My most recent book to review is a Christian fiction book called The Pray-ers / Book 1 Troubles, published by CTM Publishing Atlanta and written by Mark S. Mirza.  This is a book that uses a fiction format to teach the importance of prayer. 

Published by CTM Publishing Atlanta, and written by Mark S. Mirza.  Mr. Mirza's heart is to teach people how extremely important prayer is, and to encourage people to pray more effectively.

To do so he looks into the lives of three Christians, who have learned to be effectual men of prayer.   These men span the centuries and have struggles in their lives like all believers do, the question is... will these struggles defeat them and drive them away from God, OR will these struggles deeper their faith and conversation with God.  

The whole point of The Troubles, is to help people understand the important of prayer, that many things affect our prayers and we should not be ignorant of them.  Author Mark S. Mirza has put together a fictional tale where he shows the action of Satan's minions in the lives of the saints.  What they can and CANNOT do, according to the will of the Lord God.    He does his best to not give more credit than is due to Satan's minions (demons) than he has to be not capitalizing their names.    Until you get used to the style it makes for some difficult reading, but once you are used to the names used, it just flows along.

The Christian lives followed are:

• Biblical Epaphras and his fictional nephew,
• Post-Civil War Georgia, the real itinerant preacher Alexander Rich
  
• Modern-day Georgia, Dr. Dale, a fictional descendant of Alexander Rich.
  

I have to admit, that I love fiction, I've read more than one book about the struggle between Satan and God, many of them fictionally based and they all bring one thing to bear, okay, a couple of things to bear...
1. Imagine the most self-centred person you know and multiply that by a million, add fear to that mixture and a loathing of God and you have a demon.   They gloat, they preen, and they revel in themselves.   When it comes to believers they are sneaky and backhanded, and happy to let us fool ourselves.
2. God helps his people through the power of faith in him and conversation with him.   Nothing more is needed.  Well faith in him based on the word of God.  :) 

This fictionalized account brings this all to bear for me in this book.

Mark S. Mirza frequently footnotes scripture so we can see where he gets his assertions from.  He has his own method of citing scripture, often pulling up just one section of a verse to highlight his point.   Mr. Mirza is the founder of Common Thread Ministries, which offers coaching and help to individuals and churches in prayer. He leads the men's prayer ministry at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, as well as being a speaker and teacher in the area of prayer.

Think about that for a moment... to learn to live life you like you breathing prayer.  That's the point of this book.   Live life as a Christian = breathing out prayer.

  Prayer is vital!   We see it in the lives of the believers throughout the book.  We have front row seats that how, without prayer we lose battles, battles that should not be lost.

My Thoughts:
I honestly have mixed feelings about this book, I really do.   I see prayer as relationship between God and his individual people (as well as with his people corporate).   I think it's really really important to for people to know what nullifies the prayers of God's people.   Praying without really believing that God will answer your prayer?  Well what's the point in asking God then?   Prayer while you are ACTIVELY living a lifestyle contrary to the word of God?   Well.. again.. you are openly defying God himself, and you expect him to answer you?   I do not see prayer as a list of "these are the rules".  And my hesitation with this book, is that some struggling believers might simply see a list of rules, a list of do's and don'ts, that they won't see the living relationship that each of these believers had with God.   The real relationship that made their prayers real and honest and answerable by God.

IF you are a weak believer and you are interested in reading this book, may I ask you to do this: Read it with a strong believer.  Read it with someone you can bounce ideas off of and talk and learn and grow.   If you are a strong believer, see that YOUR PRAYERS MATTER.  They do!   They nullify the work of the devil, they showcase the power of God and that my dear readers is what it's all about.  We serve a Lord God who has won the battle already!   Let's win the small battles by focusing on bringing God glory through our faithful prayers.

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Pricing information can be found here, you can purchase the paperback for $23.95, or the epub for $4.99.

Today is people in uniform day. You know, the nurses, firefighters, police, and such like. At the highschool today our international student will be seeing the RCMP musical ride. I hope he will enjoy it. We saw it a few years back at the Royal Winter Fair and it was really well done.

So when I was considering when to post my review for Florence Nightingale by Catherine Reef, I thought, what better day to do it then on People in Uniform Day.

This is a larger book, around 8 x 10 inches, Full of black and white images from Florence’s life and history.

Florence was a lady who “pushed hard against her family objections – and society’s rigid rules – to create the life she felt called to live”. Florence lived in the 19th century when a man could walk around freely and choose his path to live, but women were expected to keep the home and stay within it. Florence “wanted the world to move forward. She thought that in nursing, as in every human activity, “constant progress is the law of life.”” (pp4-6)

This book leads us carefully through Florence’s life, her family, the obstacles she faced, and her tenacity to do what she fervently believed she was meant to do. Through her, the face of nursing was changed.

Through Florence, the first non-religious school of nursing opened on 1860, all the students were women as she believed the nursing was a women’s profession. Florence, was by this time, too weak to teach classes herself, she wrote yearly letters to the students reminding them to have faith in God and to keep learning throughout their careers.

Florence’s faith in God was based in action. God calls us forth to work and do. She questioned much about the bible, but considered God and his work an important part of her life.

This was a fascinating book to go through, I learned so much! :)
Her motto is a good one, Keep learning, keep questioning, and keep moving forward. Think about God first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

Book Synopsis:
Most people know Florence Nightingale was a compassionate and legendary nurse, but they don't know her full story. This riveting biography explores the exceptional life of a woman who defied the stifling conventions of Victorian society to pursue what was considered an undesirable vocation. She is best known for her work during the Crimean War, when she vastly improved gruesome and deadly conditions and made nightly rounds to visit patients, becoming known around the world as the Lady withthe Lamp. Her tireless and inspiring work continued after the war, and her modern methods in nursing became the defining standards still used today. Includes notes, bibliography, and index .

Did you know that in the East Village of San Diego there are a whack of murals painted?   I hadn't a clue until I read this book, Maybe Something Beautiful is the story of Rafael and Candice Lopez and how they worked together to form the Urban Art Trail.

Let me give you some of the background story.  This book was inspired by the story of the change made to San Diego.   

It all began in 1997 in the East Village of downtown San Diego. Downtown San Diego was still considered a scary place. Local drug dealers were using electrical boxes found on virtually every corner as makeshift offices. .... A local publisher named Rex Edhlund created a paper called D-Town, the Downtown Paper to collect the thoughts of these like minded individuals.... Candace Lopez. In her monthly column, Nurture the Neighborhood, she launched the Urban Art Trail.

A local graphic design professor at San Diego City College, Candace had the idea to cover the metal obstructions with colorful graphics and enlisted the help of her students at San Diego City College and the American Institute of Graphic Arts San Diego. Securing permission from the Centre City Development Corporation and utility companies over on hundred volunteers initially transformed the blight with powerful artwork.  (source)

Can you imagine what a tremendous change that would have made?   Painting ugly, gang marked electrical boxes over in brightly coloured murals?   Addling light and colour and removing the "this is ours" mindset from the folks doing business around them.

If you go to this page you can see some of the art they did to change a community.

I read this book, and my 11 year old came over to see what I was looking at.  He read the story and said "MOM, that's a really nice book.   It was nice how they all helped each other.".  

And that's the book, a girl, with a thought about adding colour to the grey, dismal world around her, and she gets help from a man, and then they draw in all sorts of other people, and before you know it, there are splashes of bright colour everywhere.   I can just sit back and imagine the joy and gasps of amazement that would bring.

The joy and amazement is brought out in this book so very clearly.   And the Muralist said as his eyes sparkled ""You, my friends, are all artists" he told them.  "The world is your canvas."  He smiled wide, then pulled everything together in big, sweeping motions."

Can't you just see it?   The brightness against that dismal dirty grey?   Just see it.  :)

My affiliate links are below.   I provide them just to be helpful, and any proceeds don't affect your bottom line, and just help me out as well.  :)

For the past few weeks my son and I have been studying astronomy with Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition sent to us by Apologia Educational Ministries.  My son and I started doing this wonderful science program, meant for students in K-6 together, but gradually my son is starting to work independently.

Apologia was gracious enough to send me a complete set of the Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition.   That set includes:

• Student Text
• Notebooking Journal
• Jr. Notebooking Journal
• Audio CD
  

So we worked through lesson one, noting how closely the workbook follows the textbook.   We saw the full colour pictures, and noted how clearly then set out the activities in the textbook. 

We noted the lapbook elements, which admittedly aren't my son's highlight, but he asked if he could write the information without having to make them.  And I agree, the point was to remember the information, they were just trying to make it a more interesting way of doing it.    He did make the odd element thought.

I do need to tell you about the giggles and conversations we've had.   One of the activities called for us to have three people minimum and since we didn't have the third person we decided the cat Milo could be the sun.   Boy oh boy, talk about a confused cat.  :)   He kept turning his head and looking at us, especially since each time the earth revolved around the sun the cat got a pet.   But add in the earth also rotating as it revolved and oh my...the giggles that ensued.  

It made for fun times and good conversations, like why doesn't the earth get dizzy, what do you think keeps the earth from getting all wobbly?   All these questions keep a boy coming back for more you know?

In Lesson two my lad decided not to do the lapbook element (as in making it, but he did write out the required knowledge).  He started to get a good idea about how the lesson would progress, and he chose to combine two steps into one.   We made a pinhole camera so we could clearly see the sun, and one of the questions asked was, what happens if you make the hole bigger or smaller?  it called for using different pieces of tinfoil which my lad thought was wasteful.   So he made a modification.

It was rather funny though, one of the books my son really likes is the Warrior Cat series and at one point there was an eclipse which scared all the cats.   So as my lad was playing around with this pinhole viewer, he added an element where the sun was blocked....It was funny.  How did you feel mom, where you like the cats and all scared when you couldn't see the sun   Huh mom????   :)

The clear concise text, the ample room to write and questions that followed the text, all help my lad in his quest for more independence in his work.  

I suspect, that by the time we are at lesson seven my lad will be taking more control of how he works through this science curriculum.  Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition has proven to be a timely addition to our homeschooling this year and we will be finishing this book.  It'll be our science go to.  :)   It's working well to teach my lad that he can work independently.  He's thought about using the MP3 cd for the reading portion, but at this point doesn't see the need to do so.   It's great to have it, for days you don't feel like reading, or if you have a less than confident reader.

Various members of the crew have been working diligently with Exploring Creation with Astronomy, 2nd Edition by Apologia Educational Ministries.    There is also an additional science kit you can purchase to go along with this course.  It is not mandatory, it is just an exciting optional purchase to help complete experiments both in the book and in addition to it.  You can find that kit here.  To read what other TOS reviewers have to say, click the image below.

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Do you have a decision to make?   Do you struggle with knowing if the Holy Spirit is actually helping you make that decision?    Here's a book to help you out.   Seriously, it's worth a read.  :)

This book is written to people who
1. Needs to make a decision via God's guidance and not sure how that guidance will come
2. The experienced believer curious about the authors thoughts
3. Those with no real strong interest but are mildly curious

Three groups of readers, with their questions answered in the pages contained within.

My thoughts:

I thought the author laid out his thoughts carefully. 

Short chapters, with one thought clearly leading to the next.

I appreciated that he makes it clear...whether a believer knows it or not, they are led by the Spirit.   Based on Romans 8.  So we never have to question that truth. 

The author walks a careful line between supernatural knowledge, and the careful reasoned approach, after-all.. God can impart knowledge and help any way that he wants to.  A proviso is provided though that one needs to be careful that counting on a series of impressions to make a firm decision needs to be weighed out.    USE those impressions, appreciate all that God can do and how he can do it.  Seriously.   It's good, but sometimes those impressions do need to be weighted with reasoning.

There is so much truth in this book, it's just a little one at 48 pages and I wish I could tell you more about the truth contained within it's pages.   So just go out and get it for yourself, really.  :)

I cannot tell you how much the lad and I have been enjoying this book called "Cleared for Takeoff, the Ultimate book of Flight".

We've giggled, gasped, been awed, been shocked and a whole host of other emotions.   Oh but it's a delightful, thorough treatise on flight.  Call signs, hand signals, obscure airlines, interesting birds, the history, the joys, the sorrows and so much more are contained within the 320 pages of this book.

This video below bespeaks some of the things we learned in this book, but definitely not all that we learned.  

Neither one of us has read this "Cleared for TakeOff" all the way through, we've picked our way through some of the pages that have peaked out interest.

Being amazed at the size of the Hindebergh Zeppelin.

His Joy in finding the Canadian aircraft symbol.

The text is well written with scores of full colour pictures, most look like painting, a few from real life.   It was just a pleasure to go through.

Occasionally experiments are provided to assist in the understanding of a concept, from making pop rockets to hovercrafts, enough experiments to intrigue most children.  As a parent/teacher one of the things I appreciated about the experiments was the teaching component came first with the experiment coming second.   All the experiments I found were distinguishable in being all in black and white.  All use easy to find materials.

As I mentioned earlier, this book was filled with full colour pictures to delight and inform.  I was delighted that it held global appeal, interesting tidbits from around the world are found within it's pages.

Did you know that a Canadian Pilot once landed a 767 airplane successfully that had run out of fuel and therefore all it's systems were shutting down.   None of travellers lost their lives, a only a few injured when they disembarked the aircraft?   Simply amazing.    We also learned why different countries use modified Phonetic Alphabets (for instance Saudi Arabia uses Washington rather than whiskey because of the alcohol connection).

I have been ever so pleased to have had a chance to review this book.  It's a marvellous resource for anyone interested in the world of flight.   The only thing I found lacking was an index at the close of the book, to quickly find facts.

If it is something you are planning to do a unit study on, or a create a lapbook from, snatch it up.   You really won't regret it. :)

I think I have found our next geography book!    One of the things the lad and I like to do at night is read books before he goes to bed.  We have an animal book, a couple of fiction books, and an encyclopedia/information type book that we read.   It's a nice together time for us.  Anyways, the book?   Amazing World Atlas by Lonely Planet Kids.   It's a great atlas for children (and their moms!)  :)

Now...you and I know atlases right?
Maps of the world, cities highlighted and maybe some cutouts showing an area up close.

This children's atlas is different.

YES, it has maps.  :)
Not what I would call full of close details. 
But that's not the purpose of this atlas, this atlas is meant to show the world to the reader.   To give the basics of the land mass, but to say, this is what is neat about this country.  Europe has snow and mountains and olive gardens and sunny beaches.  It has it all.   So this map includes interesting pictures to give the highlights of the given area.  Two pages per land mass.   Below is an example of an introductory page:

And here is an example of a secondary page.  Cities are pointed out as well as interesting sites.   If the area is for say Europe, additional pages follow breaking it into section like northern, central and southern Europe.

As you can see there are lots of pictures, and tons of interesting information.  More examples follow.

Going through this atlas your child will learn major holidays, people groups, interesting artifacts, population and so much more.  This atlas is jam-packed with full colour images, information, maps and more.   A cornucopia of geographical fun!

Who doesn't like dinosaurs?   Those big (and small) creatures that roamed the earth in days gone past.  They have inspired movies, books, toys and countless other activities.  I have a friend with a son who when he was younger was ALL about dinosaurs, he knew so much it was quite phenomenal. 

I recently received a kit from Raincoast Books that is called See inside the Dinosaur.

This is a great kit, it comes with a dinosaur that you can take part and put back together. It is made of a sturdy plastic.   A book about dinosaurs, and a paper dinosaur cut.  This cut out shows all the different aspects of a dinosaur, working from the outside to the internal organs.

The dinosaur book is full colour , with lots of pictures and good text.   It gives a good amount of information about dinsosaurs.

Here is a sample page so you can see the quality of this short book.

The put it together dinosaur is kept inside a plastic case when not in use.   This keeps the wee pieces like the dinosaur brain safe.  :)   The elastic holds the plastic together as well.   The 3-D interactive kit is a great find.

I have to admit, I was rather impressed with this 3-D exploration kit.  It would be an excellent kit to use with your dinosaur loving students.    A hands-on tool to help them explore and perhaps they too will be amazed at the tiny size of the brain (Just make sure you keep track of it so it doesn't get lost).

There is no booklet to show you how to put the dinosaur back together again, though it is fairly intuitive.  Just a matter of snapping body parts into the skeleton.

I happily recommend this hands-on, interactive kit to you.  It will provide you with plenty of material about dinosaurs as well has having two models to work with.   Good stuff.

Have you wanted to help your children understand who Ghandi was?
A man who strove to make a change in his homeland, but to do so by peaceful means.
It was a hard road he walked.
His life is explained through pictures, word and activity in this book by Ellen Mahoney, called Gandhi for Kids.

I have to tell you that this book is just lovely to hold and read.   It was a pleasure...it's hard to explain sometimes how sometimes a book appeals just because of how it lies in the hand.

BUT that is not the only reason this book appeals, so let me take a moment to tell you what a treasure trove it is.

134 pages, divided into 8 chapters, with 21 activities.   Each chapter is broken into easily read sections.

I had a thorough appreciation for the fact that activities provided were not all the same, there were write a poem, make a speech, make a craft and more. 

As I read and looked through this book I kept thinking it would be a great book to use at co-op or just to teach your students about Gandhi.   I could easily see not using the whole book (like just doing the section on working through peaceful means, or learning about the salt-walk) or even taking a semester to learn all you can about this important figure in Indian History.

Black and white pictures scattered throughout, pink boxes with additional information, and easy to read text.    There was so much information in contained within the pages, I learned so much, so will your students.  :)

This book will be an excellent resource for your studies on India, peaceful protestors, important figures in history and so forth.  It was an interesting book to go through and will remain a part of my library.

You can find it at amazon, here's a helpful link:

More vacation reads!   These ones are all review books through from Raincoast, books that I am previewing for my lad before he digs happily into them. 

Let Your Voice Be Heard.   Do you know who Pete Seeger is?  You know, neither did I, BUT I know his music oddly enough.  As I read this book and it trailed it's way through his early years, through the rest of his life, it was surprising to me, how many songs I knew that he wrote or popularized.   

Mr. Seeger said  "I started to paint because I failed to get a job as a journalist.  I started singing and playing more because I failed as a painter."

From musical parents he became a musician.  But he was more than that.  The cares and concerns of the poor working class, the plight of the underdog, these are things that stirred his heart and caused him to write more songs.

It landed him in a lot of hot water during the anti-communism days but he was able to work his way through that difficulty until he was noticed by just the right people and became very popular.

It's a bigger than average book, filled with pictures, and easy reading text.   For young people interested in learning more about the music and troubles of this time period, this book is filled with information.   It would help round out a study of folk music and how musicians can let their art show their heart.

Captain.   My son was intrigued by this book but wanted me to read it first.  His first question when I finished it was "Mom, is it a good book for me to read?".   I told him it was a good book, but it wasn't an easy book to read.  That things happen in this book that made me feel sad.  

It's the story of an underage boy heading off to battle in the great war (WW1), fighting hard battles in Turkey.   Seeing death and destruction all around him, and meeting a lad with his donkey and the unlikely friendship that happened between them.  Hard lessons were learned by both boys, and through it all the donkey Captain was part of their lives.  You HAVE to meet the camel though...oh my.. that camel!

The chapters are a good length.
I NEEDED to read the book all the way through.  It was just that kind of book.  
Would I recommend middle schoolers read it?   Yes, but probably along side their parents so they can talk  through the book.  It was be an EXCELLENT book to read as part of learning about WW1 and the conditions the soldiers fought in and the supports they needed in order to battle.

Sunker's Deep.   This is the second book in the series "The Icebreaker Trilogy".   It stands quite well on its own.  It's a fantasy with a mystery built and with a good lead in for the last book of the trilogy. 

This coming of age book leads us through Sharkey needing to be honest with the people he is leading, needing to learn to give up control and to trust his people.   It lead two groups of people together who NEEDED to be together in order to, hopefully in the third book, fulfill their true destiny.   Some of the characters are a we bit odd

The Courage Test.   The book surprised me.   I want my son to read this book and I hope that he will enjoy it.   A story of a boy and his dad traveling the route that Lewis and Clark took.   It was a dangerous journey for those men with many pitfalls along the way, and as Will and his father journey, Will has to navigate a hard journey as well.

It was a touching book about how families make things work and how sometimes the decisions parents make actually have reasoning behind it.   Lots of history in this book, even from sources I didn't expect.   It brought to mind some of the history I've learned of this expedition, putting it all together was kinda fun.  :)

But as a book for middle schoolers?   For sure.   A book even to read along with your child or tie into your own history study of Lewis and Clark.  I liked how the tie made for a good life story.

A Storm Too Soon.   This book is an adaptation of a longer novel called a storm too soon.  This book is meant for younger readers.

As an adult I found it an interesting read with no strong compelling need to read the adult version.

Based on a true story, it was written by Michael J Tougias.  Three men on a cruise when a nasty nasty storm unexpectedly hits.

I found it to be a good read.  Enjoyed the book.  
As I read it in tried to imagine my 11 year reading it.    So as  I talked with my son about the book he sounded quite intrigued by it.   He asked some good questions so I think  it would appeal to him and other children like him.  

At the close of the book they had various people give some closing thoughts, I was left wondering why Ben didn't give his thoughts at the end.   In the centre of the book, their are a lot of good pictures that show the various people involved, and what the size of the storm they were in was like.

Terror at Bottle Creek.  My lad wants to read this book next.  He's quite intrigued by the thought of a boy having to help two girls through a horrible storm, with crazy pigs, lots of snakes and an unexpectedly helpful bear.    Lots of water, strange mounds in the middle of a swamp, living on a house boat, and more.  He's just intrigued, and I have to admit, I actually enjoyed reading this book though I did find all the things that happened felt at times a little bit too much.  Watt Key does an excellent job at character development, not only of 13 year old Cort, but of all the surrounding people in his life.

I could FEEL the pain that his dad had with Cort's mom leaving him, the joy he has in being a swamp guide, to Cort's confusion over his future, the love of the dog and the terror the storm brought to a little girl.

Well written, good book.