The Mixed Media editor picks four worthy reads to enrich Black History Month, from a propulsive multigenerational saga to a faith-based novel based on real-life events during Reconstruction.
Book
Not Pop-Pop
By Angela De Groot. Illustrated by MacKenzie HaleyIn this tender picture book, a trip to the library turns into an adventure in kindness and a reminder that people experiencing homelessness deserve compassion and respect.
Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, and George Whitefield were the three most prominent early evangelicals—and all three were deeply compromised on the issue of slavery.
All We Were Promised
By Ashton LattimoreA housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia.
A Healing Touch
By Suzanne Woods FisherWhen a baby is left on her doorstep, formerly Amish doctor Ruth Stoltzfus must confront the state of her marriage and a life out of balance.
Yonder Come Day: Exploring the Collective Witness of the Formerly Enslaved
By Jasmine L. HolmesExperience the struggles, sorrows, triumphs, and hopes of real people who survived one of the darkest periods of American history.
Between Two Brothers
By Crystal AllenInspired by real events, Between Two Brothers is a powerful and uplifting story about forgiveness, brotherhood, and the power of a family’s unconditional love.
Harvest of Hope
By Amanda H. Midkiff. Illustrated by Christopher FowlerIn her sequel to her middle school novel, Where the Crops Never Fail, author Amanda Midkiff returns 10 years later to the idyllic Riverside Farm in Virginia.
Treasures in the Dark: 90 Reflections on Finding Bright Hope Hidden in the Hurting
By Katherine Wolf (with Alex Wolf)Sometimes the most valuable treasures are found in the darkest of times. It's often in the heart of our deepest pain and struggle that God chooses to reveal his most precious gifts.
The Laundryman's Boy
By Edward Y. C. LeeFall 1913, St. Catharines, Ont.: 13-year-old Hoi Wing Woo, the son of a scholar, is forced to give up his dreams of an education when he is sent to work in a Chinese laundry in Canada.
Healing What’s Within: Coming Home to Yourself–and to God–When You’re Wounded, Weary, and Wandering
By Chuck DeGroatWe can’t always control what happens to us. But we can discover how to heal the hidden hurt it leaves behind.
Othered: Finding Belonging with the God Who Pursues the Hurt, Harmed, and Marginalized
By Jenai AumanFor anyone who has felt left out or pushed out of the church, this is your invitation to find spiritual rest and belonging in a God who loves, pursues, and blesses the outcast.
Penny Preaches: God Gives Good Gifts to Everyone!
By Amy Dixon and Rob Dixon. Illustrated by Jennifer DavisonWhen preaching from the front porch to her friends doesn't turn out as she expected, Penny wonders if she was wrong to want to teach others about God.
Maurice
By Jessixa BagleyThe winning personality of Corduroy meets the fable-like storytelling of Extra Yarn in this uplifting story about a dog and his music amidst a changing Paris.
Not Finished Yet: Trusting God with All My Feelings
By Sharon Garlough Brown. Illustrated by Jessica Linn EvansSometimes, you see, Wren and Gran didn't paint flowers or clouds or birds or trees. Sometimes they painted their feelings. She and Gran called it "painting prayers."
The Banner’s Mixed Media Editor gives her top picks for best Christian living books of 2024.
Her Part to Play: A Novel
By Jenny ErlingssonAdanne accepts a job as a makeup artist for a movie filming in her Alabama hometown, but the money hardly seems worth facing the actor who got her fired from her last job in Hollywood.
Kailani's Gift
By Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young. Illustrated by Lynnor BontigaoThis picture-book celebration of family, Filipino heritage, and dance showcases the value of patience, perseverance, and blessing others with your gifts and talents.
Drawing on research and experience, Raffety, an able-bodied Christian writing to able-bodied churches, confesses her struggle to repent from ableism in hopes of convincing others to do the same.
The Black history you never knew: Uncovering unsung heroes in the struggle for racial justice.
Darkness Calls the Tiger
By Janyre TrompAfter the attack on Pearl Harbor, Imperial Japan devours the southern portion of Burma. Unaware of the coming darkness, Kailyn Moran drifts in her role as the only daughter of a widowed missionary.
Five Stories
By Ellen WeinsteinFive children, from five different cultures and in five different decades, grow up in the same building on the Lower East Side of New York City.
The Art of Living in Season: A Year of Reflections for Everyday Saints
By Sylvie Vanhoozer"What can I give him?” French author Sylvie Vanhoozer takes her hometown tradition of Provençal crèches (nativity scenes peopled by “little saints”) and tries to expand it yearlong.
Why Everything that Doesn’t Matter, Matters So Much: The Way of Love in a World of Hurt
By Charlie Peacock and Andi AshworthA hopeful, practical model for what it means to be a Christian and a culture-maker in a world of hurt and wondrous possibility, from multi-Grammy winner Charlie Peacock and his wife and author, Andi Ashworth.