Category Archives: Nonfiction

Review: 30 Days of Goodness, Love and Grace by Susie Shellenberger

Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

30 Days of Goodness, Love and Grace30 Days of Goodness, Grace and Love: A Faithgirlz Bible Study
Susie Shellenberger
Zonderkidz

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This Bible study contains three parts. Part one explores the power of goodness through the book of Colossians. In part two, the author explores love via the story of Ruth. Part three teaches about the power of grace through the book of 1 Peter. Each part is broken down into sections, one for each chapter. Each section contains “bites,” smaller, more focused portions. The author suggests completing one bite per sitting. Each section closes with a review to complete with a friend or Bible study group.

I’m not sure why the title says 30 Days. I expected the book to be broken down into thirty chunks, but it isn’t. Each section contains roughly eight or ten bites, so even that works out weirdly for use with a weekly study group. If there were seven bites per section, that would break down perfectly. And then it would be a simple thirteen week study. But it’s not. The way it’s mapped out, while confusing, isn’t my biggest issue with the book.

Let me start with what I liked. My absolute favorite piece was a short article about how to choose a Bible that’s right for you. It followed a study on the importance of reading the Bible, which made it very well-timed. The advice was practical (do you want a big Bible or something you can slip inside your purse?) and thoughtful (consider a study Bible, here’s why…). Overall, I found it impressive. Great moment.

I love the story of Ruth and Boaz. It’s one of my favorites, so I was really excited that it’s included in this study. Some of it I really liked and thought was insightful. Other parts were a bit confusing. One such thing was a long passage explaining how mortgages and the Year of Jubilee worked. While it was fascinating to me as an adult, I don’t know that it translates well for girls in the study’s target age and it never really tied to the study in a critical way. I think it could have been left out entirely.

I requested to review this book because my daughter is eleven. The description suggests this study for eight to twelve year-old girls, and I was really hoping my girl and I could work this study together. There are several reasons why that’s not going to happen:

  1. Some of the content is too mature for her age. There are examples about girls sexting and a lot of focus on dating and preparing for marriage (I’d say about 1/3 of the content of the book focuses on this). That’s just NOT where we’re at, and I have to wonder how many families with girls this age are looking for a study with this type of content.
  2. The section on goodness largely focuses on outward behavior. It seems to imply that being a better Christian means talking about God all the time, to everyone, including your Facebook community. While I think spiritual transparency is a good thing, I don’t feel that the true meaning of goodness was deeply addressed in the section. It was more like, here’s a list of things that good people do. Make sure you do all of them.
  3. One the author comes back to several times is that ideas and curiosity can be dangerous. I had a really hard time with this. I want my daughter to ask questions, to think about things. Now, I want her to take her questions to trusted sources: me, other mentors, the Bible, etc. But I don’t want her to grow up thinking that curiosity or questions are bad. Questions are a part of life. My favorite Bible heroes often questioned God in pretty bold ways!
  4. Some examples used to support or explain scripture don’t really fit. For example the author talks about Revelations 3:16: “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” The example that follows is the story about placing a frog in lukewarm water, then heating it, and he dies once the water gets hot. Whereas, if you put him in hot water, he’ll jump out. I just don’t see how those two things connect in a parallel way. The frog stays in lukewarm water. He jumps out of the hot water. It’s the opposite of what the scripture is saying. I get the point, I just don’t think this story supported it.

Overall, I find myself disappointed. I think this would be a better study (if edited for consistency) for girls ages fourteen to sixteen.

I’m still on the hunt for a good study for my daughter and me. If you’ve done one you love, please comment below and tell me about it! I’ll be sure to post about it if I find a good one.

Cultural Elements
Some references to differences in culture in Jews vs. Gentiles in Biblical times.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Conversations about dating. One quiz question asks about a girl who has been “sexting” boys.

Spiritual Content
See above. The introduction to the section on Colossians talks about how combining ideas outside Christianity into faith (adding bits of Buddhism for instance) makes one no longer a Christian. (I do agree with this, but I wish she’d clarified that finding common ground between belief systems is different than adding outside beliefs to one’s own.) There’s a comment later about how Satan will use curiosity to destroy, and the example given is like, people who got curious about Satanism end up in over their heads. I kinda get what she’s saying, but it was a really extreme example that probably doesn’t apply to most kids.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
One quiz question features a girl tempted to smoke a cigarette.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Review: Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee and Susan Elizabeth McClelland

Book Review and Content, Memoir, Nonfiction, , , , ,

Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea
Sunju Lee and Susan Elizabeth McClelland
Amulet Books
Published September 13, 2016

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About Every Falling Star

EVERY FALLING STAR, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly re-creates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his “brothers”; to be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist.

My Review

Intense is a great word for this book. I’ve seen a couple of documentaries about North Korea, but nothing is more personal and moving than the story of someone who lived there. Sungju describes his early life in Pyongyang and the fierce national pride he felt for his country. His beliefs are challenged when his family is forced to leave the capital for a small impoverished city where food shortages cause many people to risk trips into China—an offense punishable by execution if they’re caught.

While EVERY FALLING STAR is a difficult story, Sungju shares so much hope. Ultimately it’s a story about the bonds of love, both within family and between close friends, and redemption. To read the end of the tale and learn what the author has accomplished can’t help but be inspiring, and to make us grateful for the freedoms we have, and the ability to share them with others.

I highly recommend this book. EVERY FALLING STAR was so good, would read it again. It would make a great resource for a current events class or a world cultures class.

Cultural Elements
Most characters are North Korean.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
At one point, the boys work as runners for a brothel, helping recruit customers.

Spiritual Content
A few references to Chilseong, a deity and shan-shin-ryong-nim, good spirits thought to live in rocks and mountains. Sungju’s family shared these beliefs with him and they bring him comfort during his life as a street boy.

Violent Content
Sungju and his schoolmates have to attend public executions. Sungju describes them briefly. Later, his gang must battle other street boys for the right to stay in a particular city.

Drug Content
The boys in the street gang drink alcohol and smoke.

Note: This post contains affiliate links which do not cost you anything to use but which help support my blog. I received a free copy of EVERY FALLING STAR in exchange for my honest review.

Review: I Wish My Teacher Knew by Kyle Schwartz

Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, , , ,

I Wish My Teacher Knew
Kyle Schwartz
De Capo Lifelong Books
Available July 12, 2016

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When her Twitter post became a social media sensation, Kyle Schwartz realized that her classroom exercise asking students what they wished she, their teacher, knew about them was something other teachers and students needed in their classrooms. In her book, Schwartz explores what led her to performing the exercise with her class. She explains how it has changed her experience as a teacher. She breaks down her approach to building a community within her classroom and how important that is to supporting a successful learning environment.

The chapters also connect current research about trauma, grief, and poverty and their effects on children’s abilities to learn. With those things in mind, Schwartz relates her own experience. In the book she also shares stories from other teachers and students which address these issues.

I Wish My Teacher Knew is part an inspirational tale about how teachers matter and have an incredible opportunity to affect the lives of their students and part a gentle how-to resource for recreating a successful community environment to support both academic and personal growth for students.

As a parent, this book helped me understand that teachers have broader goals than simply instructing students on basic subjects like math, science, reading, and history. The importance of a classroom community makes sense to me now on a much deeper level. I’d kind of assumed that those community elements were more a happy accident than a carefully cultivated environment actually designed to support the students’ learning ability. It makes a lot of sense to address issues like trauma and grief because of the direct effect on a child’s ability to focus in the midst of those challenges. I simply never considered the purposeful way teachers implement these elements into their classrooms.

I’m so grateful for the men and women who’ve dedicated their lives to making these kinds of differences in their students’ lives. This book makes a great resource not only for teachers but for parents, too. There’s a lot more happening in classrooms than we realize. It’s important not to take those gifts for granted and to find ways to offer support.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Life Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism by Ron Suskind

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Memoir, Parenting, , , , ,

A Life Animated: A story of heroes, sidekicks and autism
Ron Suskind
Kingswell

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When the Suskind family moves to a new home, they begin to see startling changes in their youngest son, Owen. He loses the ability to communicate with them and seems to retreat inside himself. The family embarks on a journey to find ways to reconnect with Owen via one of his favorite things: Disney movies.

This is an amazing, truly inspiring story. I’m awed by the courage it must have taken for both Owen and his family to continue pressing forward without giving up, even in moments when field experts were at a loss as to how to help, when specialized programs proved disappointing. Throughout the book, Owen’s father describes his son with love and affection, clearly impressing on readers his value, not just to his family, but as a human being.

For people who don’t personally know someone with an autism diagnosis, I imagine it could be easy to overlook the autistic community. Suskind makes this impossible. Though the book focuses on the family’s experience with their son, there are a lot of references to larger issues faced by families with autistic children or injustices within our system that limit the ability of families to provide much-needed care and assistance. I thought that was a great value, too. Many of those things I simply wasn’t familiar with. For a short time after I graduated, I worked for a behavior analyst extremely well-respected in the field, but that was more than ten years ago now, and I’m grossly under-informed these days.

The Disney references were really fun, and you’ll definitely get a lot more out of the story if you’re familiar with those classic movies, but they’re not the point of the book. The point is that those tales became a vehicle by which a remarkable boy rebuilt a way of communicating with the world around him.

I recommend this book because it’s such a great, triumphant story, and we all need that message, and also because this reminds us that we are all human, all valuable, no matter how we process information.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. There’s one chapter in which most of the profanity occurs as part of an exposure therapy to help Owen deal with aftermath of a bullying incident.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief references to kissing.

Spiritual Content
The family prepares for and celebrates Owen’s Bar Mitzvah.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Owen’s older brother hosts a high school party which gets a bit out of hand. Lots of alcohol stored in the Suskind’s basement disappears during the party.

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Review: Faithgirlz Best Hair Book Ever!

Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, , , ,

Best Hair Book Ever!
Faithgirlz (Kelsey Haywood)
Zondervan

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Best Hair Book Ever! is packed with tips on classic and new hairstyles as well as recommendations for hair care and styling products. Each section shows full-color pictures of various styles and steps that are easy to follow. The book also contains how-to instructions for making hair accessories and DIY hair products. The earlier pages recommend different hair styles for different face shapes and some helpful information on how to blow dry while minimizing heat damage.

Many of the styles are simple enough that an older child can manage them solo. My daughter is ten and has devoured this book almost from the moment I brought it home. She has tried out several of the styles on her own with great success. She also put together a list of hair products she’d like to keep in her bathroom to make it easier to style her hair.

Overall I’ve been impressed with this book. The styles are elegant and fun and incorporate a wide range of simple techniques for a variety of hair types. It’s currently my daughter’s go-to volume for hair ideas and advice.

Disclosure of Material Connection

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Checking Out the NKJV Faithgirlz Bible Edited by Nancy Rue

Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, , ,

Faithgirlz Bible (NKJV)
Edited by Nancy Rue
Zonderkidz
Published October 6, 2015

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The Faithgirlz Bible is a Bible with additional devotional and study content specifically focused on teen and preteen girls. This edition is the New King James Version (NKJV), but a New International Version (NIV) edition is also available.

When I saw that Nancy Rue edited this version, I’m not going to lie, I was pretty excited. I love the way she relates spiritual and moral principles in her novels, so I felt like she’d do a great job bringing that insight and excitement to scripture and make it even more accessible to girls.

Each book of the Bible begins with a short introduction naming important characters and giving a brief context for when and why the book was written as well as how it fits into the larger picture of the Bible. Within the passages, there are some quiz questions. For instance, in Matthew 27, the quiz states: “I think I can follow Jesus’ instructions by…” Three answers follow. On the opposite page, an answer key lists scriptural references for each possible answer that discuss what the Bible says about each of the three options. I thought that was a really fresh, neat idea and a great way to pull values from the Bible and relate them to daily life.

Short “Oh, I get it!” sections pose a question from the passage on the page and explain an answer. Why did Jesus do this or not do that? A paragraph explanation with some more leading questions follows. Encouraging scriptures are also quoted in “Treasure This” asides, drawing attention to those great promises we hold onto.

This is a Bible I wholeheartedly recommend to preteens and teens alike. It’s really accessible and easy to relate to. The tone of the extra notes is positive and encouraging, but it doesn’t shy away from asking deep questions and really inviting readers to think about how Christian beliefs and scripture intersect their daily lives.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers  book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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