The Big Book of History

Timelines! My children love looking at timelines and seeing progressions and innovations. This book, the Big Book of History, is a wonderful timeline, full of an amazing amount of information.

First of all, let me tell you about the format. It looks like an oversized book, with heavy card-stock pages, but they’re more than pages! The “pages” which you can flip through book-style, also fold out into a fifteen foot timeline, so you can visually see the passage of time through the important dates/events highlighted in this edition.

The pages are bright with color, several different timelines moving through each era: Biblical/Christianity themed events, World events, Civilizations/Empires, and Inventions/Technology. The color coding makes it easy to pick out the events in each category.

Along with all this color is an enormous amount of pictures and text illustrating events from different segments of time (for example: when was bookbinding developed, info about King Arthur, the first modern bicycle, and so important—the first chocolate bar). There are also paragraphs on topics of interest sprinkled throughout, such as mummies, the Olympics, Homer, the Flood/Ice Age, the Holocaust, and so many more.

In case you were wondering about the extent of the timeline, it begins with Creation and goes up until 2010. Of course, it is not all-inclusive, but it does a good job of hitting many high-points and items of interest.

I would certainly recommend this book/timeline. It is very entertaining and educational to look through. The colors and illustrations, as well as the way the pages are set up are very appealing and just beg you to look one more time and notice one more thing. I think the creators of this book did a wonderful job and I appreciate their inclusion of Biblical events. It says on the back of the book that it is for 7 to 12 year olds, but I believe that many people outside of that age range will read and enjoy this timeline!

I received a copy of this book for free from the publishers in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review.

The Family Illustrated Bible

What is a Bible? My definition of The Bible is the 66 God-inspired books of the Old Testament and New Testament. I have mentioned before that it annoys me when a book purports to be a Bible when it is actually just a collection of Bible stories chosen by the book’s editor, and most often paraphrases of the Scriptural story (**and when I say story, I in no way mean to imply that they are fictional—I mean a section/happening from Scripture). Honestly, if it’s a book of stories from the Bible, call it that, not a Bible!!

This book is called The Family Illustrated Bible, and although it is not a Bible (as discussed above), it is a book filled with stories from throughout the Old and New Testaments. Each story is nicely illustrated and the Bible reference from which it was taken is cited at the top of the page. It’s eye-catching for sure. Sprinkled throughout the text are 2-page spreads which give current day information about the places, archaeological finds, etc.—with plenty of pictures as well. I loved this about this book—the current-day connection is great for reminding people that it is not in fact a “made up” book.

I will however, say that there are several things that concern me about this book. In the introductory section, to me it sounded like it was written by a nonbeliever, just in kind of a documentary form—for instance when it talks about Old Testament prophecy—it doesn’t say it is fulfilled in the New Testament, but rather that “Christians believed. . .or Christians linked. . .” they’re not saying it WAS fulfilled, but rather that that is what Christians thought. There are other things—liberties taken by the author in her paraphrasing of the story—which are not in the Bible. This may sound nit-picky, but if it’s not in the Bible, it’s not in the Bible! It bugs me when kids are told a Bible story a certain way and then believe it as truth—even if it’s not in the Bible (for instance the apple/rather than “fruit” thing with Eve {not in this book, thankfully!}) A little embellishment or “imagination” goes into stories as people tell them, and as long as it’s understood to be just that, fine, but when it’s taught it should be from the Scripture itself. Okay, off my soapbox  Another large concern to me was the book’s use of the BCE and BC terminology over the traditional BC/AD. It’s not even as if BC/AD are outdated—they’re used by most people—this BCE/BC thing looks to me like another way to take Christ out of our daily life.

All in all, would I recommend this book? I don’t know. It’s easy to read to your children, and has attention-grabbing illustrations. I love the archaeological explanations and the current-day pictures of Bible scenes. BUT it’s not a Bible, and it should be remembered that it is just a person’s re-telling of some of the Bible stories. If accuracy is what you’re after, read the Scriptures to your family and you can go from there.

I received a copy of this book for free from New Leaf Press in exchange for my honest review.

My favorite super-fast breakfast

My very favorite breakfast to make--primarily because it's so quick and easy to make--we just call it eggs in toast, some people call it eggs in a nest. . .my brother in law calls them "bunnies" for some unknown reason :)

In case you've never made them before, just tear the center circle out of a piece of bread and pop it onto the frying pan (put the center part on too!) crack an egg into the center and cook till it's done (flip halfway through). We like ours with soft centers, but if you don't,just cook it a little longer.

We always serve ours with jam and the kids love to put it on the toast circle and the toast on the edges.

Since we always have eggs available (we have chickens) we have this breakfast a couple times a week! :)

How Do We Know the Bible is True by Ken Ham and Brodie Hodge

Is the Bible true? Yes, I believe it is. So why am I reading a book entitled, “How Do We Know the Bible is True?” Although I do believe the Bible is true, sometimes it is difficult to explain why I do believe this to a person who does not agree with me on that. This book is filled with essays on the topic by Christian authors, dealing with a variety of topics regarding the Bible’s truth and authenticity.

There are chapters on how we got today’s Bible, the doctrine of the trinity, the authorship of the Pentateuch, internal consistency of the Bible, evolution, and many others.

I’d class this as an academic book. It’s not a “read-through” book, as it’s made up of many essays on different topics, but I’d better call it a reference. I do think it’s a valuable reference and addition to a Christian’s library. It’s not a light read, but valuable.

I was given a free copy of this book from the publisher for review. I was not required to write a positive review.

Pershing: Commander of the Great War by John Perry

General Pershing is known by most people as a famous person they learned about in school for his great command duties in World War I, but what else do you know about him? This biography, though fairly short ( 222 pages) is quite comprehensive in covering the many aspects of his life and his career. The title of the book is Pershing: Commander of the Great War and it not only follows his career as a soldier, but also his personal life to some extent.

After reading this book I am impressed with Pershing’s way of treating people as worthwhile, even those who were not treated thus by others (Indians, black soldiers, Phillipine tribesmen, etc). A humble heart shines out at least in those instances. The author also strives (too hard almost?) to convince us of Pershing’s fun-loving, kind, loving side of his character which was apparently not in evidence much of the time (in public). He was a very accomplished man, not only disciplined and very wise in military settings, but also quick to learn and excel at other things—such as poker and dancing (which the author points out multiple times.)

This biography was fairly easy to read and I did not find it objectionable—I would allow my pre-teen children to read it as a means of learning about his life. I will say that the cover/binding made the book look unappealing, but there’s another case of “Don’t judge a book by its cover”! I did find it interesting, even though I don’t have much interest in reading about war-related topics. I would recommend this book as recreational reading to someone interested in wars/soldiers and as educational reading to someone wanting to learn more about the many phases of Pershing’s life.

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.

Falls Like Lightning by Shawn Grady

Smoke! Fire! Plane crashes! Murder! Deceit! Gold! True love! My goodness, what a lot of suspense and drama! This book, Falls Like Lightning, by Shawn Brady , has it all! It’s a crazy amount of action packed into a book spanning only a few days.

Silas is an experienced smoke-jumper, ready to jump out of a plane into a forest fire area to combat spreading fire. He’s been in some tough situations, but nothing like what he faces in this book. Elle is an experienced pilot, one of the best at getting the smokejumpers into position; she has also recently faced the loss of her father, also a pilot, and a mysterious illness causing seizures in her young daughter.

Mixed into the bunch is a deceitful plot by several smokejumpers to steal a cache of gold hidden deep within the forestfire area. . .so much gold that they are willing to eliminate anyone or anything that stands in their way.

I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll leave it at that, but I will say that it was a thrilling book, very entertaining, and enough action to keep the story moving right along! I did enjoy the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good fun read, with elements of mystery, suspense, and romance all mixed in.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher for the purposes of this review. I was not required to write a positive review.

Grapey applesauce

We eat a lot of applesauce throughout the year and one year we kind of stumbled on this (Well, actually--it was a year we had grown a lot of concord grapes and I was sick of making jelly and juice. . .this was the next outcome!) It's what we call "grapey applesauce"!! Yummmmm!! So easy to do; it's basically just make applesauce with the addition of concord grapes.

Here's how we do it--chunk up apples and put them in a stock pot with some water. Add some (a few handfuls) concord grapes. Cook on medium till the apples are soft (make sure you stir them every few minutes so they don't burn). Put through foley food mill, add a little sugar (really! add some sugar--it brings out the flavors more, I think)

And voila! you have grapey applesauce!

Process in boiling water canner. Yummmmm!! :)