A Book Look Review - The NIRV Beginner's Bible Devotional Pack

As part of the Book Look for Bloggers program, I received a two-book set of The NIRV Beginner's Bible Devotional Pack in exchange for my honest review. So, here's what I discovered:

Not only is this a kid's devotional book that even an early reader could read without any help, but it comes with the actual full text, Old and New Testament Bible. You get the devotion book which summarizes a biblical account for a child to understand and then you get the actual full Old and New Testament Bible to read and study together. Both the Bible and the devotional have a front presentation To/From page to personalize it as a gift.

The devotional contains 365 short devotions, one for each day of the year with brightly illustrated pictures and easy-to-read text. It finishes with the last pages containing the ABCs of Salvation.

The Bible has a brief dictionary in the back along with reference pages of where to find 150 popular Bible stories. It also comes with beautifully illustrated full-page pictures throughout in various places that make the Bible more real and enjoyable to read with an occasional illustration to go along with a passage. The Bible is recommended for ages 6-10, and the devotional for kids 4-8. If your child is reading at the age of 4, he or she will enjoy reading the devotion alone. Otherwise, an adult will love sitting with the child to read together until the child is reading well enough to do it alone. The Bible's pages are fairly thick onion skin style with glossy illustration pages throughout. So, you might not want to hand it over to the 4 or 5 year old, but by the recommended age for the Bible, it would make a fantastic gift for Easter, baptism, birthday, or Christmas.

It is written in a new-to-me version. It is called the NIrV. Because I was not famliar with the version, I was happy to see an explanation about how the NIrV Bible came about. The "r" stands for "Readers". In other words, the group of Bible experts who put the version together only changed sentences that were too difficult for an early reader to understand. None of the meaning was changed. If you are a King James only Bible reader, then this is probably not for you. If, however, you like the NIV, this readers version just makes it more readable for a child without taking away from God's Holy Word.

SUMMARY:  This is a very nice two-pack for children. The devotions are short enough to hold the interest of short attention spans and colorfully illustrated while the Bible is an actual complete Bible and not a paraphrase or Bible storybook making it perfect for further study as the child grows.

Add a New Christmas Book to your Holiday Traditions - 'If He Had Not Come' Book Review

Get into your cozy, Christmas Eve pajamas, grab a cup of hot chocolate, and nuzzle in to hear a story that will become a family favorite for years to come. I was so happy to have the chance to review a fairly new Christmas book from David Nicholson. The story is entitled, If He Had Not Come. I received it as part of the Book Look for Bloggers program in exchange for my honest review.



I couldn't help but notice that the book has an "It's a Wonderful Life" kind of feel to it, only it focuses on the birth of Christ. It is a re-introduction of a story that was originally written in the 1930's.

This sweet, cheerful, happy and bright new addition to your Christmas book collection is intended for children 6 years of age and older, and sells as a hardcover print version or an e-book.

...Let me just say!  We've started a new Christmas Eve tradition at our house - Reading this book... It's even thought-provoking and enjoyable for my oldest, teen.

I sat down to read this book cover-to-cover before sharing it with my kiddos. I was delighted to discover that it was not just another cutesy Santa tale, but is a very inspirational story that can be used for light-hearted Christmas Eve storytelling, or for really heart-searing, in-depth discussion about what Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection means to us as Christians, today.

The story is about a little boy who has a dream right before Christmas. In his dream, he finds himself inside a world where Jesus had never come. Very much like It's a Wonderful Life, or A Christmas Carole, the boy is horrified to discover all the things about life that he has come to take for granted no longer exist without the coming of Love/Christ. Without giving away each and every encounter, because believe me you will want to read it to discover these details yourself, I will say that some of the "a world without Christ in it" encounters surprised me and made me think how the love of Christ spirals into every aspect of our lives and becomes the threads that are woven throughout the fabric of our lives. Without this reason to love, there is no reason to have a church, an orphanage, or any place that helps people in the name of Love.

The words of the story are not the only thing that makes this book one that you will want to make part of your family's holiday traditions. The story is also illustrated so beautifully, with large full-page color pictures on the opposite page of each set of words. It makes it really easy to hold up and read for several kids to see, or to snuggle one little child in your lap and turn the pages, pointing out parts of the story inside each new illustration to re-iterate the words as you read along to a child, wide-eyed with wonder.



But, wait! There's more!  It's more than just another kids Christmas story book. Keep turning those pages. At the end of the book, there is a list of discussion questions, and then when you turn the page, there is a set of questions to help your kids dig even deeper. I found these to be an especially helpful option to use with my older two, who are teens.

Princess Joy Sticker and Activity Book Review

Get out your crayons and get ready to keep your little one engaged for next few hours. This sticker and activity book from The Princess Parables is an adorable and uplifting book for little princesses that presents a birthday party theme. I received a review copy of the book from the Book Look for Bloggers program in exchange for my honest review, so now I get the privilege of sharing how much fun this book is, while bringing home the message of Joy.

The book was inspired by Jeanna Young and Jacqueline Johnson with pictures by Omar Aranda and is published by ZonderKidz. It retails for $3.99 and is recommended for children ages 4-8.

Imagine heading out on a road trip and hearing nothing but happy sounds or silence from the back seat because your little girl is fixated on the pages of this book. All you need is the book, complete with stickers, and some crayons or colored pencils.

There are coloring pages, sticker pages, word puzzles, a maze, a hidden picture, and brief story pages throughout the entire book. There are 50 reusable stickers, so once they're stuck, it can be removed and stuck again. The book contains:

2 sticker pages
1 Word find
5 Coloring pages
1 Finish the Birthday Invitation Page
1 Maze
1 Spot the Difference picture page
1 Solve the secret code page
1 Counting page
2-page Find the Hidden item

It is a great little gift book for young wanna-be princesses, especially when you combine this book with the others in the series (Grace, Faith, Hope and Charity) to receive all of the Princesses and provide for more interactive fun.

These are based on biblical principles of Joy (Faith, Grace, hope and love/Charity). In this book, it focuses on Joy. It is a 16-page book with stickers and activities for little girls, so a little one could finish the book during a road trip on vacation or in one afternoon.

A Toddler Bible Story Book You Can Hug - 'Tiny Bear's Bible' Review

Combine a toddler's Bible poem stories with a bear begging to be hugged, and you've got the idea of this new Tiny Bear's Bible from ZonderKidz, written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Igor Oleynikov. I agreed to review "Tiny Bear's Bible" as part of the Book Look for Bloggers program in exchange only for my honest opinion.



I received this book in the mail yesterday, and opened up the package. The moment I saw Tiny Bear's Bible The "Aw"'s became flowing from my mouth as well as my daughter's. This book is so adorable and just begs to be hugged. It comes sealed in a plastic storage bag that snaps closed.

 

The cover is wrapped in very soft fabric and stitched to look like a bear. I received the Bible with the bear wearing blue striped overalls, but you can order it in pink as well.

The Tiny Bear's Bible  would make the most adorable baby shower, baptism, first birthday, or Easter gift for a baby or toddler. It makes a fantastic fun read-aloud for the little ones, but would even be great for a preschooler or early reader.

It contains 11 Bible accounts on the inside board book style thick, chunky pages. The left side of the page of each new account features a colorful picture that is related to the Bible passages that are covered, for instance, the account of Noah has part of an ark filled with animals. On the right side of each new Bible story account there is a picture of Tiny Bear and how the story relates to him. For instance, the story of Jesus' birth is featured with Tiny Bear and his family decorating a Christmas tree. Every account is a rhyming poem that is fun and easy to read aloud to little listening ears. The poem covers the basics of each new Bible passage, while the final line always relates it back to talking to Tiny Bear and how it would relate to the child's life.

The Bible story poem accounts covered include:

• Creation
• Noah's Ark 
• Moses 
• David and Goliath 
• Daniel and the Lions' Den 
• Jesus' Birth 
• Jesus Stops a Storm 
• The Lord's Prayer 
• Zacchaeus 
• Jesus' Resurrection 
• God's promise to be with us always

This is not the first children's book for the author. She is quite familiar with writing for kids. Among some of her already popular titles are how to Be a Baby by Me the Big Sister AND The Jesus Storybook Bible.

The illustrator is also accustomed to child books and drawing for children. He has illustrated more than twenty-five children's books and lives in Moscow.

Book Review: VeggieTales 'The Mess Detectives and The Case of the Lost Temper''

I was asked to review this book from ZonderKidz as part of the Booklook Blogger program in exchange for my honest review.

If you are a fan of the classic Big Idea Veggie Tales videos, yes back when video cassettes were still a thing, but still loved today on DVDs or digital format - Then, you will appreciate this easy-to-read book.

The book is an "I Can Read!" Beginning 1 Reading level book. It is paperback and 32 pages of easy-to-read text. It is "The Mess Detectives and The Case of the Lost Temper" by Karen Poth a VeggieTales book from ZonderKidz.

The book is written in the style of a classic Sherlock Holmes style mystery, only it's VeggieTales style, so it's not scary in the least.  Bob and Larry get a call about a door being slammed.

Fearing, someone has lost their temper, the pair send off to investigate. In the course of the investigation, Bob learns a valuable lesson about his own attitude and temper.

Of course, the two have to express some typical VeggieTales antics, so be prepared to see Bob and Larry the Cucumber dressed up in out-of-character costumes.

The book is one of the several in the VeggieTales series of I Can Read books. The I Can Read is broken down into:

My First - Emergent readers
1 - Simple sentences for eager new readers
2 - For developing readers
3 - For Confident readers
4 - Chapter books

This book is classified as a Level 1, which I think is quite appropriate. The book is easy for a parent to sit down and read as a bedtime story or for an early reader to sound out the entire story.

Not only that, but the child will learn a valuable lesson about tempers and why it's important not to fly off the handle and lose his or her temper.

Review of 'Goodnight Ark' Soothes Children To Sleep

There’s a new child’s bedtime book that will soothe your child off to sleep with a smile. If you listen, you’ll probably hear laughter as the last sound before turning out the lights for the night. The book is Goodnight Ark by ZonderKidz, and I was fortunate enough to receive it from Book Look Bloggers in exchange for an honest review.

It takes a tried and true Bible story character and sneaks a peek through a fictional window during a frightful night of storms. I bet you never thought that Noah may have actually known how to calm even the largest animal.

Goodnight Ark was written by Laura Sassi and illustrated by Jane Chapman. It is a hardbound adorable book from ZonderKidz.

The story is a whimsical look to a night on Noah’s Ark when one by one each group of two by two animals become frightened by the storms and climb in bed with Noah. With the weight of all those animals, Noah’s bed was sure to break, but it was the skunk that finally stunk up the place and scared them to a haybale elsewhere. In the end, Noah soothes each paired off group to sleep with a lullabye.

Obviously, it’s not the story of Noah as told in the Bible. But, it doesn’t take away from that story, either. It is intended as an uplifted, lighthearted story to send children off to sleep. It’s humorous, easy to read, and the pictures are spectacular.

The story is told in short rhymes that make the entire bedtime story sound like your own lullabye as you tuck your little one into bed to read. It also provides a cute way to interact your child into subtle lessons of cause and effect, identifying small and large animals from snakes to elephants.

The author is a mother of two who currently lives in New Jersey, and the illustrator is a multi award-winning artist from Southern England and also a mother of two. Pick up your copy of Goodnight Ark for $15.99 at Zonderkidz.com