Dragons: Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs - Fantastic Read

Of all the books that I've gotten through the blogging review program, this one has to be up near the top of my list. Some of you may remember the blog post I did a while back concerning why I believe dragons once actually existed? Well, apparently I'm not the only one. This book combines all sorts of facts from history with many legends about dragons with verses from the Bible that indicate the existence of dragons at one time (many of those verses are the same ones I used in my post, which you can read here).

However, all that is not why I love this book. I love this book because it is so cleverly constructed. With text at an elementary or jr. high reading level it clearly explains that dragons and dinosaurs may have been one and the same type of creature, making dinosaurs seem even more intriguing than before. It boasts amazing illustrations that even a very young child will be fascinated by. Beyond that, this book has something fun and "hands-on" to do on almost every page.

Page two boasts a page covered in six little envelopes, each with the name of a different country or realm on it (Babylon, Greece, China, America, United Kingdom, and South America). Inside each envelope is a folded piece of nice, glossy paper. Unfold this paper and you can read about a dragon legend that exists (or existed) in that part of the world.

Turn the page and you get to unfold the page and look behind the flap at some pictures of dragons depicted in ancient art. On the other page you can open a small book-within-a-book and read "Eyewitness Accounts and Encounters" - humorously labelled "Open with Caution."

This trend of opening things, lifting flaps, and unfolding pages continues throughout this short, 22-page book.

The true test? My 2.5 year old daughter loves this book. And although I don't let her play with it unsupervised, it is interesting enough that I love reading it to her. (Even if I just read her a paraphrased version, or narrate the pictures for her).

Many thanks to New Leaf Publishing Group for providing this book for review. They did not ask for a positive review, just an honest one. Many thanks to them for their patience as well, as this review should have been up months ago.

Little Star by Anthony DeStefano - Not What I’d Hoped For

I ordered “Little Star” because I have fond childhood memories of another book called “The Tiniest Christmas Star.” I had hoped that this would be in a similar vein.

However, this story was disappointing. The story is about a little boy who is looking up into the sky trying to find the Christmas star from when Jesus was born. So his father tells him the story of the Christmas star. It starts out as a cute story about a tiny star that the other stars ignore or make fun of, kind of like a “Rudolph” story. The tiny star sees Mary and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem and sees that nobody will let them in, and empathizes with them. Then, Baby Jesus is born, the tiny star is concerned that Jesus will be cold, so he shines as brightly as he can to warm the baby. The other stars tell him to stop or he’ll burn himself out, but the little star can’t hear them. All through the night the star shines and warms the baby, and in the morning, the star is all gray and cold because he burned himself out.

The little boy is sad that Little Star is dead, but his father says no.

“You see, Little Star did a wonderful thing that night in Bethlehem. He gave his life so the baby Jesus could be warm. And God gave him a great reward in return. Little Star will be remembered forever and ever.”

“You mean Little Star isn’t gone?” the boy asked.

“No, he’s alive!” the father said. “Every Christmas, when we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, people all over the world place a star on top of their Christmas tree to remember him.”

Okay. It’s a cute story. Sure, it’s a super fictionalized account of the story behind the Christmas star. The problem I have with it, is that while it alludes to Christ’s sacrifice so that we might live, the story’s focus at the end is on the STAR, rather than on JESUS. It just left me feeling rather... I dunno... empty, I guess. Maybe the disappointment was that I really loved the story up until the last 2-3 pages, and then it felt as though the narrative suddenly fell flat or turned a corner and left me behind. Also, we know that the star shone for YEARS, (and moved oddly) because the wise men followed it for a very long time and didn’t find Jesus until he was around 2, so the whole supernova thing hasn’t really ever made a lot of sense to me. Even type II supernovae only really last for a few months. But I digress.

Pros:
-cute fictional story about the Christmas Star
-tells the story of Jesus’ birth from a different perspective
-gets the details about Jesus’ birth correct
-as I said earlier, alludes to Jesus’ sacrificial death (and sort of His resurrection)
-great illustrations
-my 2 year old LOVES it - good length and number of words per page

Cons:
-very fictionalized story about the Christmas Star, posing as a true story
-focuses on the star rather than on the true meaning of Christmas


Maybe I’m being nit-picky... but something about the way the author chose to end the story really bothered me. I’m sorry, I really wanted to like this one.



I received this book for blogger review through the Blogging For Books Program. They asked for nothing other than an honest review, but the FTC requires that I make that clear.

The Beginning Reader’s Bible Illustrated by Marijke ten Cate

Everything I hoped it would be, and more.

This Bible is a little too advanced for my 2 year old, but she likes the pictures. It’s just that the ratio of words to pages is a little too high for her attention span yet. However, I have been super pleased with it so far and really can’t wait for her to be old enough to really appreciate it. This is going to be a great transition Bible for her, somewhere between her current Bible (A Child’s First Bible by Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor) and a complete Bible. (There may be some more steps in there, too, but those are the three steps we currently have.

What I like about this Bible:

It’s Big - which means that the pictures are big too :) and it feels heavy-duty.
It opens nicely, the binding is really quite nice.
It covers 26 different Bible stories (13 from each Testament) - most of which are the “familiar” ones, but a few that aren’t, like they cover Nehemiah and the birth of Samuel (titled “Hannah’s Special Baby”)
The illustrations are beautiful.
The text is straight out of the Bible. The verses are even numbered accordingly.

The only thing I “don’t” like about this Bible:
1. While the verses have numbers and chapters, which is a great teaching tool for getting used to how verses have “addresses” and how to find them in the Bible... and the verses are accurately numbered... the fact that the authors took certain verses out (to keep the stories short, to keep the stories understandable, to keep everything from being too wordy for a shorter attention span) this necessarily means that the verses may be numbered 8, 9, 15, 16, 17... which MIGHT be confusing to a child (Why did they skip from 9 to 15? Aren’t the numbers 10-14 important?)

That's a pretty minor issue though, and may be all in my head and will never pose a problem for my child(ren).


The FTC demands that I disclose that I received this book through the Booksneeze blogging for books program. The thoughts and opinions are my own. The publisher and booksneeze did not ask for anything except an honest review. Therefore, I like the publisher and booksneeze better than the FTC, but I also like not getting fined by the FTC... so I include the disclaimer.

Thanks, Shannon ;)

Creation Curriculum: "God Made the World & Me" Review

What is even more exciting right now than getting free books? Getting free educational materials! This book, God Made the World & Me by David and Helen Haidle and Susan Laurita is a 13 lesson curriculum unit on the Creation Story. It goes hand in hand with the book I reviewed a few weeks ago: The Creation Story for Children. You can read my review for that book in the post before this one.

Anyway - I have read through this curriculum and I will definitely be using it. Though most of the material is preschool-oriented, I may even use some of the ideas now with my 2-year old. And I felt that the material would scale well - you could use this with older kids (not tons older, but definitely anywhere in the 3-7 range), which would be nice if you had two children in that age range and wanted to use the same curriculum for both of them.

Pros:
-Cross curriculum activities. For example, each lesson has ideas for a Physical Center, Science Center,  and Art Center. Each lesson has songs that you can sing with the kids, a memory verse, and quite a few game ideas. Each lesson also has at least one Older Children idea and one idea for Younger Children, which helps to make the curriculum scale well depending on the age of your children.

-There is a parent note for each lesson if you were to be using this in a larger classroom as a teacher.

-There are discussion questions for each lesson.

-There are extras for each lesson as well if the other ideas aren't enough to keep you busy.

-I like that they have large group vs. individual instructions for some of the activities. I also like that there are often multiple options for the same type of activity (e.g. two art options in Lesson 2, two physical options in Lesson 3).

Con:
-The only thing that I found to be a con was that there was a graph that the kids were supposed to make during the week for Lesson 2, and I thought it would have been nice if the curriculum had a sample graph for the kids/parents to look at. I know that it would be an easy thing to figure out, but I'm so very visual and graphs are not my strong suit.

Overall, this seems like a great, hands-on, curriculum that is very cross-curricular. It's not just a set of science lesson plans, it also includes art and music, PE, critical thinking, some writing, and it is not at all just a workbook. It is very home-school oriented, but I like that it would also be very easy to use in a classroom full of kids. This is definitely something I will use with my children.

Many thanks to New Leaf Publishing Group for providing this curriculum for review. The FTC requires that I inform you that NLPG did not ask for a positive review, merely an honest one. Therefore, I like NLPG more than I like the FTC... but I also like not being fined... so I include the disclaimer as ordered.

The Creation Story for Children by David and Helen Haidle - Great Read!

The Creation Story for Children by Helen and David Haidle is a simply told and beautifully illustrated retelling of the creation story. Each page encompasses one day of the creation. Each page begins with the verses from Genesis and then has a short paragraph that retells those verses in more of a story-form.

Pros:
-The verses are taken from the King James Version, which some might consider a con, but as an English major, I appreciated. I don't think children and younger generations get enough exposure to the sort of beautiful language that can be found in the King James Version of the Bible.

-The illustrations: every page has a beautiful depiction of what was created on each day. I really enjoyed the inclusion of dinosaurs in the illustrations.

-The last few pages after the story of creation talk about how God specially created and cares for each person from conception through our entire lives, how He thinks about us, how He has plans for us, etc.

-The story ends at the end of day 7 of the creation, before the fall. After thinking about it for a while, I actually am listing this as a pro. After all, the book is called: The Creation Story.
Cons:
-I can't think of any.

Overall:
-This is a great book. I loved how it used the actual Bible verses in the retelling of the story, it kept me from feeling as though the authors were "adding" or "changing" the Bible story. I really can't say enough about the illustrations, they are gorgeous. The text of the book is a bit advanced (a lot of words per page) for my 2 year old daughter, but she loves the pictures, and if I just read the Bible verses or just read the story part to  her she can pay attention for the whole story. Her favorite part? The day where God created fish and whales, of course! :)

The FTC demands that I inform you that I received this book for free. New Leaf Publishing Group, however, demanded nothing from me. They did not ask for a positive review, just an honest one.

A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker - Good Read

Always ready to add to our Christmas book collection, I requested this book to review from booksneeze. I was not at all disappointed. This story is a very cute retelling of the Christmas story. A child, surrounded by parents and small sibling, acts out the Christmas story and thanks God for the various characters in the Christmas Story - calling them each "precious Christmas gifts" to all of us. The story ends with the child thanking God for Jesus, the "perfect Christmas gift."

With uncomplicated, yet very cute illustrations, this retelling of the Christmas story in rhyming verses from a child's perspective is simply adorable. I enjoyed the inclusion of all the characters from the story, and I especially loved how the story includes the Wise Men, without improperly placing them at the stable in Bethlehem. I also loved how the story emphasizes the true reason for the season of Christmas on the first page, where the child says, “So this, my Christmas prayer, is not for toys and dolls - it’s thanking You for Christmas gifts, You’ve given to us all.”

My two-year old also approves of this book and it will definitely be one of the stories we pull out at Christmas-time for years to come.

The FTC demands that I disclose the following information:
Many thanks to Tommy Nelson for providing this book to me for free. They did not ask for a positive review, merely an honest one.

The Skin Map Review

When I heard Stephen Lawhead was writing a new book, I was thrilled. When I learned the title of the new book was The Skin Map, I was confused. It didn’t sound very ... well... Lawhead-y. However, as I began reading this beginning to a brand new series, I swiftly became engrossed in the story.

Filled with descriptions that beguile all five senses and all the beauty and charm of the language I have come to expect from Lawhead, this book is a fascinating blend of fantasy and sci-fi. In the world of The Skin Map, there is an Omni-verse, a universe filled with alternate realities that are easily accessible to those who know where to look via roads known as “ley lines.” These alternate realities are also located in different “time zones” as it were, and thus jumping from one reality to the next also inevitably includes a certain amount of time travel.

The book follows the stories of several different characters: Kit Livingstone a young man from modern-day London, who encounters his great grandfather and is shown how to ley travel; Wilhelmina, Kit’s girlfriend, who, when Kit tries to prove to her that ley travel is real, gets trapped in 17th century Prague; Cosimo (Kit’s great grandfather) and Sir Henry, ley line adventurers who wish to use the ley lines for the betterment of science and humanity; Lord Burleigh, the villain of the story, whose motivations seem to stem from greed; and Arthur Flinders-Petrie, the “Ernest Shackleton” of the ley line adventurers who mapped out the ley lines and had them tattooed on his body so they could never be stolen or lost.

Something I love about this book is the masterful way Lawhead subtly uses his characters to point to Christ. He never beats his audience about the head with his beliefs, despite publishing with a Christian publishing house. Instead, he allows his books to unfold the message of his faith - either through characters whose faith is an integral part of who they are (such as Etzel), or through characters who don’t know what they believe and the conversations they have with other characters about questions they have (such as Kit and Lady Faythe). As always, Lawhead is unique in that he is not a writer of Christian Fiction. Rather, he is a Christian Author who writes Fiction.

On the flip side of this rave review I do have a couple of negatives to mention. First, is that I have to wait until next September to read the second book in the series. Second, don’t read this book expecting to have any questions answered. I was about 10 pages from the end when I realized that the book was leading me to a cliff-hanger ending, and I was going to have to wait for the rest of the series to find out what happens. Since Lawhead is delving back into sci-fi with this series, this first book was mainly an introduction to the characters, the concept of ley travel, and a tantalizing glimpse at the story this series will become.

Overall, I would say I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and history as well as the idea of time travel and being able to mess with historical events.

Technically, nobody ever asked me for anything, but I'm sure that the FTC would like me to explain that I received this book for free but was not required by the publisher to give it a good review.