Lisa Tawn Bergren's picture book God Gave Us You is a sweet story that helps children understand that they're a blessing, a gift from God to their parents. It helps explain in the most childlike way where babies come from.
This book is very well written and reading it to your child/ren will be sure to bond you even closer together. The illustrations are beautiful. The story itself is something special along the lines of Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny (which is a classic in children's literature you should definitely read if you haven't already!) I have to admit, I like this story even better than the famous Miss Brown's because of the inspirational message within its pages.
I highly recommend this book and am so glad I had the opportunity to review it! I also recommend the sequel to God Gave Us You--God Gave Us Two. I'm sure you can imagine what that one's about!
The wonderful people at Waterbrook Multnomah provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for the purposes of this review. All views presented are my own.
Time with God for Mothers is a lovely hardcover devotional book that's sure to encourage any mother whether she's 25 or 52. The devotionals are short and sweet, and make it easy for a busy mom to pick up and spend some time with God when she has some spare minutes throughout the day. The pages are decorated with beautiful jewels, accenting the truth that we are God's jewels (Malachi 3:17).
Time with God for Mothers includes 90 pages of devotionals which are one page each; a page of "Mothers' Prayers in the Bible"... prayers of women like Hagar, Hannah, Leah, and Mary; pages of scripture references on "The Responsibilities of Motherhood," "The Promises of Motherhood;" and pages for notes. I have to admit, I want more than just mushy encouragement out of a book, as anyone whose been reading this blog long knows. The devotionals themselves are encouraging but lack the challenge I long for in a good book. I'm sure that was the author's intention, and he balances it out with the scripture sections at the end of the book. I'm eager to sit down and do some good studies on "The Responsibilities" and "The Promises of Motherhood."
This book makes a nice devotional, a great coffee table book, and would be a wonderful Mother's Day gift for your mom. I'll be giving one to my own mom for her birthday which is coming up soon!
The wonderful people at Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for the purposes of this review. All views presented are my own.
Miss Jane Kirkpatrick's newest book "The Daughter's Walk" is historical fiction based on the true story of Helga Estby and her nineteen year old daughter Clara. One day in 1896, Clara's life took an unexpected turn when her mother informed her they'd be walking 7,000 miles across the country to earn money to save their family farm. I was eager to read this book because I just can't get enough History and I'd never heard of Helga or Clara Estby.
Because of my husband's job, my family and I have journeyed across the country numerous times--adventure though it may be, it's not without its challenges with a mini-van and nice hotels along the way! I couldn't imagine walking 7,000 miles alone with one of my daughters. God truly protected these women who got into some harrowing scrapes! Their adventure was by no means all fun and games. These women experienced much tragedy and many trials.
Much of this book is about after the long walk they took. The choices the daughter, Clara, made and the ways she dealt with her lot are both heart-rending and challenging to the reader herself. The storyline is wonderful and the writing is excellent. I was hooked from the first page.
Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friendsis a fun book filled with colorful pictures, action words, and teachable moments. The birds are drawn to look like real birds (including a Cardinal, Blue Jay, Chickadee, and Goldfinch). No cartoonish stuff here!
As they read, children learn real sounds the birds make and can easily imitate them: per-chick-o-ree says the Goldfinch, queedle-queedle says the Blue Jay, chick-a-dee-dee-dee says the... you guessed it... Chickadee! If you're a homeschooler, this is the perfect book to add to a unit study on "Birds" er... "Fine Feathered Friends."
Throughout the story, Mouse and Mole have an adventure as they set out to go bird watching and create a Bird Book. After their adventure, Mole turns out to be "quite an artist," Mouse turns out to be "quite a poet," and the two of them end up with a wonderful idea... but in case you decide to purchase this book yourself, I won't give it away!
Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the wonderful people at LittleOneBooks.com for the purpose of a fair and honest review.
My 5 year old Lulu summed up The Dragon and the Turtle perfectly: "That night they were so excited but they kept imagining and imagining and getting scareder and scareder!" That is exactly what happened. As they camped in their backyard (or Mount Sillymanborrow, as they called it), the dragon's and the turtle's imaginations ran wild as kids imaginations do. They imagined a kitten as a leopard, an owl as a howler monkey, and a coyote as some strange breed of Saharan Rhino and they scared themselves silly.
I haven't seen my kids get this excited about a book since I can remember, and they love books. In my mind, it was a cute story but nothing exceptional. It wasn't written for grown-ups, though; it was written for kids. My kids give it 5 stars. They argue over who gets to read it when, who gets to hold it on the way to church, who gets to hold it at church, who gets to... well, you get the picture!
So, yes, I like this book. It not only has an engaging story but interesting, colorful pictures. The Dragon and the Turtle is a cute little book with a good lesson--you don't need to be afraid of the dark (or anything else) because God is always with you.
The book ends with a bible verse from Deuteronomy 31:6 that pulls it all together, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid... God goes with you; he will never leave you." My kids are already asking me when we can "get the other books" in the series and when they can go camping in our backyard.
The wonderful people at Waterbrook Multnomah provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for the purposes of this review. All views presented are my own.
