Product Description

The kiss Mama blew to her little girl goes merrily astray slipping and sliding and sashaying from cheek to cheek . . . until it finally lands just right where it belonged.

My Review:  This is a sweet book which will appeal to young children.  The main characters are a little girl and her mom.  In my second grade class, the girls gave it a thumbs up, the boys a thumbs down.  All children were very attentive while I read to them. I think the boys felt it was a girl-type book because the main characters were girls (and it was about kissing).  This is a very good book for moms to read to their preschoolers (a great “lap” book), and for children ages kindergarten through second grade to read themselves.  The illustrations by Daniel Baxter support the text well, so I would recommend this book for struggling early readers for reading practice.  The story gives lots of warm fuzzies to children and adults.

About the Book: Lanie Coates’s life is spinning out of control. She’s piled everything she owns into a U-Haul and driven with her husband, Peter, and their three little boys from their cozy Texas home to a multiflight walkup in the Northeast. She’s left behind family, friends, and a comfortable life–all so her husband can realize his dream of becoming a professional musician. But somewhere in the eye of her personal hurricane, it hits Lanie that she once had dreams too.

These days, Lanie always seems to rank herself dead last–and when another mom accidentally criticizes her appearance, it’s the final straw. Fifteen years, three babies, and more pounds than she’s willing to count since the day she said “I do,” Lanie longs desperately to feel like her old self again. Lanie sets change in motion–joining a gym, signing up for photography classes, and finding a new best friend. But she also creates waves that come to threaten her whole life. In the end, Lanie must figure out once and for all how to find herself without losing everything else in the process.

My Review: I really enjoy chick lit, but sometimes find it more difficult to connect with the sub genre of mom lit, since I’m not a mom. So I was looking forward to this book, but slightly apprehensive as well.

I’m pleased to say that I absolutely loved it! Lanie has such a great voice! It’s funny and sharp and never drags and feels absolutely true to life. I tore through the book, never wanting to put it down and really enjoyed every part of it, from the well drawn characters to the humor.

In fact, Katherine Center does such a great job of portraying how frantic Lanie’s life feels that I almost felt a little stressed out myself while reading!

I highly recommend this immensely enjoyable book to all women, no matter where you’re at in your life journey. It’s just a great read!

From the Back Cover
The young girl with the Bohemian style was on the floor where she’d fallen, between Parker’s computer case and her file cabinet. She wore a long, flowing skirt—lavender, the color of calm—and camel-colored Uggs. She lay on her back, her long, wavy blonde hair matted with blood.

For struggling singer/songwriter Parker James, the music business has just turned deadly. Her desk in the reception area of a busy recording studio has become a crime scene, and Parker finds herself drawn into a mystery where nothing is as it seems. 

Unraveling the truth puts her own life at risk when she uncovers high-level industry corruption and is terrorized by a menacing stalker. As the danger escalates, Parker begins to question her dreams, her future, and even her faith. 

Double Minds is a double treat—combining a compelling suspense novel with an inside look at the world of the Christian music industry in Nashville. Terri Blackstock grabs readers at page one and keeps them riveted until the final plot twist is untangled.

My Review:  I hope this book does not portray the complete Christian music scene, although I’m sure there is some of this going on. Double Minds is an engaging story.  I cared about the characters and found myself wanting the best for them.  The ending has an interesting and unexpected twist.  Terri Blackstock is an excellent writer.  I personally just don’t care for books about Christian celebrities – whether true or untrue.  With all that said, I still recommend this book as an interesting and engaging read.  I like how the main character’s family, although broken, displays some healing aspects and tough love is lived out with possible encouraging results.  This book offers hope for difficult situations.  It also shows what happens when people don’t live as God intended and desires for us to live.  Real consequences happen for the characters in this story.   There is little to no sugar coating, which is popular in Christian fiction.  I find this refreshing.

Product Description
From author of Little Pea, Little Hoot, and Little Oink comes a clever take on the age-old optical illusion: is it a duck or a rabbit? Depends on how you look at it. Readers will find more than just Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s signature sense of humor here–there is also a subtle lesson for kids who don’t know when to let go of an argument. This is a smart, simple story that will make readers of all ages eager to take a side, Duck! Rabbit! makes it easy to agree on at least one thing: reading it again!

My Review: This is a great book!  I had a hard time at first seeing anything but a rabbit.  The children in my class LOVED it!  They kept borrowing it and taking it back to their seats to read when they had free time.  Of course, they could see both the rabbit and the duck immediately.  The illustrations are simple, but bold and colorful.  A VERY fun book!  I recommend it for ages preschool through third grade.

 Abby Mason, professional photographer, is about to be married to Jake Balfour, the love of her life.  Jake has a little 6-year old daughter named Emma.  Over time, Abby has come to love Emma as her own and can’t wait until the 3 of them become a family.

     And then one tragic moment changes everything.  It all started out in such a normal way.  Abby and Emma are taking a walk on the beach, Abby carrying along her camera as always.  Abby spies a baby seal and stops to take a photo.  When she is done photographing the seal, she reaches once again for Emma’s hand only to find that Emma is gone. . .   

     The days go by and Emma is not found.  How does one go on?  How long can one hope?  Abby exhausts every measure in search of the little girl.  She learns about memory and how it works, hoping to jar her own brain into remembering anything that will give them a clue as to where she might be.  She studies the pictures she took on that fateful day hoping to see something new, something that will lead them to Emma.

     Warning:  This is a super hard book to read as a mother.  I found myself particularly paranoid about my kids for quite a while after reading this book.  One friend told me that this is the only book she’s read that she “cheated” on and read the last few pages first before actually reading the rest of the book, needing to know what happened.

     I love the title of this story.  I think it is so accurate for how one would feel in the face of such a horrific event.  I found it interesting that she chose a woman that was not the child’s mother to be the main character and the one who “lost” Emma.  That she was not Emma’s mother and not yet married to Emma’s father made the plot more intriguing and allowed for exploration into different sorts of human emotions.  Had they both been Emma’s parents, the story might have been a bit more obvious.

     Overall, I’d say the plot kept me going – I needed to know what happened also! – but the writing was just ok.  I felt like maybe the story was dragged out a bit too much.    

     A large part of this story takes place in Costa Rica, where I live.  It was fun to recognize names of towns and beaches that she mentioned.

Product Description
Even the most reluctant household helpers will be clamoring to clean with “The Chore Board”. Just pick a reward for each person, and then every job that is well-done moves the helper one step closer to the desired prize. A little motivation goes a long way! Jobs can involve cleaning, organizing, helping with younger siblings, or anything your family sees fit. 

About the Author
J.Otto Seibold has illustrated, and in some cases also written, fifteen books for children, including Olive, the Other Reindeer, Olive, My Love, Penguin Dreams, and the Mr. Lunch books. He lives in San Francisco. Sarah Malarkey works in publishing and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two little boys who enjoy vacuuming and weeding in their spare time.

My Review:  Making chores a game seems to be a great way to motivate children.  The game board and pieces for The Chore Board are magnetic, making it easy to put on your refrigerator or possibly a file cabinet.  The object of the game is for each child in the family to do chores each day for 29 days and then receive an agreed upon reward.  Really the way the game is created there are no “winners” or “losers.”  Everyone wins.  This could work, especially if the board is in front of the family each day.  Some spaces provide for jumping ahead a couple of spaces of more than one chore is completed.  Some spaces need questions answered.  These questions can be taken from your child’s school work.  I wish I would have had this when my children were growing up and I will recommend it to my student’s families as well as my daughter.

About the Book: This is the tragic story of Kent Whitaker’s heart-wrenching journey toward forgiveness and faith after the brutal murder of his wife and one of his sons.

Straight from the headlines comes an incredible true story of a son’s treachery. For the first time, readers are offered inside access to the emotional drama that went on behind the scenes. At the core is the remarkable healing power of forgiveness, demonstrated by Kent Whitaker, which shows how the survivors of such atrocious events can still forgive those who have permanently damaged their lives.

One evening, the Whitaker family returned home after dinner, celebrating a son’s impending graduation from college. On opening the front door, they faced a gunman lying in wait. The gunman opened fire, instantly killing the younger sonand Kent’s wife, leaving Kent and his older son lying wounded until police and ambulances arrived. While recovering in the hospital, Kent resolved in his heart to forgive whoever was responsible for the deaths of his wife and son.

Over the next few weeks, it was discovered that the whole murder plot had been orchestrated by the surviving son — whom Kent had unknowingly forgiven. After a trial that resulted in a death sentence for his son, Kent emerged from this harrowing ordeal to share their astonishing journey toward forgiveness and redemption.

My Review: This story is nothing short of incredible. When I read the synopsis, I hadn’t heard of the crime and could only think that this was pretty much one of the worst things you could imagine happening to someone. For that very reason, it’s an incredible story about God.

What amazed me was that within just the first few hours of this all taking place, Kent felt compelled to forgive the person who had murdered his wife and son, and shot him and his other son. He is able to give this forgiveness right away, which sets the stage to offer even more healing and forgiveness. That’s not to say that there isn’t a tremendous amount of pain left to work through…there is, but taking that initial step of obedience made the rest of the story possible.

The writing is actually very good in this book as well. It at times almost reads like a novel. One of the things I really liked about this book was the way that Kent was so honest. He wasn’t afraid to share what his honest emotions were in certain situations, but he didn’t make excuses for them.

I highly recommend this book. It’s a great reminder of the power of God and the way He can use even the most damaging and painful situations in our lives for good.

Roald Dahl is an incredibly imaginative author that has become one my children’s and my favorites.  My daughter Emily (age – nearly eight) shares her thoughts on Dahl’s book Matilda:

 Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood are the parents of their genius daughter Matilda.  But they don’t act like she is a genius, they think she is nothing but a blister.  When Matilda goes to school, she finds out it is almost worse than being at home.  Matilda has to save her teacher and the whole school from Miss Trunchbull, the school’s headmistress!  I liked the ending and the characters.  I like Matilda because she likes to read just like me!

From Inside Cover:  Alice is tall.  Not T-Rex or Empire State Building tall.  Just four inches taller than the other girls in her class, and Alice is worried.  FOUR INCHES!  That’s a lot of inches taller than everyone else.  Her mom says it’s okay to be tall, and her dad says it’s okay to be tall.  IT’S OKAY FOR THEM TO SAY THAT, THEY’RE NORMAL!  Alice wishes, really wishes, she as just like everyone else.  Then, her dream takes her to the lace where the tall girls lie, and she sees, really see, herself for the first time.

 My Review:  This is a great book for little girls who reach their full height quickly.  I was one of those little girls.  I reached my full height (5/7-1/2″) by the age of 12.  I was always the tallest girl in my class and had wonderful nicknames such as “Long Tall Sally,” the “Jolly Green Giant,” etc.  I lived where Alice lives.  The only difference was that my mother made me feel like I was special and very lucky or blessed to be tall.  Alice has a dream in which she sees all the great potential tall girls have.  Thankfully this helps her quite a bit because her parents are NOT a big help.  Alice overhears them talking with their friends about her tallness and it isn’t nice at all.  Maybe some parents are insensitive in this way and it’s realistic, but I hope not.  After Alice dreams about all the wonderful potential tall girls have, she gains self-confidence and becomes happier with her height.  This is a great book for children who might be “different.”  After reading the book, children should gain empathy for others who do not fit the mold.  The illustrator Dom Rodi does a great job with color and imagination.   I recommend this book for children (and especially girls) ages 7-10 or 11.

About the Book: In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II.

My Review: I should be honest upfront and say that the history of Japan and Japanese people, no matter where they are, is of extreme interest to me. So I especially looked forward to this book that deals with the internment camps during World War II, which is of interest to me.

I really enjoyed this well written story. Jamie Ford explored many different ideas about race, nationalism, and first love within the pages of this very enjoyable book. This was a page turner for me…I wanted to keep reading and find what happened.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like to find the belongings of the Japanese in the Panama Hotel. I think it would be positively heartbreaking to see all of the things they left behind.

I also enjoyed the contrast of Henry relating to his father and then the chapters where he is relating to his son. There was a lot of character growth for Henry in both stages of his life.

This is a very enjoyable book about an important time in history and is highly recommended.