Category Archives: Helpful Resources

You may not think the life of a tutor or pastor sound very adventurous, but John Knox’s life was filled with more dangers, risks and turns of events than most of us would want.

John Knox was a small, unassuming man, who began his career as a notary, probably a quiet job and life. Next he became a tutor for 3 boys from 2 families. Knox had, about that same time, heard the good news of salvation through faith alone, and although this was during the troubled times of the Reformation, there was some freedom and peace in his home country of Scotland at that time.

But his quiet life didn’t last long. Scotland stopped the freedom the Protestants had been given, but that didn’t stop the Protestants from proclaiming the gospel. George Wishart was a prominent preacher at that time, and Knox became a bodyguard for him. After Wishart was captured and put to death, Knox went on to take refuge in a castle that got bombed, become a pastor, get captured and serve 19 months as a galley slave. And this is just the beginnings of his story. Later in his life he flees the country, confronts a queen, and is almost assassinated.

Simonetta Carr does a great job of telling Knox’s story in her brief biography for children. Several features, in addition to the story itself, make this book a great addition to your home library. Before the story, a colored map show the key places mentioned in the story, so you can follow his life’s travels. After the story, a timeline of his life helps you see the sequence and time frames at a glance. I love the “Did you know?” pages with paragraphs of additional information about Knox, other key people of that time, and life at that time. Like the other books in this series, John Knox is a beautiful hardback with great illustrations and photos throughout.

John Knox is the seventh in Ms. Carr’s series of Christian Biographies for Young Readers. My children and I have enjoyed reading all the books in this series, and I highly recommend them to Christian parents to introduce their children to, not only the life stories of Christian leaders of the past, but also the roles they played in key events in the history of the church. From John Knox, they will learn from his example how to stand boldly for the truth of the Word of God, how to trust God through great trials, and much more.

*Note: I received a complimentary copy of John Knox in exchange for my honest review of it. Thank you to Cross Focused Reviews, the author Simonetta Carr, and the publisher Reformation Heritage Books.

Purchase from CBD:

John Knox – Christian Biographies for Young ReadersBy Simonetta Carr / Reformation Heritage Books

Purchase from Amazon.com:

This post contains affiliate links.

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I will never willingly give up my abundant, growing, blessed, physical home library of thousands of the best books this world has had to offer. The experience of reading is more than just words on a page. The look, the feel, even the smell, the memory of a real book cannot be replaced. Digital books don’t bring the same experience or relationship. But, I have to admit, ebooks are very handy; and wonderful books that are worth reading (even without the full experience) can many times be found for free.  Many someones have offered their labor to get beloved books into the hands of others without cost. That is a good thing too.

I want to help get these books into your hands, heads and hearts too. This page is to share with you links to specific, free Literature, primarily listed by author or series. Occasionally a solitary treasure will be listed. Most come from the free ebook sites I recommend and most were written in the 1800’s. This page will be added to (over and over) as I find new treasures.

Kindle books can be read on the Kindle devices or with the Kindle app on your computer or other devices.

Project Gutenberg includes several formats, usually online, pdf-download and print (if desired), Kindle, ePub for other eReaders, sometimes audiobook, and more. These books have generally been retyped.

Internet Archive also includes several formats, as above. These have generally been scanned.

• Arthur Scott Bailey – animal tales for children (much like Thornton Burgess’). Some say they are even better. Our 8 year old son says he may agree. Kindle – Gutenberg
• Thornton Burgess – animal and nature tales for children. All our children have loved them. Kindle – Gutenberg
• G.A. Henty – adventurous historical fiction, most enjoyed by teen boys. Kindle – Gutenberg
• Martha Finley – Elsie Dinsmore series for girls. Gutenberg

You don’t have to own an eReader to enjoy ebooks. Most are downloadable to your computer and can be read on it, and many can be printed out if you prefer a paper copy. All of our Me & My House exclusive resources are such. There are also apps from most of the eReader companies for reading their books on computers or mobile devices, like your tablet or smartphone. So don’t let the lack of an eReader stop you from enjoying great ebooks, especially when many great classics are available for free!

Below I’ve listed many free ebook sites I have used. Probably the first half-dozen are the ones I find most helpful and use most. Following that are some specialty sites and other misc. sites where I’ve found what I was looking for. In addition, you can find some of my favorite Helpful Resources links in the sidebar of this site.

Christian Book Distributors – is our favorite discount bookstore for Christian and home ed books. They now also carry ebooks. They have a few good FREE ones, as well as many others. This is the place to find current Christian books in ebook format. Using our links to Christianbook.com helps support Me & My House ministries.

Christian Classics Ethereal Library – the place to find free Christian classics, (also Bibles and commentaries,) online.

Internet Archive – Free online texts for download. A good place to find out of print, old texts and classics. This is probably my most used free ebook site.

Project Gutenburg – 42,000 free ebooks – another great, often used site.

Grace Gems.org – Books, quotes, sermons, devotionals, etc.

Timeless Truths – free online library, Christian.

ICE (Institute for Christian Economics) – free Christian educational/ Biblical worldview resources. “The 90-plus free books and 800-plus free newsletters on this site introduce Christians to the fundamental principles for building a Bible-based Christian worldview.” Not old books, many of them also still in print and available for purchase, much on economics.

Googlebooks – free ebooks on just about everything.

The Online Books Page – over 1 million free ebooks listed – hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Library.

The Baldwin Online Children’s Literature Project – children’s literature in the public domain, to read online or purchase in ebook or print format.

Making of America books: Michegan U – approx. 10,000 19th century books.

Archiving Early America – Primary source documents from the 18th century.

Worldwide School Library – educational books online.

Internet Christian Library – Bibles, Bible study aids, and books.

American Journeys – eyewitness accounts of Early American exploration and settlement.

Cornell U: Making of America periodicals – Old periodicals, good primary source documents.

Free Popular Classics for Kindle – these are for use on the Kindle. Other devices, that don’t use a propriety format like Kindle does, don’t need a special site like this. ebooks from any of the above sites will work on them.

Additions May 9, 2013 – I haven’t had time to check the links below out very well yet, but looks like some good stuff.

Grace-ebooks – works from many Christian writers from the Reformation, the Puritans, and others – from Luther to Bunyan to Carey to Spurgeon to Pink, and many more.

Online Library of Liberty – many primary source documents of liberty, including key documents, writings of the founding fathers, and much more.

Books Should be Free – 3000 Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBooks

If you don’t own an eReader or you’d like to also read ebooks, that are formatted for a specific reader, on your other devises, download the appropriate apps linked below.

Free Kindle app for your computer, iPhone/iTouch, iPad, Android, Windows phone, and Blackberry.

Free Nook app for your computer, iPhone/iTouch, iPad, and Android.

Free Sony Reader app for your computer, iPhone/iTouch, iPad, and Android.

More on eReaders here.