With vague, animated memories of certain scenes from Disney’s The Great Mouse Detective dancing through my mind, I slipped the newly released Mystery in the Mist DVD edition into my player to share it with a new generation. This old school Disney film (originally released in 1986) combines classic animation with what was then some of the earliest combinations of computer-graphics with hand-drawn characters in some of it’s most striking scenes.

My children were quickly immersed in the world of Victorian England, where a society of dignified mousies and nefarious sewer rats exists on miniature scale, complete with their own Queen Mousetoria at Buckingham Palace. When the notorious villain (and nemesis of the city’s most notable detective, Basil of Baker Street) Ratigan kidnaps the young Olivia Flaversham’s toymaking father, the mystery begins.

Basil – the Sherlockian deductive genius – combines his efforts with that of the genteel Dr. David Q. Dawson, as they spin through an ever escalating series of madcap adventures that leads to the uncovering of a scheme to unseat the Queen!

Based on the children’s book series Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus, this feature film seemed to be hinting at sequels to come, which unfortunately never materialized. This digitally restored film continues to captivate children with its nefarious plots and dastardly schemes.

Parents of children who are disturbed by separation anxiety should note the abrupt kidnapping of Olivia’s father in the opening scene – a tension that continues throughout the film. A scene in which Basil and Dawson find themselves in a shore-side pub also includes some can-can style dancing and provocative singing (the yesteryear equivalent of a girlie-bar) which parents may want to be aware of.

The original bonus features, a making of segment and a sing-along feature of “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” (sung by the villainous Vincent Price, Ratigan’s voice talent) are added to with a brief history of the detective and an introduction to sleuthing in “So You Think You Can Sleuth.”

This 74-minute film has been enjoying repeated viewings by my older children (my toddler finds it too dark, it is fairly intense). My seven-year-old in particularly is trying to award it 10 out of 5 stars. Not only can it still excite the imaginations of children, but adult devotees of England’s most popular fictional detective will also find many inside nods to the realm of Sherlock’s London found embedded within the film.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM!

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

My Thoughts: I used to do yoga when I was younger, but after I became a Christian it was obvious that the Hindu beliefs that permeated that form of exercise now made it unavailable to me.  PraiseMoves isn’t yoga – it’s a form of stretching focused exercised that was developed by a woman who once practiced yoga and was drawn into New Age beliefs before finding Jesus as her savior.

I think this is SO neat, because my husband also practiced yoga and has been looking for a stretching/movement exercise that doesn’t lead to Hinduism.  This is a great choice because it leads to God!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

Power PraiseMoves™ DVD

December 1, 2009

***Special thanks to David P. Bartlett – Print & Internet Publicist – Harvest House Publishers for sending me a review copy.***

Laurette Willis, the founder of PraiseMoves®, is a Women’s Fitness Specialist and certified personal trainer, as well as a popular keynote speaker and an award-winning actor and playwright. She has produced the videos PraiseMoves™ and 20-Minute PraiseMoves™ and written BASIC Steps to Godly Fitness.

Visit the author’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $16.99
Actors: Laurette Willis
Directors: Josh Atkinson
Format: NTSC
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: CT Videography
DVD Release Date: December 1, 2009
Run Time: 120 minutes
ASIN: 0736928456

AND NOW…A SAMPLE OF THE VIDEO:

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!

Thunderheads is one of the new-era documentaries that Smithsonian Networks is producing. Rather than playing canned footage spliced together with a voice-over as was typical of old school documentaries, they’ve taken a reality TV approach to documentary making, following real scientists in their quest for knowledge and discovery. Thunderheads chronicles the efforts of an international force of 250 experts (though the action is limited to a small number) who make up I.C.E. – the International Cloud Experiment.

Seeking to discover the correlations between thunderstorms and climate, scientists pair up with pilots to fly into the midst of the massive storms to be found in Darwin, Australia to put their high tech instruments and smarts to the test. With limited funding, and therefore a tight schedule, tensions run high between the scientists and pilots who struggle to understand the other side’s perspective.

Though the team does succeed in gathering the data they are in search of, the documentary remains inconclusive as to what thunderstorms and their formation of ice crystals can teach us about climate change. The action included on Thunderheads represents only the beginning of a large-scale project – the data gathering stage. An additional three years of research are planned to analyze and examine the raw data. As such, the documentary is a bit of a cliffhanger, as it doesn’t include any conclusive ending.

With a run time of 46 minutes, this is a documentary that’s hard to resist for those with an interest in aircraft, meteorology, climate change, and science and weather in general. This cutting edge research introduces viewers to scientific concepts and technologies that the general public is typically unaware of.

The visuals are spectacular, including not only typical ground action sequences, but also breathtaking sequences of massive cloud action, huge rain storms, shots from space, and dramatic in-flight action shots. The disc includes standard scene selection, and is paired with optional English subtitles, and a choice of stereo and Dolby surround sound.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM!

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Sworn To Protect Tyndale House (April 2010)

by DiAnn Mills

My Thoughts: This actually arrived by surprise, because I didn’t sign up for this tour, so I’m not sure you’ll be hearing more thoughts from me on this book (not exactly my type).  However, please do read below and see if it might be your cup of tea!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Award-winning author, DiAnn Mills, launched her career in 1998 with the publication of her first book. Currently she has over forty books in print and has sold more than a million copies.

DiAnn believes her readers should “Expect an Adventure.” DiAnn Mills is a fiction writer who combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed novels.

Six of her anthologies have appeared on the CBA Best Seller List. Three of her books have won the distinction of Best Historical of the Year by Heartsong Presents. Five of her books have won placements through American Christian Fiction Writer’s Book of the Year Awards 2003 – 2007, and she is the recipient of the Inspirational Reader’s Choice award for 2005 and 2007. She was a Christy Awards finalist in 2008.

DiAnn is a founding board member for American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope and Love, and Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is also a mentor for Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writer’s Guild.

She lives in sunny Houston, Texas. DiAnn and her husband have four adult sons and are active members of Metropolitan Baptist Church.
ABOUT THE BOOK

Border Patrol Agent Danika Morales sends illegal immigrants back to Mexico; a job she’s paid dearly for. Her husband, Toby, was murdered two years ago trying to help and his murder’s never been solved. Now a string of attacks and arrests leads her to believe that someone from McAllen profits from sneaking undocumented immigrants into the country and somehow this illegal activity is tied to her husband, Toby’s death.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Sworn To Protect, go HERE.

Watch the book trailer video:

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister

Tyndale House Publishers (March 4, 2010)

***Special thanks to Vicky Lynch of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. for sending me a review copy.***

Nonna Bannister was a young girl when World War II broke into her happy life. She went from an idyllic early-twentieth-century Russian childhood, full of love and comforts, to the life of a prisoner working in labor camps—though she was not a Jew—eventually bereft of her entire family. But she survived the war armed with the faith in God her grandmother taught her and a readiness to start a new life. She immigrated to America, married, and started a family, keeping her past secret from everyone. Though she had carried from Germany the scraps of a diary and various photographs and other memorabilia, she kept it all hidden and would only take it out, years later, to translate and expand her writings. After decades of marriage, Nonna finally shared her secret with her husband . . . and now he is sharing it with the world. Nonna died on August 15, 2004.

Visit the author’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (March 4, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414325479
ISBN-13: 978-1414325477

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!

Kaelynn and I have done a LOT of reading together this past year with simple readers that she can understand most of (she really enjoys reading from ‘real’ books rather than workbook style formats.)  She’s picked up quite a few phonics concepts that we haven’t formally taught as ‘rules’ but she still has a hard time with some of the times when a long vowel is needed instead of a short one.  As a result, we’re back tracking in the A Beka readers we just received, all the way back to 2/3rds of the way through the first grade 1 reader so that we can do some more practice with the handy new A Beka rule for long vowels that we’ve just learned.

Sigh.  Can I admit that I’m experiencing some anxiety right now?  I don’t doubt her reading abilities, and I KNOW that after we lay a strong foundation for long vowel sounds that her reading will take right off – she already knows a lot of the ‘special sounds’.  Sigh.  Sometimes I wish I was teaching Hebrew as our first language, where each character has only ONE sound.  English is a terribly complicated language to read and write, I never realized it’s true complexities until teaching my own children these basic skills of literacy.

Vent over.

I’m down to a single pair of eyeglasses, and I generally like to keep two on hand (you never know in a household full of children, when you’ll need back up!)  Almost time for me to put in another order with ZenniOptical – I haven’t been able to find any rival to their super-affordable prescription glasses (from $8 – $35/pair!)

Last time I went with a frameless pair with clear arms, they were almost invisible, my back-up pair was a black wire frame.  That’s what I’m wearing right now.  I’m hoping that next time I can find something in purple, mulberry, and wine, because those are my absolutely favorite wardrobe colors.  Yes, I may be committing a fashion faux-pas by wearing several slightly different shades of purple at once – especially if I throw a pair of spectacles into the mix, but hey, why wait till your old to enjoy purple clothes!  The time to live is now!

Ahem.  Yes, you may have noticed a strong purple theme on this blog in the past few days!

In all seriousness though, you really can’t beat the prices, I’ve been cheerfully spreading the news to family, friends, and random blog readers alike in the interest of saving us all a little more of the green stuff that can at times seem difficult to come by.  Enjoy the savings!

Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be recording a penmanship workshop LIVE for the Ultimate Homeschool Expo online (this is for our business – Bogart Family Resources.)

You can join us live online for free to listen to me talk about the importance of penmanship, penmanship styles, copywork, and more!

I hope to see you there!

TOPIC: What About Penmanship

DATE: Monday, April 12, 2010

TIME: 4PM CT

WHERE:

Join Us Live Online:

http://talk-a-latte.com/chat/

(The room is closed until the chat-the room will be open about 15 minutes before we go live)

OR here are the call-in details:

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444

Call ID: 38181#

PIN: 1# (Or your Talkshoe PIN)

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

She Walks in BeautyBethany House (April 2010)by

Siri Mitchell

My Thoughts: This is a really lovely book, my second Mitchell read so far and I loved it.  Watch for my full review later .
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Siri Mitchell graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and worked in various levels of government. As a military spouse, she has lived all over the world, including in Paris and Tokyo. Siri enjoys observing and learning from different cultures. She is fluent in French and loves sushi.

But she is also a member of a strange breed of people called novelists. When they’re listening to a sermon and taking notes, chances are, they’ve just had a great idea for a plot or a dialogue. If they nod in response to a really profound statement, they’re probably thinking, “Yes. Right. That’s exactly what my character needs to hear.” When they edit their manuscripts, they laugh at the funny parts. And cry at the sad parts. Sometimes they even talk to their characters.

Siri wrote 4 books and accumulated 153 rejections before signing with a publisher. In the process, she saw the bottoms of more pints of Ben & Jerry’s than she cares to admit. At various times she has vowed never to write another word again. Ever. She has gone on writing strikes and even stooped to threatening her manuscripts with the shredder.

ABOUT THE BOOK

For a young society woman seeking a favorable marriage, so much depends on her social season debut. Clara Carter has been given one goal: secure the affections of the city’s most eligible bachelor.

Debuting means plenty of work–there are corsets to be fitted, dances to master, manners to perfect. Her training soon pays off, however, as celebrity’s spotlight turns Clara into a society-page darling.

Yet Clara soon wonders if this is the life she really wants. Especially when she learns her best friend has also set her sights on Franklin De Vries.

When a man appears who seems to love her simply for who she is and gossip backlash turns ugly, Clara realizes it’s not just her marriage at stake–the future of her family depends on how she plays the game.

If you would like to read the first chapter of She Walks in Beauty, go HERE.

…that motherhood so instantaneously kicks in once knowledge of a new life is obtained. Minutes after my positive pregnancy test this morning I found myself fervently praying that God would preserve the life of this new little one that He is knitting together in my womb. That this new child would be born whole and healthy, that this baby would live until I could hold him/her in my arms.

Every time he entrusts me with a new life to grow for Him I’m in awe of the responsibility of motherhood, the burden and delight of carrying new life within me, the excitement of being a part of His plans for the future.

Thank you Father, for this very best of gifts!