Book Reviews

In The Disciple-Making Parent, I have argued that one of the reasons parents are to lead the way in teaching their children is that we learn in the process. When something has to be explained to a child, the teacher must simplify it! The Reformation ABCs book will help you both understand prominent figures in the Reformation and teach it to your young children. As we celebrate the 500th year of the Reformation in 2017, it is especially appropriate. The book is both simple enough to read to a 4 or 5 year old but also will keep an 8…

I have recently been reading and loving the book Tactics by Greg Koukl. Koukl is a skillful questioner and has honed his “Columbo Questions” as a way to cause people to question what they believe. His desire, he tells us, is to “put a pebble in a person’s shoe.” In other words, he just wants to get them to doubt things they hold to be true. Basic to his strategy is adopting an attitude like Columbo. The famous TV detective appeared inept but he would constantly ask one more question to help him gain understanding and tighten the noose. Eventually…

    While I am on a book review roll, let me add one more – a quick review of Hurt 2.0 by Dr. Chap Clark. With a first name like Chap, the book has to be good, don’t you think?! Teens Are Hurt(ing) According to Dr. Clark, when parents dont attach to their children (see this review), they become abandoned and hurt. Dr. Clark’s book, Hurt 2.0: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers seeks to take us to the culture the adults cannot see. Clark focuses on “midadolescence,” young people who are in grades 9-12 and ages 15-18. A…

In Hold Onto Your Kids, (HOYK) authors Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté argue that all children need attachment. If they will not receive that attachment from their parents, they will find it in peers. The job of parents is to press in and attach themselves to their children. If they do this then those children can resist the pull of the teen culture. The book is broken into five parts: The Phenomenon of Peer Orientation, How Peer Orientation Undermines Parenting, How Peer Orientation Stunts Healthy Development, How to Hold On to Our Kids, and Preventing Peer Orientation. In the first…

I have this strange hobby. I collect questions. The right question can open up a conversation and develop a relationship. God says, The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters but a man of understanding draws him out. Questions do just that. But I have found a resource that is light years ahead of me. The Complete Book of Questions: 1001 Conversation Starters for Any Occasion is just what the title says – 1001 questions. Questions 1-100 are Light and Easy. “Do you squeeze the toothpaste or roll it? Why?” or “How often do you doodle? What do your…