nemo
Animated / Family 2003 / 100 minutes RATING: 8/10 This is an ocean-crossing epic, with a father willing to travel to the ends of the…
-
DramaThe Count of Monte Cristo
Drama 1934 / 107 minutes RATING: 8/10 This is based on the story by Alexander Dumas (who also authored The Three Musketeers), and while it…
-
DramaSeasons of the Heart
Drama / Tearjerker 2003 / 99 min RATING: 7/10 On the trek west to settle their own section of the American plains, Jed and Martha…
-
FamilyThe Black Arrow
Drama / Family 1948 / 76 minutes Rating: 7/10 Sir Richard Shelton is a young knight returning from three years away fighting in the latest…
-
FamilySnuf de Hond in Oorlogstijd (Sniff the Dog in Wartime)
Drama / Family 2008 / 95 minutes RATING: 8/10 If you came to this review as a huge fan of the Piet Prins’ Scout series,…
-
DramaBad Day at Black Rock
Drama 1955 / 81 minutes Rating: 8/10 John J. Macreedy wasn’t looking to start anything. But when he steps off the train into a one-road…
-
Book ReviewsHelmer in the Dragon’s Tomb
by S.D. Smith 2025 / 243 pages Rating: GOOD/great/gift Helmer is a young rabbit who wants to farm the same land his family has been…
-
Book ReviewsThe Unlikely Intrusion of Adams Klein
by John Greco 2025 / 288 pages Rating: good/GREAT/gift Adams Klein is a pretty ordinary 14-year-old, except, maybe for that “s” at the end of…
-
FamilyThe InBESTigators
Children’s show / TV 2019-2020 / 15 minutes x 40 episodes RATING: 9/10 Ava, Maudie, Ezra, and Kyle are four fifth graders with a knack…
-
Articles – BooksGood, Great, & Gift: RP’s 3 levels of best books
Learning to read well is more like cooking a steak than you might imagine. A great chef can have the best set of knives and…
-
Adult non-fictionHow an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes
by Peter Schiff and Andrew Schiff 2014 / 304 pages Economics affects everyone but few people care to learn much about it. All the numbers…
-
DramaChildren of Heaven
Iranian / Drama 1997 / 88 minutes RATING: 7/10 When nine-year-old Ali loses his little sister Zahra’s shoes, the two siblings decide to keep the…
-
AnimatedChicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
Animated 2023 / 101 minutes RATING: 8/10 Twenty-three years ago, Rocky and Ginger were trying to break out – they had to get off their…
-
Adult fictionEve’s Daughters
by Lynn Austin 1999 / 432 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This book was recommended to me by a good friend. I was a little skeptical (Christian women’s…
-
Book ReviewsJames Herriot’s Treasury for Children
by James Herriot 260 pages / 1992 & 2104 Rating: Good/Great/GIFT James Herriot is best known for a series of semi-autobiographical books he wrote about…
-
Book ReviewsBruno the Bear
by W.G. Van de Hulst 47 pages / 1978 & 2014 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Little Rosie is sick so Mother takes her off to bed. But…
-
DramaAdam’s Rib
Courtroom Drama 1949 / 101 minutes RATING: 8/10 There are two types of feminism: one demands equal respect for women the other demands identical outcomes…
-
Book ReviewsEric’s Greatest Race
The Inspiring True Story of Eric Liddell by Tim Challies 2025 / 128 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Eric Liddell is probably best known as the man who…
-
FamilyThe Court Jester
Musical comedy/Spoof 1956 / 101 min Rating: 8/10 In medieval England, the crown has been usurped, and the only surviving heir to the throne is…
-
DocumentaryKeep and Bear: the movie
Documentary 2017 / 77 minutes RATING: 7/10 Darren Doane is best known for Collision, about debates between pastor Douglas Wilson and atheist Christopher Hitchens, and…
-
Book ReviewsAkimbo and the Lions
by Alexander McCall Smith 1992 / 66 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Alexander McCall Smith is best known as the author of the The No. 1 Ladies’…
-
Book ReviewsBad Badger
by Maryrose Wood 2024 / 184 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This was a wonderfully strange book that left me wondering where it was going to go next….
-
AnimatedThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1979)
Animated / Children 1979 / 95 minutes RATING: 7/10 This is the oldest surviving film version of C.S. Lewis’s famous classic. It is absolutely fascinating…
-
FamilyThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Family / Drama 2005 / 125 minutes Rating: 8/10 For those who have not read the C.S. Lewis book of the same name, this takes…
-
AnimatedHorton Hears a Who! (1970)
Animated / Family 1970 / 30 minutes Rating: 7/10 Based on the Dr. Seuss classic picture book of the same name, this is the story…
-
Book ReviewsDon’t trust fish
by Neil Sharpson and Dan Santat 2025 / 40 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Can you look at this title and not open the cover? And it…
-
DramaLord Jeff
Drama / Black & White / Family 1938 / 85 minutes RATING: 8/10 This is a fantastic film… and a hard sell for any modern…
-
Book ReviewsThe Little Riders
by Margaretha Shemin illustrated by Peter Spier 1963 / 76 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This is a Dutch World War II story with a difference: one…
-
Book ReviewsSleuth Family Robinson: fighting evil around the world
by Christopher P.N. Maselli 2025 / 160 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift The Robinsons are an undercover spy family working for the UK. When someone hacks the British…
-
Book ReviewsThe God Proofs: How Science Points to YOUR Creator
by Douglas Ell 2024 / 207 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift A blue square with legs, arms eyeballs and mouth, wants to prove to his red rectangle…
-
Book ReviewsPearl
by Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie 2024 / 144 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This is a very different slice of World War II history. Amy is…
-
Adult non-fictionUpheld: A widow’s story of love, grief, & the constancy of God
by Christine Farenhorst 2025 / 252 pages Rating: Good/Great/GIFT Anyone who has ever loved is going to face loss, and what are we to do…
-
Book ReviewsBear goes sugaring
by Maxwell Eaton III 2020 / 32 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give A coat and toque-wearing bear is going to show us how to make maple syrup from…
-
Book ReviewsBeautiful oops!
by Barney Saltzberg 2010 / 28 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give I play a “scribble game” with my girls. One person makes a quick jot on a…
-
Book ReviewsKodi
by Jared Cullum 2020 / 176 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift Katya is spending the summer in a cottage in the woods of Alaska with her “Meema”…
-
DocumentaryAnonymous Father’s Day
Documentary 2011 / 44 min Rating: 7/10 It begins with a moving testimony from a woman describing how she felt when she discovered that she…
-
Book listsDemi’s fresh folk tales
Demi (1942- ) is the nickname that Charlotte Dumaresq Hunt’s father gave her as a child because she was half the size of her sister….
-
Book ReviewsThe Moon is Always Round
by Jonathan Gibson 2019 / 32 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This picture book is a beautiful catechism truth wrapped in a heartbreaking story of loss. Author Jonathan…
-
Adult non-fictionTrusting God
by Jerry Bridges 1988 / 368 pages Since the apostles Peter and Paul, and indeed Jesus, warn the Christian to expect suffering in this life…
-
Adult non-fictionDigital Liturgies
Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age (with study questions) by Samuel D. James 2023 / 184 pages As I read Digital Liturgies, I kept…
-
DramaLove on a limb
Drama / Romance 2016, 84 minutes RATING: 7/10 Amy Roarke knows just about everyone in Ample Hills because she’s gotten them all to sign her…
-
DramaGold Rush
Comedy / Silent (sort of) 1925 / 96 min RATING: 7/10 It’s been 100 years now since Charlie Chaplin crafted his most famous film. He…
-
AnimatedChicken Run
Animated 2000 / 84 minutes RATING: 8/10 Sometimes whether you love or hate a film can be entirely about the expectations you come to it…
-
Adult non-fictionCan I have joy in my life?
by R.C. Sproul 2012 / 51 pages The answer to the title question is an emphatic yes. R.C. Sproul explains that while a degree of…
-
Book ReviewsPollyanna
by Eleanor H. Porter 1913 / 198 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Pollyanna’s father and mother were poor missionaries, and when they died she was sent to…
-
AnimatedWallace and Gromit: vengeance most fowl
Animated 2024 / 79 minutes RATING: 8/10 The penguin is back! Feathers McGraw has been sent to jail – or, rather, the Zoo – as…
-
AnimatedCurious George: the TV series
Animated / TV / Children 2006-2022 / 24 min x 198 episodes Rating: 8/10 Curious George is a monkey – or is he? As I…
-
FamilyBelle and Sebastian
Drama 2013 / 99 minutes Rating: 8/10 In the middle of World War II, Sebastian, a seven-year-old orphan, lives with a grandfather figure, César, high…
-
DramaThe Miracle Worker
Drama / Biography 1962 / 106 min Rating: 9/10 The one-sentence synopsis is: seven-year-old Helen Keller, blind and deaf, learns to communicate through the discipline…
-
Book ReviewsSir Ladybug (3 books)
by Corey R. Tabor 2022 / 68 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Pell is a roly-poly bug with a mission: he wants everyone to know just how important…
-
Book ReviewsWire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love
by Jim Ottaviani and Dylan Meconis 2007 / 84 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift Many horrors have been done in the name of science. Wire Mothers is…
-
Book ReviewsSurvival Scout: lost in the mountains
by Maxwell Eaton III 2023 / 144 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Scout and her big brother have gone on a four-day backpacking trip in the mountains, but…
-
AnimatedThe Fox and the Hound
Family 1981 / 83 minutes Rating: 8/10 This one begins with an emotional punch to the gut – we watch a fox mother, holding her…
-
FamilyLassie come home
Drama 1943 / 89 minuytes RATING: 8/10 No boy has ever had a more loyal and loving dog than young Joe Carraclough – each day…
-
AnimatedMany Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Children 1977 / 74 MIN RATING 9/10 It all starts with A.A. Milne’s “bear of very little brain” using all of his thinking to think…
-
FamilyThe Prince and the Pauper
Adventure 1937 / 118 minutes RATING: 8/10 The swashbuckling Errol Flynn stars in one of the earliest, and still one of the best, film adaptations…
-
Book ReviewsFinding My Vocation
by William Boekestein 2024 / 154 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give William Boekestein wants to help young readers figure out how they can pick the right job, and…
-
DramaSaboteur
Drama / Mystery 1942 / 109 minutes RATING: 7/10 This is World War II as seen from the other side of the ocean. Barry Kane…
-
DramaRoman Holiday
Comedy 1953 / 118 minutes RATING: 8/10 Princess Ann is on a tour of Europe, and the masses can’t get enough of her. It’s no…
-
Book ReviewsMarley’s Ghost
by Charles Dickens adapted by Harvey Kurtzman, Josh O’Neill, and Shannon Wheeler illustrated by Gideon Kendall 2017 / 129 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift This is a…
-
AnimatedTangled
Animated / Family 2010 / 100 min RATING: 9/10 In the original Rapunzel tale, her hair is very long, but still just hair. In Tangled, these…
-
DramaLittle Women (1994)
Drama 1994 / 118 min Rating: 9/10 Taking only minor liberties with Louisa May Alcott’s book, Little Women tells the tale of Marmee March’s four…
-
Drama12 Angry Men
Drama 1957 / 96 min. Rating: 9/10 A movie that takes place in a single room? All dialogue, and no car chases or explosions? 12…
-
DramaThe Shop Around the Corner
Drama/Romance 99 min / 1940 Rating: 9/10 While Jimmy Stewart is best known for his other Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, this is the…
-
FamilyTwelve
Family / Sports 2019 / 92 minutes RATING: 7/10 Kyle Cooke is an 11-year-old baseball prodigy who’s always the best kid on the field. When…
-
DramaUnleashing Mr. Darcy
Drama / Romance 2016 / 84 minutes Rating: 7/10 My favorite movie of all time is a modern-day Mormon-produced Pride and Prejudice update. So, I…
-
Book ReviewsThe Great Brain
by John D. Fitzgerald 1972 / 175 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give The Great Brain is the story of Tom Fitzgerald, a ten-year-old boy living in frontier…
-
DramaRoberta
Musical 1935 / 106 minutes RATING: 8/10 It’s 1935, and Huck Haines (Fred Astaire) and his band, the Indianians of Wabash, Indiana have just gotten…
-
Book ReviewsTeam Burger Shed
by Tavin Dillard 2024 / 188 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Tavin Dillard is of an indeterminate age (he looks mid-30s, but gets around on a bike,…
-
Book ReviewsLet’s Make Bread! (3 books)
by Ken Forkish and Sarah Becan 2024 / 158 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift This is the comic I never knew I wanted: a how-to for baking…