Pilgrim Works
Free Advice
This pages contains links and things I like, collected
here for easy reference. As with all free advice, your mileage
may vary...
Web Links
Kids Stuff
Unfortunately, kids books go out of print quickly, including
many of my favorites. They are listed here anyway because
they are worth looking for. What is more important, than these
particular books, however, are the kinds of books that work well
with kids.
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Baby's First ABC - I love a plain alphabet book like this
to start exposing my child to the alphabet very early.
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A key to getting kids interested in books early (before age 1) is
to give them tiny (3 by 3 inch or so) board books. Kids this young can't handle
"real" books because they don't have the motor skills, but they will do
remarkably well with board books that fit their tiny hands and don't easily tear.
Here's one of our favorites:
Baby's First Words (A Chunky Book)
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My Little Blue Book - (ISBN 1-56458-317-1) Color books are common, but these are
different. Photos of real objects are used, with many different shades of the color.
There is a different book for each color - get them all! Unfortunately,
these Dorling Kindersley books may be out of print and are hard
to find.
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The Great Animal Search
- I generally don't like search books, but this series is different
and our kids love them. The illustrations are intricate, realistic,
and fun to look at. The facts about the animals are educational.
And there is enough to search for on each page to keep our 3-year-old
occupied for a long time.
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The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
- Cute little story with wonderful illustrations.
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The Frances books:
Bread and Jam for Frances,
A Baby Sister for Frances, and others
- Just great stories parents will like reading
as much as kids will like listening to.
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There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly by Simms Taback, who takes
this silly old song and turns it into a fun-to-read well-illustrated book. But there are two
different editions by Simms Taback - get the 1997 Viking edition, which was a Caldecott winner.
The above link will take you there.
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Bob Jones University Press has the
best home school curriculum. I don't say that because I am associated
with them - I am associated with them because it is true. Their
HomeSat satellite and video curriculum in particular is outstanding.
- Fast Food? - if you have little kids and are looking for
kids meals, find a Chick-Fil-A.
Unlike the popular-culture junk which goes for toys in other
kids meals, Chick-Fil-A has wholesome educational books, tapes, and activities.
They are closed on Sundays and have great employee programs. Check
out their web site too.
- Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems
by Richard Ferber, M.D. Based on sound medical research
and years of experience at the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at the Children's Hospital in
Boston, this book is a good guide to children's sleep problems.
Creation/Evolution Must Reading
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The two major young-earth creationist publishers are
Answers in Genesis and
the Institute for Creation Research.
I am not in complete agreement with all they do, but for
creation information they are the obvious place to start.
They both publish hundreds of creation-related items, so much
that I don't know where to start in making recommendations. If
you want one recent representative publication from each,
try
The Modern Creation Trilogy from ICR
and
Refuting Evolution from AIG.
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Darwin on Trial - My favorite critique of the
case for evolution.
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Darwin's Black Box - Makes a strong biochemical case
that evolution is not just difficult, it's impossible. This is one
of the best modern statements of intelligent design.
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Mere Creation - This book illustrates the breadth and
quality of the people making the intelligent design argument.
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For a recent debunking of a classic piece of evidence for evolution,
see Goodbye, Peppered Moths. And for information on another
piece of classic evolution evidence that turned out to be
downright fraudulent, see
Haeckel and the Vertebrate Archetype.
Christian books I like
The Pilgrim's Progress - There was a day, I am told,
when every Christian home, if it had no other books,
had this and the Bible. C. H. Spurgeon said he read it
one hundred times. It would do you good to read it
at least once. There is also a good condensed
kid's version that kids really like. The BJU Press
Teacher's Guide is a big help to teachers and
casual readers alike in understanding the difficult language of this book.
Little Book of Sylvanus - Thought provoking historical
fiction set at the time of the crucifixion and resurrection
of Christ.
Through Gates of Splendor - This missionary Biography
of Jim Elliot made such a profound impression on us that
we named our son after him. In fact, all the writings
of Elizabeth Elliot are recommended.
Biography of Hudson Taylor - This missionary biography
is a classic, and important reading for anyone seriously interested
in missions. Be warned that the two volumes together are about
1000 pages. If that's too intimidating, you might try the condensation
called
Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret. A poster
is available commemorating his life.
Secular books I like
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Longitude - (The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time )
Sounded boring to me, but when I started reading I couldn't
put it down. If you have the tiniest interest in things scientific
this book will fascinate you.
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365 Starry Nights by Chet Ramo - The best introduction to astronomy that I know of. This book
gives you a brief lesson for every night of the year, and encourages you to actually ge
outside and look at the sky.
Theology
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Thad Hobson's TheoQuiz V4.5 program is free and is a great review tool
for seminary students or anyone else seriously studying theology. Click
on the name to download the Windows 95/98 version, or visit
Thad's Web Site. There is also a
DOS/Windows 3.1 version
available.
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Four-year-old Elliot comments on the sovereignty of God.
Churches
For your convenience, click on any book name above to see it at the on-line bookstore.
© Copyright 2004 by Bill Lovegrove. All rights reserved. Last Updated
11/14/2004