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Redeemed Reader Starred Reviews

With the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020, we, like many others, closed up the shop to customers and went to an online-selling-only format for a few weeks. That period coincided with the closure of libraries, schools, and many other activities families participated in, so demand for reading books became intense! We had never seen fiction fly off our shelves like that before! And customers weren't bringing us used books to keep those shelves full, so we quickly had large gaps in our inventory. 

We had a decision to make. We could simply start ordering more at a time of the books we normally carried; or, we could start using all of our free time (ha!) to expand our selection. If you know us at Exodus at all, you know which path we took.

Now, we like to read, but we pull ideas for titles from all over. Along with suggestions from friends, book lists and curriculum catalogs have been our main go-to for years. But they tend to focus on the tried and true, and while wonderful, they can get a little stale. 

Enter Redeemed Reader. This blog, written and administrated by four remarkable ladies—Janie Cheaney, Betsy Farquhar, Megan Saben, and Hayley Schoeppler—is an excellent answer to the problem. Primarily focusing on new books, they rate and review books from a Protestant Christian perspective, and they do it extremely well. Active for 9+ years, they have several hundred reviews on the site, and include picture books, easy readers, books for middle grades, teens, and adults. Their rating system is designed to show how well a book reflects Truth & Story. Since it's possible for a book to be excellently told artistically, yet be antagonistic to Biblical faith; or the converse: a story may be Biblically sound, yet poorly written—so their ratings (scales of 1-5) show both, and then are averaged. If that average rating is 4.5 or higher, they might give the book a "starred review," meaning the book is among the best of the best. It's a book worth owning or giving as a gift, and will probably bear potentially frequent rereading. 

Although they've reviewed many other books we carry as well, we've decided to intentionally carry as many of the starred reviews as we can, and those are collected here. We'll continue to add more as they do! 

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Redeemed Reader Starred Reviews
55 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 8th grade (Ages 13-14), Trade Paperback
Airborn
Airborn Trilogy #1
by Kenneth Oppel
from HarperCollins
for 5th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$11.99
Almost Paradise
by Corabel Shofner
from Square Fish Publishing
for 6th-12th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$19.99
Bamboo People
by Mitali Perkins
from Charlesbridge
for 6th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99
Betty Before X
by Ilyasah Shabazz with Renee Watson
from Square Fish Publishing
for 8th-12th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Book of the Ancient World
by Dorothy Mills
2nd edition from Memoria Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Memoria Press Classical Studies (Location: HISCUR-MP)
$20.10
Calvin
by Martine Leavitt
from Square Fish Publishing
for 8th-12th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 5th-9th grade
1956 Newbery Medal winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$15.99
Carver and the Queen
by Emma C. Fox
from Owl's Nest Publishers
for 7th-10th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$12.99
Cytonic
Skyward #3
by Brandon Sanderson
from Ember
for 7th-10th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$14.99
Disappeared
by Francisco X. Stork
from Arthur A. Levine Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$10.99
Entwined
by Heather Dixon
from Greenwillow Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$10.99
Faerie Gold
Classics for Young Readers
by Kathryn Lindskoog & Ranelda Mack Hunsicker
from P&R Publishing
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 4th-8th grade
in Morality Tales (Location: FIC-WH05)
$17.99
Faithful Spy
by John Hendrix
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for 8th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$18.99
For Christ's Crown
by Richard Hannula
1st edition from Canon Press
for 5th-Adult
in Church History for Kids (Location: XCH-KID)
$16.00
Get Your Story Straight
by Kristen Hatton
1st edition from New Growth Press
for 8th-12th grade
in Growing Up Christian (Location: XCL-GROW)
Ghost
Track book #1
by Jason Reynolds
from Atheneum
for 4th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Hallelujah
by Cindy Rollins
from Blue Sky Daisies
for 1st-Adult
in Christmas & Advent (Location: HOLIDAY)
$9.95
Hallelujah
by Cindy Rollins
from Circe Institute
for 1st-Adult
in Christmas & Advent (Location: HOLIDAY)
Hattie Big Sky
by Kirby Larson
from Yearling
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Hattie Big Sky
by Kirby Larson
from Yearling
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Hattie Ever After
by Kirby Larson
from Yearling
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$13.00
Honey For a Child's Heart
by Gladys Hunt, with Mark Hunt
5th edition, updated & expanded from Zondervan
for All ages
in Recommended Book Lists (Location: LIR-REC)
$22.99
Honey For a Child's Heart (old)
by Gladys Hunt
4th edition from Zondervan
for All ages
in Clearance: Home School Resources (Location: ZCLE-HSR)
$12.00
Honey for a Teen's Heart
by Gladys Hunt & Barbara Hampton
from Zondervan
for 7th-Adult
in Recommended Book Lists (Location: LIR-REC)
$16.99
Hope in the Holler
by Lisa Lewis Tyre
from Puffin Books
for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
How Do We Know That Christianity is Really True?
Biq Questions Series
by Chris Morphew, Illustrated by Emma Randall
from Good Book Company
for 3rd-8th grade
in Worldview & Apologetics for Kids (Location: BIBWV-APK)
$12.99
I Am David
by Anne Holm
from Harcourt
Realistic Fiction for 3rd-8th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$9.99
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
by Dusti Bowling
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Jack Zulu and the Waylander's Key
by S. D. Smith & J. C. Smith
from Story Warren Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$15.99
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
by Gary D. Schmidt
from Clarion Books
for 7th-9th grade
2005 Newbery Honor Book
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$7.99
Long Walk to Water
by Linda Sue Park
from Sandpiper Books
for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99
Monks and Mystics
History Lives Volume 2
by Mindy & Brandon Withrow
from Christian Focus Publications
for 5th-9th grade
in Church History for Kids (Location: XCH-KID)
New Kid
by Jerry Craft
from HarperCollins
for 4th-8th grade
in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (Location: FIC-COMIC)
$12.99
Night Divided
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
from Scholastic Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99
Once a Queen
by Sarah Arthur
from WaterBrook Press
for 7th-12th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$12.99
Pay Attention, Carter Jones
by Gary D. Schmidt
from Clarion Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Perilous Gard
by Elizabeth Marie Pope
from Houghton Mifflin
Historical Fantasy for 7th-10th grade
1975 Newbery Honor Book
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Perilous Gard
by Elizabeth Marie Pope
from Puffin Books
Historical Fantasy for 7th-10th grade
1975 Newbery Honor Book
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Red Butterfly
by A. L. Sonnichsen, Illustrated by Amy June Bates
from Simon and Schuster
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
Rise
by Trip Lee, foreword by John Piper
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 7th-12th grade
in Growing Up Christian (Location: XCL-GROW)
$19.99
Secret Keepers
by Trenton Lee Stewart
from Little, Brown & Company
for 4th-8th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$9.99
Seeds of America - Boxed Set
by Laurie Halse Anderson
from Atheneum
for 4th-8th grade
in Boxed Sets & Literature Packages (Location: FIC-BOX)
$26.99
Skyward
Skyward #1
by Brandon Sanderson
from Ember
for 7th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$14.99
Star That Always Stays
by Anna Rose Johnson
from Holiday House
for 6th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$10.99
Sunny
Track book #3
by Jason Reynolds
from Atheneum
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Sweep
by Jonathan Auxier
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for 5th-9th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$9.99
Through Gates of Splendor
by Elisabeth Elliot
from Tyndale House
Biography for 8th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$16.99 $10.00 (1 in stock)
Transformed by Truth
by Katherine Forster
from Crossway Books
for 7th-12th grade
in Bible Study & Reference for Kids (Location: BIBR-STU)
$14.99
Trial and Triumph
by Richard Hannula
from Canon Press
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Church History for Kids (Location: XCH-KID)
$21.99
Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt
from Square Fish Publishing
Fantasy for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$8.99 $5.00 (2 in stock)
Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden
Vanderbeekers #2
by Karina Yan Glaser
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
for 3rd-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
What Happens When We Die?
Big Questions Series
by Chris Morphew, Illustrated by Emma Randall
from Good Book Company
for 3rd-8th grade
in Worldview & Apologetics for Kids (Location: BIBWV-APK)
Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?
Big Questions Series
by Chris Morphew, Illustrated by Emma Randall
from Good Book Company
for 3rd-8th grade
in Worldview & Apologetics for Kids (Location: BIBWV-APK)
$12.99
Year Money Grew on Trees
by Aaron Hawkins
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-10th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
You Bring the Distant Near
by Mitali Perkins
from Square Fish Publishing
for 6th-12th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$11.99
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