And the winners are....

Congratulations to City Girl Gone Country who won the Very Merry Unbirthday giveaway. I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments, in relation to hearing what it is that you love the most about the Christmas season. City Girl Gone Country loves seeing family that she doesn't necessarily get to see throughout the year.

Congratulations also goes to Page Turner who won the Tiger Tales giveaway. These two books are great and I am grateful to Tiger Tales for offering the opportunity for one of you to win a set!

Thank you to everyone who entered the contests. I have a few more things popping up here in the next week or so, so pay attention. Fun stuff right around the corner.

As a reminder, the Gift Guide and Giveaway is going on over at 5 Minutes for Books.



Here is the main Gift Guide & Giveaway Post. The idea is to present you with some items that we think would make great Christmas gifts for people on your list, as well as offer you the opportunity to win said items. It's a win-win situation (har, har) as you can see!

I'm rather excited about some of the packages and products that I had the opportunity to put together. Follow us over at 5 Minutes for Books for the opportunity to win some recently reviewed titles from around here at Reading to Know. (I have one particular giveaway package that I'm HYPED to present to you!)

Check out these, in the meantime:

* A calendar, journal & i-Clips from Peter Pauper Press

* Christmas picture books for children.

Go forth - have fun - and an early Merry Christmas to you!

****

P.S. My friend Cacey is giving away some Tastefully Simple products on her blog. Go check out her giveaway at CaceyKlein.com (and then take the time to get to know her a little bit by reading her blog).

Open Me Up

A nice way to come off the holidays (during which you've no doubt stuffed yourself senseless) is to see and understand just exactly where that food is going, where it went, and what it helps to do! Right?

Open Me Up, published by DK Publishing, is a fun way to introduce kids to the wonders of the human body. It's not your straight forward science book with diagrams and arrows pointing out the various parts. If that's what you are looking for, this book is not it! This book is filled with caroons, photographs of body builders, illusions and body "network" systems. It's, well, "hip."

It is sectioned into body systems, the most bloody being the one about, uh, blood. The reader learns about red blood cells on a blood spattered page that reminds me of CSI or something (only brighter colors). This is the kind of eye-catching book that engages the young person who thinks science is boring. Open Me Up, through its very title, would defy the notion that learning about the human body is dull. A little bit of manga, a few "fears and phobias" that you can learn about (i.e., amathophobia anyone?) and nervous system super heroes do their best to illustrate and inform the reader on the most complex machine on earth - the human body!

I would say that this book is probably best suited for ages 9 and up. Some of the page layouts/illustraitons could be a bit "spooky" to a younger reader. This book also discusses the reproductive system so you would want to be prepared to talk about that with your young reader.

However, if you are having a hard time making learning about the body fun - well then, look no further. Open Me Up takes you off the beaten path well enough to make anyone at least a little bit curious.

Thanks, DK Publishing, for letting me check this book out!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Well, we have some friends coming in for the week/weekend and I'm not even going to set anything to publish! Woot! A real "bloggy vacation" until after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is over.

I hope all of you have a truly wonderful Thanksgiving holiday celebration with your friends and family this year.

I know I have much to be thankful for, but the greatest is this:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Thank you, Jesus, for your grace and mercy which you extend to me daily (sometimes on a minute-to-minute basis) and to my family.

Blessings, all!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude. ~E.P. Powell

Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds. ~Theodore Roosevelt

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action. ~W.J. Cameron

Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now. ~A.W. Tozer

When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? ~George Canning

Author & Illustrator Margaret Merry

I wrote about author and illustrator Margaret Merry over at 5 Minutes for Books. One thing I mentioned was that she is a gifted artist. I love looking at the pictures which compliment her stories.

I was able to read through her latest addition to the world of books, The Adventure of Princess the Pony. I have a lot of friends who are really into horses and so whenever I have the chance to check out a new horse title, I like to snap it up and see what it's all about. In Princess the Pony we meet a young Shetland foal who is desperate for a playmate. She asks other horses, sheep, and even a mule if they'd be interested in playing with her but everyone turns her down flat because of her small stature. Until she proves herself useful to full size horses, she seems almost a useless creature to the other animals. (This book has a theme vaguely reminiscient of another story I know in which the constant refrain is, "A person's a person, no matter how small!")

The treat of the book (for me) is, of course, Ms. Merry's painted illustrations which really are quite amazing. The following are my two favorite images from the book:




I'm not personally a big fan of horses, but I love looking at her paintings. There is a beauty and a rhythm to them that you just relax into. Her stories are also calm and peaceful and are just all-around enjoyable to read.

To learn more about Ms. Merry and her books, visit the Margaret Merry website. And then, just enjoy!

The Holiday Nightstand

WHO can predict what will happen over the next month, considering that both Thanksgiving and Christmas will be thrown into the mix.

And might I say again that this is my hands down favorite time of year and I am very much looking forward to the next month of celebration(s) in various forms? Oh, because I am. I LOVE this time of year!

Last month I mentioned that I would just be takin' my own sweet time in reading whatever I liked or struck my fancy. The top book on my "nightstand" last month, makes the top of the list this time also. I'm almost finished with it. I've been lingering. Ok, I've been a little busy but I've ALSO been lingering over it.



I am absolutely loving it! Maybe I'm lingering because I just don't want it to end? I can tell you that, without a doubt, I would have loved the company of Winston Churchill. If I get started telling you about how much I just get a kick out of the guy, I'll be writing out the whole book review here and now. Since I haven't finished it yet, I'm going to stop talking and move on!

I DID finish reading The Silent Gift and TOTALLY loved it! It was well worth the reading time and energy. That said, it didn't take much time and it didn't require much energy. Fabulous read from start to finish and I highly recommend it. You can read my review of The Silent Gift here.



My top four "fun picks" for the month of December are as follows:





I'm not sure what I'll get to, due to the aforementioned holidays, but these four are the ones I am eyeing most greedily at the moment and have the highest hopes for.

I cannot believe this year is almost over. (Is anybody with me on that?)

I am also grateful that this year is almost over! It's been a hard sort of year and I'm ready for a new start and new beginnings. That said, I'd still like to finish a few books before the year is out!

Here's hopin'!

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

A Very Merry Unbirthday, Part II

Sometime ago, I ran a Very Merry Un-birthday post to clear off my bookshelves a bit. I mentioned recently that I was cleaning again and so it's time for another giveaway. Instead of giving away individual titles, I'm going to give them away as a packaged deal.

Both of the books are written by well-known authors and are quick, easy and pleasant reads. They are perfect books for the holiday season when life is, well, crazy, and you only have a few minutes to escape from it! Details of how to win are listed below the mini-reviews.

Also, I'd like to take a moment to congratulate the following individuals for contests that they've won around these parts lately.

Random.org was employed and selected #13 - Tea as the winner of the John Muir book.

The winners of The Silent Gift are: Caryn & Shawntele

Ladies, if you'll pop me an e-mail with your mailing address, we'll take care of getting these books to you!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I recently read the book Baby written by Patricia MacLachlan. You might recognize her name as she also wrote the book Sarah, Plan and Tall. I had never read anything else by MacLachlan and thought I'd give this book a chance. From the back of the book:

"Twelve-year-old Larkin returns home one day to discover a baby sitting in a basket in the driveway of her family's house. The only clue to the baby's appearance is a note from the child's mother. "This is Sophie," the note reads. "She is almost a year old and she is good . . . I will come back for her one day. I love her."


Eloquently written, I really did enjoy this quick 132 page story. Although it is written at a middle school level, there are themes in this book that would encourage adult interaction. It's nothing horrible and sordid. It just deals with topics of child abandonment and the loss of children. It could be a painfully sad story if not handled as well as MacLachlan handled it. She writes the most beautiful prose and instead of feeling sorrowful over the story, you find yourself engaging with the family who temporarily adopts little Sophie. It's a beautiful story.

*******

I recently read and reviewed Kate's Choice, by Louisa May Alcott as part of the 5 Minutes for Books Classics Bookclub. (You can click on the title to read my review of it.) This is a great, quick holiday read and I enjoyed it. However, it's one of those books that you read through, enjoy and pass along. It's quaint and wonderful and a great read-aloud for ages 5 and up, I would think.

The other option is, of course, take about 1/2 hour at a Starbucks some afternoon/evening. Get a delicious cup of their holiday eggnog latte and breeze through this book. You'll feel warm from the inside out for a variety of reasons at that point. And you'll be happy. Very, very happy!

********
If you would like to win these two classic titles, simply leave a comment below. That's it. So easy I could cry.

If you'd like to leave a second comment for an extra entry, leave a comment telling me what it is that you LOVE about the Christmas season. (How hard is that, really?) Please note: you must leave a second comment to have 2 entries. If your entire remarks are left in one comment, you'll only have one entry into the contest. U.S. Residents only, please.

This contest will be open through Sunday, November 29th.
THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!

And, once again, a very merry un-birthday to yoooou!!!! (Yes, you!)



Oh wait! Before I forget! Are you looking for gift ideas and do you like to win prizes? Then track with us over at 5 Minutes for Books STARTING THIS WEEK for our Gift Guide & Giveaway Event. I'm particularly excited about the recommendations and prize packages that I got to put together and organize so...stay tuned! Some of my favorites are coming right up!

Sleeping Bear Press

This is our last installment in the "Publishers" series (for this go-around at any rate!). This week I've been talking about publishers that really stand out to me as producing consistently good reading materials. This is a children's book publisher that makes my list!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I've talked about Sleeping Bear Press books before. They are most well-known for their Alphabet State Books (which I reviewed over at 5 Minutes for Books). They do the state books well, but they publish a great deal more than just that series. They have a Discover the World series as well as many other story picture books. Two of those books have to do with family and are quite cute.

Recently I was given the opportunity to read Say Daddy! in which every relative of baby bear is trying to share their world with baby bear. The book opens with mommy bear, cuddling and snuggling with her littlest new one. She reads baby bear a book about love, kindness, caring and life. Daddy bear comes home from work and takes over, reading baby a book about promises and how daddies make dreams come true. Brother takes a turn reading baby a book about friendship and so on and so forth as all of baby's close family tell him how much they love him. Everyone is also, of course, waiting to hear what baby's first word will be. Can you guess? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out, of course!

The illustrations by Teri Weidner are soft in nature. They are warm and inviting and a great compliment to the story.

Another picture book which is offered by Sleeping Bear Press is Someday Is Not A Day of the Week. If ever there was a picture book for parents to read - this one is it! Max is a little beaver, excited about life and just wants to play and play and play with his mommy and daddy. He knows he's loved but every time he asks to do something they say that they would be happy to do it - someday. Eventually Max points out the fact that someday is not exactly a day of the week, so when exactly were they going to have grand adventures playing? As parents, it is easy to get caught up in the responsibilities of life. There are jobs to work, dishes to wash, phone calls to make, activities to plan. In all of that, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that there's usually a little person standing right next to you that doesn't really care about everything on the "to do" list. They are happiest just playing and being with you. I know I need this reminder and I so I thought this was a great book. Someday is NOT a day of the week. As people have said, childhood goes by quickly and we should make the most of the time we DO have with our kids.

Thank you, Denise Brennan-Nelson for writing this book and to Sleeping Bear Press for publishing it.

Other titles that you might find interesting by this publisher:



See my review of P is for Pilgrim.



See Dawn's review of The Listeners over at 5 Minutes for Books.

And here are some additional alphabet books that might catch your eye:








Sleeping Bear Press has a very large catalog of books and you can browse their catalog by clicking here. You might be surprised by what you find!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Click on the following links to see the other publishers highlighted this past week:

Kregel Publications

Sylvan Dell Publishing

Harvest House Publishers

Tiger Tales

Still Saying Goodbye

I posted this almost three years ago (come January). I didn't know what I was talking about then.

I probably only have a vague idea even now.

Today would have been Landon's 20th birthday. I would like to have been able to pop him an e-mail, at the very least, to wish him a happy birthday. It's been a long few months of daily goodbye-for-now. But we still have hope.

From SCC's new album, this song says it marvelously:

We'll keep waiting to see Landon again. But in the meantime, our God is in control.

STOP THE PRESSES!

No, really, please! Stop. the. presses.

One of my great Tyrannosaurus Rex bones to pick with Christian Fiction is that they COPY everything that the world produces instead of setting out to create something truly unique, original, creative, well-written, well-thought-out, etc., etc..

It's like Christian fiction writers are sitting around a campfire somewhere until suddenly someone shouts out, "Hark! I hear a fad!"

Most of the time it's just as glaringly obvious as popular advertisements and logos are:

Because I like Jesus like I like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. And then some. Yummy!

Sigh.

I see these shirts and I know people argue that they are an effective form of reaching the lost. I'm not going to totally oppose such an argument, but I still have this nagging refrain bellowing in the background of my head: "What you save them with is what you save them to!"

Anyway, I'm sore when I crack open a book and find poorly written dribble that just wants to present a clean and Christian alternative to the harlequin romance novels. I rather dislike romantic fiction because it is almost never real, but it does sway the reader's emotions. (I have some authoresses that I despise more than others. Some I have found are quite tolerable because they write complex stories and refrain from writing multiple series, may Heaven bless them.)

But if this doesn't beat all.............



Now you can read your CLEAN vampire novel! Woo hoo!

From Publisher's Weekly off of Amazon, I give you only the first sentence which blows my brain from the get-go:

"The expansion of the Christian horror genre . . ."

Because when I think of Christianity, I am automatically drawn to horror genres to begin with? Because when I think of Christianity I think of how much I want to immerse myself and engage with spiritual warfare? For fun?

But wait! Let's go on with the review:

" . . . inevitable will be comparisons to reigning vamp-lit queen Stephenie Meyer, starting with the book's cover."

Yes, and rightly so. I can't even look at the cover and not wonder where the author wanted to go with her story. Stephanie Meyer should be sincerely flattered. She obviously hit the jackpot.

Next let's write a new series - You and I! "Chronicles of the Planet of Arnia." It has a pleasant ring to it! Or even "The Gingham Potato Pie Peeling Club" (which will leave out that reference to the homosexual relationship and the foul word or two). Next thing you know, Veggie Tales vegetables are going to be sprouting fangs. (Although I do give Veggie Tales a nod at creativity. They intentionally create puns and pick on trends in a humorous way. They aren't trying to be serious.) "Henry Porter and the Full-Blood Prince of God." What? You don't like it? It's clean, innocent fun, don'tcha think?! You can hand it over to your children without having to worry about what they are reading. You'll know it's biblically based! Aren't you EXCITED!? ("Anne of the Green Gardens" in which Anne professes her undying Christian faith! This will save you a debate over whether or not L.M. Montgomery was really a Christian and therefore worth reading. "Gone With the Sin" which is rather self-explanatory. "Little Santictified Women." "Sarah, Plain but Strong in Faith." "Jeeves and the Holy Spirit." We can make 'um as blatant as you want 'um!)

But, as usual, Tim Challies beats me to the punch. Click here to read his version of The Ultimate Christian Novel (which involves vampires, the anti-Christ and the Amish!).

I do not think that every great story has already been written. I think there is still room on bookshelves and in libraries for creative, well-told stories. I do not believe that the gift of story-telling has died. On the contrary, I do not think it is being exercised. This is why I get extremely excited when I come across books like The Silent Gift and The Mysterious Benedict Society. In these books we get to enjoy the art of story-telling. It is new! It is fresh! It is different, creative and blessedly unique. It draws you in and engages you and is timeless in its ability to connect with the audience of both today and tomorrow. Long after Arm & Hammer goes out of business and long after text messaging is a thing of the past. Good story telling lasts beyond the moment. And I do believe we should be seeking out the best, to read, to contemplate, to think on. Now, the question is whether or not we will take the time to sort out the good from the bad and give honor to Whom honor is due.

Tiger Tales

This is our fourth installment in the "Publishers" series. This week I've been talking about publishers that really stand out to me as producing consistently good reading materials. (See Part I, Part II, Part III.) One such publishing company is Tiger Tales. Tiger Tales really focuses on producing books that deal with character education in storybook format. I can't say my three year old has picked up on these, but it becomes obvious to older readers.

We have really enjoyed Tiger Tales around these parts, and have been particularly fond of the following books by Ruth Galloway (see my review of these books over at 5 Minutes for Books):




Smiley Shark is one of our top favorites and we like to read it while using our shark puppet which we've talked about before. As I've mentioned before, in the series by Ruth Galloway the lesson that the books focus on primarily are being confident and comfortable with your individual skills and talents. The way we would approach this is to say, "God made you unique and special and gave you particular skills and talents He meant for you to use." That is what most Tiger Tales books teach.

The illustrations in most Tiger Tales books are bright and cheerful, and also bold and simplistic appealing to even the youngest of readers. Their stories are brief and characters engaging. I've really been impressed at the quality of stories they have produced, from sea creatures to cuddly bears.

Their fall titles have recently been released and I have a few to review for you below.

What if you just can't go to sleep? Do you count sheep? That's what Emma tries to do in The 108th Sheep. She assumes and expects that she will be able to fall asleep by the time she gets to the number ten. However, she is surprised to discover herself still awake at sheep number 107. The problem intensifies when it is discovered that, try as he might, the 108th sheep doesn't have the strength it takes to leap over the bed! Some problem solving must take place in order to get the weak little sheep over the bed before Emma finally falls asleep. Written and illustrated by Ayano Imai, this is a simple story, which has a familiar ring to it, but enough of a twist to keep the reader engaged and interested.

We pulled My Favorite Michael out of the box it came in and read it three times straight. We would have read it again, but I quickly distracted my young reader with a different activity! (I enjoy reading good books multiple times, but not straight in a row!) In My Favorite Michael we meet a young boy who decides that it would be fun to dress up as someone else. First he dresses up as his daddy and "goes to work." Then he decides he needs a vacation and dresses up as a knight and saves the princess (his sister) from the dragon (his dog). Eventually though the princess has to take a nap and so Michael decides he'll be a pirate and steal some booty from the Captain of the ship (i.e., a cookie from his mommy). Cute, cute story which, of course, concludes with the idea that mommy's favorite person is Michael himself. We both really liked this one and will no doubt read it again. Many times over. (As an additional note, the next morning Daddy told me that My Favorite Michael was the requested reading of the morning and daddy himself read it three times straight as well! Obviously, this book is a hit and we like the message.)

One of our favorite titles from last year's offerings from Tiger Tales is A Magical Christmas. Mommy loves this one. It sparkles. Oh yes! Covered in mice, each one taking the time to describe what they think is so magical about Christmastime, this book is a true holiday delight and one I plan on reading multiple times this Christmas season. Love it, love it! (P.S. It sparkles.)



In the meantime, here are some other Tiger Tales books that we have enjoyed that you might find yourself drawn to also: