Help Your Children Read Good Books

A few evenings a week, after the younger children go to bed, my eldest, Chloe, and I sit on the couch and we read a good book together. I’m not talking about a Little House on the Prairie book or Anne of Green Gables book, though I’m sure we will do that too, one of these days. I’m talking about a book that I’d like to read, and I think she would enjoy — one that’s a little bit beyond her reading ability but with a storyline or topic that she would really enjoy.

This started after I read Richard Sibbes’s, Josiah’s Reformation,¹ a Banner of Truth Puritan Paperback. After reading this book, I decided that my children would benefit from the first sermon, ‘A Tender Heart’. I read the sermon to them over the course of two weeks as part of our family worship time. When we finished, Chloe begged me to continue on with her. So I read the book again, with her.

After that we read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer together. Now, we’re reading Iain Murray’s recent biography, Amy Carmichael: Beauty for Ashes.² We’ve actually just started this one, but she’s really into it. I’m thrilled because A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot, another Amy Carmichael biography, was the book I was reading when I first met my bride-to-be in 2003. Now, after nearly 10 years of marriage, I’m reading another Carmichael biography, but this one with my daughter.

Murray has written this one accessibly. My daughter is having no difficulty following along. Only every once in a while has she asked a clarifying question. Usually these have to do with culture and history from a bygone era. If you haven’t read a missionary biography or if your children have not read one, I really recommend this one. The story of Alma, Amy Carmichael, and her mission to rescue orphans from the temple prostitution in India is a remarkable story of a woman of faith and peerless virtue. Her ministry still carries on today in the small village Dohnavur, and it might have a significant impact in your home. Who knows? You might be reading to a future missionary . . . or systems analyst for CTU.