Reading, Writing & Pondering

  As a young girl, I watched re-runs of old movies at my grandparents' house. Among my favorites were movies with Audrey Hepburn starring in them. The Story of Audrey Hepburn by Natasha Wing tells Audrey Hepburn's story in an interesting way for young people to read. Audrey Hepburn is considered one of the greatest female film legends of all time. If you haven't seen one of her movies, I encourage you to watch one! As the Story of Audrey Hepburn shares, she was also a great humanitarian, a fashion icon, a dancer and a wonderful person. She survived the Depression and a World War. I admire her for many reasons.  I like how The Story of Audrey Hepburn is written and designed. The timelines throughout the book make it easy to see when she lived and when she accomplished things. This book also presents the information in a straight-forward manner that makes it easy to read and to learn from. At the back of the book, there are also questions to quiz yourself, or to use with a gr...

  Are you children fans of VeggieTales? Mine sure were. Now, VeggieTales God's Word for Me: 365 Devos for Boys and 365 Devos for Girls are available. These devotional books include short devotions for boys and girls ages four to eight.  Each version of God's Word for Me measures about 5 by 7 inches. They are a good size to carry along in a backpack or book bag as well as fitting nicely on a nightstand. Each book has 365 devotional readings that include a Bible verse, a short reading, a though of the day and a short prayer. The pages are colorfully illustrated with Veggietales too.  I know my son would have enjoyed these readings when he was young. He had a hard time sitting still and he liked Veggietales. This would have been a good book for him as the readings are short. They also are somewhat interactive as the thought of the day is often a question or something to do. This Veggietale devotional is something we may have also used before homeschooling or before bed. I t...

      Sometimes growing up is both hard and scary. Roar Like a Lion by Levi Lusko with Tama Fortner is a book of 90 devotional to help kids feel more courageous in the faith as they live in this world today. Roar Like a Lion is written for kids ages 6 to 10 years old. Lusko talks about lions in the introduction and I learned quite a bit about lions in this short space. He also tells us that he wrote this book in honor of his daughter, Lenya, who passed away. At the end of the introduction, he tells readers that there are twenty anchors hidden throughout the book and invites kids to find them all. He writes one devotion called, The Anchor, in which he explains why anchors are an important symbol to him in his Christian faith.  Each of the 90 devotionals starts with a Bible verse, includes a Christian reading to relate to verse to what kids may be facing. Some readings include a Did you know? section with some real life history to learn, while others include a small ...

Psalms for Little Hearts introduces children to the psalms and what they can mean to us as children of God. Dandi Daley Mackall writes modern psalms based on the Bible so children can understand them and relate to them understand that God's word is written for them. There are 25 psalms in Psalms for Little Hearts targeting children ages 8 to 12. Although I think children as young as five would find value in this book with others reading it with them. All of the psalms are all labeled with what the message of each one is: God's Beautiful World, God Gives Me Joy (when I feel sad), God Fights for Me! (when they are the underdog), Give Thanks (teaching gratitude), and God Listens (for when hope is needed). These verses all rhyme and are ones that children could relate to. Then, at the end of each verse written by Mackall, she has a portion of the psalm from the New Living Translation of the Bible so readers can read the psalm she based her verses on. The illustrations of P...