RAR #21: Finding Allies in Imagination: S.D. Smith and The Green Ember
If you read nothing else to your kids this year, read The Green Ember. This is a book that will steep your family’s imagination in the good, true, and beautiful.
The characters encounter tremendous difficulty and face them with indomitable courage. You will laugh, cry, and find your heart racing. You will wonder if you could possibly live up to the nobility and fortitude Heather and Picket.
You will, in short, fall down a rabbit hole. :)
I stumbled across The Green Ember during some random late night clicking and had no idea I had found such a treasure. After reading it with my kids, I started shouting about it from the rooftops and wrote to the author, asking if he’d please-pretty-please come on the podcast.
Guess what? He said yes.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- heroic virtue
- holy imagination in children’s literature
- and why I fell head-over-heels for this book
Click the play button below:
Books from this episode:
(All links are affiliate links.)
Links from this episode:
- StoryWarren site (this sweet little video gets right to the heart of StoryWarren)
- S.D. Smith’s site
- Sam’s blog post about the value of explaining up, not dumbing down when talking to your kids
- Sarah’s book, Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace
- Randall Goodgame’s fabulous music for kids
- Andrew Peterson’s music and books
- Zach Franzen, the illustrator for The Green Ember
- Andrew Kern from the CiRCE Institute
I am so glad S.D. Smith mentioned “Till We Have Faces”. I read when I was 18 and loved it. I have since reread it a few times. I had never met anyone else who had read the book. I have always thought it was one of the greatest of C.S. Lewis.
After an intensive lobbying campaign by the banks, Mary L.
Schapiro, the S.E.C.’s chairwoman, approved the new copper
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I have the Sherlock Holmes that Sam mentioned! It is this one: The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes – Charlton Griffin
And I totally agree – Til We Have Faces – one of the MOST important books that has entered my soul.
http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/The-Complete-Stories-of-Sherlock-Holmes-Audiobook/B00H86K5AE/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1456538877&sr=1-1
This was wonderful. I’m new around here but this is the first time I’ve heard/seen ND Wilson mentioned. Are you familiar? We are huge fans and he’d be an amazing guest.
We are working on getting him scheduled for a podcast this spring! :)
(And… welcome, Jill!)
The beginning- Such affirmation for you and your mission, Sarah! Every time you get frustrated, you should re-listen to this podcast!!!
What a FANTASTIC interview. So much fun. Thanks to both of you. One question — my son will be 4 in May. I have a feeling he would love this book, but is he too young for The Green Ember? His comprehension is good and I’m not so much worried about whether he can sit and listen to a story without illustrations — my concern is more content-related. Thanks!!
It kind of depends on how sensitive he is. The Green Ember is pretty intense. I think I’d wait until 5 or 6, myself.
I just finished listening and at the end when you asked him which narrator for Sherlock Holmes, I was shouting, “Simon Vance!” But I don’t think you heard me :). I’m a big fan of those and just got that set on Audible. It was really reasonably priced.
Dang! I didn’t hear you. :) Thanks for the recommendation!
I tried to find the membership site you mentioned but was told readaloudrevival.me did not exist. Could you give the link to the site, please? This was a truly wonderful podcast episode (they ALL are! )….thank you!
Whoops! Not sure why that link isn’t showing for you. You can find it at https://readaloudrevival.com/membership.
We are slated to open the doors there March 30th. We’re getting close! Just wrapping up the final details there now. :)
I have to admit, this has been my favorite podcast thus far! Sam is such a wonderful speaker- so genuine and real. I can’t wait to grab a copy of The Green Ember for my family! Thank you, Sarah, for another great podcast. I tell everyone I know about it. :-)
Oh my gosh! Sarah! I LOVE the Read Aloud Revival, and this is my absolute favorite podcast of them all so far. Thank you both so much for having such an awesome conversation for us to listen in on. :) I will be devouring those links from the episode and I’m definitely getting my hands on a copy of The Green Ember. You and Sam have both been such a blessing to me in this episode. Thank you!
I don’t even have the words for how much I loved this podcast. I was nodding and exclaiming “yes!” Through the whole thing and then…then Sam (which is also my baby son’s name, after of corse Samwise Gamgee) said that he would bring Till We Have Faces to a desert island! Meeeeeeee toooooooo! Sarah and Sam, thank you so much for all the encouragement and inspiration. I feel like this blog and podcast has shaped my thoughts on homeschooling, maybe just on LIFE, more than any other I’ve found so far.
And also, I read The Pout Pout Fish to my middle girlie every. Darn. Day. For a year. So fun to hear that precious little girl talk about her baby sister!
Great episode! I also have the ebook but haven’t read it yet. My son is 5 and quite sensitive so I think I might wait until next year to be sure we’ll get a lot out of reading it.
I also wanted to mention that anyone who was inspired to read Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis may want to check out this audio lecture by Peter Kreeft on the book. You may want to read the book first (or several times) before listening to the lecture, or listen to the lecture first, depending on whether you want to be influenced ahead of time. :) It is definitely a rich book and I didn’t appreciate it nearly as much when I first read it many years ago.
http://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/16_cslewis-till-we-have-faces.htm
This was wonderful! I love listening to these podcasts! I can’t wait to read this book, and explore StoryWarren more! (Sorry about all the ! but really, it is inspiring to come here and learn with you)
Oh my goodness! This episode is amazing! Listening to this conversation reaffirmed all that I have come to value in reading aloud to my children. I love how the read aloud revival is about more than just reading aloud. It’s about the connection we make with our children and the ways in which quality books affect all of us. Anyone listening to even one podcast of the Read Aloud Revival will see that when we read aloud we are not just reading to our children, we are reading *with* them. Thank you, Sarah, for “being on our side.” Blessings !
This was a home run Sarah! Great episode.
I love the term “ally”. It’s so encouraging to know that there are people out there who value reading, and helping children to love the good, true, and beautiful through literature.
Haven’t read “The Green Ember” yet (hangs head), but it’s sitting patiently in a package waiting to opened and read during our spring break week! Can’t wait!
Sarah,
Your podcast is my very favorite and this episode in my top two so far! Fantastic!
I especially loved the contrast you and Sam made between the didactic approach — spelling out the moral exactly — and the inviting approach — coming alongside your child to learn/read with them.
I am a catechist formed in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd “method.” The above insight rings so true in my experience of praying and reading the Bible with children. We come alongside them as a co-listener to the Word of God and try to relinquish this control we tend to assume as a know-it-all adult in the presence of this Word (the Good, the True, and the Beautiful!). The greater the theme the more reverence and humility we should have for the work that God,( not us) is doing in the child, speaking to their heart. We speak of what we present to them as a gift and remind ourselves:”don’t unwrap the gift for them!”
This podcast brought this insight for me into the realm of the True the Good and the Beautiful in literature. There is a time to teach and a time to simply listen with.
Thanks for your wonderful work, Sarah!
We finished The Green Ember this past Saturday. My boys loved it! Families in my library are raving about it (many got it free on Kindle.) A great book to aspire our children to reach higher.
I have The Green Ember on my e-reader but haven’t read it yet. It’s on my to-read list. Your glowing review makes me want to start reading it now! :)
The RAR and its guests continue to inspire me and stoke the fires of my own imagination as well as my kids’! I am so grateful to you, Sarah, and to Sam for this truly inspiring podcast. I listened to it this morning while the kiddos were still sleeping – I feel so charged and revved up for the day!
God bless!