Wise Words

Wise Words: Family Stories that Bring the Proverbs to Life, by Peter Leithart
(Canon Press), audio, 4 CD’s
Ages 5+

This book is also available in print, but I bought the audio to listen to as we travelled over the holidays. It is excellent and we all enjoyed it greatly. The stories are read well, and Leithart has done an amazing job weaving these stories. He has taken common fairy tale motifs and woven in common elements from biblical stories creating fun stories that illustrate themes from Proverbs. Each story is concluded with a “moral” which cites a specific passage from Proverbs. This moral though only points out one of the many lessons contained in each story. I enjoyed asking my boys if they caught the various allusions to biblical stories, motifs, etc.

I highly recommend this book. It is fun and instructive. My boys begged us to continue listening. It is also a great opportunity to check and develop biblical literacy as you see what biblical allusions your children catch. The book is also a great training in learning to read all sorts of literature (fairy tales in this case) in light of the gospel.

NB: You can hear audio clips here.

The Hobbit, Audio

About a year ago I read The Hobbit to my boys and we all loved it. I recently found this audio version for a great deal (about $5!- not at Amazon). We have only listened to the first few minutes so far but we were taken with it immediately. The reading is really well done. My 9 year old checked yesterday to make sure I was not listening to it without them! He did not want to miss out on any of it.

Listening again to the introduction of Gandalf I was struck particularly by one line:
“Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went.”

I found myself thinking, I want that reputation with my own kids.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Audio

While traveling during Spring Break we listened to the Harper Childrens Audio edition of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.. We read the whole Chronicles of Narnia series a couple of years ago (mentioned previously), but recently I have found both Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair in this unabridged audio editions for $10 a piece- about 67% off! We love Narnia so I picked them up- the more editions the better! I mention this first of all to suggest you might find these CD’s discounted in stores near you. I wonder if they are left-overs after the initial rush of Narnia items with the release of the movie.

Second, the reading is very well done. The Focus on the Family Radio Theatre editions are well done with the dramatic portrayal, but it is also good to have the whole book read, and read well. It is also nice to hear the stories read in an English accent, since this is how Lewis would have thought of his stories. Certain things just come out differently.

I could read/listen to these stories endlessly. I don’t know how many times we have gone through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Listening this time, though, opened up a good discussion with my boys about honor (drawing from Reepicheep)- what it means, how important it is and how forgotten it is in our culture today. This conversation is continuing to bear fruit.

On this listening I also noticed even more Lewis’s emphasis on children reading the right books. The most famous instance is Eustace not knowing anything about dragons because he did not read the right kind of books. This kind of critique is mentioned often. Also, in a number of places the children explicitly draw from events in stores they have read in order to decide how to deal with situations facing them. Lewis was overtly campaigning for the reading of classic fairy tales and myths.

We love to have good stories on CD for traveling. These unabridged Narnia books are more demanding than the Radio Theatre. I think they are especially suited for those who have already read the stories once and therefore can follow along more easily.