Tag: review

Just in time for Christmas, I got the chance to check out a copy of Seek and Find: The First Christmas by Sarah Parker and Andre Parker from The Good Book Co. (Available on Amazon and The Good Book Co.)

This is seek-and-find takes a 12-days-of-Christmas approach, instructing children to start off finding one object, then two of one object, all the way up to 10 of the same objects. They generally start off easy with large objects that you can’t miss. As the number of objects increases, they generally get smaller, which makes it harder to find everyone although none of them are “tricky” as is the case in other seek-and-finds.

I liked that it portrays a more accurate sequence of the Christmas, with Jesus’ birth falling about halfway through the story, followed by Jesus’ visit to Simeon, the Magi seeing the star, visiting Herod and finally presenting their gifts to Jesus on the last page.

This seek-and-find book was able to engage all my children, ages 6 to 9. We did find that it was hard to keep track of the smaller objects that you had to find multiple copies of, so we used a dry-erase marker to help keep track. The pages are thick like board-book pages, so they can withstand this and erasing. (And a magic eraser got the marks off without issue!)

Find Seek and Find: The First Christmas on Amazon and The Good Book Co.

 

I recently got the chance to review All About Christmas by Alison Mitchell from The Good Book Co.

This is a book for the entire family, chockfull of fascinating facts about the history of Christmas and life during Jesus’ time that it is truly a book for all ages: My younger children enjoyed finding a page or two for me to read to them, while I myself was enthralled by page after page!

Basically, the book walks you through the Christmas story as told by Luke and Matthew. It breaks these passages down, defining words and incorporating cross-references, while also giving a more well-rounded picture of their meaning and putting them in context. There is also just really interesting things you learn, such as:

  • what life was like for kids during Jesus’ day and the toys and games they played
  • Biblical background about angels
  • information about the Roman occupation and King Herod
  • the history of some of the first Christmas carols
  • different Christmas traditions from around the world.

Thick with beautiful pictures and illustrations, it is a coffee-table-worthy book that you could leave out and thumb through for all of Advent and reread again and again each year.

Find All About Christmas by Alison Mitchell on Amazon and The Good Book Co.



Written in attention-keeping rhyme with fun, vibrant illustrations, His Grace is Enough by Melissa Kruger teaches kids about God’s grace when we make mistakes or mess up. 

My favorite thing that I found unique to this book is that it addresses our faulty ways of dealing with these things: hiding, turning toward legalism or efforts to earn our way back from mistakes: No, it says, you cannot clean up or be perfect enough to make up for any sin—no matter how hard you try. But that’s the beauty of grace! The key, it teaches, is to confess our sins to God because His grace is ALWAYS big enough to make up for any and every wrong we can and will ever do. And it’s that same grace that changes us at a heart level from the inside out.

Many thanks to The Good Book Company for providing a free copy for review!

Find His Grace is Enough by Melissa Kruger on Amazonnow.

All too often, the way we talk about heaven—even as adults!—is not accurate to how the Bible describes it. Which is why I loved Joni Eareckson Tada’s new book that just came out this spring: The Awesome Super Fantastic Forever Party Storybook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In it, Tada presents heaven the way the Bible actually talks about it: It is the new Jerusalem that Jesus will bring with him to earth when he returns someday. There, we will get new hearts and new bodies.But my favorite part of the way Tada’s book talks about heaven is that it presents it as a “super fantastic forever party” that we are invited to join Jesus at where we (along with all of creation) will praise and worship him forever. Along with this, Tada talks about the element of accepting this invitation of his in a way children can understand as well as an invitation we can ourselves issue by praying Revelation’s cry of “Come!”

This book is a beautiful way to discuss heaven and eternity with children and even a good reminder for us as adults about the beauty, joy and gracious invitation that heaven is for us all!

Many thanks to The Good Book Co. for providing a review copy of this for me. You can find The Awesome Super Fantastic Forever Party Storybook by Joni Eareckson Tada on The Good Book Co. website and on Amazon.

As someone who grew up with Where’s Waldo, I was so pleased to find Welcome to BibleWorld by Mike Nappa and Emiliano Migliardo for the next generation of kids!

(Click here to find Welcome to BibleWorld on Amazon!)

It is a search-and-find that imagines what it would look like if the Bible was turned into an amusement park. To that end, each spread features rides and attractions inspired by different sections of the Bible, such as “Prophets’ Wilderness” and “Mail Island.”

My kids (aged 5-9) really enjoyed finding each item, which also included it’s corresponding verse, such as “a fancy turban” connects with Leviticus 8:9 or “a talking donkey” with Numbers 22:28.

The only things that I would love to be different would be for it to include an answer key (on one page, we had to find “a girl praying” and couldn’t tell whether the lady was clapping or praying with her eyes open). It would also have been cool to have some of the Scriptures actually included or featured, rather than just attributed.

But it definitely got us talking and kept my kids engaged for all afternoon! They even wanted to bring it with them to a doctor’s appointment.

Many thanks to The Good Book Co. who provided a free copy to me to facilitate this review.

 

A Jesus Easter: Explore God’s Amazing Rescue Plan by Barbara Reaoch is an interactive family Bible study that walks you and your kids through the Easter story from Genesis on. Each entry includes a corresponding Bible reading, thoughtful questions to get you talking with your kids as well as an interactive space for your child to respond to the reading—such as drawing a picture or writing out a prayer. 

I loved the questions included with each day’s reading. This could definitely also be used for a wide variety of ages; my children are 5 and 9, and because of their shorter attention spans, we were never able to get through all the questions. This makes it possible for you to pick and choose the questions that work for your kids.

One thing I would have loved is if the book was bigger or spiral-bound to make writing in it easier for little hands. This is set up as a single-use book, rather than one you’d buy and use over and over again, however, if you visit the publisher’s page, you can print out additional activity pages to use for extra kids, or to use for future years!

All in all, I enjoyed the conversations this book sparked for me and my kids as we inch toward Easter and being prepared for the joy and awe of that day!

Find a copy of A Jesus Easter by Barbara Reaoch on Amazon.

Many thanks to The Good Book Co. who provided a free copy to me to facilitate this review.