Review: Engaging Today's Prodigal by Carol Barnier

Title:  Engaging Today's Prodigal: Clear Thinking, New Approaches, and Reasons For Hope
Author: Carol Barnier
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Format:  Softcover
ISBN:  978-0-8024-0557-9
Pages:  173
Price:  $12.99

I have loved Carol Barnier's homeschooling books for years.  I've been blessed by her workshops at homeschool conferences.  I've been encouraged by her magazine articles.  I have recommended her to anyone struggling with teaching distractible or active children.  I have learned so much from her over the past ten years. This book is no exception.

Engaging Today's Prodigal blessed me, encouraged me, and educated me. I'll be perfectly honest and admit that I don't have a prodigal child at the moment.  But becoming the mother of 3 teens has shown me that there is no guarantee I won't have a prodigal child at some point.  Homeschooling was not the magic pill to remove all teenage angst or teen-parent friction, and there isn't a magic pill that turns out perfect little Christians either.

In fact, that is one of the myths of parenting and prodigals that Carol debunks in the first portion of her book. There is no secret potion or formula for turning out perfect children -- each child has to make their own decisions regarding faith and the direction of their lives, and sometimes they completely reject the beliefs of their parents, no matter how well they were raised.  That is only one of the myths she discusses, but it is one of the most prevalent myths facing Christian families, especially homeschooling families.

In the second portion of the book, Carol discusses the dos and don'ts of communicating with our prodigal children.  However, I believe these same dos and don'ts apply in relating to our older teens, as well.  I've had my share of arguments with my daughters as they test out boundaries, question our beliefs, and slowly try to figure out their own belief system. I have repeatedly reminded myself not to make every discussion a lecture, and not to take the things they say personally.  I repeatedly fail.  Carol's guidelines are definitely ones that my husband and I will be referring to in the future as we continue to raise our 8 children.

Carol's third section provides hope for the hurting parents of prodigals.  She shares more of her own personal walk away from Christianity into atheism, and her eventual return to her own Christian faith. She places a parent's focus back on God, who can take a prodigal's life, draw them back to Him, and make something beautiful of whatever mess they've made in their own life. Lastly, Carol addresses what churches and fellow Christians need to change in the way they handle prodigals, as well as their parents. She also challenges churches to help prevent the problem by properly handling the questions of children, teens, and young adults.

I've already stated that I don't have a prodigal child at this time, but I've lost the feeling of pride I once had; it's been replaced with a sense of vulnerability. I realize that I can't save my children and assure that they'll make the right decisions in their life.  I can teach, I can guide, I can set an example, and they can still choose something vastly different.

Parenting is difficult, and I truly believe that every parent should read this book when their first child turns thirteen.  I also think every parent should read the dos and don'ts each year, as a reminder of how to communicate with their teens in a way that doesn't build walls between their hearts.  And if your child (or mine) does walk away from God, or make decisions that don't align with our values, Engaging Today's Prodigal will provide comfort, encouragement, guidance, and hope. It is a well-written book on a sensitive subject that needed to be addressed.

Thank you, Carol Barnier, for writing straight from your heart for prodigals and their families.

This book was provided to me, free of charge, in exchange for an honest review.  The views in this post are entirely  my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

April E.

Review: Farm Fresh Southern Cooking

Title:  Farm Fresh Southern Cooking: Straight From the Garden to Your Dinner Table
Author: Tammy Algood
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Format:  Softcover
Pages: 280
ISBN:  978-1-4016-0158-4
Retail Price:  $24.99


In our quest for better health, our family has been buying more fresh vegetables and preparing them in new and healthier ways.  Of course, I found the title of this cookbook intriguing: Farm Fresh Southern Cooking: Straight From the Garden to Your Dinner Table.  I was looking forward to a cookbook that would provide us with more vegetable recipe options.  Except, I discovered when I received the cookbook that I am not a southern cook.  I'm not a southern gal, and our family doesn't really care for southern cuisine (other than spicy Cajun foods).


I initially flipped through the cookbook and was impressed with the full-color photographs throughout the book.  There are a lot of images in this book to inspire you.  My second read-through included reading the recipes, and that's when I hit my first snag.  Most of these recipes called for items that we just don't stock in our kitchen.  Using the cookbook would mean needing to purchase things like: balsamic vinegar, horseradish, dry red wine, shallots, and red wine vinegar (to name a few).


When Steve brought home fresh broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, and bell peppers, I went to the index to try to find recipes for these vegetables.  There weren't very many.  There were a few recipes where these vegetables were one of many ingredients, but there weren't very many that let me prepare them as just a vegetable dish, or that would tell me different ways to prepare each vegetable on its own.  One of the two broccoli recipes called for turnips and rutabagas which are NOT in my pantry.  The other was a dip, which wasn't what I needed for that meal.  The squash recipes mainly turned the squash into complicated casseroles.


I did find two green bean recipes, but only one I could actually prepare that day: Lemon Steamed Green Beans.  It sounded like it would be a refreshingly different way to prepare green beans for my family. The instructions were clear, and easy to follow. However, Lemon Steamed Green Beans were not a hit in my family.  No one liked them.  I ate the majority of the beans myself  as leftovers.  Finally, I gave the last few servings to my chickens.


Apparently I am just not a southern cook.  Whenever I pull out this cookbook, I either don't find the type of recipe I am looking for, I don't have the ingredients, or I don't find the options appealing. I guess I had hoped it would include more vegetable dishes since it includes "farm fresh" and "garden" in the title.  Admittedly, I also avoid recipes with multiple stages required or a LONG list of ingredients.  Some of these recipes fell into those categories.  If it requires "cooked chicken chunks" then I either have to purchase that packaged, or plan ahead and cook extra chicken to save for later.  Leftover chicken rarely happens in our home.


Farm Fresh Southern Cooking is a good cookbook, just not one that works well for our family's tastes, shopping method, or cooking methods.  This cookbook will work best for those who have a very well-stocked and diverse cupboard of spices, herbs, and condiments.  It will work best for those who plan their meals, and then shop to fit the meal plan.  In our home, we shop what is on sale, and then we plan meals from what is in the pantry.  And though our pantry is full and over-flowing, I did not have ALL the ingredients for the majority of these recipes.


This is a good cookbook, just not one that suits our family's tastes, shopping methods, or cooking methods. If you live in the south, don't mind long ingredient lists or shopping to fit a menu, or have more time to spend in the kitchen than I do ... this cookbook should appeal to you.  Despite being disappointed in my attempts to use the cookbook thus far, there are still a handful of recipes in it that I want to try.  I just need to plan ahead, acquire the extra ingredients, and give them a try.

This cookbook was provided free to me from BookSneeze for review purposes.  These thoughts and opinions are all my own.

April E.

Review: A Place To Belong worship CD by Lisa Troyer

Album: A Place To Belong: Circle of Friends
Artist:  Lisa Troyer

Lisa Troyer's album, A Place To Belong: Circle of Friends is a worship CD created to accompany her new book, A Place To Belong.  Each of the 8 worship songs speak of God's grace, His love, and His mercy. 

The songs on this album are all calm, with a warm, soothing sound.  The lyrics are uplifting and worshipful, sung beautifully by Lisa's full, rich voice.  Although each song is lovely, none of them really stood out to me as exceptional.  Each of the songs had a similar gentle sound and style. The album works well as an accompaniment to Lisa Troyer's book, but it doesn't really work as a stand-alone album. The songs would make good opening music for a Bible study group, or background music for a ladies' event. 

You can hear samples of the album playing at http://www.lisatroyer.com/ .  The music is available at iTunes,  lifewayworship.com , or your local Christian retailer. 

April E.

This album was given to me by The B & B Media Group, for review purposes.  I received no other compensation, and the opinions stated here are my own.

Review: Lessons From The Tree House Unit Study

Title: Lessons From the Tree House
Author:  Carol J. Alexander
Publisher:  Lessons From the Homestead
Format: e-book
Price:  $3.99

I haven't built a tree house with my children yet.  We have a lot of trees, though most of ours are VERY tall, with very HIGH branches.  Before we can build a tree house, we need to find one with proper support branches at a more reasonable height.  But my children WANT to build a tree house, desperately.  Whenever we do start planning our tree house, we'll definitely use Lessons From the Tree House to walk us through the process and learn from the experience.

Carol J. Alexander's boys do have a tree house they built themselves.  She's been through the process of supervising its construction already, and she has used that experience to create Lessons From the Tree House, a compilation of over 50 lessons that can be incorporated into the building process.  The seventeen page e-book is divided into three sections: the design phase, the building phase, and the enjoyment phase.  In each section, Carol includes activity ideas for several different subject areas.

Some of the lessons included in this book are:

• mathematics
• computer skills
• research
• drawing
• science
• writing
• vocabulary
• tool identification
• safety
• Bible history
• budgeting
• public speaking

These are not scripted lesson plans. If you're looking for something that tells you exactly what to say and how to teach the lesson, you will need to look somewhere else.  Instead, it is a list of lesson ideas that you can expand upon and personalize to suit your family's interests and learning styles.  As a parent, you will still need to turn the idea into an actual lesson for your family.  Some of the ideas are discussion topics, some are research topics, and some are actual assignments for your children to do independently. You would not need to complete every lesson idea in this e-book, but would select the ones that most appeal to your family or meet an educational need in your family.

Obviously, the Lessons From the Tree House e-book can't comprise your entire curriculum.  It could, however, provide a break from other curriculum options, incorporating more hands-on lessons from life as you build a tree house or tree fort. That could be a much-needed refresher when Spring Fever threatens to derail your school year.  This e-book could also provide a foundation for "summer school" to keep your kids' minds and hands busy during summer vacation.

This e-book is small, at only 17 pages long, but it is full of ideas to jump-start your children's creativity and revitalize your school with hands-on lessons.  The $3.99 price is a good value for the ideas included.  When you purchase the e-book it is sent to your email inbox, for quick and easy download directly to your computer.  Like other e-products, it can not be given or sold to anyone else, as it is intended for single family use only.  Lessons From the Tree House can be purchased HERE, as well as its companion e-books: Lessons From the Hen House and Lessons From the Seed Catalog.  You can also sign up for Carol's Lessons From the Homestead newsletter while you're there.

I don't know about you, but by the time Spring rolls around, I'm fresh out of exciting ideas for our homeschool.  I'm just pushing through to the end, much like my kids.  Then summer comes, and I'm busy trying to catch up on household tasks, keep up with summer schedules, plan vacations, and prepare for the next school year.  Often, my idea of an educational summer activity is to have my kids join the library's summer reading program, or watch an educational movie.  I love the idea of having a list of more purposeful activities they can do while building their own tree house.  I'm looking forward to using Lessons From The Tree House with my kids.

April E.

This ebook was provided to me free, for review purposes.  I was not required to post a positive opinion, and the opinions in this e-book are my own.

It's so hard to be the parent, to your parent.

Two weeks ago today, Steve and I became the villains in his Mom's life.  To be honest, we were already somewhat villains as we had taken her car away and "trapped her up here".  But two weeks ago we had to take her to a geriatric special care unit for evaluation of her Alzheimer's and observation.  She'd been kicked out of her senior independent living duplex, and wasn't allowed in that facility's assisted living or their nursing home (for fear she'd be a flight risk). 

After twelve days in the special care unit, she was more cheerful, had gotten over her cold anger at us, and was so pleasant when we picked her up.  That should have been a clue.  Despite multiple discussions with Mom and the social worker and doctor (including some ugly ones) in the special care unit about her not being able to live on her own and not being able to just move away, she still believed she was going to walk out of there and be in charge of her own life.  She was not happy when we pulled up in front of the nursing home she was moving into.  She was shocked, angry, and hurt, she said. 

She still does not realize why she needs the help.  Her evaluations found that she makes poor decisions because of her Alzheimer's and she is prone to depression.  It also found that she can not drive at all, manage other forms of transportation on her own, or take care of her laundry or housekeeping.  She needs someone to help prepare her meals, shop for her, manage her money, and manage her medication.  She needs supervision with bathing (or she won't), dressing (or she'll wear same outfit for days), eating (to make sure she does it), and toileting (not sure I agree with that one yet).  She is not oriented to place very well, or to time.  She usually knows where she is (except when we go out of town), but she doesn't understand distances between other places well and thinks family members who live several hours apart are actually close to each other.  None of that was a surprise to us.  We knew it was all true, but when you see it all laid out on paper, it's sobering.  She is not safe to live alone anymore.

Because of her poor decision making skills, she thinks she can just move back to her old hometown alone, or go get another apartment out by her sister.  She thinks that she can still drive.  She thinks that if no one will drive her to her sister, she'll just go ahead and walk.  That's actually the final straw that got her kicked out of her independent living ... concern for her safety ... that she actually might try to walk away.  And that persistence in believing she can move and live on her own is the reason every assisted living facility we talked to rejected her.  No one wants a moderate Alzheimer's patient because of their flight risk.  Mom's options are memory care facilities or nursing homes.

We talked to several memory care facilities.  Some were full.  Some were basically just really expensive, locked nursing homes.  Some didn't take medicaid, which Mom will eventually need.  Some were so far away that Steve would find it hard to fulfill his role as her caregiver.  We don't want to just receive a report of her doctor's visits ... we want to be able to be there.  We don't want to miss out on her care assessment meetings ... we want to be there as much as possible.  We want to be able to get to her quickly if we receive an emergency call.  She doesn't understand all that, though, and just wants to be by her sister.

So if she was by her sister, would she be happy?  No.  She'd only be able to see her sister when her nieces could drive her sister to see her ... because her sister also has Alzheimer's and also can't drive.  And she'd forget how often her sister actually comes.  She'd see our kids just a few times a year, most likely.  I don't know how often Steve's sister would get there with her kids, but not as often as Steve's Mom would like.  So she'd mostly be alone still, and it would be harder for us to be her caregivers.  Then she'd want to move "home" still to where she grew up.

If we moved her to where she grew up, she'd really be alone.  She'd have to be in the nursing home.  There are no memory care facilities there.  She wouldn't be "running around town" with her high school friends as she imagines.  She'd be alone, with infrequent visits from everyone she loves.

But in her mind, life would be perfect if she could just have one of those situations instead.  In reality, she's just trying to run away from her own unhappiness with the changes happening in her own mind. She thinks if she can just move somewhere else, life will be better.  But she will still have Alzheimer's disease and she will still need to live in a facility.

So we found her a small, well-rated nursing home very close to us.  With only 17 other people to care for, they can keep a close eye on her.  The residents seem friendly, and have a lot of freedom within the facility, and we hope she'll make friends there.  She is very social when she leaves her home ... but when she's in her home, she often doesn't leave so she gets lonely and depressed.  She did that, even when she still had her car.  But it's a nursing home, and now she really feels trapped.  So we are the villains, and everyone else gets to be the listeners who hear how terrible we've been, while we take the heat. (That's not their intention, but it is the unfortunate reality.)

Everyone tells us we're doing the right thing.  Everyone tells us we're handling it well.  Everyone tells us we've got broad shoulders for this burden. Everyone says they're impressed with how we're managing this. But sometimes we feel weak, and hurt, and we wish we didn't have to be the villains.  On Mother's Day, we'll go see her, and while she'll rejoice over her grandkids, Steve and I will get the cold shoulder.  Steve's sister won't have it much easier, as she'll be begging to leave with them.  I guess that is a different burden to bear. 

We know it's right to keep her safe from herself.  We know it's right to make her take the medication that can help her.  We know she did the same things for her kids when they were young, even when they didn't like it.  But to be honest, it's hard to be a parent to your own kids and have to be the bad guy.  It's even harder having to be a parent to your Mom, and have to be the bad guy while she lets you know how disappointed she is in you.  Because we've taken steps to keep her safe, we're being rejected by her. 

For how long?  When will she forget?  We don't know.  And today, I'm not handling that well.  To be honest, I just want to sit and cry for Steve ... and his Mom ... and myself.  I know it has to be hard to realize that your freedom has ended, that you must rely on others to care for you and to take you to see other family members.  But it's best for her.  Unfortunately, until she settles down, we can't really take her to see her sister.  We can't take her on a trip, only to have a huge fight about her not wanting to return.  We want to, but we can't.  So we'll have to be the bad guys for awhile longer.  We're going to need God's strength and grace to get through this.

"Lord, help us!  We are not strong enough to do this without you. We can not face Mom's wrath, or the judgements from those looking on who don't fully understand Mom's impairment, alone. We need your strength, because we feel very weak and hurt, too.  Amen."

April E.

One more Alzheimer's book for my shelves

Last week I got another book on Alzheimer's that I've been wanting.  I'd read it from the library, then added it to my Paperbackswap wish list.  It finally came through for me last week.  When it arrived, I told Steve that this one deals more with how to continue to care for your loved one in your home, so I wasn't totally sure why I requested it.

We've known for a year that bringing Steve's Mom into our home wouldn't work after all.  We knew it wasn't fair to move the boys to the living room so she could have their room.  We knew our house was too noisy with ten people, and that Alzheimer's patients don't deal well with a noisy environment.  We also had come to realize that if she lived with us, we'd either have to take her everywhere or stay home.  She wouldn't want to go with us everytime we needed to leave, but we couldn't leave her home alone, especially as the disease progressed.  We'd be making big changes, and it would limit our children's ability to participate in church, 4H, and homeschool events.

But even though I knew Steve's Mom wasn't coming here, I kept reading about the disease.  I wanted to understand its progression, the many different effects it has on people, and how to communicate with her better.  And, I think deep down, I wanted to be prepared in case Steve develops Alzheimer's later on.

Although they always try to encourage people by saying it's usually not genetic and even if your parents have it, you probably won't get it ... in Steve's family it definitely has a genetic component.  Steve's Great-Grandma had it, his Grandma had it, his Mom has it, and her only living sister has it.  Maybe it only affects the females in the family ... but we don't know for sure.  We're hoping this disease stops right here, with his Mom, instead of spreading to her children and grandchildren or her sisters' children and grandchildren.

We're reading about how to cope with the disease, how to facilitate better living for those affected by it, and also what we can do to prevent it in our own lives.  How can we delay its effect if we are going to get it?  And in the meantime, I keep reading more books, watching more documentaries, and adding more items to our home shelves.  We do not want to go unprepared into the battle with this disease.

Some of my favorite resources:

~ Alzheimers: Finding the Words by Harriet Hodgson
~ Learning to Speak Alzheimers by Joanne Koenig Coste
~ There's Still A Person In There: The Complete Guide to Treating and Coping with Alzheimers by Castleman, Gallagher-Thompson, and Naythons
~ The Alzheimer's Prevention Program by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan
~ Loving Someone Who Has Dementia: How to Find Hope while Coping with Stress and Grief by Pauline Boss
~ The 36-Hour Day by Nancy Mace and Peter Rabins  
~ The Alzheimer's Project DVD set by HBO
~ The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's DVD by PBS

Resources I want to read or watch:
~ Independent Lens: You're Looking At Me Like I Live Here And I Don't DVD by PBS
I'm sure I"ll find new ones ...

Still learning,
April E.

I love my kids!

Okay, my kids can drive me crazy at times.  Sometimes I wonder how in the world anyone could ever compare our family to the Duggars with all the fighting that goes on between the kids.  Obviously not anyone who's spent much time at our house.

But in between the fighting, they really do have good relationships.  I love listening to my teen daughters plan their futures.  I love seeing my older kids lovingly interact with their younger siblings ... though it can sometimes be rare.  I love watching the younger ones try so hard to be like their older siblings.  And I love their shared laughter.

Just a few moments from my week that brightened my days:

**Sunday, we got home from church, and were all carrying in our stuff.  8 yo M challenged 3 yo G to a race to the front door.  G said, "nooo" in a tired voice.  Then 8 yo M promised him he'd go slow.  G perked up his head, said "Okay!" and took off running without any warning.  They ran back to the house and M let G win.  It was so sweet, I waited a moment for Steve to catch up to me and told him about it.

**Friday, we were going to a homeschool group field trip in Salina.  We don't get to Salina very often, so when we go, we try to take care of our shopping.  We're also in the midst of updating the kids' portraits, so we have to visit Sears.  We had just finished M's photo shoot and were supposed to eat at Pizza Hut before meeting the other homeschool families at the museum.  But, we were running out of time.  We decided to get the pizza "to go" and eat in the car.  Not something we'd usually risk, but we didn't have a choice.

In the end, as we were gathering up the last few crusts, Steve spotted a mushroom in the box.  He asked if it was a mushroom.  I said, "I guess."  Our 15 yo replied that he shouldn't eat it because it was really a fecal turd. (She's not a fan of mushrooms.)  Steve ate it anyway, and then I informed her that the term was fecal matter and to say fecal turd was redundant.  Of course, the younger kids then wanted fecal defined.  That resulted in a few moments of creativity as they used fecal in as many ways possible, including a few insults.

Before I shut down their inappropriate conversation, I had to shake my head and laugh ... quietly with Steve.  Definitely not the Duggars, as we scarf down pizza outside a museum, while listening to our boys call each other fecal face.  Not pretty, but definitely real.  I did put a stop to the fecal talk, and then we went into the history museum and enjoyed a couple hours exploring it with our friends. Unfortunately, the fecal talk resurfaced as they handled replica buffalo chips at the replica homestead.  Can you imagine burning those to heat your home?  Phew!

** Our kids have been troopers over the past 7 months as we've had increasing involvement in caring for Steve's Mom.  The older ones have babysat as we took her to doctor appointments, delivered daily medication, took her to have her hair done, and as we toured different facilities she could move to.  They've waited patiently at times as we added shopping for Grandma into our own shopping trips.  And they have helped clean her home (or babysat while I did it) when she was away on trips.  This week hasn't been any different.  They've had their week disrupted, as well, but they didn't complain when we had to bring Mom home on Tuesday to keep her supervised, or when Steve and I had to spend Wednesday taking care of her business and transferring her to the hospital.  They haven't complained (yet) about being at her house to start sorting it out, either.  I love that they're learning how to love and serve, and that they know how to pull together as a family and pitch in, even when it's not fun.

** We're on the 7th week of our Walk Kansas project.  It was an 8 week project, so we're really close to the end.  Our younger children aren't officially on the team, but they all join in when we exercise.  Yesterday, I was watching my 8 yo son, who is as skinny as a beanpole, doing a Biggest Loser Cardio Max workout.  His 1 yo sister was copying him in the background.  I'm not going to tell them not to exercise, because it's healthy for them, but it still made me giggle to see these young ones exercising when they are so young and certainly don't need to lose weight at all.  I love their energy, though.

** 1 yo V is learning new words and skills.  She loves to say "Uh Oh!" with the proper sing-song intonation all day long.  All it takes is one person dropping something to start her saying "Uh Oh!" for half an hour.  Of course, it probably doesn't help that we keep saying it back to her.

** 1 yo V has also learned to say "Ow!" So, with every tiny bump she says "Ow!" and rubs the owie ... usually her head.  Then she milks it by saying it over and over and getting as many kisses as we'll give her. 

** And finally, a picture.  While I went for a lunch refill on 1 yo V's plate, she decided to help 15 yo R do her language arts.  She put on her big sister's reading glasses, scribbled in her notebook, messed with her ipod and phone, and this is how I found her. 

 Yep, that's my little V!  Later she helped relocate all the kids' toothbrushes throughout the house.  They really appreciated that, too.

Just sharing a few positive moments from our life in the past week,

April E.

Review: God Helps Me Bible by Juliet David

Title:  God Helps Me Bible
Author:  Juliet David
Illustrator: Clare Caddy
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Format:  Hardcover, Cardstock Pages, Spiral Bound
Target Audience:  Toddlers, age 1 to 3
ISBN:  978-1-85985-916-2
Price:  $12.99

This is such a cute little Bible story book, geared for toddlers!  Its Bible stories are perfect for reading aloud to little ones.  My one year old will sit through several stories at once, and my three year old has had me read the entire book to him in one setting.

The hardcover book has a covered spiral binding that lays flat when you're reading it.  The pages are made of a heavy card stock that isn't easily torn by little hands ready to move on to the next story.  Juliet David did a wonderful job converting different Bible stories from the Old and New Testaments into two-page stories.  The Bible stories each end with an application, telling how God helped the people in the story.

The first twelve stories come from the Old Testament, and they cover the most common Bible stories:  Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Esther, Daniel, and Jonah.  The final thirteen stories are from the New Testament, including many stories of Jesus' life and also the story of how Paul got out of jail. Each story has the text on the left side, with colorful full-page illustrations by Clare Caddy on the right page. 

My youngest two children really do love this Bible.  It is the perfect size for my 19 month old to carry around, and she often brings it to me to read to her.  It does bother me that the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection were not included in this Bible.  I realize that it's an application Bible that tells of ways that God helped different people, but I still feel that it should have included the most important way that God has helped us, by Christ's atoning sacrifice!  It includes three stories about the events of His birth, but nothing about the very reason that He was born.

Despite that, I still love this little book.  The God Helps Me Bible is perfect for toddlers, and I will be reading it to my little ones for years to come.  Its sturdy pages and cover will help it last, and its illustrations and content will keep my little ones reaching for it.

April E.

This book was provided to me free, for review purposes.  I was not required to post a positive review.