Book List: World Magazine
Rating: 
On July 1, 2000, World Magazine published a list of 50 classic 20th-Century children’s books, titled “Nifty 50.” This was received with such enthusiasm that on December 9, 2000, the magazine ran a reprint of the article with 50 additional titles. The “Nifty 50, Plus 50” is clearly influenced by a Christian worldview, and although it is described as listing “classic” books, it has more in common with other Christian lists than with secular lists of classics. It is lightly annotated with brief abstracts of the stories or an explanation of why it is considered valuable. In my reviews I have considered the original and reprinted articles as a single list.
On December 2, 2006, World followed up with another article titled “Books That Show, Books That Tell.” This was compiled with contributions from World writers and “discerning readers” including such luminaries as Marvin & Susan Olasky, Noel Piper, Frederica Mathewes-Green, and J. Mark Bertrand. There is considerable bit of overlap among the recommendations of individual contributors and with the original “Nifty 50 Plus 50,” but the second list adds about 170 titles.
In the last list, the contributors’ backgrounds and priorities are widely dissimilar. Consequently there is a broad range in the kind of books recommended. Many of them give comments for individual titles or series, which are interesting both for the light they shed on the titles and for the insight they give into the minds of these Christian public figures. This list is difficult to use for systematic research, however, because many titles are multiply listed under multiple contributor’s names.
Because of the lack of explicit, unified criteria for inclusion of titles, these lists may not be the best place to begin building a library, but they do make a nice resource, especially if you admire one or more of the individual contributors.
Click here for reviews of titles recommended by Books that Show and Nifty 50.
Categories: 4 Stars, Reviews of Book Lists
Tags: Christian Worldview, Frederica Mathewes-Green
Posted on April 20, 2009
No responses yet. You could be the first!
Leave a Response
Subscribe
Search by:
Tags
Quotes
[Literary] abilities, wheresoever they be found, are the inspired gift of God, rarely bestowed… and are of power, beside the office of a pulpit, to inbreed and cherish in a great people the seeds of virtue and public civility, to allay the perturbations of the mind, and set the affections in right tune; to celebrate in glorious and lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God’s almightiness… [t]eaching over the whole book of sanctity and virtue through all the instances of example.
—
Recent Posts
Wish List
