A Christmas Prayer

I had the great opportunity to review the book A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker for Book Sneeze after they sent me a complimentary copy of this book.

The book comes is a nice size board book and the pages are very easy to turn for little kids. The illustrations are very interesting and capture the kids interest. I loved how the book talks about the Christmas Story from the perspective of a child who is saying a simple prayer. It still gives you the Christmas message, but in an interesting way. It thanks God for all the things that led up to Jesus being born and reminds us what Christmas is really about. What a great way to tell the Christmas story.

I showed our director of our Children's program at work and she was really excited about this book and will be buying this book for the teachers to read to the kids. My older kids loved reading this book to the younger ones and they told me this is now their favorite Christmas book. I can't wait to share this book with them every Christmas.

Thank you Book Sneeze for sending me this book! I would recommend it and I hope everyone enjoys the book as much as my family has.

One Hand, Two Hands

One Hands, Two Hands

Oh, the ways we can help with our hands! by Max Lucado is a wonderful book for young children. I teach at a Christian childcare center with 2 yr olds and they love this book. The illustrations are eye catching and fun.

One Hand, Two Hands lets children know about how wonderful our hands are and all the great things we can do with them. At the age I teach it is something we talk about a lot since this age has a harder time with sharing and keeping their hands to themselves. It is a nice reminder about the good our hands can do without constantly just telling them about the bad things they can do.

This book is also fun to read. The kids love doing all the hand motions while we read the book. It keeps their interest and it is a book that they want us to read to them constantly. It also uses simple texts so the kids remember them. I love to hear them correct their friends and remind them of the good things are hands can do.

At the end of the book it also reminds them to thank God for their hands and let God use them again in a good way. It also gives the kids other ideas about how their hands can become helping hands, kind hands and loving hands. The kids love telling us the different things they can do with them. It opens the door to a lot of conversations!!

I highly recommend this book if you have young children. The other teachers have borrowed this book for the 3 yr olds and they love it as well.

The Butterfly Effect book review

I had the privilege to review The Butterfly Effect by Andy Andrews for Book Sneeze and what a privilege it was! This book is amazing. Once I started reading it I couldn't stop. It is a very easy read and only took me a short time to finish it. I will have to say it is one of the better books I have read.

The Butterfly Effect talks about how one person made a move over a century ago that still impacts us today. This person is really just an average person whose decision made a ripple that still effects us today. It goes through history to show how this was done. I found this book very exciting and really couldn't wait to see how it ended.

This book really encouraged me and showed the importance of how just a small thing can leave a lasting impression and even change lives of people you will never meet. This is a book that makes you stop and think. I highly recommend this book and am planning on giving this book as Christmas presents this year. It is a great reminder that when you leave this world it does not matter what you take with you, but what you leave behind you when you go.

The Jesus Series DVD Read and Share Bible review

I had an opportunity to review the Jesus Series of Life and Miracles Read and Share Bible DVD from Thomas Nelson. They sent me a complimentary dvd to watch. This dvd was 30 minutes long and followed Jesus on his ministry along the shores of Lake Galilee and Nazareth.

My three oldest children, ages 4-8, watched this along with me. While I think they a good job on the animation, I was a little disappointed by the briefness of the stories they told. They did not go in detail, but instead just briefly touched on the different stories. My kids were familiar with most of the stories, but my 8 yr old said it was a little confusing because they skipped a lot of things or just showed the pictures with no explanation of what was going on. For example they showed Lazarus being raised from the dead, but did not mention what had happened or who it even was. They left out a lot and the stories they did tell where not explained enough. It also stopped at the last supper and my kids did not like this. They thought it was too important to leave out the story about his death and resurrection.

The one thing I did like about this DVD was that it did bring up a lot of questions during the movie and we had many discussions about Jesus' life. I also liked the scripture they included during the movie. Most of the verses where familiar to my kids and it was neat to see them recite them.

Overall, my kids enjoyed the movie and my 4 & 6 yr old want to watch it again. I think it would be a good dvd for those who are just introducing their children to Jesus.

Book review for Living With Confidence in a Chaotic World

Living With Confidence in a Chaotic World by David Jeremiah is a book about finding hope in a world that seems out of control and scary. The author does an excellent job of using scripture to back up his messages and thoughts. I found this book to be very enlightening and encouraging. At first when I started reading this book I was a little hesitant. It started off by talking about all the scary things going on in this world, things I hadn't even thought about, but then he started adding in the scripture. No matter what scenario he was talking about, he always put a biblical spin on things. After reading this book I have found a new kind of hope and reassurance about what is going on in this world today. I would definitely recommend this book. It will give you a new perspective on life.

I am so glad that Thomas Nelson gave me this complimentary book so that I can read it and review it.