The Renaissance and the Reformation came about at nearly the same time in history. The first freed scientific thought from the shackles of Aristotle’s speculations. The second liberated much of Christianity from the tyranny of leaders who didn’t follow the Bible themselves and didn’t allow anyone else, who didn’t read Latin, to read the Bible, either. The Hawk that Dare Not Hunt by Day is a stirring historical novel (middle school) about this exciting time in England, where a smuggler, Uncle Jack, and his nephew, Tom Barton, smuggle Martin Luther’s sermons, translated into English, into England. These sermons helped to inform the church of what the freedom of the gospel was like. Uncle Jack is just trying to make money but Tom becomes interested in the content of Luther’s sermons. He then meets and becomes involved with William Tyndale, who is translating the Bible into English so that, as he was famously quoted saying, “even a common plowboy could read God’s Word for himself.” Just as Luther’s translation of the Bible into then-current German profoundly changed Germany, Tyndale’s translation into English deeply changed England, and from England, eventually the United States. Scott O’Dell is a well-known (and good) author, who won the Newbery Award for his novel Island of the Blue Dolphins. Another book by him that is worth reading is The King’s Fifth.