The First Night

In The First Night, by B.G. Henessey, the story of Jesus's birth is told with simplicity. The author uses tender, peaceful language to describe the setting of that wondrous night. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher created paintings over wood and used rich earth tones to provide texture and a rustic look to the illustrations.

After the shepherds witness the star moving across the sky, the author tells us about the stable and that there was a mother, a father, and a baby. No specific names are used, and we are not told that the baby is the Son of God. The baby feels the air, his blanket, and his mother's arms. We're told His life began in the stable, and then the story ends.

What I Like: I like the emphasis on how Jesus began life as just another baby, but I think the story should continue and point out why He was special. The illustrations and text are very soothing.

What I Dislike: This book doesn't really tell the Christmas story. It begins with the shepherds in a field, the star, and the stable, but then changes to the viewpoint of Baby Jesus when it says, "He saw the swaying lantern, the donkey, and the woolly lamb." Although the Bible verse John 1:14 is stated after the title page, we're never told the purpose of His life or that He is the son of God.

Overall Rating: Good.

Age Appeal: Ages 3 to 8.

Publisher Info: Viking Juvenile, 2008; ISBN: 0670011363; Hardback $16.99.

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Come and See

Come and See tells the story of the night of Jesus' birth, told from the viewpoint of a village child. In this beautifully illustrated book by Monica Mayper, the shepherds awaken the sleeping villagers, telling them, "Come see, Come out and see."

The boy and his entire village go to witness the family, and they rejoice by feasting and dancing in the starlight.
This interpretation is not exactly as it was told in the Bible and it never specifically states why this baby is so special other than to say, "Come see the world made new. The same old world, but new." The plot is all about the culminating celebration that takes place around the stable.

The book is written in flowing poetic verse, and Stacey Schuett's artwork accentuates that miraculous night with bold lines and dark, soft colors, highlighted with gold and purple.

What I Like: This is a truly gorgeous book! The illustrations create a peaceful, joyous scene of that night. The ethnicity of the characters is more accurate to the region than the traditional images we normally see. For early readers, the repetition of phrases makes it a great read-aloud.

What I Dislike: The story focuses more on the shepherds and villagers and doesn't mention the name Jesus anywhere other than the book's jacket. It never states that the baby is the Son of God. This book is more about people rejoicing.

Overall Rating: Good.

Age Appeal: Ages 4 to 8.

Publisher Info: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999; ISBN: 0060235268 ; Hardback $14.95.

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Sophie Steps Up

Sophie LaCroix, sixth-grader, drama queen, and Corn Flake, is back to help girls learn another lesson about themselves and what God expects of them. In Sophie Steps Up, Book Four in the Sophie series, FaithGirlz author Nancy Rue tackles what it means to accept others.

Sophie is an imaginative girl with a flair for drama. Together with her friends, Fiona, Maggie and Kitty, they make up the Corn Flakes. Unlike the popular Corn Pops, the Corn Flakes pray, try to be kind to others, and try to embrace their uniqueness. In addition to typical sixth-grade struggles, Sophie has a habit of getting lost in imaginary worlds and being imaginary characters. Since she has had a hard time staying on task in school and keeping her grades up, her parents have been taking her to counseling with Dr. Peter. His kind eyes and wise suggestions make Sophie look forward to her weekly visits with him.

When the girls' art teacher announces their next project is to be a performance (for the St. Patrick's Day competition), and they can pick their own groups, Sophie and her friends are thrilled. They already make movies for fun, and are only slightly put off when Miss Blythe tells them it must be a live performance. But when new student, Darbie O'Grady, arrives in class and Miss Blythe assigns her to Sophie's group, the Corn Flakes stability is shaken. To make matters worse, Dr. Peter changes Sophie's visits to an "as-needed" basis, Darbie seems, ". . .sullen and annoyed and smoldering no matter what was going on," and Maggie, who was supposed to make their costumes, is reassigned to a group with the popular girls.

The closer the performance deadline gets, the more frustrated the girls become. When one planning meeting after another ends in disaster, Sophie finally asks her parents if she can talk to Dr. Peter. She is afraid she is falling into her old habits of escaping into imaginary worlds. Sophie is pleasantly surprised when her parents promise to help her, instead, but their conversation is ruined by Sophie's sister, Lacie, who is always in some sort of crisis. Eventually, Sophie reads the Bible story about Jesus washing the disciples feet, and decides she needs to wash Darbie's feet. Sophie decides a tea party will show her good intentions.

After learning more about Northern Ireland and the tragedies in Darbie's past, Sophie and Darbie decide to write a play to teach the rest of the class about Northern Ireland. However, Fiona quickly lets Sophie know she is feeling left out, and soon Sophie and Darbie are literally washing Fiona's feet. Like most sixth-grade messes, the friends work everything out and go on to stage a presentation sure to make everyone think, regardless of whether it wins the competition.

What I Like: Rue captures the confusing, frustrating and emotional world of sixth-grade, but she keeps the love and hope of Christ front and center in the book. I love the fact Sophie is seeing a counselor, and I enjoy his gentle manner and biblical advice. By taking the Bible at it's word, Sophie learns how to relate like Jesus to a new friend and also how to accept the idiosyncrasies of an old friend.

I always like books where we get to see friends having disagreements and working things out. Dealing with conflict is so hard, but such an important life skill, and Rue gives girls lots of examples of being selfless, apologizing, and thinking about other perspectives.

I have to admit I'm biased, but having a sister, brother-in-law, and niece living in Northern Ireland, I enjoyed the cultural references and colloquial speech Rue included. My daughter really liked the book too.

What I Dislike: I kept getting confused about the Corn Pops and Corn Flakes, and I think it is sad there are so many "cliques" represented, but this probably is realistic in a lot of school situations.

Overall Rating: Excellent

Age Appeal: 9-12, but this installment would be fine for 8 and up

Publisher Info: Zonderkidz, 2009; ISBN: 978-0-310-71841-3; Paperback, $6.99

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Special Info: Sophie Steps Up was published in 2005 as Sophie's Irish Showdown.
You can view reviews of other works by Nancy Rue here.
Check out other FaithGirlz titles here.

And the Winners Are ...

God Gave Us Love goes to # 29 : Angie and God Gave Us Christmas goes to # 21 : mcilroy family.

CONGRATULATIONS! Please send your mailing addresses to me at this email address.

Thanks to everyone for participating! Remember: if you didn't win, you can order them through the links above. You still have plenty of time to get them before Christmas!

Take Your Best Shot

Fifteen-year-old Austin Gutwein, the founder of Hoops of Hope, shares his story of inspiration in Take Your Best Shot. This remarkable young man was touched, at the tender age of nine, when he saw a video produced by World Vision about AIDS victims in Africa. Austin wanted to do something to help, but he didn’t know what. Austin loved to play basketball even though, by his own admission, he’s no good at it. Then someone suggested he use his passion for basketball to help the cause in Africa.

Thus, Hoops of Hope got its start. At first, Austin’s goal was to raise enough money to sponsor eight children in Africa for one year. He determined that if he could make 2,057 free throws, and get enough people to sponsor him at $1 per basket, he could raise the necessary money. He started shooting hoops in his school gym with just his parents and a couple of friends in attendance. Word soon spread and someone from a radio station called him for an interview. Then a couple of camera crews for local TV stations showed up. Before he was done, there were almost 60 people there watching him. As a result, he not only reached his goal of 2,057 free throws (no, he didn’t make them all) and his financial goal, he had started “the ball rolling” so to speak.

He says, “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what was going to happen that day I started shooting hoops in the gym. My goal was to shoot 2,057 free throws, collect my pledges, and make a major difference in the lives of a couple of kids. It was going to be a one-day event. I was going to take my best shot at doing something bigger than myself and that was it…But that’s not the way the day turned out in the end.”

After that momentous day, instead of being content with what he had done, Austin began to wonder: What if….a thousand of my friends could do this next year? Think of all the money we could raise. By the power of the grapevine, the power of the media, the power of the Internet, and most importantly by God’s power, over one thousand kids in six different locations in the US shot hoops the second year, raising $38,000. The next year, over 10,000 people in 11 countries joined in. And the organization keeps growing, bigger and bigger each year, providing funding for all types of projects to help AIDS victims in Africa.

Along with telling his remarkable story, the author includes stories about the World Vision organization and stories about other kids in different parts of the world who have made a difference in people’s lives. Austin’s goal is not to get you to get you to take up the World Vision cause; rather, he wants to encourage everyone to find their “passion” in life and make a difference. As he says, “That’s really my whole goal for this book…I’m hoping and praying that the Hoops of Hope story will give you the courage to go out and make your own story.”

Each chapter begins with some type of inspirational quote. Bible verses are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. And each chapter ends with a section called “Take your Best Shot” that include ideas and thought-provoking questions about the context of each chapter. Blank spaces are provided for writing down your answers. The author encourages the reader to mark up the book, to make it their own. He also includes a “Take Action” item at the end of each chapter, giving the reader a chance to do something relating to the chapter’s topic.

There are some illustrations in the book. They are in the form of photos presented at the beginning of each chapter.

What I Like: Everything. This is a story everyone should read. Austin makes it clear that the way to make a real change in the world is to take action, to do something. No one person can do everything, but if we work together as a team, and each team member does his/her part, then the possibilities for change are endless.

What I Dislike: Nothing.

Overall Rating: Excellent.

Age Appeal: The book is written for young adults, but I really enjoyed reading it!

Publisher Info: Thomas Nelson, 2009; ISBN: 9781400315154; Paperback, $12.99.

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Special Info: The book was co-authored by Todd Hillard. Read about him at the Thomas Nelson Publishing website. To learn more about Hoops of Hope, visit their website. To learn more about World Vision, visit their website.

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Cecil and Friends: The Good Samaritan

Andrew McDonough's retelling of The Good Samaritan is simple and straightforward, but lacks the fun, witty element found in Cecil the Lost Sheep. While McDonough's other stories add imaginative details and new twists to classic, biblical tales, The Good Samaritan only shows creativity in illustrations. The Pharisee is renamed "a Bible expert" and looks like a modern-day businessman, but the story is written as a basic paraphrase of Jesus' parable.

In the familiar story, a man is traveling between Jerusalem and Jericho when he is robbed and beaten. The robbers look like giants who are missing teeth. One of them even has a green face. After the beating, the traveler is shown from the chest up, with no shirt, face down, with his eyes closed. Then, a priest and a temple worker pass by without stopping to help the man. Finally, a Samaritan comes by, bandages the man's wounds and takes him to an inn, where he pays for his continuing care.

At the end, Jesus asks the Bible expert who the true neighbor is, and he answers, "The one who showed pity." Jesus tells him to "go and do the same."

What I Like: I like the images of Jesus. He seems friendly and animated. It is a fun juxtaposition to have Jesus in a blue robe and heavy beard talking to a professional with glasses in a dark suit.

What I Dislike: While no one will fault McDonough for straying from the biblical account, the story isn't nearly as engaging as his other works. McDonough also misses an opportunity to explain the traditional enmity between Samaritans and Jews, or show us why it is remarkable the Samaritan helped the traveler. Although he gives some background to their feud on "Cecil's Page," a note to adults at the end of the book, still fails to follow up his opening questions. "Cecil's Page" suggests discussing who it is easy or hard to be kind to, before reading the story, but after the story he simply asks us to talk about the Golden Rule. He never makes the connection between Jesus' parable and being kind to people who are different than us.

McDonough has already shown he is a talented author, but I wish he would have made the message of this story more accessible to young children and not been afraid to include creative details.

Overall Rating: Fair--writing, Good--illustrations

Age Appeal: 4-7

Publisher Info: Zonderkidz, 2009; ISBN: 978-0-310-71945-8; Paperback, $4.99

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View other CCBR reviews of the Cecil and Friends series here.

My First Message: The Christmas Story

Eugene H. Peterson's paraphrased version of the Bible, The Message, was a huge bestseller. Now NavPress is offering several of the stories from The Message paraphrase in the form of children's books. The Christmas Story is one of those offerings.

The book begins with Luke 1, when an angel visits Zachariah to tell him he'll soon have a son named John. We read about the angel visiting Mary, about Mary and Elizabeth visiting each other, and about John's birth.

The next chapter covers Luke 2, where Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, and baby Jesus is born. The angel speaks to the shepherds and they visit the Christ child. The book closes with Matthew 2, where the wise men visit first king Herod, then baby Jesus in his parent's house.

Throughout, there are questions to ask children as you read, as well as moments to pause and reflect and pray. There is also an accompanying CD where the story is read by a young woman and a praying mantis "buddy" is featured at the end of each chapter.

What I Like: The language in this book is not the sort typically found in children's picture books. There are many books out there offering the Christmas story in simpler words. However, I don't think this is a negative; in fact, for older children, or children who enjoy a larger vocabulary, Peterson's The Christmas Story is refreshing. Things aren't dumbed down.

This books also offers more information about John the Baptist and the Maji than most children's books. I must also compliment Peterson on his accuracy. There were several times I thought he had the story wrong, but when I checked my Bible, I found I was the one in error.

And while I'm not a huge fan of the sculpted cartoon illustrations in this book, my experience tells me Rob Corley and Tom Bancroft's illustrations are exactly what many kids like. Many parents will appreciate that people of many skin colors are depicted.

What I Dislike: If you're not ready to explain what a virgin is, this is not the book for you.

Overall Rating: Very Good.

Age Appeal: According to the publisher, 4 - 8, but I think some older children will appreciate this book, too.

Publishing Info: NavPress, 2008; ISBN: 978-1600062766; paperback + CD, $12.99

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Special Info: Check out our reviews of other Eugene H. Peterson books.