April 2018
Editorial
About a year ago, Cedarville University, a Baptist school in Ohio, enacted a new curriculum standard based on Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” As reported then in Christianity […]
Review
The Top Ten Young Adult Books You Need to Read
This year I read a lot of young adult fiction, and I was struck by how much these books engaged social justice issues in a complex and nuanced way. Fair warning, though: when teenage protagonists struggle with issues of equity and difficult moral decisions, they sometimes use vulgar language. While such language is quite common […]
Review
The Top Ten Picture Books of 2017 for the Elementary Classroom (and Beyond)
Picture books are powerful tools for children to start understanding the world around them. Authors and illustrators of picture books covered a wide range of topics in 2017. They tackled fears, friends, family, and fun. Picking out the best ten picture books of the year was no easy task because so many important books were […]
Review
by Heather Altena and Eleanor Tiemens Ah, newly independent readers. First through third graders are an intoxicating mix of excitement and intransigence in their reading habits. They get hooked on one genre or topic and will. not. let. go. That’s one of the reasons they love book series so much. Unfortunately, it takes time for […]
P@nel.edu
The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros
For our contribution to the annual book issue, three members of the P@nel.Edu team (Christian Altena, Gayle Monsma, and John Walcott) decided to read The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros and dialogue about the book and its value for Christian educators. Christian, Gayle, and John gathered via video conference to discuss the book. John: Let’s […]
Review
The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson
London, 1854. A medical breakthrough.In a fascinating manner, Deborah Hopkinson delivers a novel that draws the reader into the fictional story of a boy called Eel, while surrounding the narrative with the true, groundbreaking discoveries of Dr. John Snow. Dr. Snow’s work is not widely known, though he is a pioneer in the field of […]
Review
The Spy, the Rat and the Bed of Nails: Creative Ways of Talking about Christian Faith by Mark Roques
People are storytellers. As humans, we spend much of our lives either telling stories, dramatizing storytelling, or writing our thoughts. Author Mark Roques has made a life quest of it in his work with youth. He received his PhD in studying the films of James Bond as a worldview analysis. Although this book was written […]
Review
The goal of Graeme Goldsworthy’s Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics is to teach readers to interpret the Bible so that they can understand what God is saying through it. One of our goals as Christian educators is to ensure that children of all ages understand what they are reading. Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics helps educators do this by breaking down […]
Slouching Toward Bedlam
Confessions of a Humor Columnist Or The Inquisitor’s Tale: An Interview with Jan Kaarsvlam
Over the years, readers have contacted the CEJ with numerous questions about this column. Editor Mark Brink compiled the most frequently asked questions and conducted an interview with columnist Jan Kaarsvlam. Mark describes the interview as “challenging, yet not particularly enlightening” and describes columnist Jan Kaarsvlam as “generally disagreeable, yet not altogether affable.” When Mark […]
Back Page
Here at the CEJ We understand how difficult it will be to wait until summer to read all the great books reviewed in this issue. Therefore, we have provided a complimentary book wrap that, when wrapped around your book of choice, will allow you to enjoy your reading time during the school day while leading […]
Get Reading!
Print out the following pages (double sided) to keep track of which books you have read and which books you want to.