I recently traveled to western NC for a day outing and stumbled into a great display of Inkling artifacts!  While visiting the town of Montreat gift shop, I was surprised to see a book on Lewis.  I picked it up to discover a whole stack of Lewis, Tolkien and Dorothy Sayers scholarly writings. Interesting… I inquired of the shop keeper if the local college had any Professors teaching this.  “Oh yes, they had a conference here.”  “Who is the catalyst?”  I inquired. She knew little of the conference or any names of how these books got in the town store, however a Lewolkien like me was to energized too let it go. “Who could tell me about this conference” I asked. Another shopper overheard my continued inquiry, and thankfully noticed the shop keeper was not up to speed on the source.  She turned to me and let me know the Presbyterian Heritage Center was the conference sponsor and that they had a Montreat College professor on board!  She then explained that the center just up the hill still has a display up on the Inklings. I persuaded my wife to go looking for it, and to my fruitful exploration we…

Read on for all that was of the flaming comet streaking through our literary skies known as Lewolkien 2019.

Six great reads for your 6th grader is my second attempt at the all-elusive list-making.  I do not mean to say these are the greatest books of all time, just that they are standouts and might give you some ideas.  Parents are entrusted with the great task of putting good words into the hands of their budding adults; I for one have found it difficult to find safe booklists I can trust.  How do you decide what to allow your child to read?  Do you simply sit in the car and let them run in to the local bookstore? Do you trust Amazon’s top picks?  I believe the parent who can come home to their children at the dinner table with a book in hand (or a loaded Kindle) will accomplish mighty things, such as: Gaining the edge on feeding good thoughts into his/her children Connecting with his/her children Laying a foundation for difficult upcoming conversations Increasing academic success Indirectly teaching morality (alright, that is a lot like #1) Christopher Perrin and Leslie Rayner in The Classical Reader write: “Ensconced with great books, our children will travel to places that we cannot take them and to times we cannot go.  Lives…

Five great reads for your 5th grader!  This is a short stab at trying to pass on the all-elusive skill of list-making from one Father/Educator to the next.  Every parent has a 5th grader at some point, and all the ones that I know are expecting their children to read something.  How will you decide what to allow your child to read?  Do you simply sit in the car and let them run in to the local bookstore? Do you trust Amazon’s top picks?  I believe the parent who can come home to their children at the dinner table with a book in hand (or a loaded Kindle) will accomplish mighty things, such as: Gaining the edge on feeding good thoughts into his/her children Connecting with his/her children Laying a foundation for difficult upcoming conversations Increasing academic success Indirectly teaching morality (alright, that is a lot like #1) The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit is a story of three children whose father is mysteriously sent to prison, forcing them move out to the country and live near a railway.  The narrative is witty, and adventures with these kids are always fun.  The power of the story, however, lies in the good sense…