I Will Not Be Silent, by April Maley

Have you ever experienced something so horrendous words could not explain? Something that ingrained itself in your brain so deeply, you didn't know how you would ever get it out? In April  J. Maley's book, I Will Not Be Silent, that is exactly what occurs.

April was a typical 9 year old little girl except for one problem, she had an abusive-alcoholic for a father. Because of this, she had to take care of her siblings and try to attend school at the same time. Among other things, she also had to do her best to keep the house nice and tidy and cook all the meals. Unfortunately, her parents still found fault in her. She would always become the target for abuse. At night she would pray 'Dear God, please let Dad not be so angry and drink all the time, and for mom, please let her not be so sad and just love me and protect me.'

Throughout time, she saw things that ingrained themselves in her head. Like the time she walked in on her mother holding the gun to her head. Or the time when her parents got in a fight and her father hog tied her mother with and electric heating pad cord. More importantly, she would witness her father threatening to kill her mother over and over again.

One couldn't imagine how things could possibly get worse, but they did. She and her younger siblings were in the car waiting for her mother to return, when she saw the blood coming from her uncle's chest, her mother slumped over in the corner of the bedroom, and her father shouting back and forth at the cops with a gun in his hand. That was the day that changed her life forever.

The actions that day left her being diagnosed with manic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her brother Colton became a drug dealer and was in and out of the jail system. Her sister Lilly has had brushes with the law and her sister Mia was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder.

Throughout all of this, April has been able to get her life back on track. She has experienced major ups and downs and had to go through a lot to get were she is now.

I had a hard time writing a review for this book. Even though I recommend every one to read it, it was a hard one to write about. The author wrote this book so well that I could actually picture everything that was going on. I really felt for the character in this book. But putting all that aside, it was a good book to read and should be read by many others.

This book was given to me for an honest review.

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.

What We Have by Amy Boesky

When you were a child, did you grow up with pictures of family on your wall? You could have had them in your hallway along the staircase, or in the family room on a bookshelf. Most of the time, this was a good thing. You were able to see relatives or yourself progress from a child into a teen and then an adult. Well for Amy, this was not the case. The photos that aligned her wall were photos of family members that died of ovarian cancer. It was a memorial wall.

As far as Amy could remember, she was plagued with the idea that she could one day develop ovarian cancer. This, of course, caused her to live her life by a time line. The goal was to graduate from college, get married, and have a certain amount of kids by a certain age and then have a hysterectomy. Because of her family history, she had to have certain tests performed every six months to make sure she was in the clear. The questionnaire part was fine, but the blood work, ultrasound, and then the "waiting" was grueling. And then six months later, it was the same procedure all over again.

Things for her were starting out the way she had wanted them to go. She got married and became pregnant. The exciting part was that her sister was also pregnant too. The things took a turn for the worse and her life started to feel as though it was crumbling. Her sister lost her baby and they became somewhat distant. She also found out through her mother that her sister was moving. Along the way they found out that their mother developed breast cancer, which was odd to them because it didn't run in their family. She lucked out and beat it, according to her doctor. Then five years or more later, she started to have back and side pain. At first they thought this was an osteoporosis problem but later found out that it was breast cancer that spread to her bones. This was very devastating of course. Breast cancer didn't run in their family and now their mother had stage 4 breast cancer. Each time she went in for test, the results turned up worse and worse. Then they found out that not only did and ovarian cancer gene run in their family, but also a breast cancer gene.

There are five stages called the Kubler-Ross's Stages:

1. Denial

2. Anger

3. Bargaining

4. Depression

5. Acceptance

Amy went through all of these stages of emotions when it came to dealing with her mother's cancer.

This book is one that I believe everyone should read. It is a great memoir that takes you through the true journey of cancer and how it affects not only the person who has it, but also the family related to that person.