Reading, Writing & Pondering

  Are you planning a move with children or do you know someone moving with a family? We Are Home When We're Togethe r by Jean Stoffer and Grace Start tells the story of a family that is going to move and the changes that will take place. We Are Home When We are Together could be a helpful book to read as a family before a big move. Not only could the story be encouraging, but it could also be a good starting point for questions and discussion regarding your family's move. We Are Home When We are Together also helps children understand the various places that people call home--from sprawling houses to apartments and from the desert to the mountains. The main thing this book teaches children is that they are home whenever they are with their family, no matter where they are. Home is more than a place, it is the people you are doing life with. We are Home When We are Together is a beautifully illustrated picture book that is 32 pages long. It is also fairly large as it measures...

  What is a hero? That's What Heroes Do by Adam Kinzinger with Whitney Bak helps children understand who heroes are and what they do. That's What Heroes Do is a large picture book, measuring a little larger than 9 by 11 inches and is 32 pages long.  Some heroes may seem obvious to children as they are military heroes like Christian's dad. Other heroes aren't as obvious like lifeguard, teachers and those who design prosthetic limbs. The book explains that there is one thing all heroes have in common--they help people in some way. Then the author explains that children don't have to wait to grow up to be heroes--they can find ways to help people every day.  I love the message of That's What Heroes Do . I like how children may learn that they can be heroes today by helping others.They don't have to wait until they grow up to be a helper.  I also like the brightly colored illustrations from Katie Melrose. I especially like that the pictures are inclusive becau...

    Shortbread in the Highlands by Robin Jones Gunn is the third book in the Suitcase Sisters series. I like this series focused on female friendships and travels. I especially enjoyed that this story was set in Scotland. In Shortbread in the Highlands , Cousins Nora and Allie agree to travel to Scotland on behalf of their grandmother when she requests that they go and retrieve her diary that is part of an unexpected Scottish library inheritance she received. Nora and Allie face a few roadblocks both in their travels in getting to Scotland and once they are in Scotland.  Nora and Allie are both adult women who have some struggles in their lives back home too. However, they both lead different lives and aren't sure the other can relate to their individual struggles. Through the story, though, they are drawn together to face their struggles--both together as they began to encourage each other and separately. It is also interesting to learn the grandmother's history in Scotl...

The Inklings Detective Agency by John R. Kelly is a mystery with what I would say is a bit of magical realism as we see literary legends work together to solve a crime. I enjoyed this book with main characters who comprise the Inklings Group and their consultants: C. S. Lewis and his brother Warren, J R R Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie and more.  The Inklings Detective Agency started and met in 1936 Oxford, England to work together to catch a killer. This whodunit is a bit dark as it features a leader of the occult and his group from a cult of dark evil forces. The Inklings Detective Agency is a story of good versus evil. I figured out the way the victims were killed but I did not figure out who the killer was before they were revealed. This book certainly kept me guessing, turning pages, and I enjoyed trying to figure it all out. This author is a professor of religion and the occult so that aspect was spot-on in its history. There is also history of the England area an...

    Scent of Hope by Susan May Warren is the second book in the Call of the Wild series. As a dog lover, I love that dogs are a main character in each book of this series. Along with that, this book is a fast-paced action-packed book. Harley Tatum is a private investigator who came home to Copper Mountain, Alaska, with her job to catch a bad guy she has been trying to catch for a long time. Coming home is painful as a drug dealer destroyed her family and she is the lone survivor. This is the bad guy she is trying to find and her family history fuels her search. Jericho Bowie is back in Copper Mountain after serving in the military and working in search and rescue in Montana. His family owns a hotel that his dad hoped  Jericho would run one day. Instead, he ran away after his parents were killed in a plane crash. But before the crash, he had words with his dad that lingered in his heart and drove his decisions. At one time, Harley and Jericho were neighbors and supported ...

    If you are someone who likes to read stories of people learning to live with challenges, you may enjoy Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken by Sydney Anne Bennett. This book could be especially helpful to someone else who lives with a chronic illness or disability. Sydney doesn't learn to overcome her disability but she does learn to live her truth with God every day. This book reads autobiographically and is easy to read and understand. Are you battling chronic struggles—whether physical, mental, emotional, relational, or social? Are they eating away at your faith? Sydney Anne Bennett has been there. She knows what it is to live in a body that is unraveling, a world that doesn’t understand, and a church that doesn’t always know what to say. With compassion, wit, and quiet strength, Sydney invites you to remember that some of life’s fiercest battles are fought flat on your back—and not one of them is wasted. In  Fearfully and Wonderfully Broken , Sydney shares h...