In a new children’s picture book, HOPE and FRECKLES, Fleeing to a Better Forest, published in 2020 by Mascot Books, author Bill Kiley writes about a white-tailed mother deer named Hope, and her fawn, Freckles, who journey from their dangerous home of Olden Forest, to the safety of Big Pine Forest. While the tale relies heavily on the plight of today’s refugees and asylum seekers fleeing to the United States of America (trauma and conditions that most American-born children and adults will never experience), the illustrations’ likable characters throughout the twenty-seven pages by artist Mary ..read more

  Published by B&H Kids Books, in this latest board book, THE GREAT FARMAPALOOZA, by children’s book author, Jill Roman Lord, she toggles eight critters–six on a farm, one from the pond, and one from the air–that together highlight God’s animal creation. The animals show happy, grinning, and some, laughing faces, with accompanying actions on the book’s eleven, double-paged illustration spreads, and with eleven flaps to open, all craftily drawn by artist Kelly Breemer. The sing-song text mostly rhymes as A-A, B-C-B; and, occasionally rhymes as A-B, C-B–dependent on how each animal sou ..read more

A PatSays Book Review for LifeWay Publishers   Did you know, Devotional Readers, that DaySpring encompasses more than producing Christian greeting cards and products? It’s true. But, then, maybe you already got there ahead of me on that one. Had I not selected one of DaySpring community’s latest books,  A Mother’s Love, Celebrating Every Kind of Mom, to read and to write this review, I may still be unaware of their “bigger picture”. So, is this a book review on, one, the love of mothers?; two, a book reviewer’s confession to her latest-in-life discovery?; or three, a Hail-to-DaySpri ..read more

Ever seen an upside down, doing-stuff, type of book for children AND adults? You will see this and a few other surprises, in BIG and Little ACTIVITY DEVOTIONAL, written by award-winning author, Rachel Swanson, and illustrated by Jacy (Jackie) Corral. In this second Big and Little book, from B & H Publishing, the writer blends together a unique reading/learning style for a child and an adult to do together–a playtime-, to say-time, to bond-time. This book of seventy-two pages of puzzles, games, and questions, provides hours and hours of things to do. Packaged in this turned-around format a ..read more

With more than 10,000 Zoological Gardens worldwide, people enjoy visiting them, over and over again. Often, a trip to a Zoo may be the only time that adults and children can  observe wild animals in a real, and up close setting. For those who have never been to a Zoo, still, videos, YouTube, Iphones, and books qualify for a good second-best. In fact, recently published, A DAY AT THE ZOO, is another Zoo fiction book for young children, a picture book written by Australians Cassie Roberts and illustrated by Judy Richards, that hales from publisher Adelaide Books. In rhyming sentences, the author ..read more

Way back there, in your growing up days, did you ever have an elderly relative or family friend (such as, Grandpa Gemballa or Mimi Maserati?; what about a Great Uncle Edsel, or an elderly Miss Audi?) tell you any made-up-on-the-spot stories? Perhaps you did. And perhaps it came in the form of a campfire experience, or around the dinner table, or at bedtime. Storytelling, legends, etc. is nothing new. It’s as old as Adam and Eve. Most of us enjoy being “generational-passer-downers”, in hopes that our younger generation hears about the family history. Storytelling is as natural an act for some ..read more

  The word, “way”— like the Grand Canyon’s layers upon layers of rock– is packed full of meanings. In fact, the English and Filipino dictionaries include around 19 descriptions each; in Hebrew, “way”, (or, “DereK HaYashar“), lists thirty some. Here, in their title, THE WAY TO THE SAVIOR, a Family Easter Devotional, authors Jeff and Abbey Land use the same word, way, but preface with that tiny word, THE. These same two words were spoken by JESUS to his disciples in John 14:6a: “I am the way, the truth, and the life;”. JESUS, too, is always the main character, directly and indirectly, in childr ..read more

  Like crackers and soup, kids and coloring go together. The combo repeats itself from one generation to the next. There’s simply something warming about putting colors to paper that never grows old. Every year new coloring books are produced, purchased, and enjoyed by kids worldwide. Twenty twenty is no different. In the new JUMBO COLORING BOOK– with illustrations based on original art by Holli Conger– a B & H Kids Little Words Matter Series, young children will not only spend many hours coloring; but, they will also see throughout the entire thick book, the A,B,Cs; some simple counting ..read more

  Some… pitter-pattered, and some, croaked. Some howled and some soared. Some swooped, or cooed, or hopped and bopped, while others did much more. In a new 2020 board book, published by B & H Kids, titled THE QUIET/CRAZY EASTER DAY, written by Jill Roman Lord and illustrated by Kelly Breemer, children see a world explode into excitement following the resurrection of Jesus, God’s Son. The writer uses many animal sounds, people’s actions, and an angel to express what could have happened on Easter morning; and the illustrator delights the reader with happy characters throughout the 24 pages ..read more

  , a 2019 picture book from B & H Kids, written by authors and brothers, Stephen and Alex Kendrick; and illustrated by Daniel FWHAT’S SO WONDERFUL ABOUT WEBSTER?ernandez; takes its reader on a “School Field Day” with fourth grader Webster. Throughout the 29 pages of conversation (third-person viewpoint), Webster is characterized as the kid who needs encouragement about everything, it seems. But,  when he receives a biblical answer from Dad and Mom, Webster still cannot believe in himself. The book’s full-color illustrations allow kids to identify with today’s school classroom setting, an ..read more