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Book ReviewsNicky & Vera: a Quiet Hero of the Holocaust…
by Peter Sís 2021 / 64 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Nicholas Winston never set out to be a hero but he also knew what needed to be…
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Book ReviewsDon’t let the pigeon stay up late!
by Mo Willems 2006, 34 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give My kids and I love this for two very different reasons. They love it because they get…
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Book ReviewsBell Mountain
by Lee Duigon 267 pages / 2010 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Jack and Ellayne are two children on a mission from God: they are going to ring the…
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DocumentaryExpelled: No intelligence allowed
Documentary 95 min / 2008 Rating: 8/10 Comedian Ben Stein (who once also wrote speeches for Richard Nixon) is our guide in this film that…
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AnimatedThe Phantom Tollbooth
Animated 1970 / 89 minutes Rating: 7/10 This is a peculiar movie based on a peculiar book, and as such, will have only peculiar appeal…
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Book ReviewsTikki Tikki Tembo
retold by Arlene Mosel 1968 / 48 pages Rating: Good/Great/GIFT My full first name is Jonathan, but long ago I learned there were benefits to…
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DocumentaryBeyond the Gates of Splendor
Documentary 96 min; 2005 Rating: 7/10 In 1956 a team of five missionaries were killed by the Waodani tribesmen they were trying to befriend. The…
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Book ReviewsNathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales (3 books)
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales are a growing series of fast-paced, thoroughly researched, historical graphic novels. The best of these making learning easy, with humor and history intermixed…
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Book ReviewsOwly: The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer (5 books)
by Andy Runton 2004 / 160 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift This is two stories in one, and at about 80 pages each, they have room for some…
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DocumentaryNotes from the Tilt-A-Whirl
Documentary 51 minutes / 2011 Rating: 11/10 You are going to like this. I haven’t met anyone yet who has seen this and hasn’t been…
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Book ReviewsGod’s Story: A Student’s Guide to Church History
by Brian Cosby 144 pages / 2014 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This small book is an introduction to Church history written for students at the high school level….
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DocumentaryThe Story of the Weeping Camel
Foreign film / Docudrama 2003 / 87 minutes RATING: 7/10 This is as much drama as documentary because, as film critic Roger Ebert described it,…
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FamilyHangman’s Curse
Teen Suspense / Mystery 2003 / 106 minutes RATING: 7/10 Bullies at Rogers High School are all getting deathly sick. Is this the work of…
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AnimatedWallace and Gromit: four short films
Animated / Comedy 1989-2008 / 114 minutes RATING: 8/10 It’s been 35 years now, since student filmmaker Nick Park crafted his leading man out of…
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Book ReviewsSnow White
by Matt Phelan 216 pages / 2016 Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift This is Snow White inventively reimagined as a 1920s Depression-era American tale. The “king” is a stock…
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Adult fictionDirected Verdict
by Randy Singer 2002 / 486 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give There are lots of layers in this intense courtroom drama. When the Saudi religious police uncover a…
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FamilyJohnny Tremain
Historical drama / Family 80 min / 1957 RATING: 7/10 Walt Disney clearly loved American history, and Johnny Tremain is another of his homages to…
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DramaSahara
Drama / War 1943 / 98 minutes Rating: 8/10 Tanks need gas and people need water, and American tank commander Joe Gunn (Humphrey Bogart) needs…
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DocumentaryThe Green Prince
Documentary 101 minutes/ 2014 Rating: 8/10 Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of one of the founders of the terrorist group Hamas, and served as…
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Book ReviewsFaithfulness Under Fire: the story of Guido de Brès
by William Boekestein 2010 / 32 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give “Church history” and “picture book” are almost mutually exclusive terms, but William Boekestein, author (and URC pastor),…
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Book ReviewsThe Quest for Comfort: the story of the Heidelberg Catechism
by William Boekestein 2011, 32 pages, $10 US Rating: GOOD/Great/Give A while back I had the privilege of reviewing a previous children’s book by this author…
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People we should knowA Rare Principled Politician: Ron Paul
The practice of politics notoriously requires compromise. Every politician must bend at some point in order to be electable. Many politicians are very malleable and…
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HomosexualityOne in ten? Alfred Kinsey’s most famous lie
Even if you haven’t heard of Alfred Kinsey you probably have heard about one of his key “findings” – that 10% of all people are…
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Adult non-fictionThe Thunder: A novel on John Knox
by Douglas Bond 2012 / 400 pages Rating: Good/Great/GIFT John Knox turns five hundred this year and I can’t think of a better way to…
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Book ReviewsThe Hunger Games: doesn’t tackle the issue it raises
A book about kids killing other kids, that is written for the teen market? If that doesn’t grab your attention, then you must not be…
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Adult non-fictionTHE DISCIPLINE OF GRACE: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness
by Jerry Bridges 2006 / 144 pages The title of Discipline of Grace seems to express a contradiction. Isn’t grace a free gift and discipline…
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Adult non-fictionRESPECTABLE SINS: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate
by Jerry Bridges 2007 / 192 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift We’re not into drugs, or pornography; we’re not committing adultery or stealing or beating our children….
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Book ReviewsBlueberries for the Queen
by John and Katherine Paterson2004 / 32 pages I hate blueberries but I loved this book. In this true story set in Lee, Massachusetts in…
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Adult non-fictionProdigal God
by Timothy Keller 2009 / 240 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift My pastor recently concluded a series of sermons on a single 21-verse passage of Scripture. I…
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Adult fictionWhen Crickets Cry
by Charles Martin 2006 / 352 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give He is unkempt, a recluse, and heartsick. She is a pale thin young girl with a very…
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Book ReviewsFish out of Water: Get equipped for college
by Abby Nye 2005 / 229 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Nye wrote Fish out of Water, while in the third year of university, at the suggestion of…
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Book ReviewsLittle Jake and the Three Bears
by Robert H. Jacobs, Jr.2007 / 31 pages After enduring a cold winter Little Jake realizes the solution to his chill is a thick warm…
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Pro-life – AbortionAbortionists as euphemists
Most abortionists are euphemists. By which I mean merely, to quote Chesterton, “that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are…
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Adult fictionIs There Balm in Gilead?
There is a balm in Gilead To make the wounded whole; There is a balm in Gilead To heal the sin-sick soul. Some times I…
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Pro-life – AbortionWhat Exodus 21:22 says about abortion
Most attempts to argue against abortion from biblical texts are misdirected. In the absence of specific prohibitions against abortion in the Scripture, Christian pro-lifers quote…
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EconomicsIf strikes are bad can unions be good?
I grew up hearing horror stories about unions but little else. Unions were bad because union members threw bottles and sticks at their opposition. Later…
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Recent ArticlesStar gazing and star guessing
The night sky has always fascinated mankind. Ancient people were able to identify many constellations and follow their annual paths across the sky. In the…