Notable Books

This anthology pulls together short stories by many well-known writers in the time travel subgenre, including H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Douglas Adams, and complements them with stories by lesser-known authors. The preface is playfully written, dated 2150, and each section of the book is grouped by trope (Section 1 features experiments) and finishes with a nonfiction essay. The book suffers a painful lack of imagination regarding God and creation, ignores Christian authors like C.S. Lewis, and includes plenty of disturbing material. But for well-grounded adults and teens, it also provides a well-charted panorama of this ever-expanding literary galaxy. 960 pages. Ages 16 and up.

The Redcoats Are Coming! AIO Imagination Station Books (Book 13)

The Redcoats Are Coming, like other Imagination Station books, provides clean entertainment that reinforces wholesome values and familiarizes kids with history. Cousins Patrick and Beth travel back to the Revolutionary War to take an important letter to Patrick Henry, all the while facing spies, snakes, and other dangers to complete their mission. Compared to its predecessors, this book contains far richer Christian content and shows how Christian beliefs helped establish American freedoms. Christian families and educators will likely find The Redcoats Are Coming a step up from the similar Magic Tree House series and from previous books in this series. 144 pages. Ages 6-9.

Journey

In this 2014 Caldecott Honor Book a young girl creates a door in her wall with a red crayon, then steps through the door and into a world of blue-green watercolor: She draws herself a red boat, then a red balloon, then a red magic carpet to ride. She also wins a bird’s friendship as the plot unfolds, but the real beauty here is the visual artistry, the evocative flights of fancy, and the story’s wordless pages, which allow families to create their own stories each time they share the book. Journey melds the artistry of Harold and the Purple Crayon with the imaginative mystery of The Secret Garden. 40 pages. Ages 4-8.

The Infinity Ring: The Iron Empire

In this seventh book of the Infinity Ring series, Dak, Sera, and Riq must fix the last Great Break in history by saving Alexander the Great. To do that they will need help from Aristotle, the founder of their time travel group, before the bad guys can arrive to take down the teens. Dashner’s fast-paced storytelling, dramatic action, and pro-democracy insights make this a winner for young teens. Caution: One character stores an object in his pants to offend a female character. 192 pages. Ages 8-12.

Spotlight

Rush Revere and the First Patriots: Time Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans is the second book in a series for kids (ages 8-12) by radio host Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh’s conservative views come through unmistakably in the main voice of the story, history teacher Rush Revere. Liberty, the talking and time traveling horse, livens up the tale with slapstick antics and occasional potty humor, a la Shrek. As these two gallop through history, Revere’s unremarkable students tag along to learn truly insightful lessons about our country’s founding, friendship, and the cost of freedom. Parents who want to weigh the series—and Limbaugh’s presentation of the founders’ Christianity—more thoroughly, can go to the Summer Reading Challenge at Redeemedreader.com. —E.W.