News — Ellen's Book Corner

by Ellen Michaud Sitting here under the ancient oaks that surround my cottage at the edge of the Sacramento Valley, I watch as a heavy, late-summer sun slowly slides through their branches, and drifts toward the horizon. The Valley temperature has hovered around 105 degrees all day. But here, under the trees and not far from the Sierra foothills, I am sheltered from much of the heat. I am sheltered because at some time back in the seventies, a group of people valued these trees enough to preserve them and establish a small community that would be dedicated to their survival....

In First Day Stories, both First Day School teachers and parents have been given a tool with which to encourage the wondering that propels children into the very heart of God. Image credit: Katherine K. Newman By Ellen Michaud The light voices of seven small, happy children drifted among the early spring flowers and through the windows of Redwood Forest Friends Meeting in Santa Rosa. Waving the paper projects they’d made this morning in First Day School, the children were walking along the graveled path from their schoolroom to join adult Friends in the final minutes of unprogrammed worship. A...