I lika the books. Part 2: CS Lewis in the hay-youse!

Butterfly in the sky. I can fly twice as high. Take a look. It's in a book...Reading Rainbow.

LeVar Burton seems like such a nice guy.

If I knew him I'd invite him over to the house to watch Bottle Rocket or something. I'd make some popcorn and pizza rolls. Here's what he'd say when the movie was over:

"Kristi, have you been reading to your kids lately?"

"Oh, LeVar. You know I spend 30 minutes everyday reading to my children." (He wouldn't be able to tell I was lying because he's very trusting.)

"Awesome. I bet you are an awesome mother."

"Yes. I am an awesome mother. More pizza rolls?"

If that wasn't the creepiest pretend conversation, I don't know what is.


Nonfiction - Christian Apologetics
To clarify, 'apologetics' can be substituted with the word 'defense'. These are books that systematically defend the Christian faith against common objections. Some are great and some skim over the tougher issues. But they're all worth taking a look at.

Mere Christianity - CS Lewis is the bomb-diggity-bomb. I love this book. It's a logical, eloquent and effecient philosophical defense of the faith. Easily the best book in this category.
The Consolation of Philosophy - A Medieval defense of the faith.
The Case for Christ/ The Case for Faith - These are both easy to read and answer some tough questions. I emphasize easy to read...these aren't major works of theology but are useful.
Defending Your Faith - Also attempts to deal with very difficult questions. Falls short on some issues, but overall a good book for people looking at Christianity.

Getting to the good stuff...

Fiction: Can't Live Without These Kid's Chapter Books

The Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia - Grandaddy of fantasy literature. I'm avoiding redundacy and leaving this out of my personal fiction list...just know it was my favorite before I started reading it to the kids.
Little House on the Prairie Box Set - Charlie doesn't know that this series is traditionally for girls. So I gave it to him for his birthday.
Amelia Bedelia - The kids don't remotely get the puns but they laugh their heads off anyway. That Amelia is a crazy nut. Literally. She should be locked away before she hurts someone.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Way better than the movie. The movie descends into some psychadelic creepfest. The book is fun and adventurous. Written by the James Bond guy.
Peter Pan - Me: Ava, don't touch that...it's dusty. Ava: Yeah, we only like yellow dust. And there's no fairies in here. This story is so ingrained in her consciousness that she actually looked up and around the room to make sure there weren't any fairies flying around.
Stuart Little - Mouse + little clothes = hilarity.
Mr. Popper's Penguins - Penguins + small children = roll-on-the-floor-and-run-to-the-bathroom-before-you-wet-yourself hilarity.
Treasure Island - (condensed) Pirates, guns, treasure, talking parrots. Charlie couldn't get enough of this book. He still talks about it.
Oliver Twist (condensed) - Murder, street gangs, homelessness...good times. Charlie loved this book so much that he insisted we watch 2 different versions of the movie when we finished.

Coming soon...my favorite adult fiction. Adult, like for grown ups, not adult as in erotic literature. You know you were thinking it.

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