If you’re like most North American Christians, I’d have to say that your chances of having heard of a slender volume entitled YHWH are pretty slim.  Subtitled The Flood, the Fish and the Giant: Ancient Mysteries Retold, this work of biblical fiction is something of a Bible storybook for tweens and teens, and it’s excellent.

I think this is something of an undiscovered gem, despite the fact that it is co-authored by New York Times bestselling author G.P. Taylor.  Though it is titled YHWH this isn’t a particularly Hebraic Bible novel, the characters retain their anglicized names – Joseph instead of Yosef for example, so don’t let the title fool you.

What you will find are short stories gathered like beads on the thread of God’s (He is referred to YHWH throughout the text which is nice) ongoing story of interaction with His people.  It pulls out twenty vignettes from the Old Testament, covering the major stories and some lesser known ones as well (like Gideon and some of Isaiah) in chronological order.

The writing is full of life, and very respectful of the original text.  There are some inconsistencies, like the common Adam and Eve (but they have Hebraic names, one of the exceptions), their descendants, and animals eating meat before the flood – but for the most part it is very accurate.  It is important to remember that like all Bible storybooks, this is a work of fiction, not God’s Word itself, and as such it leans towards biblical fiction, where conversations are imagined, characters may be invented etc.

Briskly written, full of vivid description, YHWH kept my oldest daughter (8) and I glued to the pages when we read a story together at bedtime each night.  I even found her reading it again herself in her own time, pouring over her favorite story – that of Joseph in Egypt – which is quite extensive and spans two story-length chapters.

I highly recommend finding yourself a copy of YHWH, it’s well worth owning.  I hope that a New Testament volume in the same vein is written so that I can enjoy it with my children as well.

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Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book – all opinions are genuine and my own.

Everyone loves retellings of Noah’s Ark, and we (ahem) own many of them ourselves.  That being said, when The Story of Noah’s Ark: Storybook and Wall Clings hit our house, pandemonium broke out!  There were big stickers inside of this book!  Big bright stickers!  That mom wouldn’t mind if we put on the walls!  My three-year-old was all over the book, then my five-year-old, and dare I say it…my eight-year old fastidiously rearranging and tidying the scene that was growing on the front of our refridgerator.

Now, we don’t have a lot of empty wall space (bookshelves, you know?) but we were all very happy that the reposition-able wall clings (20 clings in all) work just dandy on our fridge (you can use them on the wall if you have room!)  There is a big ark, a rainbow, and cute, colorful animals both singly (if they are large), and in pairs (if they are small).  The missing single animals are shown on board the ship – don’t worry, there are two of each!

The illustrations are big, bold, and vibrant and work very well for my three-year-old both in the book itself and on the clings.  The book is a very simple, straight forward retelling of the flood and of Noah’s heroic rescue of the animals.  I was a bit sad that only Noah and his wife are included as the human occupants of the ark (no Ham, Shem, or Japeth) and the animals are only in pairs, none in sevens (still looking for a simple retelling that includes this), but Noah’s wife does get a really cute role in this book.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to review.  There are affiliate links in this post – thanks for your support!

The back-cover description for The Realms Thereunder is not a very clear depiction of what this debut novel is all about.  I can see why it struggled to encapsulate the essence of this story though, it is truly here, there and everywhere, with adventures into different worlds, flashbacks to the past, illusions, deception, underground travels, and even more than that.

When Daniel and Freya were schoolchildren in England they went inexplicably missing for a month or so.  What they encountered during that time was passed off as hallucination – encounters with creatures of darkness and a hidden world under the earth.  This story of their shared past unfolds alongside the story of their lives as adults, some eight-years-later, as they are drawn inexorably back into the conflict between good and evil.

I’m a fan of Christian fantasy novels (as long as they don’t contain ‘good’ magic-doers), but at this point in the series it’s a bit unclear how God comes into the swirling morass that Ross Lawhead has penned in this novel.  There is also a wizard…of sorts.  There isn’t really enough detail given for me to draw a firm conclusion on this fellow yet.

Actually, I’m not sure where I come down on this novel, it is more of a very extended prologue that only serves to draw our characters into the action, while revealing their past involvement.  It is an interesting premise – intertwining many legends of Great Britain’s past with bits of Celtic mythology thrown in as well.  I appreciate that many mythological figures are clearly pointed out as forces of darkness and not idolized, or made good in any way, as I was wondering how the author was going to include them.

I’ll have to read more of the series before I cast my final vote either way, so you’ll have to check back with me then!  I can tell you that it certainly keeps your interest piqued with al the twists and turns.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book for free.

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Faced with her father’s mounting medical bills, a heavy debt load on their struggling farm, and a list of familial woes, Laura Ann McGehee makes a decision that she feels will save the family farm, despite its questionable morality.  Desperate to bear the child she and her husband never had, single mother Sophia McQuistion arranges a pregnancy that is beyond her physical capabilities.  Together these two women have mothered a child, but whose is he truly?

Modern reproductive technology has brought with it a host of ethical and moral concerns that even the church has been hard pressed to deal with.  The rapid spread of such technologies has brought to surface many challenging questions that even Christians rarely ask themselves before plunging head-first into the quest for a child – no matter the cost (both moral and financial).

In Zondervan’s new series The Pandora Files, author Austin Boyd seeks to explore some of the issues raised by new life-related technologies.  In the first novel Nobody’s Child, Boyd explores the issues of egg donation, artificial insemination, and of carrying a child to term made up of the life-giving genetic contributions of two separate people – neither one the mother carrying the child.  It may seem bizarre but it is an all too real fact of modern life in our culture.

This is a richly textured story filled to bursting with the details of life in rural Appalachia.  It gets off to a slow start, but slowly and surely draws readers into the weft and warp of its fabric.  The story can be a bit more wordy than needed at times (too many similes and metaphors) – it almost seems to be striving to be literary fiction, but doesn’t quite make it.

Around halfway through the story I did become personally engaged with the characters and was brought to tears at times.  This is very much a story of the women, the choices they make, and how it affects their lives.  There are also some interesting details about the medical procedures used and potential legal ramifications that are not commonly known.  This is a series that has been needed for some time in my opinion.

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Getting Into Geometry is a teacher’s manual designed to help teachers introduce K-1 students to geometry in fun, hands-on, age-appropriate ways.  It includes 48 activities that progress from simple introductory two-dimensional explorations with shapes (circles, squares, triangles etc.) through to three-dimensional shapes (cones, cubes, spheres etc.) and its 264 pages includes all of the reproducibles you need for the activities.  There are some additional items needed for the book, but most were common household items, and a few we already had on hand – pattern blocks and attribute blocks for instance.  There were some that called for a pocket chart – but I heavily modified some of the activities for our use (read more below).

I used Getting Into Geometry with my entire brood of children, NONE of them wanted to be left out, so we tested the activities with children who were 8, 5, and 3 – and they all had a blast.  We cut out shapes, drew shapes on our porch with chalk, walked shapes on the ground, cut up straws and fastened them together with modeling clay to make shapes, colored shapes, cut shapes, described shapes, talked about shapes, and more.  I loved the pdf file that I received (it is also available in a printed form with a CD – both formats cost $24.95) because it included all of the pages I needed to print, so I just opened the file, found the activity I wanted to do, and printed the associated pages (if any) that I needed – they were always right after the activity they were needed for, minimizing prep time – very handy.

None of the activities took a long time to get ready for, or a long time to do, and they were such a fun way to get hands-in instruction time into our homeschooling day.  I’m a BAD homeschooling mom when it comes to hands-on, I’m happier to just read to them, but it was so fun to watch them BLOSSOM with these shape-related activities.

Getting Into Geometry does require some modification and flexibility on the part of a homeschooling mother with a small group of children – perhaps several children of various ages as I have.  Written for educators in a modern classroom (many students all of the same age) there is some mental translation and finessing that needs to take place to translate the instructions for teachers so that they’ll work for a homeschooling mom.

Sometimes this is pretty easy to do, other times activities need to be completely overhauled and restructured, or even skipped in some cases.  Some activities call for a lot of splitting into groups, group sharing, etc.  I was glad that I was able to pull off many of them with my three children, but they might be tough to do with a single child.  Some activities may also require additional research if you aren’t familiar with the terminology that teachers of early level math and science apparently are.  (I wasn’t sure what a concrete graph was for instance.

If you aren’t that great at thinking up fun, hands-on activities for your early elementary learners and you’d like to cover early geometry concepts in your homeschool, you’ll find Getting Into Geometry to have a wealth of activities to do with your children.  We haven’t used all 48 of them, and I don’t think we’ll need to in order to give my children a good conceptual understanding and familiarity with 2 and 3 dimensional shapes, there are quite a few to choose from – all of them surprisingly fun and developmentally appropriate for young children.  You can find a free online preview of Getting Into Geometry here that will show you the contents of the book and some of the activities as well!

Don’t forget that you can find more reviews of various titles from Aims Educational Foundation from other homeschooling moms at the TOS Crew blog here! 

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of Getting into Geometry for the purposes of this review.  All opinions are genuine and my own.

In Escaping the Devil’s Bedroom Dawn Herzog Jewell has brought together the true-life stories of many men and women from all around the world who have been freed from the bondages of sexual slavery and sin.  From pasts of sexual enslavement, employment in strip-clubs, life on the streets as prostitutes, these are radical, grace-filled stories of redemption, of lives changed by God’s amazing forgiveness, and of the loving, non-judgmental rescue efforts of devoted followers of Christ.

Reading Escaping the Devil’s Bedroom was incredibly challenging for me.  I wept with despair and joy as I read of pasts filled with sexual bondage and abuse, of daring rescue efforts that brought girls into freedom, of a transsexual male prostitute freed from a self-made bondage by the love of Christ and faithful Christian workers.

Most importantly however, was how this work challenged me – did I love enough to reach out in grace and in love like the Christian workers portrayed in this book?  How would I react to a newly born Christian brother who still had breast implants from his life as a transsexual?  I have to admit, I was challenged, and I often think back to the pages of this book as crystal clear examples of Christ-like love in some of the hardest of situations.

In addition to the core of personal stories and profiles, Escaping the Devil’s Bedroom also contains factual information about the victims of the ‘sex-work’ industry, their longing for escape, and ideas for how Christians can help.  Each chapter also includes a scripture reading, reflection questions, and prayer points and requests relating to the chapter.

Escaping the Devil’s Bedroom has spurred many conversations between my husband and myself as I feel inexorably drawn to share the stories contained in these pages with others so that we can bear witness, pray, and act. What an amazing book, I hope you’ll read it and feel drawn to spread its message as well.

Disclosure: I received a physical copy of this title to review.  All opinions are honest and my own.  There are affiliate links included in this post – thanks for your support!

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The Gardener and the Vine is another in Andrew McDonough’s boldly illustrated Cecil & Friends series of Jesus’ parables and life as interpreted through a modern lens for children. Andrew McDonough’s vibrant, cartoon-like art keeps children engaged in the simply told story that is likewise with vivid word-imagery.

Presented as the simple adventure as a branch who was taken from his unfruitful life and grafted onto the Vine by the Gardener, this story is packed jam full of rich spiritual meaning for both children and the parents who read this story to them.

A two-page spread for parents helps give some background information and introductory lead-ins to help enjoy and teach your children from this story, making it not only a story, but a little devotional lesson complete with some simple questions and discussion points along with the Bible verses that the story is inspired by (John 15: 1,5).

Honestly, I think that I may have received more spiritual benefit from this story than my small children have.  There is a lot of theological ground covered in this one simple story:  being removed from our old life, being adopted into Christ, the painful sacrifice that made such an adoption possible, the only way of having true life and fruitfulness being through Him – it’s really amazing how much rich depth has been built into this children’s story.  I’m not sure my little ones are old enough to catch it all at this point, but I trust that they are each taking as much as they can from the story at their levels of development.

The Gardener and the Vine is a powerfully transformative story presented in a simple package.  I highly recommend it.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this title to review.  All opinions are honest and my own.  There are affiliate links included in this post – thanks for your support.

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When I was a little girl our family had a picture book with the most amazing illustrations in it.  They were of a very specific illustrative style that I don’t have the words to capture, but that have strongly impacted me and have proven to be incredibly memorable. If you’ve ever read the popular Gilgamesh picture books you might be able to visualize what I’m talking about.

When I came across The Lion Day-By-Day Bible I thought, “Ah hah!  Here is a story Bible with similar illustrations!”  This day-by-day Bible is filled with gorgeous artwork, from the borders and small images on each page to the larger pieces every 10 pages or so, the art is exquisitely rich.  The pages also feature colored sidebars to group the stories into groupings, but there is no legend provided for these groupings so the help they provide for navigation is questionable.

This is a chronological story Bible that has a one page reading and prayer for each day of the year.  The breadth of story selection is excellent and covers so many parts of the Bible that typical story Bibles never get to.  A story-finder index is included for finding stories for specific values, occasions, and topics.

I found that as I read through my own chronological Bible my readings and those I was sharing with my children were almost in lock-step, so I think the pacing is fabulous and very true to the pacing of Bible events.

So, all of that being said, this story Bible has a lot going for it.  Unfortunately the binding is its weak point.  Though a hardcover our binding soon split and it has continued to split and break down further, which is really a shame.  Gorgeous illustrations, detailed story, but the binding just hasn’t held up for us.  I hope that this is only a problem with a few copies and not widespread throughout this printing.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to review.  All opinions are honest and my own.  There are affiliate links included in this post – thanks for your support.

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In part two of the Chiveis trilogy (begun with The Sword)  Bryan Litfin leads readers in Ana and Teo’s continuing journey in The Gift – out of their beloved Chiveis and into a post-apocalyptic Italy where beauty and sensuality reign supreme.  Here they encounter yet further persecution and realize that not only is Deu’s religion prohibited in their homeland, but has also been targeted by powerful leaders in other lands.

As the pair strive to rediscover the missing portion of Deu’s Word (the New Testament) and unravel the secrets surrounding the Pierced One, their character continues to be refined and tested by many trials.   Thankfully Litfin has done much to improve the depth of his characters, giving them more realistic flaws while drawing them closer to their Creator.

No longer is Ana a seemingly sinless young woman as she comes face to face with her own previously hidden weaknesses and failings.  The tender – if confused – feelings between Teo and Ana also continue to build on a firm, if still somewhat platonic bond of affection.

It is exciting to see that Litfin has clearly been working on improving his craft, and as such, I am looking forward to reading the continuing adventures of Ana and Teo which are bound to be as exciting as those contained within this installment.

Disclosure: I received a physical copy of this title for review.

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I have had Across the Wide River on my mental list of wishlist books for several years now.  I’m happy to say that it has surpassed my expectations.  Possibly one of the most fascinating works of historical fiction that I have read, author Stephanie Reed shares with young adult readers a concise yet in-depth look into the world of slavery in the 1830s.  Though written with young people in mind, adults will surely enjoy it as well.  There are some scenes of brutal violence against slaves that may make it unsuitable for younger children however.  Deeply and firmly set within history itself she is careful to provide far more historical detail than most novels do – from the politics, culture, and agricultural practices of the time and region through to the conflicts between Ohio (a free state) and Kentucky (a slave state).

When his abolitionist minister father moves young Lowry Rankin’s family from Kentucky to Ohio, he finds it difficult to adapt to the new state.  Teased for his accent Lowry finds himself withdrawing into himself while also being unexpectedly drawn into a key role in the Underground Railroad at the tender age of eleven.  Across the Wide River follows young Lowry’s life into early adulthood as he deeply commits himself to the cause of abolition (freeing slaves) goes through personal hardship in service of this vision, and tries, awkwardly, to court the object of his affection in the scant free time he is able to eke out.

Reed makes Lowry an authentic character.  He struggles with selfish desires that he must continually put aside in order to aid slaves on the road to freedom, he counts himself a failure as he fights to balance the many demands placed upon his overburdened life, but in all of this, he is an excellent example of diligence, faithfulness, and loving kindness who will inspire readers both young and old.  His courtship of Amanda Kephart, though introduced very early as a childhood crush, develops into a noble sort of love that is very honorable.  Lowry is an inspiring young man who achieves much for God despite his tender age, making him an excellent example to all young people of today.

Some readers have pointed out that Reed includes too much historical detail, and indeed, there is far more here than you find in most works of historical fiction.  This is, however, exactly what kept me glued to the pages of Across the Wide River.  She sets Lowry firmly within his actual environs.  Two of his professors at Ohio’s Lane Seminary are the father and husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (though she had not yet penned it in this novel).  The historical fabric of this work is thick, rich, and full of meaning.  I can truly say that my understanding of the Underground Railroad and of the cultural division between states and individuals at this time has been greatly enhanced by this book.

When the book came to a close I found myself re-reading author Stephanie Reed’s introductory notes about her interest in the family, visiting the Ohio Memory website to look at photos of the Rankin home, the river which divides Ohio and Kentucky, and photographs of the Rankins themselves.  John and Jean Rankin (father and mother) are shown there in a 50^th anniversary portrait, and Adam Rankin (Lowry himself) is also pictured in mid-life.  I hope to find copies of both John and Adam’s autobiographies so that I can delve more deeply into the story of their fierce commitment to the cause of Christ and freedom.  Thank you Stephanie, for introducing me to the amazing story of this dedicated family.

I received a digital copy of this title in exchange for this review.  All opinions are genuine and entirely my own.

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