April Picks (Plus a few for the Moms!)

April Picks (Plus a few for the Moms!)

It's been a few months since I posted a Kid Picks selection so this time I thought I would add a few for the moms, but first....here are some of our favorites since the beginning of the year!

God Rocks: Believe & Obey God's Son

Yep, we love our God Rocks! Some of our favorite Scripture Songs from this album include "God So Loved the World (John 3:16), The Lord Is My Rock (Psalm 18:2-3), and Hidden In My Heart (Psalm 119:9-11)! Sadly you can't purchase these from godrocks.com at the moment but thankfully they are still available on Amazon! Check out these and other God Rocks products for tons of fun with God's Word for the entire family!

Giddy Up Get Along Gideon

Captain Noah & The One & Only Zoo Cruise for Twos

When I was in the 3rd Grade, the Children's Church that I was part of put on a production of Giddy Up Get Along Gideon. It was a fun experience that I will never forget...my first play! I didn't have a large role, just part of the choir, but it was one of my fondest church memories growing up! Years later, when I was going through a ton of stuff I had put in storage, I found the cassette tape of the production! I immediately played it for my kids and they LOVED it! It rarely came out of their tiny "boom box" in their room! I did some research and found out that the production company that distributed this play had several others as well! I quickly skimmed through the selections and decided on Captain Noah & The One & Only Zoo Cruise for Twos...an instant hit! A bit of "diamond in the rough" it took me some searching to find it, but faithful Amazon pulled through! Though not available from the production company itself you can still listen to demos of the tracks and get a better idea of the fun these stories contain! Hilarious renditions of the classic stories, these musicals are full of entertainment and valuable lessons the children love and want to hear non-stop! My girls love to listen while they clean their room...they take dancing breaks between speaking parts when the songs come on!

Bread & Jam For Frances

 Another fond memory of my childhood came from reading the Frances books (really any book by Russell & Lillian Hoban)! As a child I was an avid reader and, thankfully, my children are, too! We recently found these at our local library and I was ecstatic! Some of our favorites include Bread and Jam for Frances, Bedtime for Frances, and A Bargain for Frances. As a mom, one of the things I love about these books is that each one teaches a valuable lesson about sharing, friendship, kindness, honesty, and other such character qualities in a fun, relate-able way that children understand! Check to see if these and other Hoban books are available at your local library or bookstore!

Mommy Bonus!

As I said before, I've always been an avid reader! In recent years I haven't had time for much fiction (which I love), but instead mostly self help, spiritual enrichment, and home life type books. However, recently I have read several books that I just can't help but pass along!

Redeeming Love & Bridge to Haven

by

Francine Rivers

Last year our family took a road trip to Florida and I grabbed a Francine Rivers book for the first time. In my late teens I loved reading Christian Romance Novels, and it had been quite a while since I had read one. Redeeming Love was nearly impossible to put down and I greatly admired the writing style of Mrs. Rivers! After some bits of tears, laughter, and gasps of surprise, my husband finally asked me to read aloud to him, and he was even reluctant for me to finish the book without him! The allegorical correlations between the characters in this story and the biblical story of Hosea and Gomer were inspiring to say the least! A beautiful representation of God's unrelenting love for us!

Bride to Haven proved to be exactly the same! I read it in less than 3 days! This time the allegory came from one of my favorite chapters in scripture, Ezekial 16. God relates us, His Bride, to a child raised from infancy, loved and cared for without want of anything; even offered royalty and nobility. In the end, His Bride rebels and rejects Him. He searches relentlessly for her until He finds her and welcomes her back into His arm. Pure, unconditional love! Bridge to Haven personifies this story beautifully through the eyes of a young woman, staged in the 1950's, this book touched my heart in many ways!

The Circle Series

A friend recommended this series to me, and though I've only read the first book, Green (which is technically the last book - it's confusing, but I'll explain), I look forward to reading the rest of the series! I've never been too much on suspense/adventure and I've never been a huge fan of apocalyptic thrillers, but the few books I've read of Ted Dekker have me looking at scripture with a new perspective!
In the book Green: Book Zero, a story unfolds of epic End Time proportions! A war is being waged between God's kingdom and Satan's kingdom and there are many different characters with brilliantly played scriptural roles! As I said before, this is both the First and the Last in the series. You can begin the series with either Green or Black because the series makes a circle. You can either start with the beginning or the end...trust me...it's worth the initial confusion! :) So, again, if you are a lover of Christian fiction, this is a must read!