IgniteLit

A Little Christian’s Animals

by · Leave a Comment

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

A Little Christian's Animals by Lila Noffsinger

Title: A Little Christian’s Animals
Author: Lila Noffsinger
Series: The Little Christian Learning Collection, book 2
Major Themes: Animals, Bible Stories
Synopsis: Beautiful pictures and very simple text make a perfect book for toddlers to enjoy.

Last year, I was given a copy of A Little Christian’s 123s to review, and though I liked it, I did not write a review of it for this site. However, I have just received the second book in the series, A Little Christian’s Animals, and I like it even better. 

Publisher’s description:

A Little Christian’s Animals is the newest installment of the Little Christian Learning Collection, which teaches preschool-level learning concepts with Bible stories! In A Little Christian’s Animals, children journey with sing-songy rhymes through ten animal-centered Bible stories. Children will be captured by Lucy Shin’s adorable illustrations, and parents will enjoy nourishing their kids’ hearts and minds. Big Biblical truths are packed into this bite-sized book, the perfect length for little attention spans. Little animal enthusiasts will love Jonah’s whale, Daniel’s lions, Egypt’s frogs, and many more animals! A Little Christian’s Animals is sure to become a family favorite of kids and parents alike!

My thoughts:

This book is cute! Each two-page spread has just one sentence, giving one simple fact about an animal that is mentioned in the Bible, along with a beautiful, full-color illustration of that story. These pictures are somewhat cartoonish in style, but not so much that they bother me—and not even my husband, who is a stickler for realism! This book is perfect for 2-year-olds or maybe even 18-month-olds who like picture books. It’s a bit too young for my youngest at this point, but the last page tells where to find the stories in the Bible, The Beginner’s Bible, and The Jesus Storybook Bible. That is a way to expand this little book for older children. On the very last page is a QR code that will take you to a website that offers free downloadable coloring pages of the pictures in the book. My 4-year-old has been enjoying coloring them while we have our family Bible time in the evenings.

Bonus: My review of A Little Christian’s 123s:

I read this book to my 3-year-old. She enjoyed it, and loved that she could recognize most of the stories referenced in it. Each two-page spread has just one sentence, written over a number and containing that number. The picture on the page illustrates a story from the Bible, which the sentence refers to. At the end of the book is a page that gives the location(s) in the Bible in which each story can be found, as well as the pages on which the story can be found in two common Bible storybooks. While this picture book is great for 1-2-year-olds (my littlest is already a bit beyond it!), these references can be used to expand the book and make it even more useful. The pictures are delightfully cute! While they are slightly cartoonish, they don’t have the “bug eyes” that my husband hates.

I received complimentary copies of these books from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about them.

No warnings!

Age levels:

Listening Level—Ages 1 – 2, 3 – 4
Reading Independently—Ages 7 – 9

Links to buy this book:

Amazon: Paperback | Kindle | Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com

Through the Maize

by · Leave a Comment

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Through the Maize by Steve Searfoss

Title: Through the Maize
Author: Steve Searfoss
Series: KidVenture, book 3
Major Themes: Business, Finances, Farming
Synopsis: Chance has a new idea for a business—a corn maze—but will he be able to pull it together in time?

Over the past few years, I have enjoyed reading the first two KidVenture books, about a boy who started two different businesses. Each of these books taught children a lot about finances and business principles. My children didn’t enjoy them as much as I did, but I thought they were good encouragement. So, of course, I was quite interested in reading the third book, Through the Maize, when it was offered!

Publisher’s description:

Chance, Addie, and Sophie launch a new venture when they get lost in the country and stumble on the idea of starting a corn maze business. They quickly discover that while it’s easy to rush into a maze, finding your way out is hard. They will need to convince an investor to fund the venture, persuade a reluctant farmer to let them build their maze on his cornfield, and figure out a way to work with his headstrong nephew. Along the way, they will realize just how little they know about planting corn, designing mazes, and writing business plans. Through many twists and turns—and dead ends—they will learn how to keep a partnership together and what the true job of a leader is. There’s only one thing harder than finding your way out of a maze: creating a maze people want to get lost in.

My thoughts:

Through the Maize is my favorite so far in this series. There are a lot of lessons about business and finances, but even more of this book has to do with relationships and how to work with people. Chance was very excited about his new business opportunity, but very quickly found himself in over his head trying to figure out how to work with people. I really liked the way he asked his father for advice. The lessons Chance learned through the summer are valuable for anyone. As with the first two books in the series, there are frequent tables with the lessons he is learning. Some of these have to do with working with other people, and some are about the financial decisions he has to make. These tables help to keep all the lessons organized and clear. At the end of each chapter are several questions to help children think through the concepts and discuss what the right way to respond would be. The basic storyline in this book kept my interest all the way through, and I found myself laughing out loud at times; I love the humor that is woven into it. Chance’s 3-year-old brother is as funny as most toddlers, and of course, there is the broken joke detector that appears in each book.

I have not yet read this book to my children, so I don’t know what they will think about it. Their response to the first two books was disbelief that Chance could have been so foolish in some ways. Having had a bit more life experience, however, I can see how he would have missed some things that seem obvious when reading the story! I definitely like this series, and especially this third book, both for the life lessons taught and for the example of a family who works together, with a father who is there to offer help and advice when needed but who lets his children make mistakes and learn from them as well. 

There is one thing I found annoying with this book—the formatting. I didn’t notice it when I read the ebook, but it made the print book harder to read. That was the beginning of the paragraphs: They are not indented. All three books are printed the same way, and I find that it makes it harder to know exactly who is talking. So, it’s not a huge deal, but rather jarring and distracting for me!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

No warnings!

Age levels:

Listening Level—Ages 8 – 12, Family Friendly
Reading Independently—Ages 8 – 12

Links to buy this book:

Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com

Trouble at Timpetill

by · Leave a Comment

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Trouble at Timpetill by Henry Winterfeld

Title: Trouble at Timpetill
Author: Henry Winterfeld
Major Themes: Children, Survival
Synopsis: When their parents all disappeared overnight, the children of Timpetill had to figure out how to provide all their needs, as well as protect each other from a gang of hooligans.

Not long ago, I noticed someone was selling a book by Henry Winterfeld. We have two of his books about boys in ancient Rome, and have loved them, so I bought Trouble at Timpetill. What a different book! We’ve never read anything quite like it. We liked the author’s note at the end about how it was written. That made it make more sense.

Publisher’s description:

The children in Timpetill are so rotten, ill-behaved, and just all-around unpleasant that one night all the grown-ups in town leave for good. It falls to the kids to take care of themselves, and doing so is a lot harder than it looks. Not only must Thomas, Michael, and his friends figure out how to turn on the town’s water, run the electricity, and feed a population of whiny children, but they have to do all that while battling a gang of the very worst kids—the ones who brought down this strange punishment in the first place.

My thoughts:

The idea of all the parents of a village leaving their children to fend for themselves is rather horrifying, but when you think that the story was actually written in 1933, it is more understandable. That also helps to make sense out of the fact that there are very few telephones around, and although there is a fire truck, there is also a horse and carriage.

I really liked the way the children took responsibility for themselves and each other when there were no adults around to care for them. They wanted their parents to come back, but had no idea where they had gone. One by one, they thought through their needs and found solutions, including creative punishments. The boys made sure the girls were safe, and all the older children made sure the younger ones were cared for. While Trouble at Timpetill won’t be on the list of ones I highly recommend, it is a fun one that shows children doing what is right—and a bit of a reverse twist on the Pied Piper of Hamelin story!

WARNING: Chapter 1: Chickens and rabbits drowned, for heaven’s sake. Chapter 2: Great Scott, one boy punches another, a boy lies. Chapter 4: Crazy cow. Chapter 5: For Pete’s sake. Chapter 6: I swear I didn’t. Chapter 8: Gosh, oh gosh. Chapter 11: Someone lies, oh gosh. Chapter 13: Gee. Chapter 14: Picture of someone hanging on a gallows. Chapter 15: Jumping Jehoshaphat, for heaven’s sake. Chapter 17: For the love of Pete, boy lies to cover up embarrassment. Chapter 18: Jeepers, why the devil. Chapter 20: Fight, hurts like the devil. Chapter 21: Gee.

Age levels:

Listening Level—Ages 5 – 8, 8 – 12, Family Friendly
Reading Independently—Ages 8 – 12

Links to buy this book:

Amazon: Paperback | Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com

Guess Who is in God’s Family

by · Leave a Comment

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Guess Who is in God's Family by Karen Ferguson

Title: Guess Who is in God’s Family
Author: Karen Ferguson
Series: Questions for Kids, book 2
Major Themes: Bible Stories, Creation
Synopsis: As a grandfather answers his granddaughter’s questions, he tells her all about the first people and the Fall of Man.

About a year and a half ago, I got to review a picture book titled Guess How Much God Loves You. This delightful story shows a grandfather describing Creation week to his granddaughter after she asks him a question about whether God really loved her. I liked the book so well that I jumped at the chance to read and review the second book in the series, Guess Who is in God’s Family. Yesterday I read it to my little girls, and was quite impressed with this one, as well.

Publisher’s description:

When Lucy comes across some old family pictures, she has a lot of questions for Papa Joe.

  • Who are these people?
  • Why doesn’t she look like them?

As Papa Joe tells Lucy about her family, he shares with her the uniqueness that God created in each of us from the very beginning, all the way back to our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. What follows is a wild adventure through the Bible, where Lucy and her papa discover God’s love and faithfulness for all people throughout all of history. In this second book in the Questions for Kids series, discover how much God loves diversity and how God created your family in the most beautiful and perfect way.

My thoughts:

Guess Who is in God’s Family is a beautiful retelling of the story of the Fall of man in Genesis 3. Lucy’s Papa Joe starts by describing the creation of Adam and Eve and God’s plan for them. Then, he describes how the serpent tempted them, and they fell for it, and what happened after that. Several parts of the story are told through direct quotes from the Bible. The entire book is illustrated with beautiful paintings. One that really stood out to me was the one showing the cherubim who were tasked with guarding the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were expelled. This is not your normal picture of an angel, but it is accurate with the Bible! At the very end of the book is a teaser for the next one, describing God’s rescue plan. There are also definitions for important words and a few questions to help children think through the story. I really like this book, and it makes a wonderful companion to the first book. I’m looking forward to seeing more from this author. 

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

No warnings!

Age levels:

Listening Level—Ages 3 – 4, 5 – 8
Reading Independently—Ages 7 – 9

Links to buy this book:

Amazon: Paperback | Kindle | Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com

The Lark and the Laurel

by · Leave a Comment

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

The Lark and the Laurel by Barbara Willard

Title: The Lark and the Laurel
Author: Barbara Willard
Series: The Mantlemass Chronicles, book 2
Major Themes: England, Tudor Times, Henry VII, War of the Roses
Synopsis: Cecily had been carefully kept isolated from nearly everyone as long as she could remember, but when her father suddenly found himself on the wrong side of politics he sent her to his sister, whom he had never gotten on with.

For history lessons, I love to read historical fiction to my children. We are working our way from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance and Reformation times, and have just reached the time of the War of the Roses. One book that was suggested in the guide we are using was The Lark and the Laurel. We have read several books by Barbara Willard already, so I knew that while her books aren’t the most gripping and memorable we’ve come across, they do contain solid history and a storyline that keeps our attention. So, I located a copy, and we enjoyed it together.

Publisher’s description:

In haste and fear Cecily Jolland has been forced to leave the cloistered existence she has led for fifteen years to take up another very different life in Sussex. It had taken a Lancastrian victory and a Tudor king on the English throne to persuade her scheming father to unburden himself of the treasure he had held so close. Cecily knew all of this, and the hurt of it made her bitter and afraid. How could she be expected to take up the rough country ways of Aunt Elizabeth, her new guardian?

The first months at Mantlemass Manor were disturbing. Yet country life brought its own rewards, and the greatest of these was Cecily’s realization that she was no longer the puppet of her father’s ambitions, but her own person, increasingly free in thought and deed. With this astonishing knowledge came the growth of a friendship with Lewis Mallory, a handsome stranger who was oddly familiar. Will their friendship flame into a love so great that Cecily can at last defy her father and take her future into her own hands?

My thoughts:

As I said, Barbara Willard’s books are not as memorable as some. We likely won’t remember the entire story in The Lark and the Laurel for very long. However, it does certainly add to our understanding of the era. For example, one detail that stood out to me was the isolation of the manor house in the winter. I was also impressed with the uncertainty in the country as the king from one family died, and another family took the throne. Of course, these events were wrapped up in a delightful story. I was apprehensive about my boys’ reaction to it, since it turned out to be somewhat of a romance, but they liked it well enough to want to continue the series. I like the way Barbara Willard writes history!

WARNING: Chapter 1: Mention of a king killed horribly in battle, crown dripping with blood. Chapter 4: Old woman called a witch. Chapter 5: Woman says her husband was a “royal bastard,” thank God “no child was born alive.” Chapter 7: I’ll swear. Chapter 8: I will swear, I said I would swear, Lord. Chapter 10: He was swearing still and blaspheming. Chapter 11: Cursing and hatred, I swear.

Age levels:

Listening Level—Ages 8 – 12, 10 – 12, 12 – 15, Family Friendly
Reading Independently—Ages 8 – 12, 10 – 12, 12 – 15

Links to buy this book:

Amazon: Paperback | Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com