(Apple won't post all the shownotes to this because of limited space; feel free to click on the show website below for more recommendations. Meanwhile, I'll frontload the stuff with links.)
When a character in Narnia has "read all the wrong books," you know they're in for a difficult time. But spending time in Narnia does a lot to compensate for a bad literary diet.
What, though, about our kids, who all live well after the Narnian apocalypse and need good books to thrive in our world?
What are "the right books," and how do we get our children to read them? Heck, how do we find them for ourselves, for that matter?
Chris' guests this week are Angela Teal and Marena Bleech, who, with their powers combined, form In The Burrow Books. You can follow them on Instagram for more recommendations: @intheburrowbooks.
You can also find Angela Teal's (a.k.a. J. Reese Bradley's) books, the Brumbletide series (which my eight-year-old is currently enjoying), here.
Among other things, we discuss:
- Why Christians should go to the library
- Ideological conformity among "top five" publishers
- Motivating kids and competing with screens
- "On Fairy Stories," by J.R.R. Tolkien
- "On Three Ways of Writing for Children," by C.S. Lewis
- Why you should judge books by their illustrations
Post-show recommendations from Marena:
- Amy Grimes does some of the most beautiful work. I highly recommend her book(s) and giving her a follow.
- I adore these Enid Blyton picture books. They're great for early readers.
- I think one of my favorite picture books (which of course, I didn't mention) is The Cottage At the End of the Lane which is worth having if you can get it.
- Like I said, Brambly Hedge is the best!
- Astrid Sheckels was one I mentioned that's a great current author/illustrator.
- Of course, A Book of Narnians is wonderful.
- This is such a beautiful book of poetry. (And anything by Tasha Tudor is worth having)
- I'm also a big Winnie-the-Pooh fan, and any book with Ernest Shepherd illustrations.
Post-show recommendations from Chris:
- My friend J.D. Peabody’s middle grade book series, The Inkwell Chronicles is a lot of fun (“The Inklings” is a secret society of authors far larger and older than the Oxford group with Lewis and Tolkien). He also wrote an article on middle grade books for Christianity Today that I’m going to release a podcast about soon.
- I didn’t talk about the Prydain Chronicles or the Earthsea books as great fantasy books that aren’t necessarily Christian, but they were absolutely vital (though I didn’t get into Earthsea until college)
- I have a Pauline Baynes (out of print) book that is a beautiful illustration of the Nicene Creed.
- Spells of Enchantment (collection of stories), edited by Jack Zipes
- Tales before Tolkien (collection of stories), edited by Douglas Anderson
- My wife Glencora’s children’s book and my far less successful one, where we tried to create engaging (if not very professional) illustrations for good poems
- Our book about Christmas, Twelve Tide, which has lots of literature excerpts and has done a bit better.
- The Never Ending Story (the book!) by Michael Ende
- The Half Magic series, by Edward Eager
- Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit
- The Book of Wonder, by Lord Dunsany
Among other things, we recommend:
- Harry Potter
- Inkheart
- The Wrinkle in Time series
- Anything by Roald Dahl, who was a mean old cuss
- The Borrowers
- Grimm's Fairy Tales
- The Wind in the Willows (illustrated by Arthur Rackham)
- Anne of Green Gables
- The Secret Garden
- Peter and Wendy
- Brambly Hedge
- Beatrix Potter
- Beverly Cleary's Ramona books
- The Indian in the Cupboard
- The Magic Treehouse series
Picture books:
Movies and TV Series:
But what about new children's books and middle-grade fiction?
Next time: Middle-grade author J.D. Peabody weighs in. Check out his article on the subject in Christianity Today.
Music: "Living in the Country," from Summer, by George Winston
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