At long last Max is reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Maddie and I both read the entire series two years ago while we were in Germany. The real life Berlin Wall which divided citizens, so similar to the barbed wire dividing the districts in the book, and reading about the character of the twisted President Snow controlling innocent citizens while we walked streets where Hitler trod was almost too much to take in. It cemented both our history and this novel in my mind forever. I think I'm more excited that Max is reading this incredible, gripping story of bravery and fighting for what's right (with some great, clean romance thrown in) than he is. But I can't wait until he finishes, because then I'll be able to watch the movie again too! And hello, the Catching Fire movie releases in November!

Who knew there were so many different Bibles to choose from? My Bible App on my phone has 616 versions in 376 languages! So, how do you know which Bible is right for your kids, nieces and nephews, students in the Sunday School you teach or at the camp where you're a counselor? Which version will resonate best with what age group? Over the years my kids have amassed a large collection of Bibles (gifts from baptisms, take homes from Sunday School and VBS, stuffed in Easter baskets and more). I'm not an expert. And I certainly haven't looked through all the Bibles, but I know which ones they keep in their beds, which ones they turn to again and again. My husband picked up Bible Stories (DP 1999) at Cosco in 1999 when it first came out for our then, one year-old, Maddie. The eye-catching illustrations with all of the major stories from the Bible accented by photos of actual Biblical sites and artifacts along with historical facts, have made this book a family favorite -- so much so, that the binding and many of the pages are now taped. Mallory's Sunday School class uses the Adventure Bible (Zondervan). She loves this version with "Did You Know" and "Live It" boxes inserted into the text to make the scriptures relevant to her so much that she asked for it for Easter this year. Max keeps the ESV version in his bed. This is the version his boys' middle school Bible study uses and he's old enough now for a "real" Bible. Maddie has the You Version App of the Bible on her smart phone and on her iPad. She loves having the Bible with her where ever she goes. Not a morning goes by that she doesn't check out "the verse of the day". In fact, she often "shares" it with me or my husband. I'm sure there are many more great kids' Bibles, but these are the additions that resonate with my kids.

We are in the car All. The. Time. I have four kids who are super busy and none of them can drive. Today alone we spent two hours and fifteen minutes in the car transporting them to and fro. Since I haven't figured out yet how to read and drive at the same time, we listen to books on CD to pass the time (mainly to make toting around their older siblings more tolerable for Mallory and Maguire). Right now, we're listening to Double Fudge by Judy Blume. It is hilarious. Although Maddie and Max rolled their eyes at a middle grade read, they can't help but laugh out loud when it's playing on our rides. Double Fudge is classic Judy Blume--characters so real, you feel like you know them--a little too well. It's narrated by her, the author herself, in her full on thick New York accent. There's humor about strange relatives, jokes about little brothers, real life questions about what money can and can't buy, how you feel when a pet is sick and how crummy it is when friends move away all peppered into the plot. But mostly it's just plain fun. And a great way to make the drive time not only tolerable, but pleasant.

Max would rather read a Sports Illustrated than a book any day. It's not that he's not a good reader. He is. A very good reader. So much so, that SI Kids bores him, and he delves deep into the talented writing staff week after week of Sports Illustrated. But there are articles in SI that aren't meant for twelve year olds, plus there's something inside me that longs for my son to experience the magic of books, especially the world, places and characters that fiction introduces us to.

When Max was grudgingly searching for a new title for his summer reading, I suggested The New Recruit by Jill Williamson. Knowing Jill, because we're represented by the same literary agent, I had downloaded her YA Christian spy story on my Kindle a few months back. I'd only had a chance to read the first two chapters. The main character, Spencer, is forced to choose between military school and a Christian spy organization and he never seems to put down his basketball. It was worth a shot. It turns out it was a three pointer. Max loved reading on my Kindle, plowed through the book in just a couple of days, and just spent his own money to buy the second book in the series, Project Gemini. He gave The New Recruit five out of five stars. I honestly haven't seem him enjoy a book so much since he read Tim Tebow's Through My Eyes.