Review: "Alby's Amazing Book" by Catalina Echeverri

Alby's Amazing Book by Catalina Echeverri is an adorable book about a squirrel named Alby and his very favorite book: the Bible.

Alby shows us how books can take us on great adventures! I love that Alby proudly displays his love of reading and how it is so much more than just words and pictures that he gets out of the books.

His favorite book is different though, because the adventures it describes are TRUE. Alby's Amazing Book shows illustrations of the Garden of Eden, the miraculous catch of fish from John 21, and David and Goliath.











My only complaint is a single page that is very dark and a little hard to read, but it's not too bad.





I'm very excited to share this book with my niece. The amount of detail is stunning - the pictures are even printed over a running Bible verses in the background.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Cross Focuses Reviews for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "The Christmas Promise" by Alison Mitchell and Catalina Echeverri

The Christmas Promise is a short, catchy children's book explaining Jesus's birth. Throughout the book, there is various repeated phrases to keep a child's attention. One such use is a "WHOOSH!" for when the angels appear. Unfittingly though, this "WHOOSH!" was also used for the star appearing, which was not my favorite word choice.




There's no denying this wise man's excitement at seeing the star though!

One of those repetitious elements was accompanied by strange grammatical choices. "He sent: a NEW KING; a RESCUING KING; a FOREVER KING." I don't think I've ever seen semi-colons and colons in a children's book, and here they're not even necessary. Of course, it's not like this will bother my one and a half year old niece.



I know my niece will love these adorable, goofy animal illustrations. I certainly did!


I also really appreciated that at the end of the book there is a page saying where you can find the Christmas story in the Bible. It also lists places to look for the Old Testament promises of a new king. I can definitely see this book being a good transition into reading the Christmas story from the Bible as my niece gets older.


The use of fun, curvy words to tell the story could have been more frequent, as the designer employed this technique only twice.

 All in all, a great introduction to the Christmas story and a great gift for the young ones in your family.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Cross Focused Reviews for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "Tell Me a Story" by Scott McClellan

In Tell Me a Story, Scott McClellan's aim is that you "identify yourself as a storyteller, an artist committed to narrative, and that in so doing you'll experience God and your life more deeply than you did before" (21). He works towards that goal by telling the reader to think of life as a story and that each and every person has a story worth telling. 

McClellan talks about God as the narrator of our story, and "In God's story we find that the lost need not stay lost, the sick need not stay sick, and the runaways need not stay away" (58). God's loving redemption is a part of our stories as much as it is a part of the stories from the Bible that McClellan uses to support it.

My favorite chapter is the one that focuses on sharing your story: the relationship between the storyteller, the church and the community. The most powerful moments of the book are when McClellan shares his story about the difficult adoption process. He talks about how having community to share his story with was vital to getting him through all of the mishaps he and his wife experienced.

However, these moments were not frequent enough in the book. Perhaps that in itself is proof that McClellan is on to something with his storytelling theory - it is important because it is what connects people. 

Little connectivity and lots of repetition made this book feel like a blog post that's been stretched to the breaking point. Even with the chapters of this book coming in at a grand total of 109 pages, the idea felt tired and forced almost immediately.

There were definitely some gems throughout, but overall it was very difficult to get through.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Seeing double?

Two great new children's books in and ready for blog tour reviews in the next two weeks!

First up, The Christmas Promise by Allison Mitchell and Catalina Echeveri followed by Alby's Amazing Book, illustrated by Catalina Echeveri!

Both are published by The Good Book for Children and are a part of Cross Focused Reviews.

Find out whether these books will make the cut and be passed along to my year and a half old niece!

Happy Halloween! with "A Night in the Lonesome October"

Well the Read Along for A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny has come to an end after 31 days of attempting to read only one chapter a day.

I don't want to spoil anything for those who have not read (or who are not caught up), but I did want to share a few final thoughts.

As a general recap, the story is narrated by the dog Snuff, a companion to Jack who is a player in a Game that is not fully explained until late in the game. Other players of this Game also have animal companions, and most of what we see is Snuff trading information with the other animal companions. Through this, great friendships are formed. During the month of October, the players all go about collecting ingredients and preparing for Halloween night, when the Game begins.


Humor is also a big part of the book, from shape-shifting Things trying to woo Snuff by turning in to different dogs, to a disguise rendered so well that all characters are clueless to the true identity, aside from Snuff.

The characters of the book are some you may recognize from other spooky tales - some more overtly than others.  The Great Detective, the Count, and the Good Doctor are a few that everyone is sure to recognize.  It is an intriguing dynamic to see these classic characters interact.

Perhaps even before next October, I would like to reread this book.  There are so many little things mentioned throughout that don't make sense until you find out what is really going on, which isn't until the last week. I'd really like to start from the beginning now knowing what's going on!

That being said, I still really enjoyed the book the first time through. There's great friendships, lots of mystery, and most of all anticipation - as the whole book leads up to the final day and everything until then is just preparation.

Read Along: Week Three - "A Night in the Lonesome October"

Last week's discussion of Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October raised the question of what inspired this quirky novel. Apparently this mix of humor, mystery, suspense, and horror is what happens when someone dares/bets a talented author that he can't make Jack the Ripper a sympathetic character.

The consensus was that it's successful so far. Half-way through the month, we continue to be endeared by not only Snuff and the other watch animals, but also the total loyalty between Snuff and Jack. 

This week, things take a turn for the darker, but if anyone knows who's to blame for the mysterious murder, they're not sharing. There's also more cooperation between other players, but they are just as reciprocal as their companions - they will trade ingredients, sure, but few players offer something for nothing. October 17th shows the mad tossing around of body parts that takes place in the cemetery during one such exchange.

What an image Zelazny creates with “'Has anyone the broken vertebrae of a hanged man?’” and then a moment later “something white and rattling flashed through the starlit air” (90). So that removes any doubt about the nature of the ingredients that Jack and Snuff collect. It remains to be seen what they’ll be used for though…

With the last day of the week beginning with the ominous line “Soon it begins,” I know we’re in for another exciting week!

To Review: "Tell Me a Story" by Scott McClellan

It's been a while since my last book review, so here's the next one that'll be on the blog soon. It's Tell Me a Story by Scott McClellan, and it just arrived in my mailbox this week from Moody Publishers!

To give you a taste, here's a line from the back of the book:

All the best stories have a few things in common; sometimes we just have to step back from our daily routine to see them....When we recognize the elements of a great story, we begin to see our lives as a part of God's story. ...We are right in the middle of a page-turner - and God is in it with us.

Look for my review coming soon!