Consider yourself invited! Brandon and I will be speaking and signing books on Sept. 15 at The Stately Raven in Findlay, OH. This one-of-a-kind store is located in a beautiful former church, directly across the street from the University of Findlay, and features a working fireplace, a reading loft, and gorgeous murals inspired by the shop’s name. (You can see some of these details in the introductory video on their homepage.) We’re honored to be part of their fall event lineup and would love to show our appreciation with a big turnout, so if you’re anywhere near Findlay, please come out and join us!

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009
5:30-7:30 pm
The Stately Raven
1315 North Main St.
Findlay, OH 45840
419-427-2814

Bring the kids! An entire floor of the shop is devoted to kids’ books, so they’ll have lots to look at and plenty of room to curl up with a book. Copies of all the History Lives books will be available for purchase and personalization. We look forward to meeting you there!

Several months have passed since the publication of Rescue and Redeem, and Brandon and I are grateful to all of you who have read it and sent us your feedback.  We’re also excited that many others of you are still discovering the series for the first time (like the bloggers at Christian Children’s Book Review, who recently reviewed book 1, Peril and Peace.)  Whether you have read all the books and heartily recommend them to friends or are just starting book 1 and aren’t sure yet what you think, we count it a privilege to be on your bookshelf!  Thank you for supporting this series.  We love to hear from you, so please do contact us with your questions, comments, links to blog reviews, etc. (maybe we’ll post some of them here).  You’ll find our contact info on the “About the authors” page.  Thanks again, and happy reading!

We are thrilled to announce that volume 5, Rescue and Redeem, is now available in the US!!

And to celebrate the conclusion of the series, our friends at Westminster Bookstore are offering (for a limited time) the entire 5-volume set for 45% off (only $24.72 — less than $5 per volume)!  Of course you can also purchase Rescue and Redeem individually at a 30% discount ($6.29), but it might be worth purchasing the whole set at the greater discount and then donating any volumes you already have to your school or church library…or designating them your “loan out” copies…or swapping them with homeschoolers…or giving them away to other young friends/seminary students/pastors…you get the idea!  When you order, please let the good folks at the bookstore know how much you appreciate their special prices for our books.

(UPDATE: The above price expired April 1, 2009.  Click through the links to view the current available price.)

THANK YOU for your support, dear readers, and ENJOY this final installment!

We are just days away from the U.S. release of Rescue and Redeem! You can now pre-order at Amazon, with an anticipated ship date of March 15; other retailers will follow soon.  We hope you enjoy this last book in the series just as much as the first!

Brandon and I are excited to announce that Rescue and Redeem: Chronicles of the Modern Church, the fifth and final book in the series, is now available in the UK!  Order directly from the publisher, or browse your favorite UK bookshop.  American readers, stay with us, as the US release will follow shortly—we’ll be sure to let you know where you can get the first copies.  Thanks for reading! 

We’ve just learned that the first four books are now available at Target.com; the fifth will follow upon release in the U.S.  Thanks again to all of you (around the world!) whose buying and recommending is helping to expand our distribution.

At long last, we present the cover of the forthcoming and final History Lives book, Rescue and Redeem: Chronicles of the Modern Church!  This beautiful illustration (click the thumbnail for a larger view) by Jonathan Williams features Pandita Ramabai and her daughter Manoramabai on the grounds of the Sharada Sadan, a refuge and school for child widows in India founded by Ramabai.   Hers is one of the remarkable stories you’ll find in this volume.  We can’t wait for you to read them all!

Thank you, readers, for continuing to spread the word about History Lives.  Over the last few months, a number of you have told us that you are using these books in Sunday school classes, school curriculum, discussion groups, and as good ol’ bedtime reading.  Soon you’ll be able to add Rescue and Redeem to all those lists, too, completing the historical arc!  Stay tuned for details on this final book in the series.

In the meantime, we’re happy to tell you about a couple endorsements we’ve received from the homeschooling and classical school communities.  Susan Wise Bauer, author of the popular Story of the World history curriculum for grades 1-4, has recently revised Activity Book 2 (The Middle Ages); you’ll see that Courage and Conviction now tops the list of recommended additional reading for her chapter on Martin Luther and the start of the Reformation.  And The Old Schoolhouse Magazine was kind enough to give Hearts and Hands a very enthusiastic review.  We appreciate it!

Just a quick note to inform you of a special offer from our friends at Westminster Bookstore. They have put together a 4-pack of the History Lives books (one each of volumes 1-4) for just over $25, which is 30% off the retail price—a great opportunity to catch up on the series before volume 5 comes out at the end of the year. Pop on over and see what else they have—their best shipping rate is on orders over $35—and be sure to thank them for supporting this series!

And now I’m excited to reveal the contents! This volume is truly a global one, with settings as diverse as Asia, North and South America, India, the Hawaiian Islands, Europe, and Africa. It tells the stories of: Niijima Jo; Hudson and Maria Taylor; Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey; Robert Thomas, John Ross, and Samuel Moffett; Pandita Ramabai; Princess Ka‘iulani; Marianna Slocum; Dietrich Bonhoeffer; C.S. Lewis; and Janani Luwum. Additional background features include: What is the Modern Church?; Missions in a Modern World; Living the Golden Rule; The Bible in New Words; Big Moments in Modern Christianity; Other Modern Christians; and The Future Lives.

Stay tuned for further updates!