I first read this book in 1990 after it was assigned for a course on ministry with children I took in a graduate school for Christian Education. After 12 years I am still actively using it. The strength of the book is that it makes a convincing argument concerning the necessary of using children's literature in the Christian nurture of children. If you want children to learn to read and love the Bible, you need to use more than the Bible. This book convinced me of that. It demonstrates in practical ways how to use children's literature in connection with the Bible to give children a fuller understanding of the world God has made. Children's literature becomes a bridge linking the world of the Bible and the world of adults with the world of children. In addition to arguing its point and making excellent suggestions on how to use children's literature in the Christian education of children, the book also includes an annotated booklist of the best children's literature, the age groups for which it is written and a summary of the stories and themes you will find in each of the books. I highly recommend this book for parents, teachers, pastors and directors of Christian Education.

What else do I need to say? This book is a garbled version of a Siskel and Ebert review of the latest Hollywood releases. While the intentions seem pure, the result lacks discipline and effect. It's overly sentimental and, at points, pretentious. Thanks for listening.

A few years ago, I reviewed Leland Ryken's The Liberated Imagination; since then, I have received numerous e-mails, from new teachers, recent graduates, or generally inquisitive "thinking Christians" asking for similar books. Their question was essentially, "How do I stay connected to the challenging and imaginative body of work I was introduced to throughout college? How do I keep these great questions important for me?" In short, how can I live so that my commencement really signals a beginning?" At something of a loss for the best reply, I pointed them toward the works of literature which have been formative in my own thinking, those writers which set my own imagination ablaze.

Here is a collection of 100 such replies.

"We do not live long enough to learn all of the things which it is essential for our survival to know:" and Harold Bloom, "there's no time to lose reading bad books." Reading for Life provides not only a path of guided study for the lifetime student, but, through the commentaries, examples of Godly leadership, and Godly readership, from the faculty of one of the most distinguished liberal arts facilities in the country.
As a writer and a student of literature, I've rarely been so (grandly, confidently) assured of the value of this discipline, as by Reading for Life
[I've also rarely felt so ambitious!]

What books have gone into the formation of Christian intellectuals? This book contains short entries by a group of Christian college professors on the books that have helped to shape their thought. In some cases the choices are delightfully surprising, as for example one philosopher's selection of P. G. Wodehouse novels. This book will stimulate your appetite to read the books these professors recommend.