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DramaRun Silent, Run Deep
Drama 1958 / 93 minutes RATING: 8/10 After a Japanese destroyer, the Akrikaze, sinks his submarine, Commander P.J. Richardson is assigned desk duty, giving him plenty of…
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Book ReviewsSecret Coders (6 books)
by Gene Luen Yang & Mike Holmes 2015-2018 / 92-110 pages each x 6 volumes Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift Hopper is at a new school and gets…
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Book ReviewsWhat really happened to the dinosaurs?
by John Morris and Ken Ham 1990 / 32 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Some children, it seems, are born with a love for all things dinosaurs while…
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Book ReviewsDire Dragons: Untold Secrets of Planet Earth
by Vance Nelson 2018 / 180 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give The old adage “never trust a book by its cover” certainly doesn’t apply to this beautiful…
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Book ReviewsBluffton
My summer with Buster Keaton by Matt Phelan 2013 / 240 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Before there were silent films, there was vaudeville. Pay your nickel and…
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Book ReviewsLost & Found
Based on a True Story by Mei Yu 2024 / 124 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift Cartoonist and Chinese-Canadian Mei Yu shares the mostly true story of…
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Book ReviewsPeter and Ernesto: A tale of two sloths (3 books)
by Graham Annable 2018 / 128 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift As this tale begins, two sloth friends are “cloud picturing” looking up in the sky for…
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Book ReviewsBeak & Ally: unlikely friends (4 books)
by Norm Feuti 2021 / 64 pages Rating: Good If you’re like me and can’t get enough of comic duos, here’s another odd couple pairing…
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Book ReviewsAnt Story
by Jay Hosler 2024 / 158 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift This is as fascinating and creepy a comic about ants as you’re likely to read. Ant Story…
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Adult non-fictionOrdinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
by Christopher R. Browning 1992 / 384 pages This is a really horrifying book. Ordinary Men tells the World War II story of German Reserve…
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Book ReviewsBaby Monkey, Private Eye
by Brian Selznick 2018 / 192 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Baby Monkey investigates five separate cases, but the biggest mystery in each case is how he’s going…
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FamilySwitched
Comedy / Family 2020 / 104 minutes Rating: 6/10 In this Christian spin on Freaky Friday, Cassandra Evans is the brilliant nerdy girl who gets…
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DramaGrace Unplugged
Drama 2013 / 102 minutes RATING: 7/10 This is a story about two prodigals. The first, Johnny Trey, was a one-hit wonder pop star who…
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Book ReviewsMaker Comics: Survive in the Outdoors
by Mike Lawrence 2021 / 123 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift When mom and dad go off on a trip on their ownsome, Sophia and Alonso are…
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Adult biographiesThe Watchmaker’s Daughter
The true story of World War II heroine Corrie Ten Boom by Larry Loftis 2023 / 384 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Larry Loftis is an international bestselling…
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DramaSarah, Plain and Tall
Drama / Romance 1990 / 98 minutes Rating: 8/10 In 1910, Jacob Witting, a Kansas farmer and widower, places a newspaper ad asking for a…
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DramaLove’s Long Journey
Drama / Family 2005 / 88 minutes Rating: 7/10 Missie LaHaye isn’t quite the perfect wife – she’s an impossibly bad cook – but she…
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DramaThe Ultimate Gift
Romance / Christian 2006 / 114 minutes RATING: 7/10 Jason, a spoilt rich kid, is given an inheritance by his billionaire grandfather… but it comes…
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Book ReviewsShackleton: Antarctic Odyssey
by Nick Bertozzi 2014 / 125 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was obsessed with reaching the South Pole. He tried to be the…
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Book ReviewsLittle Robot
by Ben Hatke 136 pages / 2015 Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift This is one of those little-girl-meets-little-robot, little-girl-loses-little-robot, little-girl-kicks-some-big-robot-tushy-to-save-little-robot stories. What sets it apart from all the…
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FamilyMercy Rule
Family / Drama 2014 / 118 minutes Rating: 7/10 There’s a lot of baseball in it, but the moral of Mercy Rule is more along…
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Book ReviewsBabble! And how punctuation saved it
by Caroline Adderson illustrated by Roman Muradov 2022 / 72 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give In the village of Babble no one knows what punctuation is which means…
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FamilyMy friend Flicka
Family 1943 / 89 minutes Rating: 7/10 All Ken wants is a colt of his own, and seeing as his dad raises horses, that doesn’t…
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AnimatedPAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie
Animated / Children 2023 / 87 minutes Rating: 8/10 This sequel to 2021’s PAW Patrol: The Movie is bigger, maybe better, and certainly more intense. This…
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Book listsMr Putter & Tabby: 25 sweet stories
by Cynthia Rylant illustrated by Arthur Howard 44 pages / 1994-2016 Rating: Good/Great/GIFT It’s always fun to find a children’s book that is interesting enough…
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Book ReviewsScience Comics: a quality quartet
Comics that are hilarious and instructive? That’s impressive! What’s less impressive about this “Science Comics” series, is that quite a few of the titles give…
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FamilyBack of the Net
Sports / Family 2019 / 86 minutes Rating: 7/10 Cory Bailey is an American teen science nerd whose next stop is a semester-long trip on…
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Book ReviewsMister Invincible: local hero
by Pascal Jousselin 96 pages / 2020 Rating: Good/Great/GIFT My dad wasn’t a fan of superhero comics because he figured that Superman and Batman were…
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Book ReviewsGod’s Daring Dozen: A Minor Prophet Series
by John Brown and Brian Wright Illustrated by Lisa Flanagan 2021 / 40 pages each Christian Focus Publications Rating: GOOD/Great/Give I’ve never been a fan of…
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Book ReviewsSteve Jobs: Insanely Great
by Jessie Hartland 2015 / 216 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift What makes something a really good read? It can be the writing – some writers can turn…
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Book ReviewsKatie Luther: the Graphic Novel
Mother of the Reformation by Susan K. Leigh illustrated by Dave Hill 95 pages / 2016 Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift My daughter recently asked, “Why aren’t there more…
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DramaTwelve O’Clock High
Drama / War 1949 / 132 minutes RATING: 8/10 When the Americans first entered WWII they did so with a small air force – it…
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Book ReviewsWise Up: 10-minute family devotions in Proverbs
by Marty Machowski 160 pages / 2016 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This is a solid family devotional. Author Marty Machowski takes passages from Proverbs and makes them more…
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Book ReviewsLemon Bird Can Help!
by Paulina Ganucheau 2022 / 112 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Lemon Bird is a lemon who is also a bird, and if you think that’s odd, you…
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Book ReviewsSuper Pancake (3 books)
by Megan Wagner Lloyd illustrated by Abhi Alwar 2023 / 170 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Have you ever thought your breakfast could be heroic? If you have,…
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Book ReviewsLittle Red Riding Hood
by Trina Schart Hyman 28 pages / 1983 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This is about a little girl and the big wolf that gobbles her up. If…
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Book ReviewsThe Adventures of Lancelot the Great
by Gerald Morris 92 pages / 2008 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This has all the adventure you’d expect from an Arthurian tale, but way more humor. And…
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Book ReviewsSir Badalot and the Cranky Danky Dragon
by Rachel Jankovic Illustrated by Forrest Dickison 32 pages / 2022 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give “Now this cranky danky dragon Liked to drink a dragon whine That he…
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Book ReviewsThe Gardener
by Sarah Stewart and David Small 38 pages / 1997 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Lydia Grace Finch’s family has fallen on hard times. So their little girl…
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Book ReviewsThe Illiad
by Homer and adapted by Gareth Hinds 2019 / 272 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift The Illiad is a Greek epic that depicts just a part of…
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Book ReviewsThe Unwanted: Stories of Syrian refugees
by Don Brown 2018 / 104 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift This is not a pleasant read because it lays out a tragedy for which there seems no…
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Adult non-fictionOn writing (and writers): a miscellany of advice and opinions
by C.S. Lewis 2022 / 191 pages Not everyone can attend a Christian Writers’ Conference, or take graduate-level writing classes. But if you like to…
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Book ReviewsHostage Lands
by Douglas Bond 2006 / 235 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give “When am I ever going to use this?” It’s a question that comes up frequently in…
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FamilySesame Street’s 25th Birthday: a musical celebration!
Children’s TV 1993 / 57 minutes Rating: 7/10 This begins with a bang, with a huge crowd having all sorts of fun on a brilliantly…
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Book ReviewsThe Giver
by Lois Lowry 1993 / 208 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give The Giver is a book that is not specifically Christian, but has been studied in Christian schools…
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Adult fictionWinterflight
by Joseph Bayly 1981 / 216 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give In this dystopian novel, Joseph Bayly takes us to a not-so-distant future in which abortion for…
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AnimatedThe Super Mario Bros. Movie
Animated / Family 92 minutes / 2023 Rating 7/10 80’s nostalgia for mom and me, and a couple of animated American Italian heroes and their…
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Adult non-fictionCounterfeit Gods
by Timothy Keller 2009 / 240 pages John Calvin once said, “The human heart is an idol factory. ” It makes sense that God’s prohibition of…
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Adult non-fictionNotes from the Tilt-a-Whirl
Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World by N. D. Wilson 2009 / 203 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift The world is a wild ride, isn’t it? The…
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AnimatedLong Way North
Animated / Family 81 minutes / 2015 RATING: 7/10 It’s the 1880s, the North Pole has yet to be reached, and a Russian explorer dreams…
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FamilySeven Chances
Comedy / Silent 56 min / 1925 Rating: 8/10 This Buster Keaton classic is a silent film, so instead of asking my kids if they…
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FamilyThe 3 worlds of Gulliver
Family / Children’s 1960 / 99 minutes Rating: 7/10 The film manages one upgrade on the book. In the original Gulliver’s Travels, Dr. Lemuel Gulliver is all…
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DramaCasablanca
Drama 103 min / 1943 Rating: 10/10 When Ilsa Lund hears that the Nazis have killed her husband she is inconsolable…until she meets Rick Blaine….
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DramaCourageous
Drama 2011 / 129 minutes Rating: 8/10 Like Fireproof, Facing the Giants and Flywheel before it, Courageous is a sermon wrapped up as a film….
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DramaLike Dandelion Dust
Drama 104 minutes / 2009 Rating: 8/10 Like Dandelion Dust pits two families against each other for the custody of Joey, a six-year-old boy they…
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DramaForeign Correspondent
Thriller / Mystery / Drama 1940 / 120 minutes RATING: 7/10 In 1939 rumors of war were constant, but real news, the real facts, were hard to…
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FamilyThe Three Investigators in The Secret of Skeleton Island
Family / Drama 91 minutes / 2007 Rating: 7/10 The Three Investigators started as a book series that ran from 1964-1987 and included more than…
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Book ReviewsDaughters of God: Finding our identity in Him
by Christina Feenstra 2022 / 198 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This workbook of six chapters is “a course to help young women find their value and self-worth…
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Adult fictionThe White Rose Resists: a novel of the German students who defied Hitler
by Amanda Barratt 2020 / 320 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give In Amanda Barratt’s novel The White Rose Resists, a candle is being lit in the midst of…
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DocumentaryWings of an Eagle – A Musician’s Journey into America
Documentary 98 minutes / 2017 RATING: 8/10 Winnipeg’s favorite singer-songwriter Steve Bell gets his own documentary. Bell’s been a traveling man for decades, crisscrossing the…
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Book ReviewsThe Murder of Abraham Lincoln
by Rick Geary 2005 / 80 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Author and illustrator Rick Geary has created a series of graphic novels about Victorian-era murders. While I…
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Book ReviewsUrchin of the Riding Stars
by M.I. McAllister 2021 / 299 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This was so good I just had to read bits of it out loud to my…
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Book ReviewsHarriet Tubman: Fighter for Freedom! (2 books)
by James Buckley Jr. and Izeek Esidene 2020 / 94 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) was an American black woman born into slavery who escaped…
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Book ReviewsAllergic
by Megan Wagner Lloyd illustrated by Michelle Mee Nutter 240 pages / 2021 Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift It’s Maggie’s 10th birthday and she’s finally going to get…
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AnimatedThe Way Things Work
Animated / TV series / Family 2001 / 300+ minutes (26 episodes) RATING: 9/10 This educational series takes place on a small island in which…
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Book ReviewsThe Always War
by Margaret Peterson Haddix 2011 / 197 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give When my 13-year-old got a gift certificate to the local bookstore, it was an excuse for…
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Adult biographiesThe Vow
by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter 2012 / 183 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This is Exhibit #1 in why you should never judge a book by its movie….
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Adult biographiesUnbroken: A World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption
by Laura Hillenbrand 2010, 497 pages Rating: Good/Great/GIFT One of the least amazing things about Louis Zamperini is that he took up skateboarding in his…
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FamilyThe Newtons’ Workshop
Children’s TV series 1997 / 226 minutes Rating: 7/10 The stars of this children’s “edutainment” show are most certainly Grandma and Grandpa Newton, who have…
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Adult non-fictionEconomics in One Lesson
by Henry Hazlitt 1946 / 193 pages Universal basic income, a four-day work week, and government-funded daycare are just a few big-ticket proposals that are…
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Book ReviewsThe Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr
by Nicolas Debon 2007 / 27 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift This is a fun bit of Canadian history: Louis Cyr was a Quebec circus performer who, in…
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Adult non-fictionThe NIV Sola Scriptura Bible Project
2,032 pages (in 4 Volumes) / 2017 (3,500 BC – 90 AD) I received a gift from a dear friend last Christmas and in April…
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Book ReviewsThe Secret Code
by Coen Hartman 1980 / 195 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Hank and Dick are two average teenagers who dive into the deep end of adventure and espionage….
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RP AppHow should Christians view climate change?
Chatting with the Cornwall Alliance’s Dr. Calvin Beisner This is an overview of a recent episode of Lucas Holvlüwer and Tyler Vanderwoudes’ Real Talk podcast….
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Adult fictionFather Brown and the Ten Commandments: Selected Mystery Stories
by G.K. Chesterton 2017 / 249 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give An heiress of a large fortune has fallen to her death, and suicide seems the obvious explanation….
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Adult non-fictionThe Political Consequences of Unbelief: a review of Groen van Prinsterer’s “Unbelief and Revolution”
Unbelief and Revolution by Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer translated by Harry Van Dyke 1847/2018 / 280 pages As explained in the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Revolution, in…
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Adult biographiesA Promise Kept: the Story of an Unforgettable Love
by Robertson McQuilkin 2006 / 90 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Robertson McQuilkin served as president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina (now…
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Book ReviewsHippopotamister
by John Patrick Green 88 pages / 2016 Rating: Good/Great/GIFT Hippopotamister isn’t strictly a comic or a picture book – it is as much the…
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Book ReviewsThe Great Escape
by Christine Farenhorst 2002 / 182 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Christine Farenhorst is a superb storyteller. The Great Escape is a collection of forty short stories…
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Book listsMo Willems’ “Elephant & Piggie” (25 books)
From about three years old and up, my daughters and I have all loved Elephant and Piggie and their whole 25 book series. When I’d…
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Book ReviewsWho’s on First?
by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello illustrated by John Martz 40 pages / 2013 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give If you’ve ever seen the ol’ Abbott and Costello “Who’s…
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AnimatedA Show About Anthem Lights
TV series / Comedy / Animated 2022- / 12 min x 20 episodes RATING: 7/10 Anthem Lights is a real-life Christian pop group – vocal…
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Adult non-fictionStrange New World
How thinkers and activists redefined identity and sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman 2022 / 187 pages Just how strange is this new…
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Adult fictionSugar Birds
by Cheryl Grey Bostrom2021 / 328 Pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This page-turner takes place in the Pacific Northwest, a little north of Seattle, and tells the story of two girls…
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FamilyThe Jensen Project
Family 95 minutes / 2010 Rating: 8/10 Claire and Matt Thomspon seem like a couple of average parents, who, along with their 15-year-old son are…
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MusicSome thoughts on Christian music in worship
So there is some great music out there, and as Reformed Christians, we can rejoice in that fact. But if the issue of music in…
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Book ReviewsSnow Treasure
by Marie McSwigan 1942 / 196 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give In 1940, shortly after the Germans invaded Norway, a Norwegian freighter arrived in the US city of…
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Adult fictionThe Journey
A Spiritual Roadmap for Modern Pilgrims by Peter Kreeft 1996 / 128 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This is an allegorical journey, reminiscent of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s…
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Adult biographiesOnly When It’s Dark Can We See the Stars: a father’s journal as his son battles cancer
by John van Popta 2022, 194 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Why Lord? That’s the question 12-year-old Julian van Popta, his parents, and his siblings had to…
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DocumentaryMicrocosmos
Documentary / Nature 80 min / 1996 Rating: 9/10 Have you ever wondered what it’s like for bugs when it rains, getting hit by water…
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DocumentaryLiving Waters
Documentary 69 minutes / 2015 Rating 8/10 This is one part nature documentary and one part evolutionary takedown. Illustra Media understands that a great way…
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Adult non-fictionThe Ultimate Proof of Creation: Resolving the Orgins Debate
by Jason Lisle 2009 / 254 pages Herman Bavinck (1854-1921) is an important figure from our Reformed heritage. A careful theologian with a love for…
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Book ReviewsLindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse (2 books)
by Torben Kuhlmann 96 pages / 2014 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give How did man first learn to fly? It seems we had a little help. This is…
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Book ReviewsCorrie ten Boom: the courageous woman and the secret room
by Laura Caputo-Wickham 2021 / 24 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give For such a short one, this picture book sure fits a lot inside. We meet Corrie ten…
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Book ReviewsContending for the Faith: the story of the Westminster Assembly
by William Boekestein and Joel R. Beeke 2022 / 40 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give I love the first question and answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (“What…
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Adult fictionShane
by Jack Schaefer 1949 / 176 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Sometimes I reread children’s literature because I enjoy being captured again by the quality of writing and…
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Book ReviewsWe Hereby Refuse: Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration
by Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura 2021 / 160 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, tens of thousands of Americans of Japanese…
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Book ReviewsFinding Winnie
by Lindsay Mattick 56 pages / 2015 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give It turns out that Winnie the Pooh, a teddy bear who had fantastic and entirely fanciful…
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FamilyThe Incredible Journey
Family 1963 / 80 minutes Rating: 8/10 What do Elsa and Anna, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Pollyanna, and even Huey, Duey and Louie all…
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AnimatedLife at the Pond
Life at the Pond is a series of five videos that have a lot in common with VeggieTales. Both combine simple animation with sophisticated humor…