Books Worth Reading? Review of Pax and Here in the Real World

09/29/21 • 30 min

Bright Wings: Children’s Books to Make the Heart Soar

As part of an ongoing initiative, Charity Hill reviews children's books. In this episode, Charity reviews two novels by Sara Pennypacker: Pax and Here In The Real World. In Pax, we find a deep relationship between a boy (Peter) and his partially domesticated fox (Pax), a search for a moral identity, and a quest to make peace. Finally, Charity wonders if the end is satisfying to a readership that craves an answer to Peter's search. Charity praises Here In the Real World for its masterful ability to propose problems (character vs. parents, character vs. friends, hope vs. cynicism, chivalry vs. feminism) with rich and nuanced responses. In both novels, Charity notices how Pennypacker uses the titles and the characters names to alert us to deep meaning.
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To purchase Here In the Real WorldTo purchase Pax

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.
Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.
Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

Previous Episode

Episode 19: Mother Culture: Taking Care of Your Heart, With Marcie Stokman

Marcie Stokman, founder and president of Well-Read Mom, joins Charity for a conversation. Marcie tells of the need she saw that motivated her to found Well-Read Mom. Marcie and Charity share how deep reading, in a community of women, has impacted them. They talk about the "moral imagination" and how fiction shapes a sense of truth and goodness. Charity and Marcie urge you to "take care of our heart" as ingredient to mothering.
A book list that includes some favorites from Charity and Marcie's families.
How does reading help us "navigate complex social relationships" and the "empathetic responses that maintain them"?
AND
Are we rendering ourselves intellectually and physiologically incapable of deep literacy? What can we do to save our minds?

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.
Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!

Next Episode

Episode 20: How To Go To The Library

At listener request, Charity answers some of your most practical and theoretical questions about going to the library. Should you go to the library? What should you do about story time? Can going to the library with toddlers be fun? How do you navigate that situation? How do you choose what books to bring home? What are your parameters for decision-making? How do I find a book that isn't in the catalogue? What the dickens is the difference between Libby and Hoopla?! Answers to these questions--and stories shared by Charity Hill--await you.

Find quick book recommendations by following Charity on Instagram.
Enjoy essays on the Bright Wings' blog OR find great book lists personally crafted with you in mind!