Book Review: Adventure Bible Wild About the Bible Sticker & Activity Book from Zonderkidz

Wild About the Bible is a kids sticker and activity book for ages 4-8. It is just over 30 pages long, which is ample room for entertainment compared to many sticker activity books I have seen. In addition to sticker and drawing activities, it provides mazes, dot-to-dot drawings, crossword and other word puzzles. The Bible stories presented are from the Old and New Testaments, and some of the activities require the child to look up the story in the Bible in order to complete them.

The illustrations and stickers are colorful and engaging, and the activities are varied and challenging enough to entertain the target age, although my 20 month old daughter desperately wanted it for her own purposes. (probably the stickers!) As I previously mentioned, some of the stories reference the Bible. There was some recap of stories, but the activity book does not stand alone to tell them. The back cover mentions that it features art from Adventure Bible I Can Read stories, so I would guess this is a good companion to the Adventure Bible.

I would recommend this sticker and activity book for 4-8 year olds. I think it would provide entertainment for them while reinforcing Bible stories in an engaging manner!

I received this book for free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers <http://booklookbloggers.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions and thoughts I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

Book Review: Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus by Charles H. Dyer

From a barnyard manger to the Sea of Galilee, Charles Dyer takes readers on a 30 day devotional journey through the land of Israel. We get to imagine stories in the Gospels in the context and location where they actually happened. It’s easy as an American in modern culture to take things for granted, or to not realize the intimate setting where an event took place or how incredible something was because we see it through the filter of our own culture.

Thirty Days in the Land with Jesus is a theologically sound and eye opening devotional. The passages examined are all familiar stories, but the author sheds new light on them with pictures and descriptions of the geographical area and context of when they took place. Clues in the passages that are usually overlooked give detail I never saw before. I finished the book with a strong desire to visit the Holy Land someday, even though much of the area has changed, including boundaries between countries.

I can easily recommend this devotional to any Christian! It is only a 30 day devotional so it isn’t hard to get through at all! I do suggest starting each devotional by actually reading the cited Biblical passage as it sets the scene. It’s tempting to skip them, as the stories are familiar, but I gained so much more by reading them first. I could also see using this book as a family devotional for a month, discussing it with my children afterwards.

I received this book for free from the publisher through the Moody Publishers blogger review program. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions and thoughts I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

Book Review: The Barefoot Queen by Ildefonso Falcones

A young gypsy girl finds herself close friends with a recently freed Cuban slave who has ended up in Spain. Set in the mid-1700’s, The Barefoot Queen portrays many of the harsh realities faced by slaves and is not a book for young readers. It can also be a little hard to read at time considering the fact that it was written in Spanish and translated to English. It does move rather slowly, and quite frankly took me a long time to read. I found myself putting it down for long periods of time and having to re-read bits of it to remember what had happened.

The Barefoot Queen is a well-written book, but incredibly difficult to get through. I probably would have had a much easier time reading the ebook format on my Kindle, but I have the hardback. As the mother of two small children, it’s hard to read such a large book and keep it away from little hands, or to hold on to it while nursing a baby.

With that said, I enjoyed this book. It does not sugar coat anything and is full of tragedy, but I enjoy historical fiction. The Barefoot Queen allowed me to expand my reading of that genre to historical fiction set elsewhere besides the United States.

If you are a mature reader and have the time and interest for this type of book, then The Barefoot Queen is for you (although I recommend the ebook). However, younger readers and most casual readers will probably be better off looking elsewhere.

I received this book for free from the publisher through the Blogging for Books blogger review program. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions and thoughts I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255