A Christmas Pray, by Amy Parker

A Christmas Prayer, written by Amy Parker and illustrated by Marijan Ramljak, is a cute little book that tells of one little girl's perspective on Christmas.


Most kids think about what gift they are a going to receive under the tree vs. what they have given or the true gift of Christmas. In this book, the opposite happens. The little girl thanks God for every thing that was a part of the "first" Christmas. For example, she thanks God for the star that led the wise men to baby Jesus. Or more importantly, she thanks God for Gabriel who came down and told Mary about her unborn child.

I had my daughter read this book to see what she thought about it. She liked it. She was especially drawn to the colorful pictures in the book. The style of the poem was also simplistic enough for her to read and understand on her own.

I believe this would make a cute addition to any child's book collection. And even though it is not Christmas yet, the book is nice to have so that when December comes, I have something to pull out for her to read.

This book was given to me by Thomas Nelson Publishing for an honest review.

You Changed My Life, by Max Lucado

I had never heard of Max Lucado until this year. You Changed My Life is a good book to have. The initial reason for this book is for it to be given out as a gift. That was initially my intention, but after reading it, I decided to keep it for myself.

The book is filled with multiple stories of how people's lives were changed by certain situations. There are eight sections: Love, Kindness, Commitment, Compassion, Hope, Courage, Wisdom, and Friendship. Within each section are different stories based on each particular section. At the end of some of the stories are Bible texts that correspond with it. Some of the stories have an inspirational quote on a picture page before it. I found the quotes amazing. You could gain inspiration from the quotes alone.

I felt this book was very uplifting. Anyone could find inspiration in here that they could relate to or even pass on to someone else (the true reason for the book). I highly recommend this book for someone to read or give out as a gift to a friend.

This book was given to me for an honest review.

The Thorn, by Beverly Lewis (The Rose Trilogy #1)

I must say that I am a big Amish fan and to be able to read books about their life makes it all worthwhile, especially when you pick up a book by Beverly Lewis. She is a very talented writer, which makes her stories come alive when you read them. The Thorn (The Rose Trilogy #1), is about two sisters and their struggles with life.

The older sister is named Hannah, but she goes by Hen. She is married to an outsider. This causes a lot of friction because he doesn't want her to have anything to do with her past Amish life. Even though she loves her present life with her husband and child, she longs for the way things were when she was living with her Amish community. The fact that she wants her daughter to be able to experience some of the things that she did makes matters even worse.

The younger sister is named Rose, who realizes she wants to dedicate her life to the Amish ways and not that of the world. The only problem is her closest friend, Nick. He is and outsider who was brought in as a foster child. Because of his outsider ways, he tends to stir up a lot of trouble. Rose is cautioned to stay away from him, but can't help being friends with him and spending a ton of "secret" time with him. She is also going out with a guy named Silas. She knows he wouldn't approve of her time with Nick, but he is a great friend to her. What is most important is her choice to spend time with Nick or to let him go and spend her time with Silas.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next ones that will follow. I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy reading Amish books.

This book was given to me by Bethany House for an honest review.

The Duck Song, by Bryant Oden

I just recently had the opportunity to review a really great kid's book, The Duck Song, by Bryant Oden. When I pulled it out of the box and looked at it, I realized my daughter had to read it for herself and I am glad I did. As she read it, she laughed all the way through. She truly enjoyed it. She enjoyed it so much that she ran downstairs and immediately read it to her grandparents.

The story is about a duck who wants some grapes. The only problem is that he goes daily to a man at a lemonade stand. Of course he doesn't have any. The duck is very persistent and keeps asking even after the man becomes very irate. You see, the man offers the duck some lemonade but the duck refuses only to come back asking for grapes. Finally, the man has a change of heart and decides to take the duck to the grocery store to find some grapes, where the duck also has a change of heart and wants some lemonade.

The illustrations in the book, by Forrest Whaley, are perfectly drawn. They are in somewhat of a cartoonish form and are very colorful. I noticed my daughter was not only into the story but also into looking at the pictures while she was reading the book.

The book comes with a button on the front that plays the Duck song while you read the story. Along with the book, you receive a music CD in the back that contains 12 tracks.

Here are two songs off of the CD. I must admit, the first one (I Got A Pea) has become a house hold hit. We fell in love with this song and sing it all the time while laughing!

Here is a video clip of 'I Got A Pea', one of the songs off of the music CD that comes with the book:



And here is another video clip of the song 'Honey Bear', which is also off of the CD:



I highly recommend this book for every one to own. It would make a great addition to your children's collection. You will enjoy it just as much as they will.

This book was given to me by Flinders Press in exchange for an honest review.

Book Blogger Hop

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and share our love of the written word! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs to read!

This week's question:

Do you judge a book by its cover?

Unfortunately I have to say yes. I tend to look at a book and if the cover looks decent it gives me more of a reason to want to read it. This is only if I am trying to find a book to buy/read. Most of the time I try to gauge it by what the synopsis says, but most of the time it is from the cover. If I am given the book to review that is different, but if I am perusing shelves myself, then books tend to get cover judged.