The Inklings Variety Hour The Inklings Variety Hour

One of my new favorite poems by Lewis. For some reason, he's really good at writing about planets as well as myth...hmm...
You can find it in Poems. Not sure where else.

Part two of our "all the right books"/summer reading series.
As always, please do give us a five-star review on iTunes if you like this podcast.
J.D. Peabody joins Chris once again to talk about the state of Christian middle-grade publishing.  You can find his article/interview for Christianity Today on the same subject here.  It is well worth reading.
Among other things, we discuss:
Current changes to traditionally published Middle Grade fiction
How those changes apply to Christian Middle Grade fiction
What would The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hobbit have to change to be published today?
Redacting books
"On the Reading of Old Books," by C.S. Lewis
The rise of independent publishing/self-publishing
Helping your child develop good judgment
Book recommendations
Advice for modern Christian Middle Grade authors
Monty Python, of course (or maybe just John Cleese?)
Feel free to follow us @inklingsvarietyhour for more summer reading recommendations (both for grown-ups and children).
Email me anytime at inklingsvarietyhour@gmail.com
Next week: I'm still deciding, but there's a lot of great stuff to choose from.  You'll like it, I promise!
Music is "Fragrant Fields," by George Winston, from Summer

Chris has G. Connor Salter back on the show to discuss Tom Bombadil in Rings of Power, as well as Tom Bombadil more generally.
See you Tuesday!

J.R.R. Tolkien was a pretty good nonsense poet.
You can find this poem in the chapter "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" in The Fellowship of the Ring, as well as in Tales from the Perilous Realm. It was originally printed on its own in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
Enjoy!

(Apple won't post all the shownotes to this because of limited space; feel free to click on the show website below for more recommendations. Meanwhile, I'll frontload the stuff with links.)
When a character in Narnia has "read all the wrong books," you know they're in for a difficult time. But spending time in Narnia does a lot to compensate for a bad literary diet.
What, though, about our kids, who all live well after the Narnian apocalypse and need good books to thrive in our world?
What are "the right books," and how do we get our children to read them? Heck, how do we find them for ourselves, for that matter?
Chris' guests this week are Angela Teal and Marena Bleech, who, with their powers combined, form In The Burrow Books.  You can follow them on Instagram for more recommendations: @intheburrowbooks.
You can also find Angela Teal's (a.k.a. J. Reese Bradley's) books, the Brumbletide series (which my eight-year-old is currently enjoying), here.
Among other things, we discuss:
Why Christians should go to the library
Ideological conformity among "top five" publishers
Motivating kids and competing with screens
"On Fairy Stories," by J.R.R. Tolkien
"On Three Ways of Writing for Children," by C.S. Lewis
Why you should judge books by their illustrations
Post-show recommendations from Marena:
Amy Grimes does some of the most beautiful work. I highly recommend her book(s) and giving her a follow.
I adore these Enid Blyton picture books. They're great for early readers.
I think one of my favorite picture books (which of course, I didn't mention) is The Cottage At the End of the Lane which is worth having if you can get it. 
Like I said, Brambly Hedge is the best!
Astrid Sheckels was one I mentioned that's a great current author/illustrator. 
Of course, A Book of Narnians is wonderful.
This is such a beautiful book of poetry. (And anything by Tasha Tudor is worth having)
I'm also a big Winnie-the-Pooh fan, and any book with Ernest Shepherd illustrations.
Post-show recommendations from Chris:
My friend J.D. Peabody’s middle grade book series, The Inkwell Chronicles is a lot of fun (“The Inklings” is a secret society of authors far larger and older than the Oxford group with Lewis and Tolkien). He also wrote an article on middle grade books for Christianity Today that I’m going to release a podcast about soon.
I didn’t talk about the Prydain Chronicles or the Earthsea books as great fantasy books that aren’t necessarily Christian, but they were absolutely vital (though I didn’t get into Earthsea until college)
I have a Pauline Baynes (out of print) book that is a beautiful illustration of the Nicene Creed. 
Spells of Enchantment (collection of stories), edited by Jack Zipes
Tales before Tolkien (collection of stories), edited by Douglas Anderson
My wife Glencora’s children’s book and my far less successful one, where we tried to create engaging (if not very professional) illustrations for good poems
Our book about Christmas, Twelve Tide, which has lots of literature excerpts and has done a bit better.
The Never Ending Story (the book!) by Michael Ende
The Half Magic series, by Edward Eager
Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit
The Book of Wonder, by Lord Dunsany
Among other things, we recommend:
Harry Potter
Inkheart
The Wrinkle in Time series
Anything by Roald Dahl, who was a mean old cuss
The Borrowers
Grimm's Fairy Tales
The Wind in the Willows (illustrated by Arthur Rackham)
Anne of Green Gables
The Secret Garden
Peter and Wendy
Brambly Hedge
Beatrix Potter
Beverly Cleary's Ramona books
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Magic Treehouse series
Picture books:
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
The Naming and I Believe:The Nicene Creed illustrated by Pauline Baynes
Beatrix Potter's books (but avoid the new fake stuff not drawn by her as you would avoid Mr. MacGregor's garden--sold under her name, too!).
Astrid Sheckels' Hector Fox series
Mr. Bliss, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf
Movies and TV S

Poetry Thursday will be back next week!  Today, we have our normal show, which was displaced by the Pop-Up Pop Rings of Power Teaser Reaction Tuesday.
Here's an article Connor wrote for "A Pilgrim in Narnia" that compares the themes of Nightmare Alley with those of Lewis' work.
Connor Salter joins Chris to discuss Bill Gresham, Joy's first husband, and the movie Nightmare Alley, based on Gresham's bestselling book.
Among other things, we discuss
The plot of the film
Possible meanings of the film
Noir films and the search for God
Community among carnival performers
Bill Gresham's life (and death)
Bill's and Joy's involvement with Dianetics
A few other works that get mentioned include:
Monster Midway
The Greater Trumps
And you can find Connor's stuff here, as well as at Fellowship & Fairydust.
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Next week: What are "the right books" Eustace didn't read, and how can your kids find them in an increasingly bizarre middle grade marketplace?  Ideas for kids' summer reading in the spirit of the Inklings.