booksthatspark's podcast: Recent Episodes
Terrie Hellard-Brown
Celebrating books that help us with everyday discipleship every day, sparking important conversations with our children.
Terrie and Sandra discuss healing from trauma and in that finding God's purpose for each life. They discuss Christ-centered, God-empowered healing rather than a self-centered focus.
Terrie and Sandra discuss healing from trauma and in that finding God's purpose for each life. They discuss Christ-centered, God-empowered healing rather than a self-centered focus.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown and Lori Wildenberg explore the themes of parenting, faith, and discipleship. They discuss the importance of building strong relationships with children, conveying critical messages about love and capability, and the significance of God's presence in their lives. The conversation emphasizes the need for open dialogue, prayer, and grace in navigating the challenges of parenting, especially with prodigal children. Lori shares insights from her books and offers practical advice for parents seeking to guide their children in faith and purpose.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown and Lori Wildenberg explore the themes of parenting, faith, and discipleship. They discuss the importance of building strong relationships with children, conveying critical messages about love and capability, and the significance of God's presence in their lives. The conversation emphasizes the need for open dialogue, prayer, and grace in navigating the challenges of parenting, especially with prodigal children. Lori shares insights from her books and offers practical advice for parents seeking to guide their children in faith and purpose.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown and Jill Baughan explore the concept of joy, especially in the context of everyday discipleship and parenting. Jill shares her personal experiences and insights on how to find joy amidst life's challenges, emphasizing the importance of intentionality and hope. They discuss Jill's new book, 'No Matter What,' which serves as a devotional guide to help readers cultivate joy in their lives. The conversation also touches on the coexistence of joy and sorrow, illustrated through personal anecdotes, including a memorable story about a chimpanzee that brought laughter and joy to a family gathering.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown and Gaylyn Williams discuss the importance of managing stress through faith and practical strategies. They explore the definition of stress, its impact on individuals, and the role of forgiveness in healing relationships. Gaylyn shares insights from her experiences and offers tools for stress management, emphasizing the need to focus on God amidst life's challenges. The discussion highlights the hope and encouragement available to those struggling with stress and anxiety, particularly for parents seeking to guide their children.
Elizabeth Urbanowicz challenges parents to equip our children to ask the right questions so they can discern truth and develop a strong walk with God throughout their lives.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown and Melissa Kruger explore the challenges and joys of parenting, particularly during the teenage years. They discuss the importance of discipleship, the impact of technology and social media, the power of prayer, and the significance of maintaining strong marriages while raising children. Melissa shares insights from her books, emphasizing the need for hope and faith in parenting, and the importance of addressing idolatry in family life. The conversation provides practical advice for parents navigating the complexities of raising teens in today's world.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown and Melissa Kruger explore the challenges and joys of parenting, particularly during the teenage years. They discuss the importance of discipleship, the impact of technology and social media, the power of prayer, and the significance of maintaining strong marriages while raising children. Melissa shares insights from her books, emphasizing the need for hope and faith in parenting, and the importance of addressing idolatry in family life. The conversation provides practical advice for parents navigating the complexities of raising teens in today's world.
In this engaging conversation, Terrie Hellard Brown interviews Laura Sassi about her new book, 'Faithful Feet.' They discuss the inspiration behind the book, its role in discipleship, and how it can be used to teach children about faith. Laura shares her journey as a writer and the importance of boldness in sharing faith-based messages. The discussion also touches on the impact of faith-based literature on families and the significance of illustrations in storytelling.
In this engaging conversation, Terrie Hellard Brown interviews children's book author Maria Antonia about her latest book 'Runaway', inspired by the true story of a sheep named Shrek. They discuss the themes of fear, trust, and the role of shepherds in children's lives, as well as Maria's other works and future projects. The conversation emphasizes the importance of faith and the lessons that can be drawn from children's literature.
In this engaging conversation, Terrie Hellard Brown interviews children's book author Maria Antonia about her latest book 'Runaway', inspired by the true story of a sheep named Shrek. They discuss the themes of fear, trust, and the role of shepherds in children's lives, as well as Maria's other works and future projects. The conversation emphasizes the importance of faith and the lessons that can be drawn from children's literature.
In this engaging conversation, Terrie Hellard Brown interviews children's book author Maria Antonia about her latest book 'Runaway', inspired by the true story of a sheep named Shrek. They discuss the themes of fear, trust, and the role of shepherds in children's lives, as well as Maria's other works and future projects. The conversation emphasizes the importance of faith and the lessons that can be drawn from children's literature.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown and Lee Ann Mancini explore the vital aspects of discipling and disciplining children in a Christian context. They discuss the importance of obedience, respect, and honor, and how these concepts can be taught to children. The conversation emphasizes the difference between transforming a child's heart and mere behavior modification, advocating for positive reinforcement and effective communication. They also address the challenges of gentle parenting, the necessity of consistency in discipline, and offer hope for parents who feel they have started too late in their children's spiritual upbringing. The discussion concludes with insights on building a strong foundation for children and overcoming parental guilt.
In this episode of Sparking Everyday Discipleship, Terrie Hellard-Brown discusses the significance of the Messiah, particularly in the context of Easter. She explores the expectations of the Jewish people regarding the Messiah, the doubts faced by John the Baptist, and the transformative encounter of the woman at the well with Jesus. The conversation emphasizes the importance of faith, understanding God's plan, and celebrating the new life offered through Christ.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown discusses the importance of everyday discipleship, particularly focusing on how parents can effectively disciple their children. She emphasizes the need for intentionality in teaching children about faith and the impact of culture on their understanding of love and acceptance. Terrie outlines five compelling reasons for discipling children and four key methods to do so, encouraging parents to engage in open conversations and share their own experiences and testimonies.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown discusses the themes of her new book, Drandar the Dragon Knight, and its accompanying Bible study. She emphasizes the importance of perseverance in faith, the significance of forgiveness, and the need for wisdom in navigating relationships. The conversation aims to equip parents to disciple their children effectively, fostering a deeper understanding of Christian principles and everyday discipleship.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown discusses the themes of her new book, Drandar the Dragon Knight, and its accompanying Bible study. She emphasizes the importance of perseverance in faith, the significance of forgiveness, and the need for wisdom in navigating relationships. The conversation aims to equip parents to disciple their children effectively, fostering a deeper understanding of Christian principles and everyday discipleship.
Summary
In this episode, Terrie Hellard-Brown discusses the importance of everyday discipleship, particularly focusing on how parents can engage their children in conversations about faith through literature and media. She highlights various Easter-themed books suitable for different age groups, emphasizing the significance of understanding the gospel message. Terrie also addresses common misconceptions about God and encourages parents to foster open dialogues about faith with their children. Additionally, she offers insights into classic literature and movies that can enrich family discussions about Easter and faith. Finally, she introduces her parenting coaching services aimed at supporting families in their discipleship journey.
In this conversation, Kathy Howard discusses the significance of parental discipleship in nurturing children's faith. She emphasizes the importance of modeling spiritual practices, such as Bible study, and introduces the inductive Bible study method as a way for children to engage with scripture. Kathy also highlights the need to understand the Bible as one cohesive story, where God is the central hero. She shares practical tips for building a spiritual legacy, including the use of spiritual markers and Thanksgiving prompts, and discusses her own writing and resources available for parents and educators.
In this conversation, Terrie Hellard-Brown and Dawn Stephens explore the themes of everyday discipleship, the importance of authenticity in parenting, and the challenges faced in ministry. Dawn shares insights from her book series, emphasizing how God uses our struggles and imperfections to shine His light through us. They discuss the significance of teaching children about faith and emotions, and the need for open conversations about life's challenges. The discussion also touches on the future of Dawn's writing and her commitment to community engagement through her work.
Darlene and Terrie discuss marriage and what makes marriages last. They delve into responses to abuse and how it is a betrayal. They remind us that marriage is the foundation for a strong society, and we've weakened our culture and our society by mocking and deserting marriage. Show notes can be found at TerrieHellardBrown.com
In this conversation with Pastor Phil Dietz we talk about what people of other faiths believe and how to have interesting conversations with each other.
In this episode we examine: How is Jesus different from other religious leaders? Was he simply a prophet? How do we know Jesus is who he says he is?
This week we talk with Glenys Nellist about her new book series which helps parents give blessings to their children helping them learn who they are in Christ and that they are a blessing to us.
This week we have the second part of our interview with Pastor Phil Dietz about how we can share our faith effectively. He gives us verses and questions to ask people and breaks down John 3:16. For every one of us, no matter what our vocation, the point of life is to point to Christ.
In this episode of Sparking Everyday Discipleship, Terrie Hellard-Brown discusses the significance of Lunar New Year celebrations, emphasizing the importance of hospitality and cultural engagement. She shares insights on traditions associated with the holiday, ways to bless Asian neighbors, and the value of kindness in cross-cultural interactions. The episode also highlights resources for families to learn about different cultures and encourages listeners to embrace everyday discipleship through acts of kindness and hospitality.
In this episode we talk with Pastor Phil Dietz about sharing our faith effectively, and he shares how to think about grace. This is part 1 of a four-part series on sharing our faith, apologetics, and understanding the beauty of the Gospel. Please note: we had technical difficulties, so these four episodes are audio only. We will be sharing with video again after these interviews.
In this episode of Sparking Everyday Discipleship, host Terrie Hellard-Brown introduces the new podcast format, focusing on discipleship in the 21st century, particularly in relation to parenting and homeschooling. She shares insights on various books and resources that can aid in family devotions and education, while also addressing the challenges parents face. The conversation emphasizes the importance of community, encouragement, and equipping parents to disciple their children effectively.
We're on a break between seasons 9 and 10. When we return in a couple weeks, we will be "Sparking Everyday Discipleship." Be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when we post new episodes.
In this episode we talk about books that spark wonder and joy in our children. We talk about creativity and helping our children embrace their natural curiosity that helps them find the wonder in God's amazing world.
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we look at books with dragons in them. We also tell you how you can get a dragon Christmas story for free.
In this episode of Books That Spark, Terrie Hellard-Brown shares a curated list of book recommendations perfect for Christmas gifts, focusing on books that celebrate reading, libraries, and the joy of storytelling. She discusses various titles that cater to different age groups, including those for reluctant readers, and highlights the importance of engaging children with literature. The conversation also touches on biographies of famous authors and the impact of books about writing. Terrie concludes with thoughts on the upcoming changes to the podcast and encourages listeners to embrace everyday discipleship through reading.
In this episode we talk with Leslie Colburn about her sweet books - one is a Christmas story - and how to help our children understand that God has a purpose for their lives, and our focus should be on him and who he created us to be.
In this episode we share our annual December Advent Calendar of Christmas Books - free download in show notes on terriehellardbrown.com - and some suggestions for books that make great Christmas gifts.
This week we talk with Tanya Acquista about her book Money Time. How do we help our children use their time wisely? How can we teach them the value of time and relationships? Join the conversation.
How do we raise thankful kids? How do we focus our hearts and minds on gratitude? In this episode we celebrate thankfulness, some wonderful books for fall and Thanksgiving, and ideas for shifting our focus to an attitude of gratitude.
In this episode we visit with Annette Whipple and discuss her adventurous writing about spiders, sharks, and frogs-oh my!-among other interesting things. Her books help our children see God's fingerprints in creation.
In this episode we share a few announcements and some Terrie's newest book that was written to encourage parents in their walk with Christ and help us in discipling our children.
In this episode we talk about fear, Halloween, and spooky books. Which ones are okay for our children? What do we want them exposed to from the culture? How do we navigate these difficult times?
In this episode we talk with Sandra Chambers about her newest book, her first picture book, Maisie Discovers Her Fingerprint.
In this replay episode, we talk about kindness and joy and how both strengthen us and our children in our faith. We return next week with Season 9!
In this episode of we discuss the importance of helping our children listen to others but also the power of feeling heard. We are on our break between seasons 8 and 9, and we will be back mid-October for season 9.
We're on a break between Season 8 and 9. Season 9 begins the week of October 15. This week, we're doing a replay of our very first episode of "Books that Spark." We talk about expectations and giving grace to ourselves and our children.
In this episode we talk with Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young about her beautiful picture books and how her family experienced God's blessings and glory even as they walked through grief.
In this episode we visit with our friend Laura Sassi and talk about the My Tender Heart series including the newest addition My Tender Heart Devotions.
In this episode we visit with our friend Laura Sassi and talk about the My Tender Heart series including the newest addition My Tender Heart Devotions.
Kristin Wynalda and Terrie talk about books every kindergartener will love and can learn from. Plus we give pointers for parents of kindergartners. Remember, this is the last week to enter the Back-to-School giveaway! Listen to find out all the details.
In this episode, we talk with Lee Ann Mancini about her wonderful books and her non-profit that helps parents raise their children to follow Christ. She offers many free resources you'll want to check out.
In this episode we continue our conversation with Kristin Wynalda from Big Books Little Ears as we talk about the Caldecott Medal Winners and some other Children's Book Winners.
We talk with Kristin Wynalda about the Newbery Medal Winners from this year. On her website, "Big Books, Little Ears," she has reviews on every book that won. Check it out!
In this episode we talk with Carissa Lovvorn who has written some wonderful picture books based on true stories of children serving others in the community. Carissa has some great ideas to share about helping our children love to serve and bless others.
In this episode we talk with Foundation Worldview Founder Elizabeth Urbanowicz about their new curriculum "God's Good Design." We love talking with Elizabeth. She always has some great pointers for talking with our children about important topics.
In our 200th Episode we are so excited to share all kinds of news with you including the new picture book A World of Pancakes. Don't miss the other exciting announcements we have for you this week.
In this episode we talk with Michelle Lazurek whose new book is all about faith, the people in the Bible who were noted in Hebrews 11, and how to help our children trust God.
Welcome to Season 8 of "Books that Spark." Today we talk with voice actor Katie Leigh, the voice of Connie Kendall, about Adventures in Odyssey and other adventures from her extensive career.
In this episode we talk with John Fort who works with Be Broken Ministries which helps families talk about emotions and sexuality with their children as well as offers many other ministry resources for men, women, and families to move from sexual brokenness to wholeness. We also have an important announcement in this episode and other resources for you. We'll be back for Season 8 next week!
This week we share how to help our children embrace humility rather than pride, learning to respect and trust God. We found some interesting picture books that help a child understand humility and meekness.
In this episode we replay part of one of our Father's Day episodes, but we also share some new books you won't want to miss for Father's Day this year. We'll be back for Season 8 in July!
This week we talk with Susan Neal about health and helping our children choose to eat God's food.
This week we talk with mom and author Rachael Hartzell who shares a simple and effective way to disciple our children with every book we read.
This week we talk with Brenda Yoder, author, speaker, and podcaster, about the different stages in a mom's life. She offers insight and encouragement to moms.
BookWorthy and Books that Spark each offer summer challenges for families. Listen to learn more and to join in the summer fun!
Lori Vober, a writer, speaker, stroke survivor, and adoptive mom of three, shares her very personal story with us and what God has taught her through it. She shares how we can help our children find strength in perseverance and resilience and why that is so important.
Do your children know what's in the Bible and why it's important? Crystal Bowman has a new devotional for kids to help. In this episode we talk with Crystal Bowman about her newest devotional for kids and all that's been happening since we last visited with her.
In this episode we talk about the concept of home and its different meanings. How can we help our children understand the blessing of being hospitable? How can we help them understand heaven? What can we do to make our house a home?
This week we have a compelling conversation with Megan Hill about some key elements in living the Christian life and helping our children embrace their faith.
April is poetry month, and we have some great books to share with you to use at different stages in your children's lives. Kristin Wynalda of Big Books, Little Ears joins us to talk poetry in this episode. Come check it out.
We're back for Season 7 of "Books that Spark"! Our friend Glenys Nellist is here with us today to introduce her newest book--it's a special one you'll want to check out.
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we focus on some wonderful books to help us as parents, grandparents, and caregivers in discipling our children and growing in our own faith as well as a couple books to bless our children. Next week we return with the first episode of Season 7. For now, enjoy this replay.
Some people think we are foolish to hold on to the faith we have. Our children sometimes experience times when they are teased or ridiculed for their faith. In this episode of “Books that Spark,” we look at some books that can help our children understand their faith, stand firm in their faith in the face of conflict, and that help them know how to respond to questions about their faith.
In this episode which is an updated replay, we celebrate Irish Heritage and the legacy St. Patrick left behind. It's a fun look at traditional tales and true stories in honor of St. Patrick's Day.
In this episode, we talk about books about special needs to gain understanding and appreciation for each person's uniqueness.
This is our last episode for Season 6, and we'll be back for Season 7 in a few weeks. We will post some replay and updated episodes for you during the break.
In this episode we have a great conversation with Ann Ingalls about her newest book just in time for Easter.
In this episode, Kristin Wynalda shares great ideas for adding reading into your week for your family. You'll love her creative and clever ideas for helping our kids gravitate toward reading more and some fun ideas for making some family reading memories.
In this episode we discuss some board books, picture books, and books for older kids and adults that help with discipleship. We're sure these books will spark many great conversations.
In this episode Kristin and I discuss books for the Season of Lent and Easter. Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, and we hope these books bless your family. For show notes, go to TerrieHellardBrown.com and visit Kristin's site at Big Books Little Ears
In this episode we talk with Elizabeth Urbanowicz, founder and CEO of Foundation Worldview, about her new book and teaching our children to discern truth.
Kristin Wynalda from "Big Books, Little Ears" visits with us today as we share our top picks for books from 2023.
In this episode we talk with Trent Talbot, founder and CEO of Brave Books. We talk about the power of books in a child's life and their books and book club.
In this episode we discuss how to help our children set goals and talk about some fun and funny books about this topic.
In this episode we discuss how to help our children set goals and talk about some fun and funny books about this topic.
This week we talk with Sandra Kay Chambers about her new book Fingerprints Devotions, about prayer, and about giving books to fostered and adopted children through Seven Homes. We also talk about other interesting topics you won't want to miss. Welcome back as we begin Season 6 of "Books that Spark!"
This week we are replaying Episode 80 which first aired January, 2022. We discuss how to set goals and some books to help inspire us all. We cover some great books for starting the New Year.
This week we are replaying our talk with Todd R. Hains who is a writer and editor and dad. He’s got some great pointers and ideas for truly discipling our children well.
In this episode we talk about more Christmas books and ways to prepare for an awesome Christmas and Advent Season. This episode first aired in December 2021, but we thought you'd enjoy another listen!
In this episode we talk about making Christmas meaningful by creating special family memories. This first aired in December of 2020, but we thought you might enjoy listening again as we plan to make this Christmas meaningful for our families.
In this episode, we continue the discussion where we left off last week. This time we discuss some Christmas controversy and suggest some gift ideas. Plus, I share about a book I just found out about because it launched only a month or so ago. It would make a great gift for the toddlers in your life. Come check it out.
In this episode we talk with Kristin Wynalda about everything Christmas. This is part 1 of 2. Next week we'll conclude with part 2 of the conversation. Find out what our favorite Christmas books are and which ones we recommend as great gifts for families.
In this episode we chat with Betsy Childs Howard about her books, her work with the Gospel Coalition, and discipleship. Why and how can we use stories with our kids? Why and how does God use waiting in our lives? Come join the conversation.
In this episode we interview Dennis Conrad about his second book in the In God We Trust series and discuss how stories can help open up the most important conversations with our children, especially conversations about salvation.
In this episode we visit with our old friend Glenys Nellist about some of her newest books which just happen to be about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Come listen in to the conversation. For links and show notes, go to terriehellardbrown.com.
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we talk with Chris Landry, author and homeschool dad, about his books in the Cajun Kids series of novels for kids. For show notes and links, go to terriehellardbrown.com.
In this episode we chat with author Millie Florence on the launch day of her newest book! She's so much fun to talk with. We had some technical problems, so the interview was cut short; however, we hope to talk with her more in the future. She may also encourage your children who love telling stories and writing. This is one episode you may want to listen to together.
In this episode, Kristin Wynalda and Terrie talk about witches, goblins, and ghosts in children's literature and whether we should take part in Halloween or not. Where does your family land on this issue? For show notes and links, go to terriehellardbrown.com. Check out Kristin's reviews at BigBooksLittleEars.com.
This week we "flip the script" a bit as my daughter interviews me about my new book Building Character through Picture Books. We also try something new by offering a video version of the interview. Check it out on YouTube.
In this episode of “Books that Spark,” we interview Courtney Siebring whose book Little Spark of Life just launched in September. She shares about the importance of understanding and teaching our children that every life is important. She also emphasizes how vital imagination is in our lives. So many good things in this interview that you won’t want to miss any of it!
In this episode we talk about the types of irony and some fun picture books to help make them clear. Even if you're not teaching irony, we share some fun books you'll want to check out! Find the links and show notes at terriehellardbrown.com.
In this episode we discuss using picture books to help our children easily understand the different types of conflict in literature. Come join the fun, and let us know your favorite picture books and the types of conflict revealed in them. For show notes, links, and to leave a comment, go to terriehellardbrown.com.
In this episode we talk with Laura Sassi about the launch of her wonderful new book: My Tender Heart Prayer Book and about teaching children to pray.
In this episode we talk with John Fort who works with Be Broken Ministries which helps families talk about emotions and sexuality with their children as well as offers many other ministry resources for men, women, and families to move from sexual brokenness to wholeness.
This week we talk about books to help our children appreciate home and to learn hospitality. We look at the silly, serious, and the inspirational.
In this episode we talk about the lessons from nature all children should learn and some wonderful books to read as we go out for walks in nature with our children. Come check out the fun!
In this episode we talk about humility and how to help our children embrace it. We talk about some very special books that can help us with this important lesson. In a world celebrating pride for everything, the concept is often misunderstood if it is taught at all. However, as Christ followers, we are called to humble ourselves. And we are called to teach our children the same. For show notes, go to terriehellardbrown.com
This week we talk about homeschooling and about using books and other resources to help our children become global citizens living a biblical worldview. Lots of great books! Check them out.
In this episode we look at three powerful picture book biographies from three different cultures in three different countries. We're sure you'll want to add these to your shopping or library list!
Want to find out what books Kristin and I think are the best of 2022? Join us for this episode of "Books that Spark."
We chat with Kathleen Bostrom and learn about her wonderful new picture book for children welcoming a new sibling into the family and the big emotions that can come with it.
This week we suggest some meaningful Father's Day books and share some thoughts for those wanting to disciple their children. Come hear what we've got to say about that. For show notes and links go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we talk about our summer Bible memory plan and share several exciting announcements you won't want to miss!
In this episode of "Books that Spark," Kristin joins us again, and we share tips for summer reading, our favorite summer reading programs, and summer reading picks.
This week we talk with author Natalee Creech about her books "When Day Is Done," "Something," "Nothing," and the possibility of "Everything" -- and the importance of subtitles.
This week we visit with Kristin Wynalda who has an amazing website/blog sharing all kinds of tips about books for our kids and families called "Big Books, Little Ears." She shares great information with us about navigating the public library and finding out about books for our kids.
This week we want to bless moms with some book suggestions. We also want to hear your suggestions for fun, funny books for moms to read. What would you suggest?
In this episode we visit with author Mindy Baker. She offers many resources for families, has a mini magazine available, and enjoys doing school visits to talk about her beautiful picture book. For show notes and links, go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode, we talk with Mr. Mark Jones who has a fun picture book and several resource books and other resources for families, children's ministries, and home schoolers.
In this episode we discuss the benefits of reading poetry and discussing it with our children. We can use it across the curriculum to teach topics and practice skills. Plus, writing poetry allows our children to be creative and enjoy breaking some of the rules of grammar just for fun.
In this episode we talk with Rebecca Gomez about her fun picture books and her "Read, Discuss, Do!" plans on her website.
In this episode of "Books that Spark," Pastor Dave Brown visits with us discussing how to open up the word of God correctly with our children, equipping them to understand the Bible.
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we look at some great Easter books written by our friends who have been on our show in the past. We share books for our youngest little ones to our older elementary readers. All of them are filled with the greatest story of all: Jesus' story of His death and resurrection and new life in Christ.
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we talk with writer/teacher Sara Chinakwe about her new book You Come from Greatness and about building a heritage through the stories we tell our children.
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we look at some books celebrating Irish Heritage and many books with great women heroines. We share some silly books, some serious books, and several books with clever critical-thinking heroes who find creative ways to solve problems. For show notes and links, go to terriehellardbrown.com.
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we look at picture book biographies to help encourage and challenge our children to do amazing, world-changing things. Biographies are basically testimonies of what people and God have done. They are powerful in discipling our children.
In this episode we look at some new picture books and books for parents that teach New Age and Progressive theology. Picture books reflect the culture in which they are written, and we need to know what books contain before buying them and gifting them to others. We look at several of these books and a few books with solid Christian theology. For links and transcript, go to terriehellardbrown.com
This week we talk with our long-time friend, author Glenys Nellist. I believe this is her fourth interview with us. Glenys is a prolific writer and has books coming out regularly. She loves sharing God's love with children. Next week her next book launches, and we get to talk about it. For links and transcript, go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we talk with Laura Sassi about her newest book My Tender Heart Bible and her other books that help children delight in the truths of God's word. You can read the show notes and find links at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we talk with Dennis Conrad, author of the new "In God We Trust" Series of books. His first book is a great story of faith from the Civil War era about the Two Cent Piece coin. For transcript and links, go to TerrieHellardBrown.com.
In this episode we talk with Dennis Conrad, author of the new "In God We Trust" Series of books. His first book is a great story of faith from the Civil War era about the Two Cent Piece coin. For transcript and links, go to TerrieHellardBrown.com.
In this episode we look at three fantastic books on prayer for children and my favorite book on prayer for adults. For the transcript and links, go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we continue interviewing the writers of the Fat Cat Series of children's books. This week we talk with pastor and author Harold Senkbeil and discuss discipling the next generation and holding on to faith in troubled times. For transcript and links, go to terriehellardbrown.com
This week we interview author/illustrator Natasha Kennedy. She's the illustrator for the Fat Cat series of books we discussed last week. Her focus and hope is that the beauty of the Gospel is seen in everything she writes and illustrates.
This week we interview author/illustrator Natasha Kennedy. She's the illustrator for the Fat Cat series of books we discussed last week. Her focus and hope is that the beauty of the Gospel is seen in everything she writes and illustrates.
We are back! We took a bit of a break, and then we took a bit of a COVID break beyond our planned vacation, but we are back now with some great interviews for you. This week we talk with Todd R. Hains who is a writer and editor and dad. He's got some great pointers and ideas for truly discipling our children well. For links and transcript, go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we interview Jean Matthew Hall about her new adventure in publishing StarLight Magazine - a new magazine for children and families. For more information, show notes, and links go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we talk about all things Advent and how to make this a special time with our families as we celebrate the birth of Christ. In order to prepare for Advent, we are sharing this early in the season so we can all be ready to go on December 1st. For links and transcript, so to TerrieHellardBrown.com
In this episode we talk about all things Advent and how to make this a special time with our families as we celebrate the birth of Christ. In order to prepare for Advent, we are sharing this early in the season so we can all be ready to go on December 1st. For links and transcript, so to TerrieHellardBrown.com
In this episode we talk with Marianne Hering and her fun books that make history come to life for older elementary children. For show notes and links go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we interview Bonnie Rose and discuss her wonderful home school curriculum she provides. We also discuss how to pray for and talk about Christian persecution with our children. The first two Sundays of November each year are IDOP, International Days of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Resources are linked in the show notes to help you, your family, and your church pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters.
In this episode we visit with Valerie Fentress about her books and helping our children embrace and understand their identity in Christ, the power of fairy tales, and finding good books for boys to read. For show notes and links, go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we talk with Amanda Siebert about her new book and ministry of writing special songs specific for each child.
In this episode we talk with Davy Liu, former Disney animator, about his books, films and dreams for the future and his desire to create a thirst for God's word in children's lives. For transcript and links to go terriehellardbrown.com
In this week's episode we look at some great ways to defeat fear and some great books to help along the way. For show notes and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/
In this episode we discuss two of the topics emphasized in the month of September and some great books that go along with them: Craniofacial Awareness and Hispanic Heritage. Plus we have a giveaway! Check it out, enter the giveaway, and find links at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we look at some back-to-school books that will help our children think about being compassionate and caring toward others, seeing needs and meeting them.
In this episode we discuss a wonderful novel for older elementary through young adult ages. It is included in this month's book club featured in our monthly newsletter. If you do not receive our newsletter, you can join our mailing list at terriehellardbrown.com. This is also where you'll find show notes and links.
In this episode we talk with Laura Alary about her new book that launches today: Here-The Dot We Call Home and her many other books. For show notes and links go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we introduce our new Book Club! To be a part, you can sign up for our mailing list at terriehellardbrown.com. You will also find show notes with links there too.
In this episode we visit with Glenys Nellist who has three wonderful books launching in August and September. One is specifically for the start of school: Little Mole Goes to School. Find the transcript and links at terriehellardbrown.com
In this third part of our conversation about Third Culture Kids, we discuss some more of the challenges and benefits of raising children overseas.
This week we continue the conversation with Kathy Gross and Teresa Rowland about understanding Third Culture Kids.
This episode is Part 1 of a discussion and interview with two of my best friends who have worked with third culture kids overseas. In this part of the conversation we talk about education options when living overseas and ministering to TCK's when they return to their home country. If you have any questions, please post them on the blog post where the show notes are at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we explore the world of wordless picture books. It is a fun genre that allows our children to practice telling stories and helps them explore visual details in the illustrations.
In this episode we continue our conversation with Elizabeth Urbanowicz, founder and CEO of Foundation Worldview and helping our children learn to think critically while building a Christian world view.
In this episode we talk with Elizabeth Urbanowicz, founder and CEO of Foundation Worldview. She's an educator and apologist who has written curriculum to help children grow in their critical thinking skills and in creating a Biblical worldview.
This starts our 3rd year of "Books that Spark!" In this episode we chat again with author Kathleen Long Bostrom about the prestigious Newbery Medal awarded each year to a children's author. Check out the show notes for extra info and links at https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at ways to conserve money while still blessing authors in their work and our children with great books.
In this episode we talk with Meredith Lesney about her book on adoption and family called Spaghetti and Meatball and about encouraging children to work toward their dreams. For show notes and links go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we chat with Sara Barratt who has written two great books for teens and young adults.
For links and transcript go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode, we visit with author Kathleen Long Bostrom about her books for kids and parents. For the transcript and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/ Also, check out our giveaway! We'll give away two of Kathleen's books. Enter by commenting on the blog at the link above or by commenting in the private Facebook Discussion Group.
In this episode we visit with Margaux Krause about her debut devotional book for moms which launches today and her blog for helping moms navigate shepherding their children.
For the transcript and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we interview C S Fritz about his intriguing books for upper elementary and middle school children. We also talk about his horror novel (which is being made into a movie!) and stories of redemption.
You can find the links and show notes at https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we celebrate our 100th Episode by looking at books that also celebrate 100s and by announcing a 100-book giveaway. We also talk about why this podcast started and what is at the heart of it all--books that spark important conversations with our kids.
For the show notes, transcript, and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we talk with Jean Matthew Hall about picture books, writing, and helping other authors.
For links and transcript go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we talk with Cassie Rajewich about money matters and how to help our children learn about money. Cassie shares three practical tips to help us start today.
Show notes and link are available at https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we discuss Children's Book Week and a little history of children's books. Then we announce Small Kids, Small Talk - a month of daily texts to keep talking about important things even in the crazy, busy-ness of May.
For show notes and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we talk with author Sandra V. Feder about her wonderful books that help give children the words to talk about their feelings and ideas for resolving painful feelings in their lives through her fun, compelling stories.
For show notes and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we celebrate Holy Week by writing poetry. Eight different types of poems are discussed and different poetic devices. This is a great way to celebrate Poetry Month, Holy Week, and to create a memory for your family as well!
For show notes and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at some Christ-centered Easter books for kids of all ages. Three are new this year and come from three authors we've interviewed on "Books that Spark" before: Josie Siler, Laura Sassi, and Glenys Nellist.
For links and transcript, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at some books that can help our children understand their faith, stand firm in their faith in the face of conflict, and that help them know how to respond to questions about their faith.
For links and show notes, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we visit with Tina Cho about her books and how we can introduce the world to our kids through literature. We also talk about the need for more diversity in children's literature even though more options are available today.
For transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/episode-92-interview-with-tina-cho-and-introducing-our-children-to-the-world-through-literature/
In this episode we visit with Tina Cho about her books and how we can introduce the world to our kids through literature. We also talk about the need for more diversity in children's literature even though more options are available today.
For transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/episode-92-interview-with-tina-cho-and-introducing-our-children-to-the-world-through-literature/
In this episode we visit with Amy O' Quinn who mostly writes middle school biographies of very interesting people. She has a new book launching this month about the fascinating life of Beatrix Potter.
For show notes and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we visit with author Deb Gruelle about her newest book launching this month. We also talk about the wonder and joy of reading and taking time with our kids as well as the security and bond built while reading books together.
For links and show notes, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode, we talk with Dawn Stephens about her books, curriculum, and helping children understand bearing fruit in their Christian lives.
For transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at tools for observing Lent and preparing for a meaningful Easter with our families. Check out the ideas and free downloads at https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we talk with Josie Siler about her new book launching next week: Howie's Broken Hee-Haw. We also talk about how each one of us is created with a purpose in God's plan.
For links and transcript go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we go through 1 Corinthians 13 and share picture books that help illustrate each example of what love is and is not. We share some amazing books for Valentine's Day!
For links and a transcript of the podcast, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we go through 1 Corinthians 13 and share picture books that help illustrate each example of what love is and is not. We share some amazing books for Valentine's Day!
For links and a transcript of the podcast, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we have a great interview with Crystal Bowman, author of over 100 children's books. We discuss the importance of starting Bible reading with preschoolers and creating bedtimes that are peaceful and restful.
For show notes and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this bonus episode we look at some great books for learning about the Lunar New Year and its traditions and celebrations.
For links and show notes, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at some wonderful books and other resources for helping children understand grace and mercy and our need for it.
For links and transcript go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode I interview best-selling author of over 100 books, Nancy I. Sanders. We discuss her wonderful books and how to help our children fall in love with reading the Bible.
For links and transcript, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at books that teach wisdom for kids, teens, and adults.
For the transcript and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we discuss how to set goals and some books to help inspire us all.
For transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode of "Books that Spark," we discuss how to set goals and some books to help inspire us all.
For transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this updated replay of an episode from two years ago, Dave and I discuss Bible translations and what ones work well with children. Of all the books that spark conversations with our kids, the Bible is the most important one.
For the transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
The holidays can be especially hard for families who are longing for a child or who have lost a child. In this episode, we take time to talk with Deb Gruelle about her new book Aching for a Child.
You can access the transcript and links at https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
Do you need some Christmas gift ideas? What's better than preparing for the New Year by finding a devotional for your kids and for your family to read together?
In this episode I share some devotional books that are unique and will challenge kids of every age to follow Christ more closely.
For links and the transcript for this episode go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we continue the interview with Robynne Miller. We discuss some life-changing books that will help our kids be prepared to engage with people, love and respect others, and to go when God leads.
We also discuss how you can make a difference in a writer's world.
For links and the transcript go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode, which is part 1 of my interview with Robynne Miller, we discuss all kinds of interesting things about the world of Little House on the Prairie and Robynne's books.
Be sure to join us next week for part 2 when we'll discuss some important books and topics impacting our world today.
For links and a transcript for this episode, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we talk with Author Laura Sassi about her great books, resources, and pointing children toward God through reading together and sparking important conversations.
For the transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at some great books and resources for families to prepare for Advent.
For links to the resources and books and for a transcript of the podcast, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at great books that help us be thankful even in the hard times. We also have some books about Thanksgiving.
For links and the transcript, please go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode, Kathi Lipp and I discuss her books filled with many practical ideas as well the spiritual truths found in the every-day struggles we walk through. We also share books that meant so much to us as children. Join us for this fun conversation.
Links and the transcript can be found at https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we look at some comforting books that help children feel secure and to help them deal with fear. We also talk briefly about Halloween.
For a full transcript with links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we discuss books appropriate for children who are grieving the loss of a sibling through miscarriage or infant death. We also have some special books for the parents and family to use in creating remembrances for the baby that was lost.
For links and show notes, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/category/podcast-transcripts/
In this episode we take a break from our usual format to discuss pregnancy loss and infant loss with Rachel Lewis. This week we look at books and information for the parents and those who want to minister to families who are grieving.
Next week we will discuss books that will help children going through these types of losses.
For show notes and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we continue our interview with Nadia. She shares some encouraging insights for helping our children become more compassionate toward others and some great books to bless your kids.
For links and show notes go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode, we get to hear from Nadia Swearingen-Friesen, a speaker, writer, and teacher who shares some great information for parents. We discuss her system for helping our children internalize discipline, making memories at Easter and Christmas, and the importance of getting our kids outdoors.
For show notes, links, and other information, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we share several resources and some great books for supplementing and teaching Language Arts education with your children and having fun with language.
For links and the transcript to the show, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we talk with Glenys Nellist, author of many board books and picture books that inspire wonder and curiosity in children about God and His wonderful world.
For show notes and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this continuation of our Back-to-School series, we look at several great books and resources for helping our children love geography, history, and social studies.
For a transcript and links from the podcast, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
You can also leave comments there on each blog post. We would love to hear from you!
In this episode Annette Whipple, author of Whoo Knew! The Truth About Owls and other great non-fiction books, shares with us.
For links and show notes, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we continue with the theme of "Back to School" and look at some great picture books and devotional books about science.
For links and a transcript to this episode, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
This is first in a series "Books that Spark" is doing on Back to School emphasizing great books for each subject area in school.
In this episode we look at picture books and resources that promote math skills and encourage children to enjoy math. Included in the show notes are helpful links for parents as well.
You can find the show notes and helpful links on my blog at https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss some writers whose birthdays are in August. Then we discuss building a legacy for our children.
Please Note: We had some pretty terrible sound issues on this episode. I almost didn't post it because of that, but I want you to have the links and resources shared in the episode. Please excuse the sound problems. We are so sorry.
In this episode I talk with Danielle Hitchen, author of the Baby Believer series of board books and founder of Catechesis Books. We discuss starting discipling our children from the time they are babies.
For the links to some great books and a transcript of the program, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss the interesting life of Beatrix Potter and her wonderful children's books. We also discuss picture books about the earth, conservation, and nature, and a book for Christian parents about environmentalism.
For show notes, links, and podcast transcript go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss the great books that E. B. White wrote and the theme of friendship. We also discuss some wonderful picture books about friendship. And we finish with talking about Jesus who calls us His friends.
For links and show notes, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode I interview author Marci Seither. We discuss parenting and schooling, grandparenting and passing on the legacy of faith, and some great books you'll want to check out.
For the transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
This episode begins our second year of "Books that Spark."
In this episode we focus mostly on some wonderful books to help us as parents, grandparents, and caregivers in discipling our children and growing in our own faith.
For transcript and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we check out some cookbooks and picture books that are about cooking or include recipes. It's a celebration of STEAM activities, cultures around the world, making memories, and preserving family histories.
For links and the transcript, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we celebrate the genius of Eric Carle's books and illustrations. This week would have been his 92nd birthday. He passed away in May, but he has left a legacy of great children's books for our children to love.
For links and the transcript, please go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we explore fun books about dads and Father's Day and some great books for Mom and Dad too.
For links and the show transcript, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we explore fun books about dads and Father's Day and some great books for Mom and Dad too.
For links and the show transcript, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss the joys of vacations and staycations and taking hold of those special teachable moments and defining moments that our times together can create.
For links and the transcript to this episode, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we explore some great books about gardens, gardeners, and how to create gardens together with our kids.
For a transcript of the show and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we share some great books for helping our kids honor our fallen soldiers, learn more about America, and prepare for Independence Day.
For the script and links, please go to my blog at terriehellardbrown.com
May 23 is Margaret Wise Brown's birthday. In this episode we look at some of the many great books she wrote that have entertained children for three generations.
For the transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss several wonderful books for children and parents written by Asian Americans.
For links and the show transcript, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we look at some great books about awesome teachers and some fun Mother's Day books.
For the transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss nursery rhymes, satire, and silly stories.
For links and the show transcript, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we look at great poetry books, anthologies, and poetry writing activities.
For links and transcript, please go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we explore books and ideas to give busy parents a break, help our kids develop independent learning, and end the school year successfully.
For the transcript and links go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we celebrate Hans Christian Anderson's birthday and look at fairytales from around the world. Plus we discuss the true happily ever after we have in Christ.
For the transcript and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode I share some lesson plan ideas and some great books about crayons and colors.
For the transcript, links, and files, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we look at books about Easter for our kids and a couple for parents that will help us celebrate the gift of salvation Jesus gave us through His death and resurrection.
For a transcript and links for the episode, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we share books celebrating St. Patrick's Day and Irish Heritage and books that help us in the areas t. Patrick valued most: praying, sharing the Gospel, and Knowing God.
For links and a transcript of the episode, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we interview author Xochitl Dixon who wrote Different Like Me. To see the transcript and handy links for books and website mentioned in the episode, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we interview author Xochitl Dixon who wrote Different Life Me. To see the transcript and handy links for books and website mentioned in the episode, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss several of Dr. Seuss's books and a few fun ways to use them.
For the transcript and links, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss some great books for celebrating Black History Month, but we also discuss some important books for parents to read to equip themselves for having important conversations about race.
On my website terriehellarbrown.com you'll find a transcript for the episode, links for the books discussed, and several links to resources you may want to check out.
In this episode we discuss books to help us prepare for and celebrate Easter, understand Lent, and discuss tips for sharing the Gospel with young children.
To access links and read the transcript, please go to my blog at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we discuss books to help us prepare for and celebrate Easter, understand Lent, and discuss tips for sharing the Gospel with young children.
To access links and read the transcript, please go to my blog at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we look at books about love and enjoy some fun books that celebrate Valentine's Day. We also look at some great books for both parents and children about God's love.
To see the transcript and handy links to the books discussed, please go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we look at books for celebrating the 100th day of school and books that celebrate words.
To see the transcript and handy links to the books discussed, please go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we look at books that help our children understand problem-solving and critical thinking as we celebrate Puzzle Day, Lego Day, and Lewis Carroll's birthday.
To see the transcript and handy links to the books discussed, please go to terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we look at A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books and other books about friendship and best friends.
To see the transcript and links to the books discussed, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we discuss Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy. We also look at books that help children learn to stand up for others in helpful and creative ways.
To see the transcript and links to the books, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we look at books that help create conversations leading to defining moments when we can encourage our children to be who God created them to be.
For the transcript and links to the books covered in this episode, please go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we look at stories about missionaries and other heroes of faith as we end 2020 with a challenge to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world working to carry the Gospel to those who do not yet know Christ.
You can find the full manuscript, links to books discussed, and other links at https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we look at books to help our children when they are grieving and are dealing with difficult emotions.
You can find the full manuscript, links to books discussed, and other links at https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode, we discuss great bedtime stories to help our kids go to sleep, some excellent resources for parents trying to help their kids sleep through the night, and other resources for parents to take time to rest in God's presence.
For details of this episode--books recommended and transcript, go to https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
In this episode we look at several books about other cultures and books for and about TCK's (Third Culture Kids).
Books Discussed in This Episode:
Transcript:
Welcome to "Books that Spark" a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids.
I have some great books to share with you today. They are so fun to read, and they're about multiculturalism, about traveling, these are good for third culture kids. I'm going to just go through these. These are some of my favorite picture books. One is called Rice and Rocks by Sandra L. Richards illustrated by Megan Kayleigh Sullivan. And this is about a little boy who eats rice and beans all the time. And he calls them rice and rocks. Jasper is his companion, and he is a Congo African gray parrot. It's told in the first person by this little boy, and his friends are coming over. They're serving rice and beans, and he's embarrassed even though that's his traditional Jamaican dish that they do on Sundays. His bird friend teaches him differently. His bird takes him on an adventure, and they go to different countries. And in each country you get introduced to a different bird and you get introduce to a different meal that the people of that country eat, that includes rice and beans or rice and rocks. And so that goes through the whole story and it teaches you all these different recipes, all these different dishes from different countries. And then at the end, his friends all talk about how much they love his rice and rocks because at their house, when they're having a celebration, they eat this kind of food too. And when they're, you know, it reminds them of this, and it reminds them of that. And it just is so much fun to help a child recognize that they can embrace their culture, not be embarrassed by it, and enjoy the foods that are native to their country and culture. And that we're also not that different around the world. We all kind of appreciate the same things, and we celebrate our meals together. Different meals have different meanings. And I mean, every culture is that way in one way or another. It's just a very cute book.
Another one (I have several about food) is called How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman and illustrated by Allen Say. This is about a mom who is Japanese and a dad who is American. Then when they start dating, they don't go to eat anywhere because he doesn't know how to use chopsticks, and she's afraid to try to use a fork and knife. Finally, they talk about it, and they wind up learning to eat each other's way. The man learns to use chopsticks and the girl learns to use a fork and knife, and they learn to appreciate each other's culture. And then of course, they get married and have a little girl named Ina. I love it because, of course, our family learned to use chopsticks. And I think they're way better to use than the forks and knives. But anyway—
This other one is a beautiful book called My Breakfast with Jesus, written by Tina Cho, illustrated by Guy Wolek. It is worshiping God around the world. It quotes at the beginning, Deuteronomy 12 seven. There you shall eat before the Lord, your God, and you shall rejoice you and your households in all that you undertake in which the Lord your God has blessed you. And in the first part of the story, it talks about when Jesus met with the disciples at the seashore and he fixed breakfast for them after his crucifixion in John 21, it shows different places around the world and how they have breakfast and how in each situation they have what they eat. But the similarity in every situation is that they pray and thank God for their food. Then it talks about each of the meals that are presented. It doesn't give the actual recipe, but tells you about them and the name of the dish. So if someone wanted to look up how to make them, they could, I'm only sad that they don't have my favorite breakfast in here from Asia, but that's okay.
Let me read you a short excerpt from one of the pages. It says, “Coffee diluted with milk warms Mariana's mug in Brazil. Her friends stop by so they can walk to school together. They gulp down ham and cheese with bread and pray together over school. A peppy way to start the day. A breakfast blessing.” And then it has a side note. “Some Brazilian children drink coffee, which parents believe help them stay alert throughout the day. Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world.”
And on each page too, as they describe the different breakfasts, it has an adjective, “a peppy way to start the day,” “a loving way to start the day,” “a sweet way to start the day.” And so, I liked that as well, because I love words and language.
Another lovely book by Dorena Williamson illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright, and Ying Hwa-Hu is Colorfull (with two L's) Celebrating the Colors God Gave Us. And this one is more a multicultural book about the different colors around us, in dealing with skin color and how our skin color is different and embracing that and appreciating that in each person. It's a very nice book. It says, “Summer had finally arrived, and Mani was excited to blow bubbles and jump on the trampoline and climb trees. She and her little brother, Christopher, were waiting for their friend, Kayla, to join in the fun.
“Hi, guys want to see who can blow the biggest, most poppable bubble?” asked Kayla, as she climbed over the fence. “Wow! Look at my bubble,” said Christopher, “It's full of swirly colors.” “I've got colors floating in mine too,” Kayla added. “I never knew bubbles could have so many colors,” said Amani. And then grandma comes up and she says, “Well, you all are amazing bubble-makers,” said Granny Mac walking outside to join the kids. “Look,” said Christopher, “my bubble is ginormous and has 50 gazillion colors in it.” “How about that?” said Granny Mac. “Aren't colors wonderful?” “Mine has pink and purple--my favorite,” said Kayla.” “Well, isn't that something,” said Granny Mac. “Right in this backyard, what other colorful things do you see?” And so, they start looking at flowers. They look at the trees, they look at the animals, they look at fruits and vegetables, and then they start looking each other and realize that they have different colors as well and different colored hair, different color eyes. And then it says, “God must love color to have made all of Earth's people with such wonderful shades. That's something to celebrate. We can celebrate all our differences, the color of our skin, the texture of our hair, the shape of our eyes, nose and lips. Every single person is a part of God's grand design.” And then it goes on and finishes the story in the end with colorful ice cream, which is a good way to end a story.
There's another really touching story called Far from Home: A Story of Loss, Refuge, and Hope by Sarah Parker Rubio illustrated by Fatima Anaya. And this one is about a refugee family and how they have to leave their home and go to a new place to be safe. The little boy is, of course, sad to leave his home. He's scared. He doesn't know what's going on and why they have to leave.
And then when they get where they're going, they have to wait and wait and wait. Then he doesn't like that either. But then this old lady from his country, who's already here. She starts sharing with him a story about another family that were refugees. And it's the story of Jesus and how they had to flee their country for Jesus to be safe. And then she tells what happened and how Jesus became the savior of the world. So she encourages him and lets him know that he's going to have a new home. Then he gets a new home and he embraces his new house and he likes his new room, but ends with a really positive note, even though they acknowledge it's not easy to move to a new country. And especially when you have to leave behind everything you love and know, you may never get to go back and it ends with the scripture from Matthew 2:13- 14, “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up, flee to Egypt with the child, Jesus and his mother.’ The angel said, ‘Stay there until I tell you to return because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother.” This is a beautiful book and really deals with a lot of the emotions and feelings a child may have if they have to flee their country.
And one book I've talked about before that, I have to mention again, because I love it so much. It's called Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say, and this is his story, his grandfather's story and his own story about being Japanese American, well, being Japanese and immigrating to America and his grandfather's life and how he was always sad. You always miss the place you're not in, even though you love the place where you are.
And then one book that is rare, and I think you can only find it on Amazon, is a collection of stories and experiences from third culture kids. And it's called The Kid's Guide to Living Abroad written and compiled by Martine Zoer illustrated by Michelle Christensen. And if you get this book, you'll find one page that is actually written by my oldest daughter. Martine contacted several kids living abroad and had them share their experiences. It's kind of a cool compilation of different children's experiences around the world, living in a different country. Some are from the United States, some are from other places living in different countries. So it's not all just an American perspective of living abroad. I think that's kind of neat.
And there's a lot of books too. If you're in a situation with your kids being third culture kids, that's what TCK stands for third culture kids, children who have been raised in a culture other than their original native culture. They never quite fit in their original culture. They never quite fit in the culture they've adopted because you have a mixture of cultures. And like Allen Say says in his book, you know, the minute you're in one place, you miss the other place. Third culture kids live this way. And my husband's a third culture kid. My children are third culture kids. I've kind of become an adult third culture kid, but I can definitely see a difference between what my experience has been living overseas and moving back home and what my kids and my husband's experience has been. I'm more satisfied with just staying here and being home. This is where we are. I miss Taiwan. And if, you know, that door opened, I would gladly walk through it to move back there, but I'm okay being home too. But my kids are less satisfied, and my husband is less satisfied with just staying here. They really miss their home. And for my husband, Singapore was originally what he considered home, although he lived in Venezuela first, and his first language was Spanish. And then when he was eight or nine, they moved to Singapore, and he graduated from high school in Singapore and then actually went back for a while before finishing college. Then we moved to Taiwan after we got married and had been, well, in 1999, we moved to Taiwan. So he's lived more of his life in Asia than anywhere else. So that feels like home to him, and for my kids, they've lived, well, at least half their life in Asia because none of my kids are 30 yet, and we lived in Taiwan for 15 years. So, you know, at least half their lives were overseas, a difficult adjustment. So if you know anyone who is experiencing that, there's a lot of really great books for third culture kids. There's a lot of great books for those who are not third culture kids to understand third culture kids. If you happen to be a teacher and you're teaching third culture kids, whether they're missionary kids or refugees or whatever, you can gain so much understanding by reading some of these books for teachers of third culture kids, a couple of books for talking with and dealing with third culture kids. If you're a teacher or a caregiver, who's working with children, who've lived in more than one culture. A couple of books I can recommend are Raising Up a Generation of Healthy Third Culture Kids: A Practical Guide to Preventive Care by Lauren Wells. It's got very short sections in most of the book and simple activities and ideas for helping children to deal with the grief and the trauma of moving from one culture to another of dealing with their own feelings of sadness and embracing the opportunity.
And that is one of the beautiful things about third culture kids and living cross-culturally is that you get to experience so much, and you get to meet people from so many other places. We could go pretty much anywhere in the world, and we have friends there. We may only have one friend there, but we have friends all over the world. And my kids love to know that they have friends all over the world, wherever they go.
And other one is Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds by David C Pollock, Ruth E. Van Reken, and Michael V Pollock. It says this book is “the Bible for anyone who wants to understand the blessings in the curses of growing up multiculturally.” And that's a quote from William Paul Young, author of The Shack. This is the third edition. In the first edition. David Pollock started it. This was in 1999. “Third culture kids, TCK’s, are not new and they are not few. They have been a part of the Earth's population from the earliest migrations. They are normal people with the usual struggles and pleasures of life, but because they have grown up with different experiences from those who have lived primarily in one culture, we have seen a set of patterns of behavior or reactions to life emerge that stem from the cross-cultural and high mobility aspects of their upbringing. As I have shared these observations with TCK’s, their parents, teachers, and caregivers throughout the world, a multitude of TCK’s have validated that this is indeed their story.” This book deals with the experience of being a TCK and what that means. Just to understand the way they think, the way they feel. And my own experience has been that TCK’s tend to react one way or the other when they grow up. They either stay put and never move again, or they never stay put. But I think that's very interesting. My husband is the one who never stayed put. His two brothers are the ones who never moved. They both still live relatively, well, one lives right in the same town where he has always lived since he got married or in the same vicinity; the other one lives within a short distance of where he has always lived. This book deals with adult TCK’s, and how to have a healthy life as an adult, how to deal with your grief, how to deal with your feelings and experiences. And it is a grieving process. It took us with moving back to the States, I would say a year or two, to even feel at home. Again, we actually worked in an American church for three years and never felt quite at home, even though we loved the people and loved being there. And we are now working in an international church and feel much more at home in the international community. Finding those places where they can fit in and feel understood and deal with the craziness--that is who we are and what we deal with after living in other cultures. And this is becoming more and more a common part of people's lives. Now I think it's rare to find people who stay in the same place their whole lives. We are much more of a mobile world than we used to be and have experienced many more cultures. I think these books can be quite helpful in helping us to understand each other, helping us to understand ourselves, and to know how to deal with the feelings we have. But we can also do that through the picture books that I mentioned and help children to appreciate each other, to have understanding for each other, whatever, our different cultures, ethnic groups, whatever we're going through as different people, to learn to just be compassionate, to learn to be peacemakers, and to love one another and encourage one another. That's what we're commanded to do as believers in Christ. And it doesn't matter what age we are. That is the command that God has given us--to encourage one another, to build each other up, spur each other onto good works and to love one another. And so if we can help our children learn to appreciate people as unique individuals and look at different experiences in different cultures as something interesting to learn about and to often embrace or to appreciate at least, then life is full and life is rich. And I highly recommend getting to know some of the immigrants and refugees in your area and learning their culture, learning some of their language, and helping them to learn our culture and language.
Thank you for joining us for “Books that Spark,” a podcast celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Please check out my website at TerrieHellardBrown.com. When you sign up for my mailing list, you receive several freebies, and joining my mailing list, you will get one to two emails typically per week: one when the podcasts posts, and one when I put up a blog post. This podcast posts each Tuesday; a blog post goes up each Thursday. And right now, if you go to my blog or to the show notes for this podcast, you will see a link to download the advent calendar listing a Christmas book a day for the whole month of December. I've also included a 25 Acts of Kindness file that you can use with your family. It's a free download as well. I tried to choose activities that are COVID- friendly. So, your family can find ways to do acts of kindness to bless people this season. Those are free for you to download, and I hope that you and your family can enjoy those books together and make memories together during this special holiday season.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts are published each Thursday and discuss living as a disciple of Christ while discipling our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ.
For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Growing older is inevitable; growing up is optional” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
Disclaimer: Although Terrie majored in psychology and sociology for her bachelor’s degree and has taught AP Psychology, she is NOT a licensed therapist. She sometimes mentions items in her blog and podcast that could be considered comments on psychology, but these comments are based on ministry experience and ministering to people through the missions and church work she’s done for the past 36 years. If you have questions about psychological disorders or counseling needs, please consider finding a reputable, licensed counselor in your area. Terrie’s comments should be seen as anecdotal and ministry-experience-related or scripture-based. Thank you!
Keeping Christ at the center of our Christmas celebration can be challenging. Observing Advent can help keep our focus on Christ as well as build memories and family traditions that can make Christmas even more meaningful for our families.
Books Discussed in This Episode:
Transcript:
Welcome to "Books that Spark," a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids.
This has been one of my favorite weeks of the whole year on Thursday. We celebrated Thanksgiving and Sunday was the first day of advent. Today is the 1st of December, and in our house, we're already thinking of all things Christmas. Advent is not a traditional practice in my home church, but advent has always been important to me individually and especially as a mom. It has been important to me that we focus on Christ throughout the Christmas season. Traditions and making memories during this season are especially important to me. And I plan out the season each year, the best I can. When my kids were really little I'd plan when we'd bake cookies and watch movies and shop. And then a few years later, I became the choir director for our church, so the season was also filled with rehearsals and performances. And then I went back to teaching full time and the season got even crazier, especially because some of that time I was teaching in a country that doesn't have a Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday. So we worked all the way through the season and even on Christmas day. Making the holiday special for our family and focusing on worship took a lot of determination.
To help our kids focus on others rather than only on what they wanted, we would take them to Toys-R-Us, to shop for their siblings. It was so much fun. My best friend would come with us, so we could divide the kids up more and shop in different parts of the store. It was a great object lesson as they saw all those toys that they wanted but were required to think of what a sibling would want instead. And because our funds were always greatly limited, we would just have each child draw a sibling's name, so they could focus on that one person and we would give them an amount they could spend. And then we would shop. Of course, we also heard about every toy that they wanted to, but it became a fun event we looked forward to each year. It was also fun because we were shopping in an American store. Taipei had two Toys-R-Us stores back then. And so that was always really a treat for us.
And one of my kids' favorite parts of celebrating Christmas overseas was working with another ministry that would do a live nativity flash mob sort of thing in several places around Taipei, usually at a mall or other public area. And they would dress up like Roman soldiers, shepherds and wise men, and the group had live animals, and each participant would walk among the crowd of people. The wise man would come in trying to find the newborn King asking where he could be found, and they would speak their native languages, which were not Mandarin. So it added to that sense of mystery to the situation. And soon a crowd would gather to hear what was going on as the missionary playing one of the wise men would share the Christmas story and share the gospel in Mandarin. It was exhausting, but wonderful. And I think I'll share a few pictures in the show notes, just for fun, because it was such a neat memory and such a neat event for our family.
We have the tradition in our family on Christmas morning where we have cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, which is definitely not our normal breakfast at all. And then we read the Christmas story. And after that we open prisons, we watch each person open their gifts. We enjoy seeing their reactions. So we aren't one of those pandemonium-ensuing-at-present-time sort of families. It's a time of really cherishing each gift that is given and enjoying seeing each person enjoy what they receive. And then after we finish the presents, it's time to go to my aunt's house for a family lunch together.
Now, when my mom was alive and we happened to be in the Midwest, Christmas was more complicated since my parents were divorced and we would have Christmas Eve breakfast with my mom and stepdad, and my sister's family would join in, and we would open gifts together at mom's house. Then we'd have Christmas Eve evening at my dad's with my sister and her family sharing gifts with Dad and his wife. And then Christmas morning was time for our immediate family. Then Christmas afternoon, we'd drive a couple hours away to my husband's family's Christmas. They always have Christmas lunch and open gifts in the late afternoon together. So that worked out very well.
I'm sharing all these things to point out that each family has their rituals or traditions and ways of doing things. And these are the "right" way of doing Christmas in our kids' eyes. Whatever we develop as a tradition in our family becomes something meaningful to our children that hopefully they will carry on into their adult lives with their family, with their children. And so for Advent, that's why we're talking about some of the things we can do for Advent to make this time special. And we find if we have to change those traditions, it can be upsetting. When we get married, merging traditions can be challenging. Our biggest problem in our marriage was Santa. My family did not emphasize Santa. We didn't have a chimney, and we had kind of a dysfunctional view of Santa. My grandma always told me that Santa would spit tobacco in my eye if he found me awake when he came. And when I asked my dad how Santa got in the house, since we didn't have a chimney, dad told me he came up our toilet since we didn't have a chimney. So I took it all as a bunch of silliness, and I never bought into it much. Although I loved the idea of Santa and the excitement of Christmas morning, just like any other kid. My husband's family, however, did Santa big. They were not very religious at that time, but they would go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. And Santa was their main focus of Christmas. Dave's mom would totally redecorate the whole house for the holiday. So our compromise has been that we pretty much redecorate everything in our house from changing the pictures on the wall to putting up our Christmas town to having at least two trees in the house. We watch as many Christmas movies as we have time for. And we talk about Santa, even though we've always treated it like any other fairytale. We always made the distinction between the true story of Christmas and the fairytales surrounding the modern holiday with our kids. I do that too, with some of the stories that have been made up like The Fourth Wise Man, or, you know, the stories about the donkey, you know, from the donkey's perspective, clarifying with children, that this is an additional thing that is not found in the Bible to make it clear what is for sure true and what has been adapted and assumed or supposed might be true. We talked about St. Nicholas and the story of who he was and how from that we got our Santa Claus. And so I've just always tried to be very honest with my kids and enjoy the season thoroughly, but also didn't try to lie and manipulate. I just never liked that personally.
At our church, we had several traditions that added to the meaningfulness of Christmas, as you know, my husband is a pastor. And, and so as a pastor, he's directed us to do several traditions. Sometimes we've done a hanging of the green service on the last Sunday of November and had a celebration as we decorated the church for the holidays. And even when we didn't do that, we would still have a family tree. And this is a tree we had in the church in each family in the church would bring an ornament to hang on that tree and we would decorate it as a congregation.
We usually have a Christmas Eve service, but it's very family oriented. It's cozy and devotional in nature. Our Sunday before Christmas, we typically do a lessons and carols service. And our Cantata performances were usually the week before that. And each of these, we would pray over each of these services seeking God's leading on what he wanted us to emphasize each time. And I also pray that for my family, what is God wanting us to focus on this Christmas? And I got that from Carol Brazo book, No Ordinary Home. I believe it's out of print now, but if you can get ahold of a copy, it is an amazing book. That book changed my life as a young mom and as a young wife. Excellent, excellent book.
By the way, I have most of my service lineups, narrations, monologues available for free on my website. Feel free to check those out, use them if you would like to. And I hope they will bless you and your family and your church. Let me know if you use them, and let me know how it went and what you did with them. I have some children's plays, all kinds of things. So just check that out on my website at TerrieHellardBrown.com.
Of course, this year is very different, so we're still not sure how that is all going to unfold. But in our church, several leaders and members helped create an Advent devotional book leading up to the new year. It started on November 29th and is going to January 1st. And we mailed that to all our families. For Christmas Eve we'll probably have a video Christmas Eve service online where we'll use a lineup we've used before, where we light candles to tell the Christmas story and sing carols through the different parts of the story. And then have a time of prayer.
One of the things I've done to hopefully make this Christmas a little bit more meaningful is I've created a list of 25 acts of kindness that are COVID-friendly for you to do with your kids during this season., Feel free to download that. It will be in the show notes. And you're welcome to that as well as the Advent calendar that has been up for a few weeks with a story a day throughout the Advent season.
So as we start this Advent season, I wanted to go over a few options for Advent books and calendars. One of them I'll be giving away and you can enter by commenting on my blog. We'll draw the winner at the end of this week. So you need to comment quickly because I want to get that book to you as soon as possible, since we're already starting the Advent season.
And the book I'm going to give away is called The Jesus Storybook Bible a Christmas Collection: Stories, Songs, and Reflections for the Advent Season, by Sally Lloyd Jones and illustrated by Jago. And it's the book that I'm giving away. It is really fun. And one that your kids will enjoy with you, as well as enjoy reading it alone. It has buttons to push that help tell the story. It's narrated by David Suchet. Some of the buttons play Christmas songs, and it shares the story from the fall of man to the Wisemen. And each story is very short and will be easy to share each day leading up to Christmas Day.
Now some Advent devotionals tell the story from the fall of man to the Wiseman coming, or even to the second coming of Jesus. Some Advent devotionals share from Zechariah and Elizabeth to the wise men, and some devotionals share more the themes of advent or character traits that we want to emphasize. So I've gotten an advent devotional that kind of emphasizes each one of these for you to consider, depending on what you feel like you want to focus on with your family.
So the second one I have, if you're interested in adding a little more to each day's Advent experience, you may like The Way to the Manger: A Family Advent Devotional by Jeff and Abbey Land. And this one is meant to become a keepsake book for your family because as each year, you write down responses to the questions you can see your responses in the past and then add to it and make it kind of a journal almost, to be a keepsake for your family to enjoy year after year. And it is written for fairly young children, so as your family grows older, you may want to add to it or include a more in-depth devotional, but this one would be great for creating that positive experience for Advent with your young children as you're beginning these traditions with your children. This one is more of a focus on the themes of each week for Advent.
On the first day it reads, “Think about things for which you might wish. You might wish for a super-power like being able to fly, to leap over a building, or having incredible strength. You might wish that people didn’t die or that you could go to Mars. Every year when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake someone probably encourages you to make a wish.
“Now think about the word hope. If you had to explain what hope means, it might sound a lot like a wish. It’s really not. Hope is an expectation of something you know could happen. A wish is more like a desire for something that might not be as doable. When you study really hard for a big test, you hope you make a good grade. When you don’t study at all for a big test, you wish for a good grade.
“The people in the Bible were hoping for the Savior. They believed what God said, and they were anxiously awaiting His arrival. They knew He was coming because God had promised it.
“Jesus also promised that He would return. Today, as we prepare to celebrate the first time He came to earth, we are hoping and waiting for Him to come again.”
Then in the "Memory Maker" section each week, each family member responds to the questions. And week one asks, "What is something you hope you will get to do this Christmas?" And "What is something you might wish for even if you think it will never happen?" And these are the questions you can return to each year and answer with different answers each year. Then in one section, it has questions children can ask the parents and questions parents can ask the kids, and it has a discussion question. And each week has some "Taking It Further" questions where you dig into the scriptures even more and answer more questions. And also each week has a service project or activity your family can do together. So they focus more on the themes, like I said, of each week, rather than a chronological retelling of the Christmas or Bible story. It is more focused on discipleship and making Christmas meaningful.
I love character studies and emphasizing character traits with my kids. And this next devotional does just that by taking us through the different people in the Christmas story. It's called 25 Days of the Christmas Story and Advent Family Experience by Dr. Josh Straub and Christi Straub and illustrated by Jane Butler. Each day includes a scripture and a question for discussion. This one is brand new and it isn't available until December 10th on Amazon, but I think it would be a wonderful study to go through each character in the Christmas story and talk about the character qualities, the character traits, the lessons we can learn from each person in the Christmas story.
This next one would be a good choice for use in your homeschool possibly, if you want to focus your Bible lessons on Advent. It's called Getting Ready for Christmas: 25 Multiple Choice Bible Studies for Advent by Celesta Letchworth. This study is a chronological study of the Christmas story, starting with Zechariah and Elizabeth and each day has review questions and scripture to read and reread as more questions are answered and an added bonus in this study would be that it could help your child with their reading comprehension, but each day has a devotional thought for inspiring discussion, but it really focuses on answering questions and comprehending the Christmas story.
The next one is very unusual. It's called Christmas in the Heart: Advent Devotional Readings Based on Charles Dickens' Classic A Christmas Carol by Michael Armstrong hall. It's a fun devotional that I like a lot. Admittedly Dickens doesn't discuss Jesus in his story exactly. But this author does. It's very well done and a unique devotional covering the character qualities and the spirit of Christmas, but focusing on Christ. And so each entry has a couple quotes from the story, but then it also brings in a Bible verse that talks about the same quality, the same lesson, the emphasis of whatever the devotional is discussing. But A Christmas Carol is one of my absolute favorite novellas. I love that they have a devotional about it. This one is one I'm going to be reading this Christmas in addition to our church devotional, although I've already read a lot of it since I was preparing for this podcast, but I was still going to go over it each day as well.
Now, there are also a few Advent journals for kids. One I like is called, God with Us for Kids. And there is an adult version of this same journal if you're wanting to do the study and journaling together as a family, and it's from Love God Greatly Ministry, but there are several other journals. Or you could just get a notebook and give your children a prompt each day. There are some, if you go to some of the homeschooling and teacher websites, there are some websites for writing prompts for the whole Christmas season. And some of those have a Christian emphasis, but that's something you could choose to do as a family that could make this a very meaningful Christmas time.
I want to share two more books I really like. Both are board books that have ornaments to go with each day's devotional. One is Emmanuel God with Us Ornament Book with Advent Devotionals from Dayspring and the other is Jesus Is Born Nativity Ornament Book Advent Devotional for Kids also from Dayspring. These are so beautiful. And I love that after each devotional, a child can add an ornament to the tree as a reminder of that day's devotional. You could do this on your own with some planning if you wanted to add an ornament to each day's devotional in whatever book you're reading. That would be fun, but these are done for you. And then of course, there's the tradition of the Chrismon Tree. I had never heard of that when I was younger, but as an adult we've used it a few times, and the kids have helped me make the ornaments for the Chrismon Tree. It helps tell the story of Christmas within each of the ornaments. Typically, traditionally they are white or white and gold. And as you tell the story, you hang them on the tree. There's the dove and the cross and the Shepherd's hook. And you can Google that. I may put a link in the show notes to a website that shows you all of the different ornaments that you create to make your Chrismon Tree. So that would be another option along those same lines.
As I looked at several possibilities for Advent books, one common mistake or problem seems to be that many of them are not well formatted for Kindle. So I would advise you, whichever book you choose, to invest in the hard copy if possible. It becomes more of a keepsake that way for your family anyway. Many have places for journaling or answering questions that you can keep for your family as you celebrate each year, which makes that really special. But even if you do buy the Kindle version, just double check the reviews. Usually you'll see, I go to the ones because the ones tell you if the--mostly the one ratings on most books are because something's wrong with the binding on the book or the Kindle version doesn't work. So I always check those out to see if there's a problem with the Kindle version before I buy it. Just be aware that I did find that on a few of these, that they just aren't formatted correctly for Kindle.
I really hope that this Advent season will help us all to prepare our hearts for Christmas when we can just celebrate our Savior and the sacrifice he made in leaving his throne to come to earth, and then his ultimate sacrifice of dying for us on the cross and being raised from the dead victorious over our sin and over death, giving us new hope, giving us life. And I hope that this Christmas season is just very special for you and your family. This has been a long, difficult year for many of us. I pray that those who have lost loved ones and have gone through losses of jobs, that they would find peace that surpasses all understanding, that they would be comforted and filled with the joy of our Lord. This Christmas I hope your kids find peace as well, that they are encouraged, and that this time is truly a time of celebration.
Thank you for joining us for "Books that Spark," a podcast, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Be sure to check out my website at TerrieHellardBrown.com. When you sign up for my mailing list, you get access to several freebies that are available only to my mailing list. In addition, I have, right now, a link on my website and on these show notes for you to download an Advent calendar and the 25 Acts of Kindness that Are COVID-friendly. I hope these books and these suggestions, these activities, will just be a wonderful family time for you during this special time of year.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts are published each Thursday and discuss living as a disciple of Christ while discipling our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ.
For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Growing older is inevitable; growing up is optional” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
Disclaimer: Although Terrie majored in psychology and sociology for her bachelor’s degree and has taught AP Psychology, she is NOT a licensed therapist. She sometimes mentions items in her blog and podcast that could be considered comments on psychology, but these comments are based on ministry experience and ministering to people through the missions and church work she’s done for the past 36 years. If you have questions about psychological disorders or counseling needs, please consider finding a reputable, licensed counselor in your area. Terrie’s comments should be seen as anecdotal and ministry-experience-related or scripture-based. Thank you!
In this episode we discuss the series of books Little House on the Prairie and several companion products to add to your experience with the series.
Books Discussed in This Episode:
Transcript:
Welcome to "Books that Spark," a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids.
Today. I wanted to talk about one of my favorite sets of books, Little House on the Prairie books. And I know they're very popular with many of you, and this time of year, for some reason, makes me feel like, you know, family gathering around. And it just reminds me of when we would read the Little House books and the family atmosphere throughout the books. And so I thought I would share some great resources that you can use to make this an even more meaningful time together as a family. If you're homeschooling, of course, these are like essential. If you're homeschooling in the United States, if you're homeschooling in Canada, I know most of my Canadian friends actually read Anne of Green Gables like we read Little House on the Prairie here, which I thought was really interesting. And that's another great series of books. In fact, I probably should do an episode on series of books that you can read with your children as a read aloud time as a family, that would probably include, Oh, it would definitely include Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, The Boxcar Children, Chronicles of Narnia, and I like The Magic Treehouse. And I know some people don't want magic stuff when they're reading to their kids, but I love The Magic Treehouse series as well. We have it in both Chinese and English. So those are some good series of books for middle elementary through upper elementary even that you could read with your kids. And if you're reading to your children, I think even starting in first grade, most of these would be fascinating to them. First of all, of course, we have to have the series, the Little House on the Prairie series and they have a new set of books that you can get where it's just in two volumes. That would be really nice to have the most common set of Little House books that we would find today written by Laura Ingalls, Wilder and illustrated by Garth Williams. Those are the ones we've had for quite a few years.
If your children are still picture book age, you're not quite ready to jump into chapter books together, then I would recommend A Little House Picture Book Treasury, which is Six Stories of Life on the Prairie adapted from Laura Ingles Wilder's books, rewritten by Renee Graef. These are available in one volume for the six stories, and it's a really pretty book. The pictures are inspired by Garth Williams. So they're very similar to the ones that are in the other books.
For digging a little deeper into the Little House lifestyle--Annette Whipple, which is this wonderful writer. I was so blessed to get to talk with her at a recent conference. She's very knowledgeable, and she writes a lot of educational books. She has written The Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion: A Chapter-by-Chapter Guide. And it's by Annette Whipple. This is the first book I would recommend if you're going to be teaching the Little House books or you just want to embellish your time of reading together, to dig a little deeper into the culture, to talk with your kids about what it was like to live during that time, and to answer more questions or to try some recipes or crafts that they did. This book is what you need to get. It's got 75 activities in it. It goes chapter by chapter, through all of the Little House series books. It's a great companion to the series. Then there are several books that I recommend if you want to go even further, but if you're only getting one supplemental book, this is the one I would recommend. And that's The Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion: A Chapter-by-Chapter Guide by Annette Whipple. Let me give you an example of what she gives you within this great resource. In Chapter One in the "Dig Deeper" section, it says, "Little House in the Big Woods, which is the first volume in the series takes place in 1871 to 1870 so about 150 years ago. On the opening page Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that there were no houses near the Ingles' family. Though they couldn't see any homes from their cabin. They did have neighbors. Relatives lived nearby. They could even walk to their houses." So these are bulleted points that just give you a little bit more information. And that goes chapter by chapter through all of the books. It says, "Salting meat preserved it by keeping germs from growing. It also gave the meat extra flavor." And then, "Laura Ingalls Wilder was born seven miles or 11 kilometers Northwest of Pepin, Wisconsin in 1867. Pepin is still a small village today." Then she has a paragraph on butchering time and explains that. And then it goes on to Chapter Two. So it just gives you these little snippets of information that kind of enriches what we're reading and helps us to understand what we are reading in the books. There's pictures throughout the book, diagrams to do the different activities. The second part of this book deals with Laura's adult life. And like I said, in the first part of the book she's talking about "Live like Laura." Then there's a section "Live like Almanzo" and talks about his childhood and how to live like a little boy in pioneer times, which I appreciate that we can cover both. And then the last part covers her adult life and takes you to the different parts of where she lived in each book, where they're living in the different stories, and talks about those areas in the United States.
So then part two is "Life Beyond Little House," and she has a quote here from Laura Ingalls Wilder. "I Hate to write the end of the story. No, not the end, no story is ever ended." I love that this starts with The First Four Years when they were in Dakota Territory. She wrote this paragraph that I think is very interesting in this section. It says, "A different Laura? Laura seems different at the beginning of the first four than she did during These Happy Golden Years. With Laura's changes, the tone or feeling of the story changes too. Laura is optimistic in These Happy Golden Years. She trusts Almanzo, especially as a farmer and horseman. In the other Little House books, Laura was happy to help Pa with farm work. She didn't have to. Ma might have preferred that Laura not work in the fields yet. Laura helped care for the animals and worked in the fields during harvest. The character named Laura in The First Four Years said she didn't want to marry a farmer. She was concerned about the hard work of farming and lack of financial stability. Remember The First Four Years wasn't written as part of The Little House series; it was a new story. Like the other books, it was somewhat fictionalized. We don't know if Laura Ingalls Wilder changed the main character's view and tone for something her adult readers would like, or if it reflected her personal experience and feelings." So that's a quote from the second part of this book. And I think that's interesting. So in this section where it says "Live like Laura," it's "Grow a Geranium" and teaches you how to plant a geranium, cook cornbread, and those kinds of things. We know that Laura loved gardening. There is a whole book about gardening based on Laura Ingles Wilder's life. But I haven't read that one. If you search, you can find many, many books that you can look at that might be geared more toward what you're interested in working on with your kids. But this book is a pretty thorough reference tool that you could use. And like I said, I think it would be the first one I would recommend buying as a companion to the actual books.
Now there are some other books that are a lot of fun. This one's a little bit older, but you can actually get it on Kindle Freetime Unlimited if you're signed up for that with your kids. It's called Searching for Laura Ingalls: A Reader's Journey by Kathryn Lasky, and Maribel Knight is the little girl in the book and she helped write it. She's telling the story first-person from her perspective, and Christopher Knight, her father, took the pictures for the book, and they go on a journey to the different places where Laura lived, and she gets to see and experience some of the things that she reads about in the story, including getting leeches on her legs in Plum Creek. It's just a really neat book.
Another one that is really nice is called The World of Little House. And this is by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Eriksson. And this book also includes a lot of different crafts and lifestyle activities that they would do during that time. It gives you maps of the area and shows you just all kinds of things about life during the Little House period of time. It's a good companion book. It's very pretty. I mean, it's done really nicely like a keepsake book or a coffee table book. And so this is a really nice one. If you get it, I would advise getting the hard cover just because it is such a nicely done book for being kind of a special keepsake volume.
The next one is also a keepsake type book. And this one is called Laura's Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder compiled by William Anderson. This one is about her life, and it's like a visual biography. It takes you through her whole life into her adulthood and has a lot of photographs from the period of time and is like having a personal scrapbook or photo album if Laura had put one together for us to have. This one is really beautifully done. Again, it's like a keepsake volume. It would make a great gift for Christmas. And so this one, I would also get in the hardcover if you get it because it is such a beautiful volume.
There are several other fun books that go along with the series. One I have is My Little House Songbook. And this one is illustrated by Holly Jones, adapted from the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's just that it's a songbook of some of the songs that are mentioned in the Little House series. You can only buy this one used, but you can get it fairly inexpensively. And it's really cute.
Cookbooks--There are so many choices of cookbooks. If you want to get those, the same series that has the songbook also has a cookbook. It is still available. Recipes are by Amy Kotler. And again, it's illustrated by Holly Jones inspired by Garth Williams, but we also have recipes in some of the other books I've mentioned. Plus there are several other cookbooks you can even find, but I also wanted to mention my friend's books and she's the president for inspire Christian Writers. I used to be on their board. And if you know anything about inspire, then you know, Robynne Elizabeth Miller. She's a writer and speaker and coach and teacher. She has written several books about Little House on the Prairie. She has several books of recipes. One is Super Simple, Sweet Pioneer Recipes: Five Ingredients or Less. And then she has Slightly Strange Sweet Pioneer Recipes that Are Delicious, Slightly Strange, Savory Pioneer Recipes that Actually Taste Good. And then it seems like she has another one too that has five ingredients or less recipes. So she has all of those available. And one of them is actually on Kindle Unlimited right now. So you can read it for free if you want to get a picture of some of the recipes and what they're like. She clearly explains how to follow the recipe like if it involves canning, how to do that. And so they're great little books, Robynne Elizabeth Miller has also written The Three Faces of Nellie, which is based on the research that she has done. She's been researching the real people who were in Little House on the Prairie books. And so this wouldn't be for your children necessarily. This would be more for an adult reader who wants to learn more. And then The Mouth of Ma is another one, The Search for Caroline Quiner Ingalls. And this is about Laura's mom. These two volumes that Robin wrote are just really interesting books for doing a little more research on your own and learning a little bit more about how Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote. And then she has one more book it's called nonfiction Memoir or Fiction: Dissecting Works of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This one she did as part of her MFA degree is more of an educational look at the works that she did. It says, "Few American authors have produced a significant body of multi-genre work, which has then spawned a vast amount of biographical and historical documentation corroborating or disputing that work. Laura Ingalls Wilder; however, is one of those authors because of this rare convergence. Wilder offers a glimpse into the complexities of semi-autobiographical prose." So this is more a look at the writing, and I haven't read this book yet. So I'm going just by what it says on the website, but I know Robynne, and I know that she researches in great detail and is a brilliant person. So I think it would be a fascinating read. I have it on my wishlist to read and just haven't gotten to it yet.
Another book I'd like to recommend is called Devotionals with Laura: Laura Ingalls' Favorite Bible Selections by Dan L white. And this is a very nice book that shows the scriptures that she highlighted in her Bible, the notes that she wrote about different passages. It's just a wonderful little devotional book and shows more the writing for an adult than for children part of Laura's life. Shares her heart and how she felt in her commitment with God. It's really nice. That one I would highly recommend.
If you're interested in reading the Little House books with your kids and passing that along to them, what's so wonderful about it is sharing what life was like for the pioneers who began to settle America and came here from Europe and all over the world. And it shows some truly American historical things that, that I think are important to share with our kids. And I think it also shows our kids what we have today and how much life has changed. What I loved about the Little House on the Prairie books, for me personally as a child, is it kind of sparked that pioneer spirit in me. And so when God called us to go and to do missions, when we were called to move far away from our family at different times, it was like there was a part of me that was like, "Okay, we can do this." Part of that was because I had read all of these books as a child. And they had inspired me to know that we can face hardships. As long as we stick together as a family, we can go to new places and be brave and experience new things. And I love that we can inspire our kids through the books we read with them to explore life and to face challenges and to not be afraid of whatever God calls them to do. Because we've got the stories, in a sense, the testimonies of other people and what they have lived through and what they have experienced. And it can help inspire our kids. One of my daughter's friends had a Little House birthday party. They had no electricity in the house for the party, and they did pioneer crafts, and they all dressed in their pioneer dresses. They all wore bonnets and everything. They just had a fabulous time. I think it would be so much fun, at some point during the time of reading these books with your kids, to have a pioneer day where you go for a whole day without electricity, or at least a few hours without electricity, without electronics. And experience what life was like back then. So, however you use the Little House books with your kids. I hope you have a great time reading them together and enjoying them together. I hope they become an important part of your kids' lives and challenge them to have a pioneer spirit and to be brave enough to go and do whatever God calls them to do.
And since we're coming up on Christmas, I wanted to share a few story books that are based on the Little House series. One is a chapter book adapted for younger readers from the Little House series. It's called Christmas Stories. And it's by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but it is adapted for younger children. It is for children ages 6 to 10. And then there is a picture book for ages 4 to 6, that is Christmas in the Big Woods. And this one just has the story of Christmas in The Big Woods. The other one has four different Christmas stories from the Little House books adapted for a little bit younger reader. And then there's The Little House Christmas Treasury: Festive Holiday Stories that have the illustrations from Garth Williams and, of course, the stories from Laura Ingalls Wilder. And this is the Christmas story from each of the books in the original series. They just took the Christmas stories from each volume and put it into one book to be enjoyed at Christmas.
And then one final book I wanted to mention is called A Prairie Devotional: Inspired by the Beloved TV Series of Little House on the Prairie. And it's written by Wendy Lou Lee, who was Baby Grace, Laura Ingalls Wilder's baby girl. And she played Baby Grace in the TV series. And she's written a really wonderful book called A Prairie devotional. It's illustrated by Steven Noble. And this is just a very nice devotional book. The devotional talks about different things from the books and from the TV series and from her own life. It's just really nicely done. You will really enjoy the devotionals. They're very thought provoking, very inspiring, and nicely written devotionals. Well, let me just read an example. One of the excerpts, the quote is from season six, episode 11, called "Author Author," and Caroline Ingalls is quoted at the beginning saying, "You better get some more paper then your grandpa's got a whole lifetime of stories in his head." And it's called "Become a Storyteller." Wendy Lou tells the story of grandpa and how he, when grandma Caroline's mother passed away, he was grieving so much. He just wanted to give up. But then Albert asks him about his childhood and he starts sharing stories, and it causes him to come back to life in a sense. And then she talks about her own grandmother who did sort of the same thing. When her grandfather passed away, her stories kept her going and getting to share her stories, kept her involved. Wendy Lou asks us what stories we need to tell. Can we look at the ordinary in life as something special that God wants us to share with others? And then she ends this devotional with "Live your life in a way that your stories will be told a hundred times over." And then she quotes Joel 1:3, "Tell your children about it in the years to come and let your children tell their children, pass the story down from generation to generation." And then she has a couple of questions for thought at the end of that, but I love the format of these devotionals. It just kind of brings a lot to play in the stories and in the thoughts. It's just really kind of a sweet devotional. Again, that's called A Prairie Devotional by Wendy, Lou Lee.
As we close today, I just want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. This Thursday, we celebrate together, and hopefully we can celebrate with family either in person or on Zoom, but I hope that you are very blessed and that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your children, with your family, and that you feel very blessed by our wonderful God.
Thank you for joining us for "Books that Spark," a podcast, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Be sure to check out my website at TerrieHellardBrown.com. When you sign up for my mailing list, you get access to several freebies that are available only to my mailing list. In addition, I have right now, a link on my website and on these show notes for you to download an Advent calendar and also a thankfulness calendar where I give you a book a day to read--a suggested book--for each day of the month of November and December. I hope these books will just be a wonderful family time during this special time of year.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts are published each Thursday and discuss living as a disciple of Christ while discipling our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ.
For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Growing older is inevitable; growing up is optional” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
Disclaimer: Although Terrie majored in psychology and sociology for her bachelor’s degree and has taught AP Psychology, she is NOT a licensed therapist. She sometimes mentions items in her blog and podcast that could be considered comments on psychology, but these comments are based on ministry experience and ministering to people through the missions and church work she’s done for the past 36 years. If you have questions about psychological disorders or counseling needs, please consider finding a reputable, licensed counselor in your area. Terrie’s comments should be seen as anecdotal and ministry-experience-related or scripture-based. Thank you!
In this episode we look at books to inspire creativity, teach about the humanities, teach art skills, and a couple for parents to read to inspire themselves.
Books Discussed in This Episode
Books to Inspire Creativity in Children:
Books with Examples of Great Artwork:
Books for Working on Art Skills:
Books to Encourage Mom and Dad in the Calling to Creativity:
Transcript:
Welcome to books that spark a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. Today. I have some great books to share with you. We're going to be talking about creativity. And first I'm going to talk about a few books that can spark the desire to be creative and the encouragement to help our children take that step. That is sometimes a scary step to show their creativity and to enjoy it and to celebrate it.
One of my favorite books about this is called The Dot written by Peter H. Reynolds, and Reynolds has written several books about creativity that are really, really good, and also about being yourself and taking a chance and stepping out of your comfort zone to express yourself and to make a difference in the world through your own creativity and your own style of creativity. But this a very sweet book. It's about a little girl named Vashti who doesn't think she can draw. And so her teacher has her draw an orange dot on a piece of paper, and she said, "Sign your name to it." And then her teacher frames that picture and that encourages Vashti to try more and more and more. She winds up making a whole gallery of pictures. The book ends with another child coming up to her and saying, I love your artwork. I wish I could draw. And it says, "Vashti smiled. She handed the boy a blank sheet of paper, show me the boys. Pencil shook as he drew his line, Vashti stared at the boy’s squiggle. And then she said, please sign it." We see her passing on the same thing to another child to encourage him to try to be creative. I just, I love the book because it celebrates, even if we think we don't have a whole lot of talent, what we can each do.
He has two different three-book collections or boxed sets. One is called The Big Dreams Collection and it includes Happy Dreamer, The Word Collector and Say Something. There's the box set Creatrilogy by Peter Reynolds. That includes the book, The Dot that I just mentioned and a book called Ish, which I just love. And a book called Sky Color. In Ish, it's also about a little boy. Who's drawing pictures and his older brother makes fun of him. And so he stops drawing because he thinks he's draws terribly. He tries and tries and tries and he just keeps walking up the paper and throwing it down. And he notices his little sister comes along, takes his crumpled paper and disappears with it. And he's chasing her down like, “What are you doing? Give me back that picture. You know, it's, it's not good. It's trash.” And he goes into her room and she has covered her walls with all of his pictures. And he says, why are you doing this? These aren't any good. He's she's like, that's supposed to be a vase with flowers in it, but it doesn't look like a vase with flowers. And she said, yes, it does. It looks vase-ish. Every picture is something-ish. And so it's like, even though he doesn't feel like it's a perfect drawing, it's elephant-ish. It's, you know, dog-ish. And so that's why the book is called Ish. And it's so cute. And, of course, the pictures are really cute that he's drawing, but it encourages him to keep trying and to keep having fun with his drawings, even if they aren't what he would call perfect. And even though his brother gave him a hard time. Sky Color says, “Marisol was an artist. She loved to draw and paint. And she even had her very own art gallery.” And her art gallery is on the refrigerator. “Not all her art hung in a gallery. Much of it she shared with the world. She painted posters to share ideas she believed in.” And it shows “save the ocean.” “At school Marisol was famous for her creative clothes, her box of art supplies in her belief that everybody was an artist. Yes, Marisol was an artist through and through. So when her teacher told the class, they were going to paint a mural for the library. Marisol couldn't wait to begin the classroom buzzed with the sound of brainstorming. The students talked and sketched together. They made a great big drawing. Then they marched to the library. Marisol shouted, ‘I'll paint the sky!’ Marisol rummaged through the box of paint but could not find any blue. How am I going to make the sky without blue paint? The bell rang. It was time to put their brushes down for the day. As she climbed aboard the bus, Marisol kept wondering all the way home. She stared out the window. The sun lowered closer to the horizon later at home. Marisol watched the day, turned into night. That night, Marisol settled into a deep dream. She drifted through a sky swirling with colors, the colors mixed making too many to count in the morning. Marisol stood waiting for the bus in the rain. The sky was not blue. She smiled at school Marisol raced to the library. She grabbed a dish and began adding colors. This one, that one, she swirled the brush to make an altogether new color. Marisol then began painting on the wall. The boy asked what color is that? That Marisol said that is sky color.” And then it shows the mural, and the sky is full of all the sunset colors and stormy colors and everything else. And it's really quite beautiful.
Another fun book to just encourage children to play with color and paint is an old one, but a good one called Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. In this book, there's three white mice and they're trying to hide from the cat. And so, they stand on a piece of paper, and they just blend in. The cat can't find them. But then one day while the cat was asleep, the mice saw three jars of paint, one red, one yellow, and one blue. “They thought it was mouse paint. They climbed right in. One was red, one was yellow, and one was blue. They dripped puddles of paint onto the paper. The puddles looked like fun. The red mouse stepped into a yellow pedal and did a little dance. His red feet stirred the yellow puddle until ‘Look,’ he cried. ‘Red feet in a yellow puddle, make orange.’ The yellow mouse hopped into the blue puddle. His feet mixed and stirred and stirred and mixed until I looked down and said the red mouse and the blue mouse, yellow feet in a blue puddle make green in the blue mouse, jumped into the red puddle. He splashed and mixed and danced until purple. They all shouted blue feet in a red puddle make purple, but the pain change on their fur got sticky and stiff. So they wash themselves down to a nice, soft white, and they did that in the cat's water dish and painted the paper. Instead they painted one part red and one part yellow, and one part blue. They mixed red and yellow to paint an orange part, yellow and blue to paint a green part and blue and red to paint a purple part, but they left some white because of the cat.” I think it's such a cute book.
When we're talking about creativity there's also more than just painting and drawing. Of course. And so, I've got one about dance. This is Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae and illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees. In this book, Gerald is a tall giraffe, and he's got these long legs, and he's kind of clumsy. He buckles at the knee and falls down, and so then he's dreading it because they have a jungle dance every year, and all the animals go to the jungle dance and they just love it. But he feels really bad because he just can't dance. So he just kind of leaves the party while they're all having fun. And he's out in the middle of nowhere and there's a cricket in a tree that talks to him, and he sees the moon and it inspires him. He finds that he just can start swaying to the music he's hearing. And he starts to do this beautiful kind of like a ballet. And after he's been dancing a while, says, “Gerald felt so wonderful. His mouth was open wide. I am dancing. Yes, I'm dancing. I am dancing,” Gerald cried. Then he goes back to the party and he's dancing. It shows him doing kind of a ballet. And then he ends in almost a disco pose, but anyway, he's able to dance and it ends with the idea that “We all can dance,” He said, “when we find music that we love.”
And then there's a couple other books and I know I'm sharing a lot, but in this section, I have more than in some of the other sections that I'm going to be talking about.
There's one, it's called, How Do You Dance by Thyra Heder? And in this one, it's really cute. It goes through all the different moves and different ways people dance and just celebrates dance in general. And then there's The Beautiful Oops by Barney Salzburg. The book itself is part of the story, the illustrations, but also the pages like it starts out with a tear. There's actually a tear in the page, and then you turn the page and that becomes the mouth of an alligator. It's showing how a pop of color can become this or that. It's really cute. And of course I love, and I've mentioned before in another episode, My Mama Had a Dancing Heart by Libba Gray is an excellent one for inspiration. And another one for inspiration that I just love is Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill, and it's illustrated by John Wallner. And I have mentioned this one before, but I think it's a very powerful book when it discusses color and poetry and inspires both. And I believe I have a lesson plan that I have offered for free on my website for that, if you would like to download that.
Now, I believe that we can also inspire our children and by helping them to learn about art and artists. There's several books I'd like to share that are really good for inspiration, for sparking creativity, by seeing what other artists have created. One of these, well, it's actually a set of books by Sabrina Hahn and it's The 123’s of Art and the ABCs of Art. And she has some other books along those lines as well. But these two are just really wonderful. They show classic works of art, the ones through the alphabet. You know, they look at something in the painting that is used for the word in the alphabet. It shows the painting on the next page. And then there's a little paint pallet guy, character who asks a question on each page. So talking about sparking conversations, it's right there in the book for you. Those are The 123’s of Art and The ABCs of Art.
Then we have so many books about the Nutcracker. And since this is getting close to Christmas, I thought it would be fun to mention those. But one in particular is The Nutcracker Comes to America by Chris Barton. And it's The Nutcracker Comes to America: How Three Ballet-Loving Brothers Created a Holiday Tradition. And it tells the story of the very first performance of the Nutcracker in the U S and has a lot of historical information about that first performance and about the Nutcracker in general. And so that's kind of cool. And then, like I said, there are so many other books that are just about the Nutcracker story itself. The Nutcracker in Harlem is one about a performance done during the twenties. When we had the Harlem Renaissance.
Then there's a book called Ludwig Von Beethoven by Mike Venezia. It's a series of books called Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers. And so there's one on Beethoven, went on Bach one on Mozart and others. What's so great about this book. The drawings are cartoonish and fun for the child. It uses some humor in the illustrations. And there's lots of little bits of information, maps, timelines, kind of trivia information besides telling the biography of the composer. And I've shared this one before Author, A True Story by Helen Lester. And it's such a cute, funny book that I just love. And it's her story of becoming an author. And then there's Before They Were Authors: Famous Writers as Kids. And this takes several writers and tells about their whole life story. And I love it because it includes several of my favorite authors in it that made it when I had to have it includes CS Lewis, Sandra Cisneros, Maya Angelo, Roald Dahl, Mark Twain, dr. Seuss Beatrix Potter. There's just so many great writers in this book. It has kind of a graphic novel look to it. And it carries you through the timeline of the person's life from being a child to a writer. It's just very well done. This is geared for 3rd through 5th graders, ages 10 and up. Then there's one called Great Art in 30 Seconds: 30 Awesome Art Topics for Curious Kids. It could be used in homeschooling. It has interesting ideas and fun pages and fun bits of information so that the chapters in this book are:
What Makes Great Art--What Is Art and Why Does It Matter? Why is it valuable?
Early Art--Prehistoric Art, Ancient, Egyptian Ancient, Greek Art,
Ancient Roman Art, and Aztec Art.
The Renaissance--The Renaissance to Rococo
The Neoclassicism to Post-Impressionism
Modern Art
Contemporary Art
Don't think it's a really dry book. It's like it said “in 30 seconds or less.” So each topic is like a page-long. It has lots of glossary words; it's handled in snippets, short amounts of information, chocked full of information. And then it has a sum-up and a three-minute mission that gives what you need for the different activities. So, each section has activities for the children to do so it's really cleverly done. And it's a really nice book.
There's this book called Flights of Fancy: Creative Inspiration from 10 Award-Winning Authors and Illustrators. It has various authors and it's about cause each, each author wrote their own section. They are different laureates from recent years. It explains all about what they do, their method of illustrating, of getting inspiration. And each one gives their ideas and their life lessons in their art lessons writing, illustrating lessons. It's just a really neat hands-on book and introduces children to some authors. They may not remember their names as much, but they'll remember their writing. They each have their point that they want to make and share with the child. And so there's quite a few different writers, 20 ideas for creative projects, and more about the laureates. And it's just really got a lot of information. This would be a really neat book to have in your library.
And then I don't know if you know about the Fan brothers, Terry Fan and Eric Fan. They're both author-illustrators, and they have beautiful illustrations in their books. I watched an interview with them. If you have Kindle Freetime Unlimited for your kids, this particular book is in that section. It's called The Night Gardener. And this one is not your usual kind of art. This is talking about topiaries, but it has a magical feel to it. But what's cool about it, too, is as you're doing that, you can even talk about the Fans, the two brothers, who have really mastered their art and have used it to create fantastic children's books. And this one is actually about their dad, because he would always shape the trees and make topiaries. Now it's an exaggeration of that. It's definitely hyperbole in this book, but it's really a great book and really well done. So that is called The Night Gardener by Terry and Eric fan.
Another cute book that celebrates creation and God's love for us and how he shows through general revelation through nature that He does love us is a book called This I Know: Seeing God in the World He Made by Clay Anderson and illustrated by Natalie Merheb. And in this book, this little girl goes through her day and talks about all the nature she sees, all the things she sees. “Jesus loves me this I know for the butterflies tell me so,” “for the sunrise tells me so,” and it's really cute because it's celebrating God's creation and pointing to the fact that he has revealed himself to the world through His creation. And the whole world tells us that Jesus loves us. It's just a really cute book. If you want to start maybe a unit on art with a book like this, to say, you know, God created all things through creating us in His image. He's created us to be creative, then go into art. I think that's just the best way to go into art classes.
Now there are several more books I want to share, which I know is a lot, but these are fulfilling a different purpose. The first ones are practical art books--some that you can use to help let your kids practice drawing, to practice some different art. And so, depending on what their age is and what they're interested is, here are a few you may want to check out. Now, one is called Blank Comic Book for Kids, and it's where you create your own comic book. You open it up, and it's just a blank journal with different boxes and things drawn so that a child could then draw in their own cartoons.
One of the important skills a preschooler needs to learn is scissor skills. And so any book you can find with scissor skills in it is excellent because it helps with their writing. It helps with their reading, and it helps with their coordination. Scissor skills are really basic and important. This particular book is from Modern Kid Press, and it's called Scissor Skills Preschool Workbook for Kids: A Fun Cutting Practice Activity Book for Toddlers and Kids Ages Three to Five.
We cannot have a book list about art and kids drawing without mentioning Ed Emberley. He has many books about drawing and it simplifies the pictures down to shapes and squiggles and makes drawing really accessible to just about any student, regardless of their ability or their past experience with drawing one book in particular, his Drawing Book of Animals. And it has all the different animals. It's one of my favorites. And again, that's by ed in Burley. So any of his books are really good. There's some where he uses fingerprints to draw different things. And then there's one called Create This Book by Mariah Elizabeth and you. And it's a blank book with writing prompts on each page and even places to draw in all kinds of things on it. You get to color the cover of the book even. And so it's a lot of fun. It's just a totally interactive book.
And two more books. These are for moms and dads. The book is Called To Create: A Biblical Invitation to Create Innovate and Risk by Jordan Raynor. And this is a fun book for us to read as parents, not about our children, but just for our own growth in the Lord and discipleship to understand that God has a plan for us and how he can use us. In his book he says, and this is in the first, I think this is actually still in the intro to the book, “The great theologian, Jonathan Edwards once said, ‘What God aimed at in the creation of the world as the end, which he had ultimately in view was that communication of himself, which he intended through all eternity.’” And that's a quote from Edwards. And then Raynor says, “If God is the source of all goodness, then revealing himself and his character to us is one of the most loving things he could do. So God appears to have created for the good of others by revealing his character, but Genesis hints at a second way, in which the first entrepreneur loved others through his creating in Genesis 1:26, we find the word ‘our’ for the first time in scripture, indicating that the God of the Bible is a triune God composed of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Before God brought the world into being, the Trinity had been enjoying perfect community, submitting to each other, loving each other, and serving each other for all eternity. Jesus’ prayer prior to his crucifixion gives us beautiful insight into the Trinity's relationship. Jesus looked toward heaven and prayed ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify You, for You granted Him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those You have given Him. Now, this is eternal life that they know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” In this, He talks about who God is in his creative nature, but then he helps us to recognize our work, whatever God has for us to do--our vocation or any other ministry or work is a calling that God has called us to--motivates us to be creative and to want to create and teach us how to create in whatever setting he has put us.
And then another one that I have mentioned before that I would, again, like to recommend is Emily P. Freeman’s A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live. It's just so inspirational. I just highly recommend it, but these are some that we can use that we can read to inspire us. And then we can help then hopefully to inspire our children, to be creative, to use the arts, to breasts, the love they have for God that God gave, gave them that ability. And when we look at Ephesians 2:10 in the Amplified Bible: “For, we are his workmanship, his own masterwork, a work of art created in Christ. Jesus.” I love the, that verse and I love how we can encourage our children, that God has created them and shaped them and has a plan for them. And he has prearranged those things he wants for us to do, and he will enable us to accomplish them if we will trust him. Thank you for joining us today for books that spark a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations and wonderful creative activities with the children in your life. Remember to check out my website, TerrieHellardBrown.com. And when you sign up for my mailing list, you get several free items as well. And right now we also have the advent calendar you can download that has a book a day to read with your children through this holiday season.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts are published each Thursday and discuss living as a disciple of Christ while discipling our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ.
For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Growing older is inevitable; growing up is optional” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
Disclaimer: Although Terrie majored in psychology and sociology for her bachelor’s degree and has taught AP Psychology, she is NOT a licensed therapist. She sometimes mentions items in her blog and podcast that could be considered comments on psychology, but these comments are based on ministry experience and ministering to people through the missions and church work she’s done for the past 36 years. If you have questions about psychological disorders or counseling needs, please consider finding a reputable, licensed counselor in your area. Terrie’s comments should be seen as anecdotal and ministry-experience-related or scripture-based. Thank you!
In this episode we discuss helping children appreciate and enjoy their names, others' names, and the names of God.
Books Discussed in This Episode:
Transcript:
Welcome to "Books that Spark" a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids.
Today I'm so excited to share with you some really sweet books about names and how God knows our name and the meaning of names and the importance of our name. The first book is a fun book that I have loved for years. And it's called Mommy Doesn't Know My Name by Suzanne Williams illustrated by Andrew Shachat. So it's a cute book about how we use pet names with our kids. It starts out, "My mommy doesn't know my name. When I wake up in the morning, she comes in to get me. 'Is That my little chickadee?' She says. I'm not a chickadee. I'm Hannah. After I'm dressed, we have breakfast. My cup slips, and I spill orange juice. 'Oh No!' I cry. 'It's Okay, Pumpkin,' says Mommy. 'Accidents Happen to everyone.' Do accidents happen to pumpkins?" And she says, "I'm not a pumpkin. I'm Hannah." And so it goes through the whole book with all these different names that her mom calls her throughout the day. And as she's going to bed that night she has one more time that her mom calls her a little mouse and she says, "I'm not a mouse. I'm Hannah." And she says, "'Yes, I know,' says, mommy. She gives me a hug. 'Your Hannah, my very own happy little, funny little girl.'" And I just love this book. I think it is so cute and such a sweet book to share with our kids. And I think it would cause a lot of giggles and laughter as you share it together.
Another very sweet book is called Your Name Is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow. This book deals with the different names that people have, especially from different ethnicities and how sometimes those are hard for us to say and encourages a positive outlook on it--that the name is a song. It's beautiful, and it has its own rhythm and its own meaning. So this little girl takes time to learn people's names. And her mom teaches her instead of being upset about her name and the teacher having trouble pronouncing it, to help the teacher pronounce it correctly. And then also to learn her friend's names and to kind of sing their names because the name is a song. And so it's just a really wonderful book. I really appreciate the message in it to be patient with each other. First of all, when we mispronounce names or don't know quite how to pronounce them and to also encourage children to not be embarrassed by their names if people mispronounce them or tease them about them, but to embrace our names that we've been given and to understand the importance of those names and that they are beautiful. My Chinese name, my mom has always said was it doesn't sound pretty in English, you know, to an English ear. But to any Chinese speaking person, they always say, "Oh, what a beautiful name?" I think that's so interesting because our ears are used to hearing names a certain way, sounds a certain way. And we have to learn to understand in other cultures and in other languages, the names are beautiful to the ears of the people, and we need to help each other learn that everyone's name is beautiful.
And then Debbie Anderson has a very cute book: God Knows My Name. And this little book talks about how God knew us before we were born, that he created us and that he's the God of the universe. And yet he knows our name. The illustrations are colorful and cute. And it's just a lovely little book. And there's also a pamphlet that you can get--a pamphlet version of the book, which is nice because you could get a pack of 25, and it shares the gospel in this same way--God knows my name. So in this book it says, "God made everything and God knows everything. God knows me. He even knows my favorite color. What's your favorite color? Surprise. God already knew it. God knows my name. He even knows how many hairs are on my head. Can you count how many hairs are on your head? What is your name?" And it gives scripture to go with each one of these. "Before God made the world, he knew about me. Before I was born, God knew what would happen every day of my life." It's just a cute little book and shares the gospel and how God has known us before we were born.
Another book that's really cute about names is Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. And this is a cute story of a little girl who loves her name thinks that it's just perfect until she goes to school, and the children tease her about her name. She goes through a terrible time, and she doesn't think her name is perfect. She thinks it's dreadful. And then her parents talk to her when she gets home, and she likes her name again a little bit, and it goes back and forth. And then finally the music teacher helps the students to understand that her name is great, and all names are great. And the kids decide to take on flower names themselves. And so they change their names to flowers, but it's a cute little story and a good one, especially if your child is having a hard time with what kids are saying at school, if they're teasing them about their name.
So these two books are really good for those purposes and to help a child embrace the name that they've been given. And another one along these lines, and I think I've mentioned this in another episode, is The Name Jar by Yongsook Choi. And this one is about a Korean girl who comes to school, and everyone always mispronounces her name. So she's going to let them choose a name for her. And so there's a name jar, and they can put names in the jar, and she's going to choose one. And of course she winds up keeping her Korean name because when the children realize what her name means, they think it's just a lovely name. So I love that book too. It's really cute.
I love this next book. It's called The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig and illustrated by Patrice Barton. And it's not exactly about a person's name, but it is about a child who's invisible to everyone else in the class because you have the child that's always complaining and gets all the attention and you have the child, whose the star of everything. And he gets all the attention. This little boy is invisible. His name is Brian. He's always the last one to be picked for a game, if he's picked at all. He's not included in anything. And so it's like no one sees him. He feels invisible. And Brian loves to draw. He draws all kinds of pictures, and it's just really cute. A new boy comes to class named Justin, and he's Korean. Everyone's making fun of his food. He has bulgogi for lunch. And everyone's like, Ooh, that sounds terrible. And Brian writes him a note and says, I thought the bulgogi sounded good. And so that made Justin aware of Brian. Then when they go to have an activity in class or play on the playground, Justin starts including Brian. That makes all the difference because now Brian isn't invisible anymore. And even in the pictures in the book, all of a sudden we start seeing through the whole first part of the book, Brian is black and white. He's kind of a shadow where all the other kids are in color. And then on the page where Justin starts including him, he starts to gain some color. And then for the rest of the book, he's the same color as everybody else. He has full color clothing and everything. And then they do a project and Justin's like, "Oh, I bet Brian could draw the pictures." And they do one of the best little presentations together using their gifts and their abilities. And it's just a really cute book about how on both sides of it. And I think that's why I like this so much. He feels invisible, but he takes the time to encourage someone, and that makes him visible to that person. So sometimes a shy child feels helpless and feels like they can't change their situation. I think if we can help them understand that they can be proactive to help change their situation by encouraging people and being a positive, optimistic person just in their attitude and what they say to others--if they encourage others, if they are friendly to someone else, then chances are that person's going to be friendly back to them. And it's not a hundred percent, but it is a better chance of them being friendly rather than ignoring you, you know, if you're also being an encourager. And so I liked that about it. He helps out with a kid who is feeling teased as well. And so he encourages that child and becomes his friend first when everybody else has given him a hard time. And I like it that then it shows that even if a kid is left out, someone can reach out to them and make a difference. So it shows all sides of the situation and how kids can help each other to feel accepted and part of the group.
Another cute book it's called The Change Your Name Store by Leanne Shirtliffe and illustrated by Tina Kugler. In this story, it's the story of Wilma Lee Wu, who does not like her name at all. She likes everything else in her life, but not her name. And so she finds the Change Your Name Store and goes to town and hunts around and finally finds store and meets the owner Zeena Fouz, the store owner tells her she can choose a name and to choose wisely. And so she chooses her first name and she gets a little card and this is a magic store. So when she chooses that card, it transports her to the land. That name comes from. And so the first name is French that she chooses. And so she winds up at the lube in France and wearing French clothing and she hangs around for a minute, but she really doesn't feel like this is for her. She feels like she's on display, like a painting at the museum. So then she chooses another name and winds up transported to the middle East. And then she winds up choosing a Hispanic name. And so she winds up in all these different countries. And then at long last she finds the perfect name for herself and she is so excited and she takes that card and goes home and tells her family she's found her perfect name. And of course it is Wilma Lee Wu. Because her culture and her name fits her the best because that's who she is.
This one is one I really like. It's called My Name Is Sangoel. And it is written by Karen Williams and Khadra Mohammed and illustrated by Catherine Stock. And it's geared toward first through third graders. It is written about a boy from Sudan and his teacher can never get his name right. He tries to be patient. He tries to be understanding, and his grandfather told him to be patient. And so he's really working hard to be patient, but then he comes up with an idea of how he can help his classmates and his teacher pronounce his name correctly because it's spelled Sangoel. And so his teacher keeps calling him sin go well. And so he draws a sun and a soccer goal on his t-shirt and says, my name is sun goal. And the kids are like, Oh, of course now I get it. I know how to pronounce it. And the children all think it's a wonderful idea to do a Rebus of their names too. And so they get paper in, they each draw a picture of what their name is and how it's pronounced. And I just love that because I think anytime we read a book where a child is solving a problem or making a difference, I think those are powerful, powerful books. That's why I love this because he solves a frustration with intelligence and creativity and ingenuity rather than being angry and just getting upset.
And then one of my favorite stories I've had for years is called Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel and Blair Lent. It is a retelling of an ancient Chinese folktale, and it is so funny. It is such a cute story. It has such a lyrical component to it, with the name of the child in the story. Because, according to this folktale, originally to have an honorable name meant that you had a very long name in Chinese culture. And so the main little boy who's the oldest in the story is Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. In the story he falls into the well, and so his little brother runs as fast as he can to get his mom. He has such a hard time alerting people to the emergency because he takes so long to say his brother's name that he can't tell them, "Please come quick! He's drowning!" But they do save him finally. And the mother decides it would be wiser to have a shorter name--that short names save lives.
If we're going to talk about names, we have to talk about God's name and understanding what his name means. And there are several books written for children about the names of God. I chose two that I think are really good. One is God, What's Your Name? It's Discover for Yourself Inductive Bible Studies for Kids. And this is for children, 8 to 12 years old, and it's written by Kay Arthur and Janna Arndt. Both of those writers I just think are great. And I love the way the book is set up. It has puzzles and games throughout the book, but it lets the child dig into the word of God and find and understand God's name. And so it's an excellent book for your older children.
And then for your younger children, this one's written for grades one through five and so six to 10 years old, it is called, I Am Devotional: 100 Devotions about the Names of God by Diane M. Stortz. And she has several books about the names of God, and all of them are illustrated by the same illustrator, a French illustrator, Diane Le Feyer. Beautiful illustrations, beautiful books, but this was my favorite of hers, but she has a board book as well that's a good companion book to this one. And she has some other books that deal with other names of God but this one is written really nicely for the younger elementary child. And let me just read a little bit to you. Okay? So this one, it starts out and it has "Hello. My name is," and it says, "God said to Moses, I am who I am. When you go to the people of Israel, tell them I am sent me to you." Exodus 3:14. "At Day camp, or on a field trip you have probably worn a name tag. That way teachers can call you by name. They don't have to yell. 'Hey, You!' When God spoke to Moses at the burning Bush, he wanted Moses to tell the Israelites that God would save them, 'But the people will want to know who sent me,' Moses replied. 'When They ask, what is his name, what should I say to them?' 'I am who I am,' God told Moses. 'That Is my name forever. Tell the people that I am sends you to rescue them and bring them out of Egypt.'" So that's how it starts. It tells more of the story and then it has a place for going deeper and to dig into some other scriptures. What I love, too, is the lessons she teaches throughout this book. Like the second lesson's, "What's in a Name." And it talks about when you know someone's name, well, Psalm 9:10, "Those who know your name, put their trust in you." So when we know God's name, we know we can trust him. Then she talks about not using God's name in vain. And then she talks about some of the other names like creator and Elohim, God of truth, El Emeth, but there's a lot of good discipleship in this. It's not just talking about the name of God. It's what that means to us as followers, as believers in Christ. And I think this would be just a great family Bible study to do together with your kids, or if they want to do it on their own, it would still be great. But I love what she does with the lessons. And they are short lessons. You could go through them fairly quickly as a family, but they're just nicely done. And the other one is much more of a study. So you could use it as a Bible study with older children. You could do it as a small group or Sunday school even. It's really done well to be used where you answer questions and do activities and search into the Bible. Like I said, it's an inductive Bible study. And so both of these are really good. There's some others too, but these were my two favorites of all the ones I looked at. And I think they would be great for helping your children to learn and understand and appreciate the names of God and how through his names, he reveals who he is.
And just a little side note, one of the things I respected so much. This one minister, I knew whenever his kids went out, when they were teenagers and older elementary, when, they would go out to a party or hanging out with friends or whatever, he always said, "Remember your name?" And I thought that was so interesting. They had a family identity. He expected his children to remember their name and that they were part of that family and to live up to what that name stood for. And I thought, how amazing is that to teach our children, that our names matter, and our family identity matters. And who we are as a family is important, and how we represent our family and as well God's family, when we're out. We need to keep in mind that we who we are and not lose sight of who we are when we get around other people. I thought that was such a profound lesson to teach kids. And I've tried to emulate that with my children because I thought it was so good. Not to harass our children and put shame on them. And like, "You better not embarrass me when you're out there." It wasn't that attitude at all. It was more of respect for who you are and to not go against who you are because of what others are doing or saying--to have the strength of character to stand and say, "This is who I am. And I don't want to take part in that." You know, whatever it is that might compromise who you are. Or while you're out to just remember that you are an ambassador of Christ--that you represent him and that you want to let his light shine through you and not our selfish motives and our bad attitudes that we can get at times. And so I think to challenge our kids to think that way, and to challenge ourselves to think that way, I mean, we're supposed to be salt and light. We're supposed to be, you know, glorifying God, making his name known among the people. And we can't do that if we're going against who we are. And we bear the name of Christ. So helping our children understand the importance of their given name, the importance of the name they wear as Christian, is a profound and important lesson we can all learn and we can all teach our kids.
In the past. I've talked about the book Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd Jones, illustrated by Jago. But I wanted to read an excerpt from this book to you. And this is found on page 145 in the book. It's called "Mighty Man of Valor." "The angel said, 'The Lord is with you, Oh, mighty man of valor.' Judges 6:12. Who is this fearsome warrior? The angel is talking to? See that puny weakling hiding over there in the wine press? 'He's The man for the job,' God said. Gideon, the smallest son, of the smallest family, of the smallest tribe of Israel. Why on earth would God choose him and call him 'mighty' when he was nothing of the sort? But God called Gideon by his true name, and Gideon became what God knew he was all along--mighty! Because God sees not just who you are, but who he is going to make you." And I love this so much, especially as we're talking about names, to talk about how God has names he calls us. And we know in the Bible, there are times when he has called people and actually changed their name, like Jacob to Israel and Saul to Paul. But he also has called us many names throughout the Bible, as the church and as followers of Christ, we are the bride of Christ. We are the branches on the vine. We are light and salt. And what do all these names mean when God shares his name with us, it reveals his character. It reveals who he is. And so these names that he has called us reveal who we are and who we're supposed to be in him. And so we can bless our children as we pray for them. And we see what God is doing in their life and what he is building in their life. We can see what God is doing in their character and who he's creating them to be--someone who is loving and patient, someone who is an encourager at heart and a peacemaker. And we can also see that in our own lives--what is God building in our lives? What name is he calling us? How can we walk in that?
Thank you for joining us today for "Books that Spark," a podcast celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Remember to check out my website, TerrieHellardBrown.com. And when you sign up for my mailing list, you get several free items. And right now we also have an Advent calendar you can download that has a book a day, actually through November and December, but an Advent calendar that has Christmas books you can read all through the holiday season, and, for November, books on Thanksgiving and on thankfulness that you can share with your family. You can download that for free. It'll be in the show notes, and it is on my website.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts are published each Thursday and discuss living as a disciple of Christ while discipling our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ.
For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Growing older is inevitable; growing up is optional” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
Disclaimer: Although Terrie majored in psychology and sociology for her bachelor’s degree and has taught AP Psychology, she is NOT a licensed therapist. She sometimes mentions items in her blog and podcast that could be considered comments on psychology, but these comments are based on ministry experience and ministering to people through the missions and church work she’s done for the past 36 years. If you have questions about psychological disorders or counseling needs, please consider finding a reputable, licensed counselor in your area. Terrie’s comments should be seen as anecdotal and ministry-experience-related or scripture-based. Thank you!
In this episode we look at books about the history of Thanksgiving, the traditions of today's Thanksgiving, and building an attitude of gratitude in our families.
Books Discussed in This Episode
Transcript:
Welcome to "Books that Spark," a podcast for parents and caregivers celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids.
Today, we're going to look at books that go with Thanksgiving. And since this is the beginning of November, I thought we could take time to talk about books of Thanksgiving, so you have time to get them if you want to read them for the Thanksgiving holiday. First, let's look at some great books--picture books and story books--about the history of the American Thanksgiving. I want to share some books with you that I just have loved over the years. I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday because of the family time we have together and the being thankful, helping our kids to understand the importance of Thanksgiving, of being thankful for what God has provided for us. I think teaching our children to be thankful is one of the most powerful things we can teach them. It helps them to be grateful for what they have and to look at the blessings in their lives, even when going through hard times. And so I think as parents, we really have the responsibility to help them understand the power and the importance of being grateful.
And part of that with Thanksgiving is also the history. And I know that some today would rather us change the history or not talk about what happened back then, but history is history, and we learn from history when we teach what history really was all about. I think it's also important to help children see things from another person's perspective, and part of that is understanding that the mindset back then, right or wrong, was what it was. I think sometimes we vilify historical figures because we're judging them from a 21st century perspective. And we have to help our children understand that their attitudes were different. Their understanding was different. I mean, even Mark Twain--his family owned slaves, and it wasn't until he met his wife. From what I understand of the history, he met his wife and she was an abolitionist. She was from Connecticut. She did not agree that slavery was okay. Well, for Mark Twain, he had never even thought about it. It was just a way of life in his family at that time. And in his culture where he grew up and sad and as horrible and evil as it was, he had no other understanding. And so then when he was exposed to this other way of thinking, he started realizing this isn't right. And you see it in his writing of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There's one line, my favorite line in the whole book--I feel like it is the climactic line, the turning point for Huck Finn's understanding--is when he realizes that Jim is a person; he realizes he has pain from missing his family and regrets for the way he treated his daughter. And he sees him for the first time as a human being. And to me, that is so powerful. And we know that Mark Twain changed his viewpoint. He changed his attitude about slavery once he was exposed to the other way of thinking.
So what we need to do is when we study history and we see these attitudes that today we find appalling and of course would never want our children to think slavery was okay, or to think that it's okay to go and just take over someone else's land. So when we teach our children, we need to help them understand that we learn from history. We learn from the mistakes of the past; we help our kids to understand the thinking that was prevalent back then, why they did what they did, and then, was it right? Would it be right for us to do that today, and help them to think through these things. We want to raise thinkers. We want to raise people who can reason and debate and think through, and not just accept everything that they're fed at face value.
We have a foundation of character traits and biblical teaching of the truth of what is right and wrong. What is good and bad. And we live our lives. According to that, we want to help our children to embrace those values as well. And to understand how to then look at whatever situation they face and understand how to navigate the complexity of life as they live it out. If we just jump on a bandwagon without really examining what the people are teaching and what their foundational ideas are, why they did what they did, the motivation behind what's going on, we wind up just being blind followers who buy into whatever sounds good at the moment. It's a recipe for disaster in many situations. So I think when we're talking about Thanksgiving, we need to help our children have a wider view and understand what was going on at the time and what the thinking was at the time.
Okay. So I'll give you a really quick little history lesson. And if you remember your history, the Puritans were the Protestants who pulled away from the Church of England because they wanted to live a life, a simple life, following the Bible and not following the church of England. And so they were being persecuted, and they had gone to Holland to try to find freedom, but their civil rights were also hindered. And they didn't like what was being taught in that culture. They felt that it was wrong, and it was against what they believed and that their children were growing up in that culture. So they decided they needed to go to the New World.
So that's what's behind the Pilgrims. And of course, pilgrim means traveler, usually a religious traveler going somewhere because of their faith. And usually we talk about pilgrimages going to a Holy site, but in this case, the Pilgrims were going to find religious freedom in the new world. That is a part of our heritage here in the United States. So through talking about the history of Thanksgiving, I feel like we can focus on civil rights. We can talk about the heritage that we have as a result. We can talk about religious persecution. And then, of course, we want to talk about thankfulness. So this month, for sure, we want to talk about Thanksgiving and being thankful and the power of being thankful. It changes your whole outlook on life. So let me share a few fun books with you.
Now, some of these, you know, me, I have books that I have kept for years. And so some of these, if you wanted to buy them, you would have to buy a used copy, probably, because they are so old, but I've hung onto them because they're so great. I just love them. Okay. So one of the books, and you can still get this one, even though it is quite old is The First Thanksgiving Feast by Joan Anderson. And it's got photographs by George Ancona. And this is where there are several books I like that are from the reenactment of the Pilgrim's life in the Plymouth Plantation today, which is like a living museum where you can see how they lived their lives. And so this is one of those. So everything in this book is a photograph taken from the reenactment of the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Plantation, along the same lines. We have Samuel Eaton's Day; A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy by Kate Waters, photographs by Russ Kendall. And this is at the Plymouth Plantation. It goes through the process of what they wore and how they would go through their day and what responsibilities a young boy would have in that day and time. And so it's very eye-opening for our students, for our children to see all that this little boy would have to do. I mean, just reading it makes you tired. Same with the one that's about Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times. And again, this one is also with photographs from the living museum of the Plymouth Plantation. And in addition to those two, we have Sarah Morton's Day. These are all by Kate waters. The photography is by Russ Kendall, and they are all from the Plymouth Plantation. And so it takes you through a typical day for a young boy, Samuel Eaton, or Tapenum, who is one of the native American child, and then Sarah Morton. One of my favorite parts of the Sarah Morton's Day is just looking at how she had to get dressed, the layers and layers and layers she had to put on every day. And, you know, we complain when we're uncomfortable in our clothing. I just get the sense that there was very little comfort in their life. Everything was hard. Work, expectations were high on each of these young children to fulfill their responsibilities. And it was just the life they were used to. But if we imagined ourselves in that situation, our kids would probably cry. These are excellent books, excellent resources for helping our children to see what the life was like during that time. And then we have one by these same two people, Kate Waters and Russ Kendall On the Mayflower: Voyage of the Ship Apprentice and a Passenger Girl. So this is taking a look at what life would have been like actually on the Mayflower, as it is reenacted as a living museum as well. Same thing with the photographs of the different people, portraying life on the Mayflower. If you go to Plymouth today, of course, you can see the replica of the Mayflower that they have anchored at the shore there in Plymouth, near Plymouth Plantation. And you can go to Plymouth Plantation and see the living museum. But even if you don't do that, just going to Plymouth and touring all the different shops is cool. My husband's family has a museum there, a real small museum, at the Harlow House because that's some of his family's heritage. And so it's really eye-opening and a lot of fun to see the culture from that time, the history that has been preserved. If you go to the Harlow House, it's a small museum. Mr. Harlow didn't come over on the Mayflower. He came right after in one of the groups that came over, but he was a Coopersmith. So he built barrels for supplies and stuff like that. But if you go to that museum, they let you weave. They let you try some of the different skills that these children would have done on a daily basis, that they would have learned and known how to do. And so that was a lot of fun for my kids to get to do that.
Another book that I really love is called Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness. And it is based on three real children who came over on the Mayflower. It talks about the life of that time. The pictures in here, I just love the pictures. They're very detailed. They show a lot of information and they label the parts of the ship. It's a very wonderful educational book that if you can get a copy of it, I've hung onto it for years, because it is so full of great information about life back then. And what happened to some of the people who came over on the Mayflower. If you remember your history, half the people died either coming over or during that first winter when they arrived here because they arrived much later than they planned. And so life was very difficult and these children lost their mother.
Then we have some books that are a lot of fun. This one was from 91, so it's still kind of old. If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, and this book, it takes you through what life was like on the Mayflower. It tells the history of why they left, why they didn't stay, where they were, the details of how many people were on the Mayflower. There was a baby, of course we know, born on the Mayflower, and he was named Oceanus. It talks about what they ate. Just the whole thing of what it was like to be on the Mayflower.
This one, I really like. It's called You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower. And this one was from 2013, so still it's not brand new or anything, but it's written by Peter Cook and illustrated by Kevin Whelan. And it's just a fun, crazy look at the Mayflower and what life would have been like. And I just liked that they titled it You Wouldn't Want To, and they have several in that series of You Wouldn't Want To books. And, of course, we have Horrible Histories as well, that I've mentioned before, that appeal more to the middle-schooler and your sixth graders through middle school and even into high school. There's a lot of great books you can look at for history.
Then we have just fun children's stories that you can get for your kids that talk about life back then and what they went through that are told from a different perspective. For instance, we have one that is called Pilgrim Cat written by Carol Antoinette Peacock and illustrated by Doris Ettlinger. The illustrations are really nice. The story is told from the perspective of a little girl's experience with the cat on the ship. The writer found out that there were cats that did come across on the Mayflower with the Pilgrims. And so she made up this fictional story about little Faith, a little Pilgrim girl who was on the Mayflower, befriending this little cat, she named Pounce. And it is just an adorable little story. And again, it covers all the history of the Pilgrims' first year, their travels on the Mayflower, and also their encounter with Squanto and the different Indian tribes, as well as the first Thanksgiving.
Now, when we talk about Thanksgiving, there are many books about Squanto. And one of the ones that I have is Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas. And it is a really great retelling of his story. He is, his life was so fascinating. He was one of those people who learned to persevere, to forgive, to continue on, and make the best of whatever life brought his way. He was taken into slavery. Then he went to England and learned English. He, my understanding is, he became a believer in Christ, and he came back home to find that his whole tribe had died from a disease, I think smallpox, that had been introduced by different explorers. He was the only one of his tribe left. And so he came and lived among the Wampanoags and the other Indian tribes in that area. And he also helped the Pilgrims to communicate with the local tribes. If it weren't for Squanto, we probably wouldn't have the same story we have of Thanksgiving, because it would have been much more difficult for the Pilgrims to communicate with the Native Americans. He also taught them how to plant and how to put fish in the ground to help fertilize the ground so that the corn would grow. He introduced them to growing corn. So Squanto really was a catalyst in the Pilgrims' lives to help them survive in America. It's sad all he went through, but it's wonderful to see how God redeemed the situation and used his life in such a profound way.
Now let's look at some books that celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving and the traditions we celebrate today during the fall months. During the Thanksgiving holiday, we always try to invite someone who's new to our country, either an international student or an international person who's working in our area that this is their first Thanksgiving. We try to share that with them in our family here in California, we typically get together at my aunt's house, and there will be over 20 people at our Thanksgiving. And it is a wonderful feast and a wonderful time of fellowship. And we love bringing people into that time and showing them what an American Thanksgiving is like today.
There's some really cute little story books, of course, about being thankful. One of them is called I Am Thankful: A Thanksgiving Book for Kids by Sherri Wall, illustrations by Holly Clifton-Brown. And this is a cute story. It says "The calendar says November is here. The leaves do a dance. Fall colors appear. Family and friends with grins ear to ear will gather together. Thanksgiving is near." And so it shows different families getting together for the holiday and shows the American Thanksgiving basically, and the children are helping get ready for Thanksgiving. They help grandma go shopping. They help mom clean the house. And then it says, "I am thankful. My heart grows. Love fills me from head to toes. We load into cars and drive many miles. The patch is so full of long pumpkin aisles. I climb in the wagon and sit on hay seats. The farmer's lips whistle as he drives through the streets." And so it shares the experience of going to a pumpkin patch and taking a hayride and making the different Thanksgiving treats. And I just love it because it shows so much of the culture of what we do at Thanksgiving and the different family activities that we take part in typically during this time of the year. And so it's just a really cute book, but it comes back to always, "I am thankful; my heart grows. Love, fills me from head to toes." And that's repeated through the book on different sections as they do the different activities. So I really liked that. And then it ends with, "Here are some ways you can show you are thankful: make an 'I am thankful' poster." And so it shows different things you can do as activities as a family. "Draw And pass out thank you cards. Make your own thankful turkey placemats. Make a family thankfulness tree. Play the thankfulness countdown." And it outlines all of those. So it's just an adorable little book that I think celebrates what Thanksgiving today is all about.
A fun and silly book that just really drives home the modern day Thanksgiving and what Thanksgiving is really all about is Thanksgiving at the Tappletons’ and this one's by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by Maryann Cocca-Leffler. I don't think I had this on the calendar for your, for the readings, but it's a great book to pick up and read for Thanksgiving. So you might want to add it to your list.
I love Glenys Nellist's book Snuggle Time Fall Blessings. If you haven't read that little board book, it's wonderful, and it's a rhyming book. That is another one that would be a lot of fun to read with your kids. And it celebrates all the different activities we do during this time of the year: bonfires, pumpkin patches, and those different activities.
Finally, let's look at books about having a heart of gratitude. There are some very sweet books out there that can help us help our children learn to be thankful. A couple of special books I found on gratitude: One is simply the lyrics to the song that was recorded by Art Garfunkel. It's called Grateful: a Song of Giving Thanks. And it's by John Bucchino and illustrated by Anna-Liisa Hakkarainen. And this is just a sweet book. If you've ever read the lyrics to the song Grateful by art Garfunkel, it is just such a nice song lyric. And then the illustrations just bring the song to life. It's a very sweet book.
Another very sweet book is Look and Be Grateful by Tomie de Paola. And he, you probably know, is a wonderful children's book illustrator and children's author. His books are very simple word-wise. It's mostly the pictures that tell the story. This is just a lovely, lovely book.
And then another very sweet book is called. Thank You God, by Jay Bradley Wigger and illustrated by Jago, one of my favorite illustrators that I just love. And this book is a very heartwarming Christian book that just has you stop and look around and be thankful for all that God has given us.
Then we have another book, and it's called God Gave Us Thankful Hearts by Lisa Tawn Bergren and the art is by David Hohn. And it says, well, there you are a little wolf puppy. "Mama Said, 'Why are you looking so glum?' 'I don't know,' He mumbled I'm just sad.'" And so the mama says, "How can you be sad on such a beautiful day? Because the leaves are changing colors and soon it will be winter." "I like spring, summer and fall when I can play with all my friends. Hibernatin' season is boring." "You'll still have some friends about come winter. And there's a reason for us to be thankful in every season, little pup. We need winter to let the land, and some of your friends, have a rest. Otherwise we wouldn't get spring." And it shows the bears--they're going to go take a nap, and the birds flying South. "But Everyone is going to be hibernatin'." And he grumbled "The chipmunks and bears, the badgers and bats. Even the raccoons, beavers and squirrels won't come out much." "'What about the skunks and bees? You won't see much of them, either,' Mama said. Little pup smiled. I guess I could be thankful about that." And it shows all the different animals going to go take a nap. It says, "We can be thankful for how God paints our forest every autumn,' Mama said. 'Yeah, But I'm not thankful for poison Ivy,' Little Pup said remembering the time he rolled in a patch by accident. 'It Makes you so itchy.' 'True, but you can be thankful you know how to avoid it now. Right?' 'I guess.'" So she's working to try to help him find ways to be thankful in helping him to think of things, and he's just in a grumpy mood. But I think it's a really cute little story that would be great to read with your kids, especially if they're kind of grumpy and not feeling thankful--to help them think about being thankful.
There are quite a few board books and picture books that have to do with being thankful. I sent out an email to my mailing list about the thankfulness and advent calendars that I created for November and December. If you haven't downloaded that yet, I'll put the link in the show notes, but I have created a calendar with a book a day for you to read for the months of November and December. And if you're getting a late start, don't worry about it. That's not a problem, but it should give you some great ideas to talk to your librarian about, to get from your local library, or if you want to buy some special books for your children to share each year during the holiday season, these are some suggestions I have. There are so many books about these two topics, as you can imagine, since these are the biggest holidays in America. Many books have been written about Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I tried to find some that I thought would really bless you and your family. And I also added some notes at the bottom of each calendar for board books for your very young readers.
Thank you for joining us for books that spark a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts are published each Thursday and discuss living as a disciple of Christ while discipling our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ.
For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Growing older is inevitable; growing up is optional” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
Disclaimer: Although Terrie majored in psychology and sociology for her bachelor’s degree and has taught AP Psychology, she is NOT a licensed therapist. She sometimes mentions items in her blog and podcast that could be considered comments on psychology, but these comments are based on ministry experience and ministering to people through the missions and church work she’s done for the past 36 years. If you have questions about psychological disorders or counseling needs, please consider finding a reputable, licensed counselor in your area. Terrie’s comments should be seen as anecdotal and ministry-experience-related or scripture-based. Thank you!
Transcript:
Welcome to "Books that Spark," a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids.
Today, I'm going to be talking about sign language, being deaf, and some wonderful books that have to do with this subject. For some reason, this has just been on my heart to talk about. I think my heart and my mind have been thinking a lot about ministry and what we can do with our kids in ministry and how we can help them to have a heart for ministering to others. And I've always loved sign language. My great grandparents were deaf. I did not know them, but because of that, my family has always known a little bit of sign language. So, I've always wanted to learn more, and I've taken some sign language classes and have done a little bit of signing in ministry, but I have loved every minute of it. It has been such a blessing to try to communicate and to try to be a catalyst to help bridge the communication gap. Whether I'm dealing with second language learners or someone who is deaf, I like being that bridge to bridge the gap in communication and getting the word of God into the hands of whomever God brings into my life. This is something that I've just always loved. And I think the language is so beautiful and visual. I love learning that. And, of course, we have found with autism and even with very young children, teaching them sign enables them to communicate easier and earlier in life.
So, let's talk a little bit about some really wonderful books. And one is an older book, but it's called I Have a Sister. My Sister Is Deaf, and it's by Jeanne Whitehouse Peterson illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray. And it's this sister telling about her little sister who is deaf and what her daily experiences are like. But what I love about it is not only does it help a child to understand what it might be like to be deaf and then how to be able to respect and help someone or be sensitive to someone, but to understand what they're going through and what their experience is, which is always a good thing to help our children learn empathy. But it's so beautiful the way she discusses life with her sister. You can sense the love she has for her sister and the joy that she has and happiness that she has in living life with her little sister. For instance, on one of the pages they're sitting at the piano and she says, "My sister can play the piano. She likes to feel the deep rumbling chords, but she will never be able to sing. She cannot hear the tune." I think it just really opens our eyes to what it would be like to not be able to hear. In one picture on one page, she's talking about how she covers her ears and tries to experience what her sister might experience. And this page, I just love. She said, "I understand my sister. My sister understands what I say too. Especially if I speak slowly and move my hands a lot, but it is not only my lips and fingers that my sister watches. I wore my sunglasses yesterday. The frames are very large. The lenses are very black. My sister made me take them off when I spoke. What do my brown eyes say to her brown eyes? That I would really rather play ball than play house? That I just heard our mother call, but I do not want to go in yet?" And so it points out that not only does a deaf person look at our gestures and read our lips or sign language, they look at our expressions and our eyes and they take it all in to communicate.
I used to have a deaf friend and if the phone rang, of course, she couldn't hear it. So it would ring. And, all of a sudden, we all just looked over at the phone, and she's like, "Whoa, what's going on." Instead of the conversation being centered around where we were talking with her, everybody naturally just looked toward the phone, and she figured out, "Oh, the phone must be ringing." It's kind of cool how this book breaks that down and clarifies that for a young reader. So that one is called. I Have a Sister. My Sister Is Deaf.
Another book I really love is by Alan Say. It's called Silent Days, Silent Dreams, and it's the story about an artist named James Castle who was born deaf, nearly blind and also had autism and possibly dyslexia. His story is fascinating. Because he was born in 1899, he didn't have a lot of help, and he taught himself to draw. Most of his life, he was just ridiculed and abused by the children around him and even some of his family members. But eventually, his genius was understood. I love his story so much because it shows the determination of a person who has that gift of art. And they cannot walk away from it, no matter how many people try to keep them from doing it. It shows the determination of someone with disabilities who's trying to reach the outside world and to make his own world in his case, as kind of a reaction to the world around him. We'll never know exactly how he experienced what he went through because he could not speak, but the genius of his work was obvious. And, fortunately, it was realized before he died. And that was acknowledged, I don't know how much he understood of what was acknowledged, but they think that he lived out his last 12 years or so just happy as could be with being able to produce art and everything. But the story is so interesting. I think it would be a wonderful story to add to your collection, especially if you're reading stories about people with disabilities or challenges in their lives. He definitely had more than the average person. And one of the things that I would do if I were reading this book with homeschoolers or with students at school, is--it talks about how, because they took his pencils away; they took ink away from him, and everything else, he had to be creative in being able to draw. And so, he used matches that had been lit and burned out. And he would write with that. He took soot from the chimney, from the fireplace, and then he would add saliva to it and use a stick to draw and to make his pictures. And Alan Say tried all these different methods, so he could see what it was like to draw like James. And he said it was very interesting because if you just use the soot or the matches, the picture won't stay. It'll just smudge away because it isn't fixed. And they didn't have, he, of course, especially did not have something to make the picture adhere to the paper. But in his process of doing this, he learned that saliva makes that stick to the paper and makes the pictures last. And so that was kind of cool. And he found that out trying to imitate James Castle. But this is a beautiful book. It's illustrated amazingly. Of course, all of Alan Say's books are gorgeous, but it's just a wonderful book. And I think the first book I Have a Sister, My Sister Is Deaf, I would say that that would be geared more towards your three to five to seven-year-olds. And then the Allen Say book would be for your little bit older student, but it would still be interesting, I think, even to about a six-year-old or seven-year-old, especially if they're interested in art. But then as I was saying, if I were using this in homeschool or in my classroom, I would give the children an assignment to draw a picture using something unusual. And you might have to specify what is not allowed because some kids would try some really awful things possibly, but give them some ideas and give them some choices. Maybe have them clear their choice with you before they start rummaging through cabinets or whatever or going out in the yard and finding something. But to give children an opportunity to be creative; what would they do if they didn't have a pencil? What would they do if they had to draw a picture, and they didn't have the tools that we normally use to do art? And then the other thing that Castle did was he would cut out used scraps from trash, and he would make little people and little animals, like little puppets, kind of, that they called his friends. He would line up on the wall little animals and things like that. And so it would be fun to use some paper and cardboard and things left in the trash and recycle those to make some little creatures, some little animal puppets or whatever that you could display in your house or in your classroom and let the children be creative that way. It would be a lot of fun to study this, to talk about autism, to talk about deafness, blindness, dyslexia, all of these challenges that he had being mute, where he couldn't ever speak--all of these things and carry that over, extended into a really interesting art lesson. And also you could talk very much about determination and how hard do we try to keep doing what we feel like we're supposed to do, that burning in our heart, that we know God is calling us or has gifted us to do. How hard are we going to push to make that happen when we run into difficulties? We can talk about a lot of good character lessons with this book. So those two books I think are wonderful. And like I said, this one is called Silent Days, Silent Dreams by Alan Say.
Two more people that I think it would be great to get their stories--there's a baseball player who was born deaf, and he had a great impact on the game. His name was William Hoy. The book is The William Hoy's Story by Nancy Churnin and pictures by Jez Tuya. This is another book that would be good. And this is not a chapter book; it's for your early elementary. It's not a picture book, it's an actual storybook. So, it has more words, but it's not a chapter book. And then for a little bit older student, of course, they have to read about Helen Keller. Her life story is so interesting. And there are some books out there that are really nicely done about her life. For children, one of them is The Story of Helen Keller: A Biography Book for New Readers. And it's a chapter book, an early chapter book, so they're not hugely long chapters. This one's by Christine Platt and illustrated by Ana Sanfelippo. It's a nice book, but if your children are old enough, I recommend actually reading The Story of My Life by Helen Keller. I've only read excerpts from it, but everything I've read from that book is so beautifully written. Helen Keller had a really strong gift for imagery and for writing just eloquently. What I love though, if you're teaching a lesson on figurative language or literary devices, and you're talking about imagery, her story is one of the best, ironically. I mean, here she is deaf and blind, and yet her imagery in her story is some of the best I've ever read. And so, it's a wonderful story to use for teaching imagery to your older students. Now, this is definitely a chapter book written for older kids to adult age. So, I wouldn't assign it to your elementary kids. It wouldn't hurt with your middle schoolers to show imagery using this book. And I think it would be okay for a middle schooler to read this as well. And there's one more about Helen Keller that you may want to look at as well. And it is similar to the first one I mentioned. It's called, Who Was Helen Keller by Gary Thompson and illustrated by Nancy Harrison. And this one is a little bit earlier. It has bigger words. Size-Wise bigger words and is geared more towards your first, second grader who's just starting to read chapter books. So that would be a good choice. And then the other one that I mentioned that is a chapter book is still an early chapter book, but it would, you know, it's got more words and smaller words on the pages. So it's for a little bit older student. So those are some ideas of biographies you could read about different people who are deaf.
There are three books that I recommend for children for learning sign language. One of them is called Time to Sign: Sign Language for Kids by Catherine Clay and illustrated by Michael Reed and Margo Lucas. This one is for your second, third grader age range, somewhere in there. It has photographs and pictures of how to do the sign language. It has some pointers in the beginning about how to introduce sign language to your children and to autistic children or whomever. It's really nicely done. And then for your really young children who just want to learn a few words, or if you want to teach them finger spelling: My First Book of Sign Language is a good one. It's been out for a while. It's been out since 2004 by Joan Holub she's the author and illustrator, and it's just a really cute Scholastic book. And so it's nice for introducing sign language and finger spelling.
But my absolute favorite book that I would highly recommend for teaching sign language to children is American Sign Language for Kids: 101 Easy Signs for Nonverbal Communication by Rachelle Barlow. Her story is very interesting. She first learned sign language, not because she had a deaf friend or a deaf family member, but because of the gorilla that learned to sign, and she was fascinated with monkeys and gorillas. And so that was her first interest in sign language. In the book, she took the time to research about ASL--the community, the autistic community, and how you can use sign in both of those settings. She gives pointers that are very easily explained to children. They're written out very clearly of how you act when you're talking to a deaf person, how you should keep eye contact and speak to the deaf person. Even if a translator or interpreter is signing to the person, you still look at the deaf person because that's who you're speaking to. She talks about how you don't talk to your friend who's a hearing person without signing what you are saying in your conversation because it's rude to exclude the deaf person that way. And it'd be like someone whispering in front of us and not letting us know what they're saying. And so, it goes through a lot of the etiquette and how to teach a child to really be able to go into a deaf community and minister and be a part of the community and enjoy the fellowship. So, I love that about it. And then of course it has 101 sign language vocabulary to learn. It's an excellent book. So that one I really like is American Sign Language for Kids: 101 Easy Signs for Nonverbal Communication. And this book is also fairly new. It was published in 2019.
One thing you need to be aware of, if you haven't been in the deaf community or learned sign language, is that there are signs that are regional. So, if you learn sign language on the West Coast of America and or of the US, and you go to the East Coast, there's going to be some signs that are very different. I found that to be the case when I first learned. I learned from an East Coast teacher and then later learned from a West Coast teacher, and having to unlearn and relearn was very hard. And then I also found that when I got around someone who was deaf, just like when I try to practice my Chinese, I get very nervous. And so, we need to practice a lot so that we can get comfortable with the language before we are thrust into a situation where we have to use it. But I will tell you as with just about any other language, if you're trying to do your best and you really genuinely want to communicate, usually people appreciate your efforts and are very kind about it. We do need to be careful that we know the etiquette and understand the culture of the deaf community, because it is different. I'm very well-known for whatever language I'm learning, embarrassing myself in speaking that language. So, you know, I've learned a little Korean sign language. I wanted to learn Chinese sign language, but Oh my goodness, that's harder than learning to speak Chinese. It is so difficult. And so I wasn't able to learn that even though I wanted to, but it is so much fun. And I'm hoping that maybe if you decide to learn sign language with your child, that God might open up a door for ministry, and that you can make connections with the deaf people in your community.
If you are interested in doing ministry in reaching out or starting Bible studies that can minister to the autistic community, the deaf community, or any other group of people who have challenges or limitations, the Disability Ministry Conference of Northern California is a new organization. Last year, they had their very first conference. And, of course, this year, we couldn't have it because of COVID, but they have plans to continue on and to do more in the future (https://www.disabilityministryconference.com/socal-conference#eb-plugin-page-1). But a friend of mine who is involved with that is Diane Kim. And she's written a devotional book for parents of autistic children called Unbroken Faith: Spiritual Recovery for the Special Needs Parent. And her son is autistic, and their church has a wonderful disabilities ministry. And she's also a disability ministry consultant. I'll have a link to her website in the show notes because I think if you're wanting to start a ministry like that, she's a perfect person to contact about doing that. And there's a book. I hadn't intended to talk about this, but since we're on the topic, I'm going to go ahead and recommend one more book for you if you're wanting to do this kind of the ministry, and that is Amy Fenton Lee's book, Leading a Special Needs Ministry: A Practical Guide to Including Children and Loving Families. If we aren't trying to equip our churches to at least reach out somewhat to these families, we need to have a church place that is safe, where they can bring their children and be a part of something that God is doing in their community and be welcomed into the church. And for a lot of these parents too, if they don't have respite care, it can be overwhelming. Especially if a child could hurt themselves. We can offer a place of refuge for them. We can offer a place of safety and acceptance and love and allow that parent to go into a worship service and have that hour where they can focus on God and they can focus on something besides parenting, because it can be a 24-7 job with no break with some of the disabilities that children have to deal with. You know, it's a constant battle and they're exhausted and we can be that place that can minister to them. And we can teach our kids to care and to encourage and to be there for people who are different from them. So I think that's a wonderful thing as we're discipling our children, to help them see us minister to those who have been marginalized, not because society hates them, but because society isn't always equipped to meet their needs. And I know that more and more, we try to do that. So, the church needs to consciously choose to do that. We need to consciously choose to do that whenever that opportunity arises. And if you're teaching a unit on disabilities, one of the best books I've seen on the topic is by Joni and Friends and illustrated by Trish Mahoney. And the forward is by Johnny Erickson, Tada. And it's called God Made Me Unique: Helping Children See Value in Every Person. And this one is listed on my list of 100 books to (more than 100 books) to help start your child's library that you get when you sign up for my mailing list. So, you may have seen it on that list, but this is a wonderful book about how we're all unique. And we all have challenges and we're all uniquely made and blessed by God. And He wants to use our lives. It's beautiful and very encouraging.
I don't know what God has planned. I just know that this was on my heart to share this week. And so, I'm trying to be obedient to that. I pray that God will open doors. I pray that God will use our fascination with whatever language or whatever ministry He puts on our hearts to reach out and to try to help others. Thank you for joining us for Books that Spark, a podcast celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts are published each Thursday and discuss living as a disciple of Christ while discipling our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ.
For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Growing older is inevitable; growing up is optional” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
Disclaimer: Although Terrie majored in psychology and sociology for her bachelor’s degree and has taught AP Psychology, she is NOT a licensed therapist. She sometimes mentions items in her blog and podcast that could be considered comments on psychology, but these comments are based on ministry experience and ministering to people through the missions and church work she’s done for the past 36 years. If you have questions about psychological disorders or counseling needs, please consider finding a reputable, licensed counselor in your area. Terrie’s comments should be seen as anecdotal and ministry-experience-related or scripture-based. Thank you!
In this episode we explore the strength found in joy and empowering our kids to bless others by sharing joy and kindness.
Remember, we have a drawing for a signed copy of Little Mole's Christmas Gift. To enter, comment on this blog post.
Books Discussed in This Episode:
Insanity of God Video
Sheep Among Wolves
IDOP (November 1, 2020)
Transcript:
Welcome to Books that Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. I'm so glad you joined me today. I'm excited today to talk with you about kindness and joy. I had another episode actually planned for this week, but after interviewing Glenys, I am just overwhelmed by the joy and the kindness that comes through her books. And I feel like with our situation right now, that's something that our kids really need. Not only because it comforts us, but I think we forget that it strengthens us. When we're thinking of helping our children to find joy and to find peace and to be kind to others, we're equipping them to live their lives as a testimony for God in the strength of the Holy spirit, because the fruit of the spirit includes kindness and joy and peace and all of those wonderful attributes that we long for with the very innermost part of our being. And so, I found some really cute books to share with you today about joy and kindness.
The first one is actually called Joy, and it's by Corrinne, Averiss and illustrated by Isabelle Follath. It's a very cute story about a little girl who adores her Nanna. Her name is Fern. Her Nanna has been sad and not full of joy. It's like she's lost her joy. So she wants to try to help her Nanna find joy again. And it really exemplifies encouraging one another. And it exemplifies the Philippians 4:8 verse where it says to think on these things. And it's just an adorable little storybook. And she tries to go out into the world and find joy for her grandma so she can share it with her. And she takes all these little things and it's a British written in British English. So we have mum and she takes a tin instead of a can. And so there's several words in there that are the British English, and it's very sweet and quaint, but anyway, she tries to catch joy. She goes to the park because people are always joyful at the park and she's trying to find joy and get it in her little tin. And, of course, it won't go in the tin. So, she's very disappointed and goes home to her Nanna and tells her, “I tried to find joy to give to you.” And she tells her about all the incidents of joy that she saw. One is really cute. It's a dad tickling his little kid's feet on the swing and, you know, just adorable. Anyway, her sharing the experiences she had helps Nanna to smile and to be filled with joy. And so, Nanna gives her a big hug and tells her she's her cause for joy. She's the reason she's joyful again. But I love that it shows that a child can make such a difference just by their attitude and by what they share with others and what they say. And so this is a really cute book called Joy.
And two adorable books that I just came across a few weeks ago, and they are so cute, is Ordinary Mary. There's two books in the series that I know of. Anyway, there may be more, but Ordinary Mary's Positively Extraordinary Day by Emily Pearson and Fumi Kosaka is the illustrator. She goes through her whole day, and it's just an ordinary day. And it shows how the little things we do, again, the little things we do can make a difference in someone's life and can make a difference in the outlook and of what's going on in the day and in the world. And so I love that. And just about, I think all the books I'm sharing with you today pretty much are books about this, where we can teach our children that what they do matters, even if it's just a small kindness or a small word of encouragement, it can make a difference. And then, not only does it help the other person find joy, it helps nourish our soul and help us find joy. And so, these books are really good for this: Ordinary Mary's Positively Extraordinary Day. And then her other one is Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed. And both of these are beautiful books. And, and I, I just I've. I think both of them were worth getting both are by Emily Pearson and both are illustrated by Fumi Kosaka, but they're just very sweet books and show the power a child has to do and make a difference in the world.
Another one is called, Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller and illustrated by Jen Hill. It's a very sweet picture book. And this little girl is trying to figure out how to make this other little girl feel better because she spills her grape juice on her dress, and it stains her dress. She's trying to say the right things and do the right things to encourage this little girl and to encourage others. And it's a very sweet little story, and it shows the frustration of sometimes you try to do the right thing and it doesn't come across quite right. Because she says her favorite color is purple because she knows this other girl's favorite color is purple, but she thinks she's making fun of her cause she spilled grape juice. And so, she cries instead of being blessed, and Tanisha is the one who spilled her grape juice. And so, it shows trying to help someone and persisting in that, even though sometimes the act of kindness isn't quite received right the first time, you keep trying. I liked that about it too. So that's a very cute book about the same topic we're talking about.
Another one is called Those Shoes. Those Shoes is by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones. It's a sweet story about this little kid, and this is really good for little boys too because almost all the characters in it are boys. These little boys have the latest, cool shoes that everybody's wanting to wear. They're the black sneakers with two white stripes, and all the boys have them except for the main character. And Jeremy is from a poor family and he just can't afford those shoes, and he lives with his grandma and she wants to get them for him, but she just can't do that with their budget. So, they go to the thrift stores and try to find some and they find a pair at the third thrift store they go to and he buys them, even though they're too small and he keeps hoping they'll stretch. He puts them on every day after school and tries to make them stretch, and they just don't stretch, and he just can't wear them. So, they just sit in his bedroom, and he winds up wearing his other shoes that are not cool. Then one day his neighbor friend comes over to play and sees the shoes. And he's like, “Oh my goodness, you have some of those shoes. Those are so cool.” And he doesn't want to talk about it. He's saying to himself, “I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it” or not going to say it. I forget what he says, but he keeps telling himself “I’m not going to do it.” And finally, he does. He gives the shoes to the neighbor boy because his feet are smaller, and they'll fit. And it comments on how the neighbor boy’s shoes are like held together with tape. They're falling apart, and he feels bad, but he just doesn't want to give up those shoes, even though he can't wear them. So, he finally does, and he feels so good about it. And it's just a really good picture of showing that, even though he's disappointed he couldn't have the shoes, he was able to bless someone else. I think it teaches a lot for children in a lot of conversations we could have with our children about giving and making a difference in someone else's life and not being so focused on ourselves and making a difference. Even though we are disappointed, we can still bless someone else.
Now there's one book it's actually not out yet. And I was trying to find out more about it, but it sounds so intriguing that I'm going to go ahead and mention it here. It doesn't actually launch until January, 2021. And it's a book for boys and it's called The Book of Dares: 100 Ways for Boys to Be Kind, Bold, and Brave by Ted bunch and Anna Marie Johnson Teague. I thought this sounds so intriguing. I want to check it out when it does come out, but the grade level or age level for this grade level is three through third through seventh grades, age level is eight to 12. So, it's where a little bit older kid. And it's challenging them with 100 inspiring, creative, fun challenges for boys to be kind and respectful and to share with others around them. So, I think this is a really unique book, and I'm anxious to look at it. Like I said, I can't, I haven't seen it yet. It's not out, we can't preview it or anything, but that's one on the horizon that I would watch for and check out when it does come out.
Now, there was another book I was very hopeful about sharing with you. All I've read of it is pretty good, except it borders on the lines of New Age. And it is a Christian book, and it talks about God having a plan for our lives. It's written for middle school and upper elementary age boys. And it's challenging them to live a positive life and to keep their mind focused on positive things. And I think it's so close to being good, but there's so much in it that is still New Age. And so, I'm mentioning it, not because I want to recommend it. I'm mentioning it because we do have to be careful what we give our children to read, especially when they're hitting the middle school, high school years. There are so many good books out there, and there's so many seemed-to-be-good books that aren't, we have to be careful to guard against the false teachings that are running amuck in our culture right now. So, I want to kind of clarify.
I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives. It says in the Bible that he created us for a good works that he ordained before we were ever born. So he has a plan for us and for what we're supposed to do with our lives. And he has a plan for every one of our children, no matter what their abilities or disabilities are, there are no mistakes. He has a plan. I believe that with all my heart, however, a lot of it that is out there being taught right now is very similar to the secret and the law of attraction that says the universe will give you what you tell it to give you basically where we make ourselves little gods. And unfortunately, that has become a teaching that has been embraced by some churches and some preachers. And I think it's a very dangerous theology because the focus of the Gospel, even though it is for us, the focus is not us. The focus is God and what he has provided for us and his plan for mankind and for eternity. And so we need to keep our eyes focused on, we are following him. We are his disciples, and we can have a very fulfilling, rich, amazing, overwhelmingly joyful life in following him in obedience. And when we walk in obedience to his plan and his word and what he wants us to do, then it is a joyful and a fulfilling opportunity every day that we live. But when we focus on ourselves and we're striving and we're trying to get God to do what we want him to do, we run into a trap where we are making ourselves god; we fall into this false theology. That is American Buddhism is what I call it, but it's even worse than American Buddhism. It's making us god. I think it's very dangerous for our children to fall into that.
We do need to make them aware of that. And I've talked with my kids a lot. It is a combination of New Age and Christian theology synchronized together. The gospel is no longer a gospel of denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily and following him. It's a prosperity theology where we are meant to live our best life, and our best life isn't till heaven. This life is full of pain and sorrow. And we have to hold onto that joy that God has given us. And we have to be a people who are different than the world—peculiar people who are always loving our enemies and who are seeking to show kindness, generosity, and love to our brothers and sisters, as well as to those outside the church. The Bible is very clear that we’re to count the cost to follow Christ.
And if all Christ has for us is to live a cushy, wonderful, rich, wealthy life here on earth, what is the cost we're counting? That makes no sense. No, Jesus warned us. We would be persecuted. He warned us there would be tough times. He warned us that the world would reject us. They rejected him. And so they're going to reject us. We're told that they will think we're foolish, and we see it all the time now in our culture. And it's been in the world. I mean, if you've traveled overseas, you know that it's everywhere. Christians are being persecuted. People of faith in general are being persecuted in many countries. The gospel is mocked, and we need to be tough people, and we've got to help our children be tough people. And if we don't teach our children how to find the joy amidst the sorrow and that there's strength in the joy of the Lord, then we're hurting our kids.
We need to help them be resilient and strong and steadfast, and to hold on to the joy of the Lord, which is their strength. And we've got to learn the same thing. You know, admittedly sometimes it is a struggle and a battle. I think if it were easy, it wouldn't be that big a deal, but it is something that we have to do. And we have to acknowledge that this is reality. There's a video and a book I'd like to recommend for the parents. This would not be for the children. I don't think it would be something that maybe high schoolers could handle it, but it's a pretty gritty video and it's a real story. And it's called The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected by Nik Ripken and Greg Lewis. And he has a second book, The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places also by Nik Ripken. The video is called The Insanity of God and it's published by the International Mission Board and LifeWay of the Southern Baptist Convention. And the Ripken's were missionaries for the Southern Baptist Convention for most of their ministry life. And they served in some very tough places. God took them on a journey of understanding Christian persecution and understanding counting the cost in following God. And I think it's a powerful video to watch, especially if you are coming from the West and a Western mindset of Christianity; it's a whole different understanding it's eye-opening and life-changing. So I do recommend that for the parents. It's an excellent resource and there's also a video on YouTube called Sheep Among Wolves, Volume 2, I recommend volume two. Volume One is the same video, just volume two is made better when they had more funding. It's the same testimonies and same story.
But these two videos are so eye-opening and life-changing. For those of us who have been brought up in the shelter of a culture that appreciates Christianity, that acknowledges Christianity, and allows us freedom to worship, these videos are very powerful and important videos that I think we need to watch. And what it did for me too, was even though I didn't feel even my kids at the age they are that they were quite ready to watch these, it helped me as a parent to know how to talk to my kids and to help them see a bigger picture than just what we have here in our country. At this time, even though things are heating up a little bit here, it is nothing like it is in other countries. I felt like it was important for me to educate myself so that then I could be a better parent with Insanity of God. There are some discussion materials that go along with it as well.
Another thing that we do each year—we participate in IDOP, the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church [November 1, 2020]. And there are materials on Open Doors’ website and there's material for children as well. And I think this is also good. The materials for the children are quite appropriate. They're excellent, they're free. And you can get your church involved, but even if you don't just using it in your own family and in your own prayer time to be praying for our brothers and sisters who are standing firm in their faith, even though they're persecuted. So I think that's something that we need to address and help our children be aware of.
I want to end with one more book that is by one author that I really like: Mo Willems and illustrated by Amber Ren, and it's called Because this book is so cute because, because it starts out with one thing happens and then that causes another thing to happen. And another thing to happen, it results in this young girl becoming conductor of an orchestra. It's just so cute because you see how each person's decision each person's circumstance and everything that happened was for a purpose.
And then another one for this is a story I wrote. That's about Joseph. That one I believe is available. When you sign up for my mailing list, I'll have to check and see if it's still on there as one of your downloads when you sign up for my mailing list, but it talks about God's sovereignty and how he works through our circumstances and how he did in Joseph's life. And sometimes we think something is bad, but God is using it for good.
And that helps to help us hang onto that joy and to keep on rejoicing, because we know ultimately God is in control. God hasn't left us or forsaken us no matter how bad our situation may become. We know that he is still in charge. He still has his hand in our lives, and he still has a plan for our lives. And so I think teaching this to our children, that what they do, no matter how small, if it's a small, if it is a small act of kindness or an encouraging word, not flattery, but true encouragement, they can see that they have that power to make a difference in someone's life. And then when we look at books, like because, and the story of Joseph, we see that God has a plan that even what other people meant for harm in some situations, or even when circumstances seem bad, we know that God is working them out for good.
And so teaching our kids, those two facts can be very powerful in their lives. And of course, helping them to realize always that God is God and we are not. And we don't understand everything that God is doing and being humble before our God and acknowledging that he's in control. And he's the one we're following. If he does something, don't like, that's not our right. I'd say it's like in the Bible. Well, I was reading the other day. It says, you know, does the pot complain to the Potter? What are you doing? I don't want to be this way. You know, no, that would be ridiculous. The Potter molds and makes the pottery into what he wants it to be for whatever you see he has for it. And God is good God. And if we truly acknowledge that he is God, and that we come to him with nothing except our own sinful nature.
Then we humble ourselves before him. We repent of our sins. We ask for his forgiveness and then we walk with him and following him, that is a whole different attitude than what a lot of people are taught today. So we need to be teaching the truth to our children, that a call to follow Christ is not a call to a cushy life. A call to follow Christ is a call to a strong life with people of integrity and who stand firm in the face of trials and struggles and hardships because we know God will carry us through and that God knows better than we do what's going on. And that our standing firm shows God to the world. And I don't think we always recognize that. But when we stand and we stand fearlessly in the face of struggles, we have joy. In spite of our sorrows, the world sees something they don't understand and that they want to know more about.
And we help make God's name known among the nations. We helped glorify his name. So I pray for him. Were you, I know that you are, you may be struggling with something today. You may just be struggling with trying to raise your children and knowing how to do so. And I just pray for you that God will fill you with his wisdom, that he will enable you to walk faithfully in obedience to him, and that his joy will flow through your life, to those around you, that they will be able to see the glory of God at work in your life today. Thank you for joining us for books that spark a podcast series, writing books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Be sure to check out my website, TerrieHellardBrown.com.
When you join my mailing list, you automatically receive access to several freebies. Just for those who sign up, that you can download and use with your children. And remember, we have a great giveaway. The month of October Glenys is giving away a signed copy of her brand new book called Little Mole's Christmas Gift. All you have to do to enter is comment on this blog post or on one of the social media posts about it, the giveaway, and you'll be entered to win. We'll draw the winner at the end of October and announced the winner around November 1st. [Open to US residence only].
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials.
Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. Her podcast posts each Tuesday morning.
Her blog posts are published each Thursday and discuss living as a disciple of Christ while discipling our children. She challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to walk by faith in obedience to Christ.
For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Terrie uses her experiences as a mother of four (three on “the spectrum”), 37 years in ministry (15 in Taiwan), and 32 years teaching to speak to the hearts of readers.
Her motto is “Growing older is inevitable; growing up is optional” and keeps her childlike joy by writing children’s stories, delighting over pink dolphins, and frequently laughing till it hurts.
Disclaimer: Although Terrie majored in psychology and sociology for her bachelor’s degree and has taught AP Psychology, she is NOT a licensed therapist. She sometimes mentions items in her blog and podcast that could be considered comments on psychology, but these comments are based on ministry experience and ministering to people through the missions and church work she’s done for the past 36 years. If you have questions about psychological disorders or counseling needs, please consider finding a reputable, licensed counselor in your area. Terrie’s comments should be seen as anecdotal and ministry-experience-related or scripture-based. Thank you!
In today's episode we interview Cassie Rajewich and discuss resources for single parents and their children.
Our Guest: Cassie Rajewich
Cassie Rajewich is the creator of Unconventional Motherhood: Helping Single Moms Master Messy Places
After ten years of mastering her own mess of single motherhood, she ditched the security and comfort of the life she had built, upped and left her residence of Las Vegas, and made the move to Southern California where she began a new adventure, blending a family. She now helps other women navigate the sometimes-difficult journey of single motherhood.
You can visit her site at cassierajewich.com or check out her Facebook group The Savvy Christian Single Mom to learn about how she offers her heart and how-to tips to help other single moms master their mess and step into the life God has called them to.
Books Recommended in This Episode:
Transcript:
Terrie: Welcome to "Books that Spark" a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. Today, we have a very special guest Cassie Rajewich. Cassie is the creator of Unconventional Motherhood: Helping Single Moms Master Messy Places. After ten years of mastering her own mess of single motherhood, she ditched the security and comfort of the life she had built, upped and left her residence of Las Vegas, and made the move to Southern California where she began a new adventure, blending a family. She now helps other women navigate the sometimes-difficult journey of single motherhood. You can visit her site at cassierajewich.com or check out her Facebook group The Savvy Christian Single Mom to learn about how she offers her heart and how-to tips to help other single moms master their mess and step into the life God has called them to. Cassie. I'm so glad you joined us today.
Cassie: Thank you so much, Terrie. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here with you.
Terrie: Well, tell us first, a little bit about the ministry you have.
Cassie: I am a, I serve single moms really is what I do. I serve them in messy places and messy places can look like a lot of things. But I serve them in two ways as a lifestyle strategic and as a certified financial coach, I meet them in those hard places, either transitioning out of divorce. But also just that messiness of single motherhood. So maybe there's a lot of mindset issues or mindset management. Finances definitely are big and boundaries. A lot of times just explaining what those things are and, but just really loving on them and the overwhelm of single motherhood is what I do.
Terrie: That's awesome. How can a busy single mom find time to read to her kids?
Cassie: Well, I was going to say busy, single moms could do Audible. That's not going to be reading to their children, but you're going to have to be intentional and carve it out. Many times I know a lot of times it's at the end of the day when everyone just wants to wind down, usually after bath, and just say, okay, we're going to take--even if it's setting a timer--we're going to take 20, 15, 30 minutes, pick one, two books, whatever you have capacity for in that moment would be how I did it and how many moms are doing it.
Terrie: And how has reading with and to your children been important to you.
Cassie: As a single mom for 10 years and with my journey and I had my little one, I would say was started our single mom, my single mom journey with her. She was 18 months. So, you know, really right off the get go and the father was hit and miss. And then we moved out of state. Gosh, we had a lot of topics to cover in that time. So for me it was, it had a lot of ways for me to connect one. It was, I was, I was busy, so for us to bond and just have that space where it's just her and I, because she, they really need that. She really needed that with me. Another way is to address conversations that have our children afraid or worried or overwhelmed, and it's bringing in scenarios that can comfort them.
Terrie: Yeah. So what are some books you would recommend reading to children, especially, do you have some specifically for dealing with that transition during divorce or losing a parent?
Cassie: I have one little book that is sweet. It's called Two Homes and it's a sweet story, really welcoming the conversation. It's actually called Two Homes. It's by Claire Maurel. And like I said, it's a sweet story, welcoming the conversation of divorce and living in two separate homes. It's really important to understand the dynamic and, and you would know the mother would know, or the father would know, you know, maybe there is not even another parent to, to have to go to. So there may not even be a co-parenting, but this is a sweet little story about a little one that goes back and forth and it just kind of unboxing that conversation of, of living in two homes.
Terrie: That's great. What other books would you recommend?
Cassie: Lysa TerKeurst has a really neat book out, and it's called It Will Be Okay. And it's a beautiful book serving the hearts of our little ones, especially during times of change and things, these types of topics divorce or separation or a loss of that just really trigger fear. That's a cute little story about little seed and little Fox and they're facing their fears and when things are changing, right, because our little ones, they thrive in times of safety or security or consistency. So when there is that upheaval can really challenge their emotions. So this is a really sweet story, about little seed and little thoughts, and that is Lysa TerKeurst.
Terrie: I love that book. I think it's such a sweet book. Well, I want to talk about some books too, that would help parents going through transition and helping their kids through these times. Do you have some books you would recommend for moms and dads?
Cassie: Well, I did pull two books that I really like for single moms. But you did touch on dads and for single dads, there's just so much more out there for moms. It seems like you're going to have to dig a little bit more for the dads and the single dad topics, especially, and that's, that goes even beyond books, but there is a really sweet book it's called Ask Me and it's by author Bernard Waber I think is the correct pronunciation and Suzy Lee. It's a favorite book for me to recommend to dads. And it's a story about a little girl, and she's simply asking her father questions and commenting on the world. And it's just a really sweet dynamic of a father daughter conversation just brings in that narrative of the dad and the daughter. So it's sweet. Nice.
Terrie: And then what would you recommend for single moms?
Cassie: Well, I think because I find this often is the mindset we can really, you know, dealing with the shame and the guilt and the transition and out of a marriage, maybe you weren't even married. So there's going to just be lots of mindset, challenges, and emotions to overcome. There's a great book by Jess Connolly and it's just out last year and because I love challenging and to go big and bold places, this is a great book. And it's titled You Are the Girl for the Job: Daring to Believe the God Who Calls You. And I mean, it just says it right there, but it's just stepping up to the plate and saying God's called me regardless of whatever choices I've made or whatever. It's his capacity and his willingness to meet me where I'm at, and he's gonna walk with me through a journey to do big things and bold and brave things.
Terrie: Wow. That sounds really like an amazing book. I hadn't heard of that one. I love it. I love the title
Cassie: I do too. I do too. And it's a really good book and it just, I, as a single mom, myself, I had a lot of questions and working with single moms, we have a lot of questions and the enemy has a great way of creating doubt in us that this was all a big mistake. And where do I go from here? And so it really begins to say, Hey, wait a second, that's got a plan for you and he's got it. He's going to take you there.
Terrie: Oh, that's awesome. Just as a kind of a side note, would you comment on the church and how you think the church is in accepting and nurturing, and being there for single moms and children in single parent families today?
Cassie: I was a single mom. And this is a great question. I love that you asked it, Terrie. This is a really important question and that's probably why God called me to serve and have, has called so many single moms to serve because we've experienced the healing, the deliverance, they, the life giving that he's poured into us and we're able to give that back. But as far as the church, as the church building goes, personally, my experience has been lacking. A lot of, you know, churches are traditional the nuclear family and it's hard for a single mom maybe to even just have the capacity, the bandwidth, the energy to even get to the building. Oftentimes when she does arrive every net doesn't all look like her. And that could be really so I don't, I don't know so much if it's the church, but it's a combination of that relationship that can, that can really kind of impede on the welcoming and the relationship of growing in that place. Jennifer Maggio, she's out of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She's got an actual book—Overwhelmed: The Life of a Single Mom, but she's doing really great things and serving churches and helping equip churches with single moms situation. So there are resources out there if this, the lands on anyone's ears that has the ability to bring in that the resources that anyway, Jennifer Maggio has got a great curriculum and just different tools for churches to help them with that topic.
Terrie: That's awesome. It was so interesting. We were missionaries in Taiwan for 15 years and one time I came home ahead of my family and I was very pregnant with my fourth child and probably shouldn't have been traveling, but I was. I went to church with my mom, and it was a new church. They didn't know me. And it was so interesting because I'm a pastor's wife and a missionary. So I'm used to going to churches and everyone just kinda like buzzing around asking questions and, you know, being very accepted because that's my role as a missionary. Here I am this pregnant woman coming to the church with my mom and stepdad. And the way I was treated that Sunday was so eye-opening. It was like, people weren't sure how to talk to me. I think they all thought I was a single mom coming to see my mom and I was pregnant. And it was like, they didn't want to know my story. And it was just weird because I could sense the difference in people's attitude. Then when they found out that I just had come ahead of my family and that they would be there and that I was a missionary, then all of a sudden everyone was interested and weren't afraid to talk to me. And I thought, Oh my goodness! If this is what it feels like to be a single parent, especially if you're pregnant and suddenly single and coming into a church and no one's coming around you and welcoming you and wanting to hear your story, how heartbreaking that would be and how discouraging that would be. And it just totally opened my eyes to that. And I just thought, Wow! It really shocked me. I had no idea that it would be that palpable, that obvious that there was such a difference in attitude.
Cassie: And, and I love the way you put that. And of course that's a whole other conversation, but it is, it is true. And it is real. And I very much remember experiencing that my myself trying to push my way in knowing God had, had called me a big one that had ran from a call. And just trying to overcome so many things, the place where it's that conversation of man, this is, I don't understand it, or this is too hard for me, or this is uncomfortable, or I'm going to say the wrong thing. So you, you just, you just don't touch it at all. Right. And, you know, God is doing a great thing in the body of Christ right now, where he is rising up people, you know, just like myself or like you, or, you know, in the podcast and, and all these different movements we have going on, where there are more people that are willing and ready and equipped to handle hard situations. So that, that gives me hope.
Terrie: Yeah. I agree. I see it too. More and more, but that was just really interesting to go through. Okay. I want to bring it back to books and I want to ask you, what was your favorite picture book as a child?
Cassie: They were the Golden Books. Yeah. I loved the like the Jack and Jill. They were very traditional that I loved. I loved them. I loved my baby dolls. I was that kind of gal, even though I was a tomboy and I played outside, I had a very sense of just being a girl and something about those Golden Books I really liked. And the pictures that they displayed, I'm not sure if you're familiar with them.
Terrie: Yes. Yeah. I grew up with them too. My favorite one was it was the under the ocean or something, which it showed you the weird fish in the bottom of the ocean that had the lights and stuff. And I just loved that book. I would read it and look at the pictures over and over again. And it was a Little Golden Book. I loved those too. I had a bunch. What were your favorite picture books to read to your own children when they were little?
Cassie: I have one. So the one I was did my single mom journey where I feel like I have two separate lives. Terrie, I feel like I'm two separate people. On some days, my journey of raising my daughter, I didn't remarry until she was just at a lot. She's almost 11, but that book with her and still is a favorite. Cause I've got three other ones now that are little. And we do read often is I Miss You Stinky Face. And have you read that?
Terrie: I've never heard of that one.
Cassie: It's a collection of stinky faces. And but this one is I Miss You Stinky Face. There is, I Love You Stinky Face, but it's such a, especially for moms or parents of single parenting, there is this sometimes just this connection and the sadness and this loss. And sometimes even a fear that what if you go missing, you know, what, if even what we have right now doesn't work or what if you don't come home from work one day, mom and I miss you. Stinky face was a book of my mom had found and brought into my home with my little girl. And even recently I found that book of hers. I have a little one for our, for a new one that I bought for my three younger ones. But I have the older one that we had that had pulled it out a few months ago. And I read it to her. I called her and I read it to her on the phone. And she just, we just all did. It just took us back to when she was little cause they need that sometimes don't they Terrie?
Terrie: I read picture books to my kids all the time. They like it. Is there anything else you'd like to share that's on your heart or mind right now?
Cassie: Well, I had, and thank you for asking. I had one more book and it was Boundaries with Kids because as single moms, there's not two of us. There's only one. And obviously you want to bring in the best community that you can, that gives you more eyes and ears and hands and hearts. But boundaries with kids is a wonderful place to go for moms that are struggling with managing the children and just trying to guide them and direct them. So that's a great resource. And then I didn't really touch too many books on. I deal with a lot of moms who have walked out of abusive relationships, and this is a place where the body of Christ has really dropped the ball and educating, or, or just even loving and trusting and hearing and leaning in to the abuse that's going on. And the marriages. And often times we've got, we have to get away. And that was my story. It was like, I don't, I do not want to divorce. Oh my gosh, can I hang on to this? But for safety reasons, I have to step away and it never healed. It never got on, got to the place I had desire. So desired it to go. So knowing your situation, knowing your children you know, there's a tons, tons of books out there, but are they going to meet your child's needs? And are they going to meet the needs of your home and your heart and where God is taking you? So that is probably one of my, my biggest advices was meal because of this. There's a, there's an aching place, a deep aching in, in a child's heart. Sometimes when it, when it, when life isn't easy to co-parent when there, when that kind of abuse and that level of dynamic has reached the heart of the home. And I'm sorry, that sounded probably a little heavy, but that's the truth. This is a truthful place of what's going on.
Terrie: Yeah. And we don't want to talk about it, but I mean, there's even abuse within the church that needs to be addressed. And I have at least two friends who were formerly pastor's wives who were abused by their pastor husbands and that's something, I mean, to bring healing to that kind of a situation and to support people going through that, I we've tried to do what we could over the years and it is a hard ministry. Yeah. I'm glad to know that part of your ministry is, is that is helping abused spouses to get out of a situation that's not safe. How can we support you and help you in your ministry that God has given you? What can we do as listeners of this podcast, what would you say that we could do to help you?
Cassie: I guess, if you know of a single mom that is in need of support of someone that's gonna walk the side, her that's feeling lonely, that's needing encouragement. That needs to be injected hope or you are of a nonprofit of that type that needs someone to that, you know, you're trying to understand this dynamic yourself. You can visit my website and which is CassieRajewich.com and when you can also send them to, I have a single mom group that really helps single moms. Many of them are coming out of abusive relationships, but also they're just in the middle of the overwhelm. And that is the Savvy Christian Single Mom on Facebook.
Terrie: I'll put the links in our show notes, so people can find you easily. So be sure to check out the show notes that those links will be there. Okay. Anything else you'd like to add today?
Cassie: No, Terrie, I so appreciate the conversation and you being willing to have me on.
Terrie: Well, I'm happy you came on. Since we met, I have just been so impressed with you and just love the heart and the ministry that you have. For people who don't know Cassie, she is a very bubbly, energetic person that has the most encouraging and optimistic spirit. And I think it's wonderful. I can just see how God would use you to bring healing in people's lives because of your own journey, but also because you have such a trust in a God who heals. And I think it's very evident when people meet you that that's the truth. And I love it.
Cassie: Terrie, you're going to just make me cry with all your words. I think that's probably one of the sweetest things I ever heard besides the comment my mom made on Facebook the other day, but that was my mom.
Terrie: Good. I'm glad I can encourage you.
Terrie: Thank you for joining us for Books that Spark a podcast, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Be sure to check out my website, TerrieHellardBrown.com. When you join my mailing list, you automatically receive access to several freebies just for those who sign up.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives and to help parents disciple their children. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode I interview Glenys Nellist who has published more than 20 board books, picture books, and Bible story books. We celebrate her book launch today for Little Mole's Christmas Gift.
Books Recommended in This Episode:
Our Guest: Author Glenys Nellist
Website: https://www.glenysnellist.com/
Transcript:Terrie: Welcome to "Books that Spark" a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. Today we're so excited to have a special guest Glenys Nellist, who is a writer. She was born and raised in a little village in Northern England. The author of multiple children's books, including the bestselling Twas the Evening of Christmas, The Wonder that Is You, and many popular series, including Love Letters from God, Snuggle Time, Good News, and The Little Mole. Her writing reflects a deep passion for helping children discover joy in the world. Glenys lives in Michigan with her husband David. Glenys, thank you for joining us today. I'm so excited. I've been looking forward to talking with you.
Glenys: Terrie, I'm looking forward to our time together too well.
Terrie: I'm so excited to share your beautiful books. You have such a heart for children in your writing, and it's like you see the child's heart, that it needs gentle, loving words to nurture and to guide the heart of a child. What inspires you as you write these wonderful books?
Glenys: Thank you for those kind words. I've always had a heart for children. I was a teacher in my previous life. I'm from England, and I taught primary school children. And so I've just always had a love for children and a love for reading. But in terms of what inspired me, I don't know. It's kind of hard to say. I mean, in many ways, my work, when we came to the United States. I stepped out of teaching and began pastoring a church alongside my husband. He was the pastor, and I was the Christian education director. So, in many ways, what inspired me to begin was a love for the Bible stories. And I found writing, rewriting those stories for my teachers, I just fell in love with the way there's always a new way to tell the old, old story.
That's really what inspired me to start writing my first book, which was a book of Bible stories. And it all kind of started from there. That first book, Love Letters from God, is 18 Bible stories. And each story has a lift the flap love letter from God that you can address personally to the child. It was important to me to include that personal interaction because I think that's what God wants from all of us when we read the Bible or when we sit to pray; God wants that personal connection with us and God as our creator who knows our names. And so the thought of being able to read a book with a child where a letter is personally addressed to them from God, and I know you can't see me, but I'm doing that little, you know, quotation marks--"from God," because obviously I wrote the letters, but a lot of prayer and thought went into those letters because that's not something you do lightly, you know, everything I wrote, I wanted to be sure that God, if God were here, that's what God would be saying to the child.
And so, I based all those letters on Bible verses where God was speaking. So, it couldn't be a Bible verse that said, for example, "God will be with you." It has to be, "I will be with you" that way. I tried to just enter God's mind, if you like, and just pray for the Holy Spirit: "What do you want me to say in this letter?" So, yeah, that was my first book. Love Letters from God. And that was published in 2014 and turned into a picture book series.
Terrie: And then they also have these in a Bible as well, right?
Glenys: Oh yes. That was so exciting for me. After the first book was published, we then brought out these books are published by Zonderkidz. They were my first publisher love letters from God was followed by Christmas Love Letters from God. And then if you're going to do Christmas, you have to do Easter. So, there's an Easter Love Letters from God. There's also one for women and girls in the Bible, which is Love Letters from God Bible Stories for a Girl's Heart. I'm not an author that really thinks that boys and girls need different texts. But the Bible is so--well. It's written by men, and it's full of stories about men and boys, but there are wonderful stories of girls and women hiding sometimes. And so, I just wanted to tease those out. But anyway, the one I think you're referring to somewhere in that process, that publication of the series Zonderkidz came to me, which is always great, you know, when your publisher comes to you, and said, we would like to publish a full edition Bible, but we'd like you to write, I think it was about maybe 30, 40 love letters that we can place at strategic points within the biblical text. That was yeah. Love letters from God Holy Bible. And that was amazing for me. I'm not really the author of that, you understand, but it was a wonderful opportunity just to expand on the series and write more love letters that God might write. And I think also in that Bible Zonderkidz left space so that children could write back to God or make little notes, you know? So yeah, it was so nice.
Terrie: I know you had most recently your book Grandma Snuggles launched around Grandparent's Day. I thought that was really cute, but you have a whole series of Snuggle Time books, right? Are they all board books?
Glenys: That was the second series of books that I launched with Zonderkidz. The first one is called Snuggle Time Prayers. And then we followed that with Snuggle Time Psalms and these are all small with the soft back. So, they're nice for kids to hold, and they're chewable which is important for little ones. They're all written in rhyme, which is something I've always loved to do. What I really love the Psalms one, because I just talk, I think 14 or 15, well known sounds like for example, Psalm 23, you know, the Lord is my shepherd, and you might not think that the Psalms are for children. You know, when you think of reading the Bible to children, it's always the stories, the iconic Bible stories, but the Psalms are so beautiful and poetic and wonderful and paint wonderful pictures of God. And so, I just felt like I could find a way to make the Psalms accessible for little ones. And so that is one of my favorite titles. And then we did Snuggle Time Christmas Stories, and then Snuggle Time Fall Blessings, which is popular right now, you know, with the leaves falling down. And then I think the most recent one that I did was Snuggle Time Bible Stories. That's just a sweet little series, and there are two more to come that I've done Snuggle Time Easter and Snuggle Time Love. And I think those are publishing 2022. It's just a huge blessing, and then to add Grandma Snuggles alongside them. Grandma Snuggles launched in September.
Terrie: Little Mole's, Christmas Gift launches today. I love Little Mole Finds Hope. And so I'm excited to read the new one that launches today. Can you tell us a little bit about your Little Mole series?
Glenys: I think everybody loves Little Mole because he's such a sweet little guy. These books are published by Beaming Books. Little Mole Finds Hope, as you said, was the first in the series. It was published I think February of this year, basically Little Mole Finds Hope is an Easter-themed book. I'm excited about it because it was really my first sort of crossover the title. And what I mean by that is if your listeners are not familiar, up to this point, pretty much all my books published with Zonderkidz and Our Daily Bread Ministries had a mainly Christian slant, if not religious. But Little Mole Finds Hope was my first foray into trying to write a book that would reach both the religious and the secular markets. If you are a Christian, you will see the Resurrection in Little Mole Finds Hope because it's all about Little Mole who is sad. He lives underground, and so he's kind of literally and figuratively in the dark. And his mom suggests one day, "Why don't we go and look outside for hope?" And he says, "What's that? Hope? What is it? Where can it be found?" And so the premise is that hope can be found even in the darkest place--a tulip bulb or a daffodil bulb that looks dead and lifeless will one day be a beautiful flower. And of course, the butterfly that looks shriveled and lifeless in a Chrysalis will one day be a beautiful butterfly. It's simply a story of Little Mole finding that hope can live even in the dark. It's kind of a good message for COVID, you know? That even in the darkest place, hope can be found. And so obviously if you're a Christian, the message is resurrection and new life in Jesus, but we deliberately did not mention God or Jesus in the book because we just want it to be read by people of faith and people who aren't. And in the back of that book, there's a little section on tips for adults or parents, caregivers helping if the child is feeling sad. And so that was, you know, a wonderful first introduction for Little Mole.
And then, so the book that releases today. Yay! Happy birthday, Christmas Gift! And it's a little early to be talking Christmas, but you know, in the publishing world, you have to get the titles out and in the stores. All the retailers have to know what's coming down the line. So Little Mole is back. And this time when we meet him, he's less unsure of the world. And he's super excited because he's found this massive mushroom for mama in the woods, and he's had his eye on it for a while and he decides this is going to be a fabulous Christmas present for mama. He pushes it, and he pulls it, and he finally topples it. And he's super excited. And the illustrations by Sally Garland are just wonderful. But there's a wonderful illustration where Little Mole is imagining this big Christmas gift and how much joy it will bring him to give to mama and how much she will love it. And you know, who among us has not felt that, you know, when we're out shopping and we have our eye on this gift, and we think that is the gift, and you're excited, you know, to wrap it and to give it. So I think we can identify with the emotions of Little Mole. Well, unfortunately as he's on his way back to the burrow, as he's dragging this big, massive mushroom, well, he encounters three little Woodland friends, and they're all in need. And so our little guy has a big decision to make, should he share his mushroom with his friends in need? Or should he save it for mama? It's just a sweet little story of kindness and generosity, and we sure need a lot of kindness in our world. Don't we?
Terrie: Yeah, we sure do. I can't wait to read it. It sounds adorable. Well, my absolute favorite one of all your books that I've read--this book made me cry. I love it so much. And that's The Wonder that Is You. Oh, I just that book, I think it's going to be on my gift list from now on for new moms, because I think it's such a beautiful thing.
Glenys: Oh, I'm so glad that you brought that up. I'm so glad to have the opportunity to talk about it, but The Wonder that Is You came about, because my editor invited me to lunch one day. I was all nervous, you know, but it's a wonderful thing when you could meet your editor face to face. I have just learned in this publishing journey to ask my editors one important question, and that is "What are you looking for?" Her answer to that question is the reason why The Wonder That Is You was born. She said, "I'm looking for a book that will celebrate the arrival of a new child in the family, whether through birth or adoption." And so I said, "Okay, let me think about that." And I went home and what is that book, Terrie? That the really popular book that sold millions. And I can't just remember the author now, but it's the go-to book for all the showers. It's the one with the two polar bears dancing together on the front cover. Do you know which one I'm thinking? [On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman]
Terrie: But if you ever wondered or—
Glenys: It's something like that. It's just escaping me now.
Terrie: I think I actually have it in my bookshelf here. I was just trying to find it.
Glenys: I do too, but I just cannot for the life of me remember, but it's a wonderful book and really it's a go-to book for baby showers and new baby gifts. And actually that book is so clever because that book is a secular book, but there is a Bible verse at the very end. And it's the one from Psalm 139: "I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made." And so anyway, I know that your listeners right now, they'll be like, "Oh, they're talking about that book." And I just can't remember the title, but anyway, she said, "I want to book like that one." So, I went away and Terrie, it was just, I don't even know what made me think of that. But I was thinking about when--we have four wonderful children, all grown now like yours, but when my first son was born, I had this amazing experience in the hospital. Like I was flying because I was so full of joy and wonder at being a mother. That was the impetus for The Wonder That Is You. And so that book is dedicated to my eldest son and you know, it's marvelous what God will do with a title because so many women have told me I'm going to buy this for my grown up kids because somehow I think it just captures the emotions and the feeling that mothers have when they hold their child for the first time, whether they give birth to that child or whether they're adopted. And actually I should say, I should correct myself because that title was actually my first crossover title, because although it's published by Zonderkidz, there are no direct religious references. What I tried to do was to capture: suppose all creation, rejoices. When a new child enters the family. Suppose rivers bubble over with joy, and suppose the trees clap their hands, and suppose the stars are singing. I'm so glad that you love that book because it really is one of my favorites too really.
Terrie: Even if they don't, it feels that way for us. Our life is so changed, and we feel like the world is rejoicing with us. Everything has changed. And you know, we waited so long to have kids. And when that first child was born, she was such a miracle. You just captured my heart with what you said. That's exactly how I felt. And so, I just, I love it.
Glenys: Thank you. Well, that gives me goosebumps to hear you say that, and just to talk about it. Because you know what happens is when you're a busy mom all that wonder, sometimes it can just slip through your fingers and you forget that, you know, in the midst of diapers and laundry and babies and crying in the night, you forget the miracle and the joy and the wonder of being a mom. And so, I think what you just said is right, that even if the trees don't know we are never the same. And I think any words that can take us back to that place of wonder I think are a special thing.
Terrie: Then you have a book coming out. When will that release?
Glenys: Actually, that one will release in February of 2021 Twas the Morning of Easter.
Terrie: Yeah. And I've already read the Christmas one: Twas the Evening of Christmas. And I love that one. I love the artwork. Your illustrator in those made beautiful pictures.
Glenys: I know. She is a Russian illustrator, Elena Selivanova. That one is published by Zonderkidz. And I remember, again, having lunch with him the first time I had lunch with my editor, we were talking about Love Letters from God, that very first book. And she just said, do you have anything else that you've written? And I said, well, I do. I have a poem that's based on the Clement C. Moore Classic. But instead of being called Twas the Night Before Christmas, it's called Twas the Evening of Christmas, and it celebrates Jesus instead of Santa, you know, I'm not anti-Santa in any way, but that's just the way I like to frame that. And so she said, I'll take a peek at it. Twas the Evening of Christmas was born. And oh, my goodness, when I saw those illustrations, they're just staggering. And I'm super excited to be publishing Twas the Morning of Easter. Twas the Evening of Christmas begins, "Twas the evening of Christmas when all through the town, each inn was so crowded no room could be found." And so I just took that familiar cadence and rhythm and rhyme, and just rewrote it about being,
Terrie: Do you have the same illustrator for the Easter one?
Glenys: I do. Wait. The I've had a peek at them. They're just as stunning. They're just beautiful. And that one begins, "Twas the morning of Easter before the sun rose, two guards on a hillside were trying to doze."
Terrie: Oh, that's cute.
Glenys: Yeah. But her pictures are phenomenal, and I'll just let you in on a little secret that nobody else knows. And so truly only my husband and my publisher Zonderkidz know, but there is another book in the Twas series with the same illustrator, and that will be publishing this time next year.
Terrie: Oh, wonderful.
Glenys: I can't say anything else about it.
Terrie: Wow! You are a busy, busy person.
Glenys: I know. And you know what, honestly, I was taking part in a writer's conference last week. It was my first time being one of the headliners, and it was such a blessing. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but one of the things I said was, "I honestly feel like God is the author, and I'm just along for the ride," you know, because I don't know. I just, I think we are all creative in some capacity where that you have the gift of writing or drawing, which I don't have that gift or creating art in whatever form, making things we all, because we're all made in God's image, we're all creators. And I just feel like I've been able to tap into the whole, I don't know that the creativity that the Holy Spirit just gives. And honestly, I just feel like a vessel. So when I sit down, right, I just prayed Holy Spirit flow through my pen. And let me write the words that will honor you. And it's just amazing. I don't know how I got so fortunate, so blessed to be in this position, but I do love what I do.
Terrie: One of the focuses of my podcast is the importance of reading aloud with our children, you know, to our children and with our children. Would you like to speak to that?
Glenys: Well, as you said, that is just so important and it's vital and it's key in all, you know, all the research about raising readers and literacy skills, reading aloud to them on with them is just foundational. And so what, what I would say to parents are any of your lessons, anyone out there listening, who, who were, who is nurturing the child, first of all, just enjoy it because my four kids, one of mine was a struggling reader. So you just don't want to get to the point where it's hard work or it's a chore. And so I think just to inspire that love of reading and a lot of looking at pictures, and if your children are little, just that interaction, you know, of having them cuddle with you on your lap or next to you and turning the page. I think some people might think that reading aloud to children, that's not helping them read, but that's not true because you were just setting the example and you're paving the way for children to enter a new world through a book, you know, so make it fun.
Do it as often as you can, don't be afraid to kids. Our favorite books, don't land parents might get a bit fed up with repeated that book, but just do it because just nurture that love of reading and read yourself, you know, children, see what we do on there. They're going to imitate what we do. And so the more we are readers, the more we will raise readers. Amen. Well, I would love to give one of your listeners. I'd love to get them with Little Mole’s Christmas Gift.
Terrie: Oh, that would be wonderful.
Glenys: Yes. Since it's his birthday today. That would be appropriate to give that as a Christmas gift. And I'd look to, that would be a signed copy too that one of your readers could receive.
Terrie: So if you are interested in entering for an opportunity to win this beautiful little book, Little Mole’s, Christmas Gift, you just need to comment on our blog post or on one of the announcements on social media about this giveaway. And every time you comment or ask a question, you're entered in the contest.
Glenys: And I should add that I'm only able to mail the book within the United States.
Terrie: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking time to talk with us today. It really was a blessing to get to talk with you and meet you a little bit. And I look forward to reading more of your books in the future and just ask that God will bless you and continue to inspire you to write these lovely, lovely books. Oh, well, thank you so much for having me.
Terrie: For those of you listening. Remember we have a giveaway. Glenys is giving away a signed copy of her brand new book that has a birthday today, that launches today. And that is Little Mole’s Christmas Gift. Comment on this blog post or on one of the social media announcements about this giveaway, and you will be entered to win. We'll draw the winner the end of October, and announced the winner on November 1st.
Thank you for joining us for "Books that Spark," a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Be sure to check out my website, TerrieHellardBrown.com. When you join my mailing list, you automatically receive access to several freebies just for those who sign up.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, is available each Tuesday morning. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we discuss forgiveness and some great books to help our children learn how to forgive and renew their friendships.
Remember our giveaway! Ends September 30.
Books Recommended in This Episode:
Transcript:Welcome to Books that Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids.
We have so many values and lessons. We need to teach our children as they grow. And some important ones are forgiveness and reconciliation. Today. We're going to talk about what that means. And I think too many times in our society, we water down what we're really talking about when we're talking about forgiveness, because forgiveness, doesn't just stop at saying, "I'm sorry." --or especially if we have little children that cross their arms and roll their eyes and say, "I'm sorry," and don't really mean it, but that we're looking for a reconciled relationship where we're making it right, where we're healing, the relationship. And that's what forgiveness is all about. Granted, there are times when either a person does not want forgiveness and we choose to forgive for our own good. And for the good of the situation, there are also times of abuse where forgiveness means not reconciling, but keeping ourselves safe. And that's a whole different ball game. But on the day to day, every day lessons, we're teaching children, usually we're looking for forgivenness and reconciliation. And so I found some really great books that talk about forgiveness in a way that children can understand and grasp the whole concept in a really great way. And one book I really like is called: I Forgive You--Love We Can Hear, Ask For, and Give. I love the title and that's why I also love the book because it makes forgiveness very tangible. They give lots of examples in the book, and it's written by Nicole Lataif, illustrated by Katy. Betz. It's just very, very well written and describes forgiveness in such a way that children can really grasp it and hang onto it.
They use a lot of metaphor and analogy in a way that is very clear and gives very clear descriptions of what might need to be forgiven and what forgiveness means. And I love that it acknowledges that forgiving is hard and that sometimes it doesn't come instantaneously. I love that. It's a very authentic well-written book. I recommend it highly. And at the very beginning of the book, it has a section for grownups where it talks about forgiveness.
If we are truly forgiving people, it is one of the most difficult things we do as a Christian. It is not always easy. And sometimes we must forgive many, many times, not because the person has wronged us many, many times, hopefully, but because we keep bringing it back up in our own minds and replaying it over and over. We say forgive and forget, but we don't usually forget as much as we would like to. So, that's one of our failings as human beings.
This book has very colorful illustrations and the pictures are kind of lifelike; they're cartoonish, but the children can definitely see what's going on in the relationship between two children in the pictures. When it's talking about needing to ask for forgiveness and the illustrations show exactly what they're talking about. For instance, "God forgives you every time. He forgives you if you don't share, if you pull hair, if you throw a fit, if you choose to quit." And so this little boy is pulling this girl's hair. And then on the page, it says, "Wherever you go, whatever you do, you can hear an 'I forgive you.'" And then later on in the book, it says, "You can ask for an 'I forgive you.'" And then it says, "Wherever you go, whatever you do, you can say, 'I forgive you.'" So I like that. It has this little rhyming and sing-song, lyrical quality to it; a lot of the book rhymes, but not all of it. It's memorable. Children can think about needing to say, "I forgive you," needing to ask for forgiveness, for an "I forgive you." And then you go a little bit further and it says, "Wherever you go, whatever you do, make forgiveness part of you." So I love that it's also teaching children that forgiveness is a part of life, that they need to make that a part of life. And then one of my favorite analogies or images that they use says, "Not forgiving is like having an elephant in your heart. He grows and grows. He gets heavier and heavier until, 'Crack!' he breaks your heart." I think that is the most beautiful, concrete description I've ever seen of unforgiveness. And so it really can make it real to a child where they can grasp that. And I think that's exactly how unforgiveness feels. It just grows and grows. And the Bible warns us not to let a root of bitterness grow up in our hearts. And that's what unforgiveness will do. And it becomes the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. But the elephant in your heart, that is weighing you down. It says, "When we feed anger, it's like having a lion in your throat. Lion's roar. Roaring is scary. Speak calmly instead. Roaring hurts others, but it hurts you more. When you're mad, take a break, talk it through with someone who loves you. Forgive others as God does." Then it discusses some other things of how we can forgive. And I love, they also give you a section where it talks about "You don't have to forgive right away." Sometimes it takes you some time to work through your anger and to get to the point where you can forgive, but you don't want to just let it sit there and grow and break your heart. And it ends with a children's prayer, a simple prayer that we can pray with our kids.
It's just really well done and stays true to the word of God, stays true to what we should be doing in forgiving others and in asking for forgiveness. And I think it's so important today to really drive this home because our world is teaching that forgiveness is for our benefit, not the benefit of the other person, that when we forgive someone, it's basically just helping us to not carry that bitterness with us and not hurt ourselves. It's a very selfish notion when forgiveness is very selfless in its reality in truly forgiving someone, it's a selfless act, letting go of our desire for revenge, our desire to get even, and it's allowing God into the relationship and into the situation. A byproduct of forgiveness is that it does benefit us. We do feel a freedom when we let go, when we forgive. And a weight is lifted off of our heart and mind. And so that is true, but that is not the main reason behind forgiveness. The main thing behind forgiveness is us letting go so that God can work. When we forgive, we wind up not carrying the burden of bitterness. We don't let that root of bitterness spring up in our hearts. And we save ourselves a lot of pain and misery and illness that can result from unforgiveness. But I think it is so much more than that. True forgiveness is much, much more. True forgiveness is not playing God. And when we hold onto a grudge, we don't want to forgive someone, it's like, we want to hang onto it and have vengeance against the person. And it could mean that we just want to use it as a crutch to continue to be disobedient to God.
There's just so many nuances to unforgiveness, but forgiveness in its real form is a sacrifice. It's a letting go and letting God have control and letting God into the relationship and letting God have his way in my life and letting God have his way in that other person's life. If we are truly forgiving someone, we want them to be blessed. We want God to have his way in their life. And by that I don't mean that he's going to strike them down or that he's going to teach them what they did wrong, but that he has his way in their life. And that they become stronger--a stronger child of God--that they grow in the Lord and that they are fruitful and blessed and that he can have his way with them and use their life. It's understanding that we are not static beings that never grow and never change. If you think back over your life, and there's someone that you, when you were younger, you hurt them or they hurt you. And you've never fully reconciled with them. They're still stunted in our mind. We still think of them as in that same place. But in reality, we all have grown. We all have changed. Hopefully we've matured and grown up and changed. And God has worked in our lives to make us more like him. When we see that person, even if we've forgiven them, even if we've reconciled with them the best we could, we are still not that same person. And they are not still that same person. We've all grown. And so we need to let go, not only of what we held against that person, but recognize that we are all growing and we are all moving, hopefully closer to Christ-likeness in our walk with God and not see that person through the lens of whatever our disagreement was or whatever our hurt was and letting God not only forgive them and work in their life, but help us to see our relationship where it should be now and understand that we're not the same people we were when we hurt each other. And that's something that we don't talk about. We don't talk about these things a lot. We just talk about, "Say, I'm sorry. Say I forgive you." And we don't make it a heart issue with our kids.
I had one friend, actually my midwife, and I thought she was so wise. When her kids would disobey or they would hurt someone in their family, she would send them to their room until they were at a place where they were ready to truly ask for forgiveness. And so she didn't force it on them in the moment, which I see a lot of teachers, more teachers than parents, do. They want to try to reconcile too quickly when a child isn't quite there. So, she lets her children go alone by themselves and spend some time with God praying and getting their hearts to a place where they truly want forgiveness and reconciliation. I think that's really important.
I created a worksheet that will be in the show notes. If you would like to download it, feel free. It's a freebie. But it's what I've created to help with walking through reconciliation with an older child; this would be older elementary. If you were using it with a very young child--first of all, I think it would be too much for a very young child. They may not even be reading age. So this is definitely for a child who's reading age, who's able to write down a paragraph, who's able to process their feelings. But I wanted to make a worksheet that would help a child walk through the steps of reconciliation. And so they have a place where they can write what they need forgiveness for, what is their part in this disagreement or this problem. And then who do they need to confess to, who have they hurt? And then of course also confessing to God. And we talk about what, what a forgiveness is, repentance is, what reconciliation is, and what restitution is. And so these are all big words that we can help our children understand and then talk about it. So helping our child understand their need for repentance. It's not just an, "I'm sorry," it's a heart issue. Then also in the worksheet, what the other person did that needs forgiven. And they write that out, and then they choose to forgive them. Who do I need to forgive? And then at the end, it talks about reconciliation is our relationship okay now? Are we where we need to be? What else needs to happen? Is there restitution that needs to be made?" And I use the example of if you break your sister's toy, you may need to buy her a new toy or give her one of yours to make restitution. Now, maybe that isn't needed. Maybe she just forgave, and it's okay. But if there is something that is still between the two children that needs to be made, right, sometimes restitution does need to take place. And we need to teach our kids that and help them know that there are times that when they've done something wrong, they can make it better by action, as well as words. This worksheet, I hope, will help you if you want to use it. If you want to just have a look at it and use it as a jumping off point for how you want to talk to your kids, then that's there for your use however you want to use it.
So, we know that forgiveness is a powerful thing. It helps set us free from bitterness. It helps set us free from what we're holding onto that can hurt our hearts, but it sets them free from being held under our unforgiveness, from them having a burden that they don't need to bear either, so God can do his work in their lives. The other thing too is if we don't forgive, sometimes the other person is not even aware that they've hurt us because we've never talked to them about it. And so we've got to teach our kids--first of all, we've got to teach ourselves the reality of what forgiveness truly is and not buy into what the world says it is. But look at what the Bible says it is. Oh, and on that worksheet, I also have several Bible verses that you can use to teach about forgiveness, to memorize with your family about forgiveness. Reconciliation, and respect for people. Two of the key values we need to teach our children. It's the key to having successful marriages and other successful relationships. When we grow up and, you know, statistics have shown that people don't lose their jobs because they don't have skill in doing a job. They lose their jobs because they don't know how to have good relationships. They don't know how to cooperate with other people. They don't know how to reconcile when something has gone wrong. These life skills that we are discipling our kids with that we're, that we're helping our kids to grasp and build in their lives, it's not only helping them to be better children, it's helping them to grow into better and more successful adults. So these are very important and key things we need to teach. One of the key things that I always talk about when I'm talking about forgiveness is being able to ask God to bless the person. And so we want to get to that point.
Now, I found a couple other books that are really cute, and there are a lot of books about forgiveness. Some are written from a Christian perspective, some are not. These are not necessarily written from a Christian perspective, but they're cute. And I think they'll really drive home the idea of forgiveness and how we feel when we are angry and upset with someone. One of them is called Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. You got to love the alliteration. And it's written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes. Lily is a little mouse, and she loves school. She loves her teacher, and she's decided she wants to be a teacher because her teacher is so wonderful. And then, one day it's show-and-tell, and she disturbs the class with what she's brought to show and tell, and her teacher gets onto her, and it makes her mad. Then she decides she doesn't like school. She doesn't like her teacher, and she never wants to be a teacher. She has this little fit. She writes these little stories and illustrates them. Her teacher sees what she's written and everything. And in the book, it shows how he reconciles with her and how her attitude then changes to wanting to be a teacher again. And I love the way the book takes us through her struggle with unforgiveness, with anger, and then how she reconciles with her teacher and how she then comes to a place where the relationship is actually stronger and better than it was before. I love that. And it's a really cute little book about her plastic purse. Her purple plastic purse makes noise, and that's how she disturbs the class.
The other one is such a funny book, and it's called Horrible Bear. And it's by Ame Dyckman and illustrated by Zachariah OHora. And if you've never read this book, it is so cute. But this little girl has a kite and it flies into the bears din and the bears hibernating he's sleeping. And so the kite breaks and she blames the bear for the kite braking. And so she goes around telling everybody horrible bear, he's a horrible bear. The bear gets really mad at her and she's a horrible girl, horrible girl. And then they wind up becoming friends and everything gets fixed, but so they both have their anger and angst at what happened. And now they're telling everybody else, which I think is important to talk about how we should never go around bad, mouthing other people. And then they reconcile and make things, right. It doesn't have a whole lot of words in it. So it would be good with talking with younger children and helping them to understand their emotions and how they feel and how they need to control that, and then be able to reconcile with someone.
Okay, I want to talk about one more silly book that you can use for fun. You can use it if you're homeschooling for a poetry unit that you're doing with your kids, or it definitely is a good one to use when talking about insincere confessions, you know, when someone is asking for forgiveness, but they really aren't sorry. So first you have to know the background. There's a poem by William Carlos Williams that's called “This Is Just to Say,” and it says,
“I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.”
So, you can see that it's talking about when we're asking forgive for forgiveness, do we really mean it? And this goes along with the book called, Forgive Me. I Meant to Do It by Gail Carson Levine, and it's illustrated by Matthew Cordell. It's false apology poems. And this is for a little bit older kid, although you probably could read some of them to elementary, early elementary and they would still get it because it deals with fairytales and things. But it is so funny. Some of the allusions are to fairy tale stories that you know. And so they're false apology poems. And the first poem says, “this is just to say, my bulldozer has flattened the thorny hedge, which you mistakenly expected to sleep behind until the Prince came, forgive me, I'm charging tourists $10 to visit the castle.” So in that poem, they knocked down the hedge where the sleeping beauty was hiding. And there's one from Jack and Jill, “you fell and cracked your skull on the Hill where I had carefully placed a banana peel. Forgive me, Jill is now my girlfriend.” So he's stolen Jill from Jack and made Jack fall. There's one about the princess and the pea where she really knew the pea was there. She, sorry, not sorry sort of thing. They're all silly. They're all ridiculous. There's one about Jack and the Beanstalk. It says, “this is just to say, I have chewed through the tall beanstalk, which you recently stepped off way up there. Forgive me. I think I'm worth more than five magic beans.” And of course, it's the cow who's falsely apologizing and chews down the beanstalk because she's been sold for five magic beans. So, with these poems, you can talk about, “Are you really sorry? Or are you just saying, you're sorry? Do you really want forgiveness? Or are you really not so sorry that you did what you did.” And so we talk about the heart issue and make it a little bit more serious than probably it needs to be at times.
But with these poems, we can approach a very heavy subject in a funny way and help our children to really examine their hearts without them feeling like we're shaking our finger at them. So, I hope some of these books will be enjoyable with your kids and that you can enjoy tackling a very important subject, but in an entertaining way that opens up some good conversations.
Thank you for joining us for “Books that Spark,” a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of this podcast and my blog. My website is terriehellardbrown.com. When you join my mailing list, you automatically have several freebies that you can download and enjoy with your kids.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we take a fun look at ABC books, phonemes, and discuss ministering through language exchange.
We're also doing a giveaway! Three winners will receive my favorite ABC book! Comment on my blog to be entered to win. Each comment or question posted will give you another entry. Deadline for entries is September 30, 2020.
Recommended in this episode:
Lesson Plan Using Avaricious Aardvarks
Transcript:Welcome to "Books that Spark" a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion leading to teachable moments with our kids. September is literacy month. And so I thought I would go over, especially with school starting, and talk about some of my favorite alphabet books. Now, some I've talked about in other episodes, such as the P Is for Pterodactyl book: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever written by Raj Halder and Chris Carpenter; illustrated by Maria Tina Beddia. And of course, in that we're talking about all the words that have silent letters in them. And so it's the letters that are at the beginning of words that do not make a sound. And I think it's a great book for your older students; for the younger students who are strong readers and who are interested in words, that one would be a good one.
Another one I've mentioned before is A Is for Salad, which is written and illustrated by Mike Lester. And in this one, the picture shows something that relates to the letter shown, but the words don't match. A is for salad, shows an alligator eating a salad. So of course the A is actually for alligator. And so this one is good for the children who already know their alphabet and are wanting to have some fun with that. Another one is called Z Is for Moose. It's by Kelly Bingham and illustrated by Paul Zelinsky. And it is such a cute book and tells a story. This moose, he wants to be in the alphabet book too soon. He gets on the wrong page. And then when they finally get to M, they decide to go with mouse instead of moose. And so he's crying, and it's just, it's really cute. So, that's another fun one. And then one of my favorites--it's kind of an older book--is called Avaricious Aardvarks and Other Alphabet Tongue Twisters by Sandy Sheppard illustrated by Joel Bower. It's an A-to-Zany Look at God's Creatures. It's a really cute little book, and I love it for the alliteration. It's all about animals, and every page is a tongue twister to have fun with language and with the alphabet. For instance, it says, "Avaricious aardvarks antagonize anxious ants," "Big Brown baboons buy bananas by the bunch." So of course, this is not going to be your A is for Apple, B is for boy, C is for cat type of book. This is going to be for a little bit older child, and it's a lot of fun. And especially if you have them practice saying these tongue twisters and learn them as tongue twisters and see how fast they can say them or how fast they can read the page. Then it can be a lot of fun.
If you're working with ESL students, then this is even more fun because tongue twisters are so hard when you're learning a language. I used to try to learn Chinese tongue twisters. Oh my goodness. Those are so hard because the tongue twisting is partially the tone. It may have the same word in the tongue twister over and over and over like ma ma ma ma ma, you know, and you're just changing the tones. There's one about teachers and lions, and it's crazy. But anyway, the C for this one is "Creeping, crawling crocodiles, constantly create concern" or "Dehydrated dromedaries don't drink daintily." And so these words are going to be a little more involved. If you were using this book to teach language, you could also use it because in each one you have adverbs adjectives, a noun, and a verb.
So each one is a sentence, for instance, "Friendly frogs, frolic friskily for fun." So you have "friendly," which is your adjective; "frogs," which is your noun; "frolic" is your verb, "friskily" is your adverb; and "for fun" would be your prepositional phrase. In this one, you can teach alliteration, you can teach grammar for different words, what they are, the noun, verb, adjective adverb, plus you're teaching pronunciation and fun with language with your tongue twisters. And so in they're all animals in this book that they talk about. And it starts out with a little poem in the front. It says, "Curious beasts from a to Z, fill the earth, the sky, the sea, they jump and fly and swim and crawl. God our Father made them all." So I like that. This book is not overtly Christian in the sense that every page talks about God, but at least it starts that way.
If you're not a believer and you don't want to talk about God, this is still a great book because of all the ways you can use it to teach grammar, to teach English pronunciation and to have fun with alliteration. Plus the words are big enough that you can also pull out a whole vocabulary list from this one book to teach your kids to expand their vocabulary. So I love books like that, that I can use for several different purposes within my lesson plan. And I mean, you could have it come into an art lesson and have them draw animals. If you wanted to, you could even bring in lessons across the curriculum, but certainly you can with your grammar and your English language lessons, use a book like this for vocabulary and everything that you're working on.
In addition to these, if you, and I've mentioned this before, if you join my mailing list, you have access to three different phoneme books that I created. I do not sell these books. I only give them away. I made three of them. One is more geared toward children who enjoy construction and tools and science, and it's called The Little Toolbox of Phonemes. And then there's one geared toward the girly girls among us who like pink and purple and glitter and dressing up. And then there's one that is full of coloring pages for you, and it tells the different stories of Jesus. And we go through the phonemes. You'll print these out and fold the paper in half lengthwise and laminate. And then after you laminate them, you can take them to one of the print shops and have them put one of those spiral connectors at the top of the pages. So the book flips open that way. It's just unique. It's long and thin and fun. I originally made one for my son, and in the front cover I actually put "A book for Nathaniel made by mom with lots of love." You can, because you can print these out, if you want to make your own title page or whatever, feel free to do that and make the book your own because this is something that's just a gift for you to use with your children.
Now, if you don't know what phonemes are, phonemes are the sound that the letters make. So it may be one letter. It may be two letters. It may be five, let's see, O-U-G-H, four letters I think is the longest one I have is the OUGH phoneme. And the OUGH phoneme has six sounds: /Oh/, /ooh/, /uf/, /off/, /ah/, /ow/. And so with each one, we're saying all of the sounds that that letter or that group of letters makes. So for a, instead of just saying /a/, /a/, /a/, /a/, we do /a/, /ay/, /ah/, /uh/ because the letter a in English can say /a/ as in Apple; /ay/ as in ate, like ate an apple or ape; /ah/ as in tall; /uh/ as in the a word. When we have a as a word, we normally don't say I saw a bunny. We say, I saw a bunny. When we teach a, we teach all four sounds. And typically in the classroom, I teach them in the order of the most frequent sound. The most frequent sound for an a in English is /a/, second is /ay/, than is /ah/, and fourth is /uh/. But for your purposes, you're just having fun and helping your children to know when they see an a, these are the sounds it makes. So as you're doing these phoneme books, as you print them out, this will take you through most of the most common phonemes. If you have children who are in first, second, third grade, I would print the whole book for them. If you have little bitty kids who are in their fours and fives or threes, fours, and fives, you might want to just print the part that's the 26 letters and not go into the two letter and up to four letter phonemes. I have the whole one letter alphabet with the phonemes, you know, up in the front part of the book. And then later on, I go into the vowel digraphs in the SH, CH, TH digraphs. And so these phonemes are in there, but you don't have to go that far. You can choose for your child, what is appropriate for their age and print the whole thing and just go over the first part, or just print part of the book. It's up to you. Like I said, this is a gift to you. Use it how you would like. I did the one with the coloring pages because I thought it would be fun for the kids to be able to color the book. And then you have it laminated and put it together. So now it's not just a special book Mom made for me, it's a special book that I helped color and create as well, which is kind of fun. So that, like I said, is available. You have three to choose from. I may do some more in the future if people really like them. But they are a lot of fun to go over. And I really feel like it helps equip a child to read and to begin to understanding letters and what they do. Then, if you're going through a book and your child is trying to read the words and they try to sound it out with an /a/, and it doesn't quite work or more commonly with a C, if they say the C with an S sound, and it's supposed to be a k sound, then you can simply say, "What's another sound that C makes?" And they'll automatically know, "Oh, it can say K."
And so then they try it and the word makes sense. I get that a lot with G as well with the /g/, /j/ sound. And so if they say the wrong sound and you have them try it with the other sound, and then they're sounding it out. My children started reading early in life. My youngest started reading at about age three, and we did not teach him. I feel like I didn't teach any of my kids to read. I did teach them phonics, and I did teach them phonemes. And through that, they taught themselves to read. And before I knew it, they were reading books. Of course, we read books to them all the time. And so they would pick up words along the way, I'm sure, but reading was never a chore. It was a joy with my kids. That was always a positive thing. And they fell in love with reading books. And the wonderful thing about alphabet books, ABC books, is you can find one to match just about any interest your child may have. There's one for the alphabet of words from art. There's one about tennis pros out there. If you want to talk about women's history, there's one about amazing women. I did one for my son with Star Wars words and there actually are two different ones I found one had to do with Star Wars, and one had to do with Marvel comics. So those are out there as well. The one I did for my child, I just did on my own. I didn't even know there was one. And so I have a lot of fun with those. And, let's see, what else did I see construction work.
If we're not careful, a lot of our books exclude little boys. And with the alphabet books, you see alphabet books that include boys and girls and help them both to find things they love and read about those. And one really cute book that's out there, if you like Eric Carl and his artwork, it's a very simple book, but it has flaps, and it opens up and it's his artwork. So there's the Eric Carl ABC book, but there's so many to choose from. And they're just great and help, like I said, help you to teach your kid to read without really teaching them to read, helping them just to fall in love with letters sounds, and then let them start to put those together. The other thing that I sometimes do with phonemes is show them in different places within a word. So not every time is the word going to begin with the letter that we're talking about. Sometimes we need to teach some words where the letter comes at the end or in the middle of the word. Even if the alphabet book isn't teaching that or your phoneme book, isn't teaching that, be aware of that and take the opportunity to show other words that have the letter in them, because then the child can begin to recognize those sounds in the midst of the word and start being able to put words together.
We have to be really careful. One of the things I'm sorry, I'm in teacher mode here, but if you're a homeschool mom, maybe you'll appreciate this. When you're teaching phonemes, be careful not to add extra vowels. For instance, when we're talking about B and in this particular book that I had for my son, it says, "B is for battery." And so we don't say, "B, /buh/, /buh/, /buh/" or "B /ba/, /ba/, /ba/." We say that B, B, you want to cut it short? And then that way, when you're showing, showing a child a for instance, C A T, and they do, eh, they can start to hear cat. But if you say Cuh Ah Tuh, then they start seeing cuh-at-tuh, and they can't get the sounds put together correctly. So you want to keep it short. And that sometimes is very hard to do, especially with R, that one's always a difficult one /r/, /r/, /r/ and then the rabbit, and they want to do /ruh/,/ruh/,/ruh/ beause that's easier to say, or LA LA and just to do /l/, /l/. You can also use ladder drills and you can get these through A Beka. They're wonderful. A Beka is a publisher that does homeschool materials, and they have these ladder drills, and you can find them from others as well. But I've always used A Beka's. I also make my own just to have them handy, but they take the letters and put the different vowel sounds to them. So for "B" you would have a ladder that has /ba/, /beh/, /bi/, /baw/, /buh/. Then I have my students do the long vowel, sounds: /bay/, /be/, /by/, /bo/, /boo/, or /byew/. And so we practice putting the sounds together that way very quickly, they will teach themselves to read. One of the things I did when I taught kindergarten is I would not try to teach them to read. I only taught phonemes and phonics. They would start reading on their own. And it's a wonderful way to teach reading because the student doesn't feel pressure. They don't feel like they're competing, and they're just naturally start to pick up the language and pick up reading on their own. And it's like, all of a sudden this light bulb comes on, and the words start making sense, or the letters start making sense. They start realizing they're words. So, as a rule, when I'm teaching kindergartners, I do not push reading. I do try to help them learn their alphabet, learn their phonics, the basic phonics. And then we try to move into phonemes. With the basic alphabet I teach phonemes from day one. And then when they get into first grade, if they haven't started reading on their own or toward the end of kindergarten, if they haven't started wanting to read, or haven't tried to read on their own, then I might push it a little bit, try to encourage them a little bit. Sometimes see if there's some sort of a learning disability, if they're not hearing well or seeing well, or if the letters are flipping on them, that will start to become obvious, pretty close to right away--at the beginning of trying to teach.
But I just wanted to let you know, these books are there for you. And all you do is sign up for my mailing list. Of course you can cancel at any time, but on my mailing list, I'm not doing a newsletter just yet. I plan to start that in the future, and that would be once a month. And at that point, I'll probably give you the option to choose which mailing list you want to be on. But right now I just have one mailing list, and you get two to three emails a week telling you when I've posted an episode on my podcast, when I've posted a blog post on my blog, and if we have a contest or whatever, I do have also some posts that go out just to my mailing list. They are not available on my website and are just talking about discipleship and growing in our faith. Those are kind of like my blog posts, but they're special just for my mailing list members. And so you'll also get those, but it's not an everyday email. And I try not to pester you too much. I just want to bless you, give you materials and resources that you can use with your children, whether you're homeschooling or not. If you're just reading to them each evening or going over their homework together--tools that you can use. And then also to challenge us as we're growing in our faith. That's one thing when I was a young mom that I missed was just being encouraged in my faith. Life is so hectic when you have little kids around and to stop just for a minute and read a short blog post that hopefully will encourage you and challenge you in your growth and in your relationship with God, you know, that's my heart. And so that's what I send you, and I hope it blesses you.
If English is your child's second language, these phoneme books can just be lifesavers for them and really help them to grow in their English language ability and help you to grow as well. If it's a second language for you, many times, I feel such a burden for the parent of a child, who if they've come to America, they're learning English. The child learns English at school. The dad usually learns English at work, but if the mom is staying at home with little kids, she doesn't get to learn English as well because she's too busy being a mom and just keeping life running and adapting to a new culture. And I think I have such a heart for this because that's what happened in our family. In Taiwan, my husband learned Chinese. He took classes. Plus he was in the workplace where he was having to use his Chinese all the time. And my kids who went to Chinese school are completely bilingual. They can read and write and speak Chinese. And then my two older kids who went to English schools--they went to a missionary school and they were home-schooled--they did not learn as much, but they learned some from their Sunday school teachers and from other people. But I tried to learn, and I just didn't have time. And I say, I mostly entertain people with my Chinese at this point. I understand a whole lot more than I can speak, but it is really hard for me to have the courage to even speak what little bit I know, because I mess up the tones, and my kids correct me all the time. But as a mom, you just don't get the opportunity like the others who are out in the marketplace, in the schoolyard, you know, learning the language. So I have a real heart for helping moms learn the language when they're new to the U S. And so I used to teach ESL, before COVID, at our church for women and men who needed to learn. And I would love to get back to that as soon as COVID is over. If not, I'm going to have to start it online, I guess. But if you are in that boat, if you are a parent, and you just don't have the opportunity to learn as much English and would like to learn more, or better yet, you probably know someone like that, probably they aren't listening to this podcast. I have resources that would be good for them. I can share what I would recommend to help them learn English.
If you would like to facilitate their learning, I can give you some materials or some ideas of materials that could help you. But the best thing you can do, if you know someone in that situation is to be their friend. You can do a language exchange with them. We used to do this in Taiwan all the time. What you do is get together once a week with that mom and do a one-on-one is best and have tea or coffee. And you just sit and visit for a while. But then for like 30 minutes, you share English with them. And for 30 minutes they teach you their language. So it's reciprocal. They don't feel obligated then to pay you for teaching them English because they're helping you learn their language. And it is so much fun. It will help you to learn a little bit of their language, their culture. It opens the door for you to have conversations about your faith and their faith, parenting, and marriage, and all of those important things that we just want to talk about and share with each other and have a confidant that we can talk to.
If you can imagine, when you go to a new country, not only are you learning the culture and the language, you've left behind your family and your friends, and finding new friends is not always easy. Being able to trust someone is not always easy. If you can partner with one of these ladies and let them know that you just would love to learn their language and you could help teach them your language. You're able to work on pronunciation because you're there in a one-on-one situation. It just becomes a wonderful time. We've had the blessing of being able to really get to know someone from another culture, to experience their culture and their language, and to just be there for someone, I would highly encourage you to seek out the people in your neighborhood, in your child's school, who might enjoy a partnership like that.
One of the main books I discussed in this episode is Avaricious Aardvarks and Other Alphabet Tongue Twisters. And this book is out of print. Like I said, it was an older book, but I have found some copies that I can get. And so I've decided to do a giveaway because, of all the ABC books I could find, it's one of my favorites, and I just feel like I should share the joy. So if you are interested in entering our giveaway, please make a comment on my blog post or one of the episode posts on my website at TerrieHellardBrown.com, and you will be automatically entered in the giveaway. You have between now and the end of September to enter. For each time that you post a comment, you will be entered again into the drawing, so you can increase your chances of winning by commenting more and more. If you have any questions about the ESL information that I mentioned for starting a language exchange with a neighbor or a friend, just email me, or, again, post it in the comments, and I'll be happy to share with you what I've learned over the years with that. Thank you for joining us for "Books that Spark" a podcast celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode I interview author Jennifer Grant, and we talk about her three children's books and her five books for adults. We also talk about sparking spiritual curiosity through the books we read with our children.
Thursday her newest book A Little Blue Bottle launches. Be sure to check it out!
Books recommended in this episode:
Our guest today: Jennifer Grant
http://www.jennifergrant.com/
Transcript:Terrie: Welcome to Books that Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers where we review books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and conversations leading to teachable moments with our kids.
Thank you for joining us today. I’m excited to welcome our guest, author Jennifer Grant. Jennifer is the author of books for adults and children’s picture books. Her book Maybe God Is Like That Too won a gold medal from the Moonbeam Spirit Awards for excellence in children’s literature and was named a book of the year finalist in the Forword Indies awards. Her second picture book, Maybe I Can Love My Neighbor Too, has been named a Junior Library Guild official gold standard selection. Her third book for children, A Little Blue Bottle, launches tomorrow and is now available for purchase from your favorite bookseller. Jennifer has also written for publications including Woman’s Day, Chicago Parent, Patheos, and her.meneutics. For more than a decade, she wrote features, restaurant profiles, and general interest columns for Sun-Times Media newspapers. She also was a health and family columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
Thank you so much for being here on the program today, Jennifer, and for letting us be a part of your book launch today.
Jennifer: Well, you're welcome. I'm happy to talk with you today. Okay.
Terrie: First of all, we have to talk about your slogan that you use on your flyers and has kind of been your vision for the ministry that God's given you. It says, "Picture books, that spark spiritual curiosity. And I love that. And especially because of the podcast that we do called Books that Spark; it's like we're on the same wavelength.
Jennifer: Yeah. I'll tell you kind of how sort of how I came up with that little tagline. When I was raising my own kids who are now 18, 20, 22 and 24, I loved reading them books, and I read them books all the time. And I also though found that some of the books that were written from a Christian context were not their favorite books. And I really wanted them to have engaging and wonderful Christian books, but unfortunately some of them just felt really preachy. And of course, as we know, kids spend a lot of time being instructed not to do this and to do this. And they get a lot of schooling and all of that. And so, books that were presenting ideas of God, but also had this sort of, you know, slap you on the wrist sort of tone were not books that they really connected with.
And so when I started a few years ago, turning my attention toward really developing my skills as a writer for children, I thought, “Oh, it would be such a privilege to write Christian books for kids that they actually were really engaged with and that they wanted to read it again and again, and that would invite them to pose their own questions about who God is or about how to be a person who's in tune with their spirit” and so on. And so that little tagline that I came up with was just the books that I write that have spiritual content, I hope will spark spiritual curiosity and get them in conversation with God and with themselves about God's creation or how they see God in the world and help them use their imaginations to kind of connect with God in that way.
Terrie: That's wonderful. Sometimes when I'm writing a story, the first time I write it, I feel like, “Oh my goodness, this is coming across as so preachy.” And I go back through and totally redo it. Because it's the same thing, I want our kids to delight in God and his word and how awesome he is. You have two picture books out already that I just love. Would you like to talk about those first? And then we'll move to the new one that's coming out tomorrow. Tell us about the Maybe God Is Like That Too.
Jennifer: That was my first one for kids, Maybe God Is Like That Too. And basically, the way that came about was that I had been doing some kind of editing and writing work for a publisher already and had not published my own book with them. And apparently in a, probably an editorial meeting or one of their meetings, they decided that they thought it would be great to have a new children's book about the fruit of the spirit. And so, at that point, I'd already done a few projects and contributed to anthologies that they had. And they came to me and said, would you be willing to write anything you want, any kind of story, but that kind of delved into the fruit of the spirit and what those verses mean. And I was so excited. I felt really honored to have that opportunity. And so, I kind of started that process by looking at what other books about the fruit of the spirit looked like.
And there were a lot that looked similar, at least the ones that I came across that would have like a fruit bowl on a bright kitchen table and a parent, you know, sort of again, sort of preaching to the little kids, sitting there about the fruit of the spirit. So, I was thinking, how can I really approach this in a fresh way? And in a way that kids might find more engaging? And so, the story is a grandmother and her little grandson whom she's raising. And I don't go into it in the book, why he's being raised by his grandmother. But she, he says, he's never seen God. And like, where's God, I see people. And how can, how can I see God? Or where is God? And I remember that being a question that I asked when I was little thinking, you know, we talk about God all the time. We pray to God. We say, we want to please God, but where is God? You know, I don't see, I don't see God. And so, in this book, the grandmother just suggests to him that, you know, when you seek God's spirit at work, that's a way to seek God. And so, he goes through his day and he experiences joy, and he thinks, “Oh, maybe God is like that too.” And he exhibits self-control by not getting out of bed at the end of the day. And he thinks, “Oh, maybe God is like that too.” And what's been so fun is that when I've read this book to preschools and like, I've gone to a couple like parochial schools and done chapels and stuff like that, what's funny is with that refrain, maybe thought is like that too. That repeats several times in that book. It's such a joy to see the kids who are all sitting around on the floor, trying to look at the illustrations and so on. And some of them each time I say, maybe God is like that too. Inevitably, there'll be one kid who says no. And again, that's having that response seems just as fitting as if somebody goes, “Oh yeah, maybe God is like that too.” Because again, if we're inviting spiritual curiosity, it means the kids can have their own independent responses to this and their own thoughts about what God might be like. So that was the first one.
And then the one that is in the same series, and it has different characters, but we actually chose to have some of the characters sort of show up in the background in some of the spreads. But the second book is Maybe I Can Love My Neighbor Too. And so, it's also in the same sort of cityscape and it is a little girl who is considering how can she love her neighbor when there's so many neighbors? And she's again, like sort of trying to find her place in the world and trying to figure out how she can do that. How can I love my neighbors? And so, she goes through the day kind of observing how other people are showing love to each other and learning. And the kind of end of that book is that everyone is our neighbor and we can show them where my hope with that one was just kids would be exposed. The idea that everyone is our neighbor, but also exposed to the idea that they can do little things during the day they can have agency and they can do little things that do very successfully show love to others. And, you know, kind of, it puts them squarely in the center of the story. Like how can I love my neighbor? So that's the second one,
Terrie: I love both of those. And I gave both books to my nieces and nephews because I felt like it did make a relationship with God and an understanding of God as concrete as we possibly can, you know, to really make it relatable. And, and then, like you said, to give them the ability to act and to make a conscious decision, to try to bless others and help others by being a good neighbor. I love both those books. I think it just brings the gospel alive for kids in such a concrete way. It's brilliant.
I want to go ahead and talk about the new book coming out Thursday, 9/17, is the launch date for A Little Blue Bottle. I love the other two books, but this one to me is so needed today. I don't know of any other books that approach the subject of grief, like your book does. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Jennifer: The book has been on my mind for years, you know, I've only been publishing books for kids for the last three or four years, but prior to that, I really wanted to, and I was always jotting ideas and, and working on different stories. But in 2012, after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, I have had a number of conversations with a close friend who lives in that area of Connecticut. Her children ended up having to go to a number of funerals for the children who died in their school. And she and I both are lovers of children's literature. And so, I asked her if there were any books that she really connected with that were helpful, like picture books, about grief. And she said she really hadn't found anything that was, that was helpful to her, her family. And so, I kept thinking about that and thinking, you know, kids experience grief.
We tend to, I mean, I know I do. We can sometimes sort of idealize what a child's experience is. And we forget that kids, you know, lose a pet and they grieve that disappointment. I mean, in the current climate, you know, kids are experiencing the grief of not being able to be with their grandparents or with people that they love, or they're missing out on opportunities that they had expected, like maybe summer camps or things like that. So, we kind of forget sometimes how much pain kids can really carry throughout their lives. So my hope was that I would write a story that would invite kids to sort of sit with their feelings and have the feelings that they have, and also to kind of give parents the opportunity to read this story to their children. Maybe that will open a conversation and maybe reading this one story will help a child say, “Yeah, I feel sad sometimes too.”
And the underlying spiritual message in it, which is, you know, that central picture of the little blue bottle is that there's a verse in the Bible that says that God collects our tears. And so, I love the idea of suggesting to kids, “Hey, we're not saying this book like, Oh, well, if you love God, you'll never experience pain. Or if, if you love God, you won't ever lose anyone,” but it's, it makes the very strong suggestion that God is with us and cares when we're suffering. And so, when I sat down to write this, this book, I didn't want to write about, you know, a terrible trauma or a terrible event, like Sandy Hook. I really wanted to give a story that could be relatable to a little kid, but not traumatizing. And so, it's the story of a little girl whose elderly neighbor passes away. And so, and she deals with the loss of that friend. So yeah, I'm excited about it. I know it's, it's a time where kids are really grieving a number of things. And my hope is that it will be a comfort to them.
Terrie: That's what I was so impressed about was that I felt like you handled this whole subject without over-dramatizing, without making it traumatic, but also acknowledging the reality. It seems to me what books I have seen that deal even a little bit with grief, either trivialize it, or don't really handle the subject with the same kind of care that I saw in this book. And I feel like I could recommend this book to anyone, to read with their children, to help them process the loss of a pet or a loved one or a neighbor, or even like you said, the grief of just what's going on in our culture and how that's upsetting children. This book could even be a help for helping children to process those feelings. I love where the mom, where the mom is just sitting with her daughter on the porch and she doesn't need to say anything. She just needs to be with her. That's so often what we need when we're grieving. And I just, I just felt like it was such a balanced handling of this whole topic. I think it’s wonderful.
Jennifer: Well, and I did try to, I wanted to make sure I'm not, you know, I'm not a therapist or a psychologist, and I wanted to make sure that the messaging in this book was helpful and appropriate. And at the end of the book, you know, there's a page of best practices of how you can help a child who's grieving. I was really rigorous and doing research on that. And I really think he came to 24 people that I, people who work with kids as therapists and counselors and so on. And I had them read it and offer their suggestions because I really wanted to get that element right. You know, I didn't want to be giving bad advice or any advice that would further hurt a child, but just anyway, so those, those best practices I hope will be helpful as well.
Terrie: How important do you feel that it is that we read to our children?
Jennifer: Oh, well, I am very passionate about this. I think it's so important. I mean, from the earliest days when we read to kids, you know, we were not only helping them develop literacy and their vocabularies and all of those good things in terms of their academic learning and so on, but we're really teaching them, you know, about the world and about the world with the Maybe books. I think about those books as being kind of presenting a world, as I wish it were, you know, I wish everyone always helping their neighbor. And I wish that little kids were looking in and seeing God's presence and the people around them and so on. But yeah, so both, I think both in terms of brain development, obviously, it's so important to read to kids and it also provides like a lovely break. You know, I remember when I was a mother of really young kids, you know, you're so on all the time, you know, you're keeping them safe and giving them the food they need and all that.
And I always loved the moments where we were just sitting on the couch, and I was reading a big stack of picture books because someone else had done the care of creating these beautiful illustrations and wonderful stories. And I could just sort of be the person sharing this with the kids. And so, it was a time that felt like a real break for me as a busy young mom, I'm happy to say all my kids did turn out to be readers. And that was like your goal that I had when I had my kids. And yeah, it's, I just think it creates a time to connect and to, you know, writing picture books. As I, whenever I'm working on a manuscript, I love picturing a child sitting on an adult's lap, you know, a teacher, a parent, a grandparent, a neighbor, you know, whoever's reading this book, it's such an intimate and beautiful time of connection when you're reading to a kid. So yes, I think it's super important.
Terrie: And how does it help with their spiritual development?
Jennifer: Again, as we were saying, like, depending on the books, you know, we choose for them, it can be, you know, writing about like I have, I have some books that will be coming out in a few years or over the next few years that are board books for really young kids, they're educational board books. And I based them on the verses that say, like consider the lilies of the field. And, but I present colors in that context. And I like kind of opening a conversation, you know, not saying here's how you should feel about God or here's how you should behave. But instead saying, Hey, what happens when we slow down and look at a beautiful flower? What should we learn about God as a creator when we, when we notice and we observe and yeah, so spiritually they can be books can invite kids to pray, invite kids to connect with God on their own terms, can point out the wonders of nature. They can definitely play an important role, just like they do the adult books we read that have spiritual content, you know, affect our spiritual development as well.
Terrie: Well, tell us a little bit about your other books since I have you here. Cause I know you have quite a few that are not children's books. Can you tell us a little bit about those?
Jennifer: Yeah, sure. So, I've written five books for adults and some of them are well, the first one was a book called Love You More: The Divine Surprise of Adopting My Daughter and my youngest child. I have four kids and the youngest one was adopted when she was a toddler and she was born in Guatemala, and that's that book is mostly memoir, but it also kind of delve into issues around adoption and international adoption. And it's a book that, that really is primarily memoir, but tells our family story.
And then the second book that I wrote was also kind of family and parenting related. I used to be a parenting columnist for a newspaper. And so, I love doing that kind of work, especially when my kids were little, it gave me the chance to reflect on, you know, all the stress and the joys of raising little kids. But so, the second book is also a family-related book and it's called MOMumental and ventures and the messy art of raising a family. And in that book, it's a lot of family stories, but also kind of, I go topically through some things that I think are helpful in terms of things to think about when you're creating a family culture and raising kids.
And then my next book, I'm trying to make sure I'm getting them in order. I have a devotional book called Wholehearted Living, which is a 365-day book. And it's all short readings of about 200 words for all the days of the year. And that book is sort of organized around different themes. And so, there's a part of the year that the readings are about reflection. And one part of the year is about risk. And one part of the year is about rest. People are like, Oh, that's so nice. Those short readings. And I want to say, Oh my goodness, that was the hardest book that I've had to re to write. It's really difficult to write short and also to do a 365 or it's actually 366 because of leap year.
And then I have a book that's an anthology [Disquiet Time] that I co-edited with my friend and the spiritual writer, Cathleen Falsani, and we invited about 42 people. And they're people from all over the map in terms of their, their sort of flavor of Christianity. And actually a few of the contributors are not, don't identify as Christian pastors and influencers and writers and speakers. And they, we invited them to choose a verse or a passage from the Bible that they either love and it makes, you know, it makes them kind of encouraged and generates a lot of energy for them, or it's a passage that they wish weren't in the Bible or a passage that makes them laugh or something that troubles them. And each person wrote a personal narrative dealing with whatever that verse or passage was. So, some of the chapters, I mean, it's, it's very, it's quite vulnerable. Like some of the chapters are very vulnerable and we've got so many people saying, you know, words of thanks that they hadn't been asked to be so transparent with their thinking, but we are in the introduction or in the foreword, I guess. We say, you know, God can take, it can take our questions and if we feel unsettled by a part of scripture, we're allowed to articulate that. And so that, that book really does that.
And then my most recent book for adults is called, When Did Everybody Else Get So Old? And it's a it's a midlife memoir. And so it, it basically is a memoir told an essays and they go through sort of from my 40th birthday to approaching 50, these essays are about things that I think are fairly commonly events in the lives of people in his life for those who are parents, you know, their kids are growing older, our own parents are aging and there's issues around that. And we deal often with a friend or someone else who's close to us who dies. And so, these essays kind of delve into commonly experienced events in midlife. So, I was my most recent one.
Terrie: I have to ask you, what was your favorite picture book as a child and why?
Jennifer: Well, my very favorite is the story of Ferdinand. And I don't know if you know that one about Ferdinand, the bull. Yeah. Actually, I have it on my desk. I have a bunch of, you know, one of the joys of writing for kids is that I can justify buying picture books and I have them all over. But yeah, I actually have my original copy, which was given to me in 1971. So, I was born in ‘67. So yeah, I was a very little girl when I received this and it's, it's just, I always just loved that book. And I would stare at all the really simple sort of pen and ink illustrations, but there's something. So even the way the animals look at each other or like the butterfly and Ferdinand, it's just, I found it so compelling. And I loved his, you know, he was kind of a fish out of water. He was supposed to be a vicious bull, but really he just wanted to smell the flowers. And I think I connected with that, but another book that I actually I have on my desk right now, too, that I really loved reading to my kids and they all loved Ferdinand too, but a book I didn't discover until I was a young mom is called Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch. I don't know if you know
Terrie: That one, that one, I don't, I'll have to read that one.
Jennifer: It's terrific. So, Ferdinand written by Munro Leaf and that one's, you know, sort of a classic that everyone knows, but this one, somebody loves you. Mr. Hatch is written by Eileen Spinelli and the pictures are Paul Yalwitz. It's about a lonely man who receives a wonderful gift. And it's, I won't spoil the story for you, but it's a great it's a great Valentine's gift to give to kids this book, but it's, it's really about community and love and, and what happens when you're kind to someone.
So anyway, I love that one to you. How can we support you more in your work and in your ministry? Oh, well, thank you. Well, I would say for all authors, one way that if you have a book that you love or an author who you want to support, it does actually really help to go on Amazon and to good reads and to read books. So, like, you know, whether or not it's mine, if anyone's listening and they think, Oh, well, I, I love Ferdinand or I love whatever book you just finished this summer. Sometimes we forget that that actually adding, you know, if you go on Amazon and add stars or add a little review, it actually changes sort of the algorithm. Cause it's so hard to there's so many books being published all the time that it's kind of hard to rise above the noise sometimes.
So, all the different ones. So, if you really love a book or an author, it's fabulous to go online and give them readings on, you know, Barnes and Noble or Amazon or Good Reads. And sometimes I, I used to, and I think I'm gonna just, you brought this to my mind. So, I think I'll add this to my calendar, but I used to spend, you know, it only takes 10 minutes, right. So, I would spend like 10 minutes every Friday doing that for the books that I really love both by people. I know, but also just if I happen to finish a book and thought, Oh, I just love this. Sometimes we forget. So that's one way to support authors. And then yeah. If any, anyone listening can look online and look on Amazon or reach out to your local bookseller and look for A Little Blue Bottle.
Another thing that's helpful. And I ask people who are my sort of close friends and, and writing colleagues is that if you love a book and I'd love it, if people did this for A Little Blue Bottle, going to the website of your local library and requesting that book is a wonderful way to get the book into a library so that a lot of kids can enjoy it. You know, it just finds its readers. That's of course what we're always doing as writers, it's trying to connect with their readers. So, I think, especially for children's books, I love it. When people tell me that they've called their local library or emailed them and said, Hey, you should carry this book. Cause I love the idea of some kid just sort of running their fingers along the top of a row of picture books and finding that one, you know, and enjoying it.
Terrie: Thank you so much for joining us, Jennifer, thank you for taking time to share with us and for letting us be a part of your book launch today. What you shared is just really wonderful and makes us think about what we need to do as parents with reading to our children and opening up those wonderful conversations.
Jennifer: Well, thank you. It was really fun to talk to you.
Terrie: Thank you for joining us for Books that Spark, a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations in your life. Remember Jennifer’s newest book, A Little Blue Bottle, launches Thursday, 9/17. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to Jennifer’s website and other information. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of this podcast. And my blog, my website is terriehellardbrown.com.
Your Host:Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we look at books for Grandparents and picture books and board books about Grandparents. This Sunday is Grandparents Day, so we're celebrating!
Books recommended in this episode:
Some Other Books in the Grandparenting Matters Series:
Christian Grandparenting Network
Christian Grandparenting Network Facebook Page
Transcript:
Welcome to books that spark a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. And today I will add, and with our grandkids, this coming Sunday is Grandparents Day, and so today's episode is dedicated to grandparents and helping them to disciple their grandkids and to leave a legacy of faith for their grandkids.
I have a bunch of books to cover today. I don't know if we're going to get through them all, but we will do our best. One of the first books, and it's actually, there's a set of books written by Josh Mulvihill, and they're all about grandparenting and how we can disciple the next generation and leave a legacy of faith. The first one I want to talk about is called Discipling Your Grandchildren from the Grandparenting Matters Series. And it's Great Ideas to Help Them Know, Love, and Serve God. They use the scripture Deuteronomy 6:1-9. It says, "The most common passage of scripture utilized for family discipleship is Deuteronomy 6:4-9. The Christian community often limits the application of Deuteronomy 6 to parents, but based on the context of Deuteronomy 6:1-2, it has a broader application that includes grandparents.
"Moses Gave the community a charge to love the Lord and diligently teach young people. 'The Commands of God,' Moses States, 'the commands of God are for you and your son and your son's son.' Deuteronomy 6:1-2. The reference to son's son means that Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is not only for parents, but also for grandparents. So from a biblical perspective, grandparents have a critical role with the next generation that is centered around the transmission of faith."
So, I love that because those are the key verses behind me starting this whole podcast. And even though I'm not yet a grandparent, I only have two grand dogs at the moment, I look forward to being a discipling grandparent someday.
The other thing they say here is, and this is quoting, "Deuteronomy 6 helps us remember that discipleship is not one more thing to add to an already busy schedule. Discipleship is not a separate activity we do with a child. It is integrated into all of life. Discipleship can happen while playing catch, cooking dinner, watching a movie, driving in the car, reading the Bible, or working in the garden. According to Deuteronomy 6:7, the following portions of each day present great opportunities to disciple children: mealtime--when you sit in your house, travel time--when you walk by the way, bedtime--when you lie down, morning time--when you rise. Discipleship is what we do as we go through our day. The biblical pattern is for the truth of the Bible to be transferred through everyday activities. When we get ready for bed, eat a meal together, ride in the car, fold laundry together, engage in late night talks, or have fun together. Grandparents who think that they compartmentalize life by assigning a certain number of hours per week to spend on grandparenting have a philosophy that is contrary to the spirit of Deuteronomy 6. It is also a recipe to become a distant or disengaged grandparent. Most Christian grandparents I've met want to make any eternal difference in the lives of their children and grandchildren. The Bible tells us how to do that."
And so that's the premise for all of these books that he's written and where we begin. He says, "The biblical method to disciple children--I explore eight biblical methods of discipleship for grandparents." And these work for parents and grandparents. But I thought this was very good. So the eight methods, biblical methods are "asking questions, blessing (a spoken blessing is an opportunity for a grandparent to share his or her deep affection and desired future for a grandchild. A blessing is valuable because it creates a time and way to communicate affection and affirmation scripturally. We see blessings modeled by God as a common practice in the old Testament and a repeated pattern of scripture), intentional meals, prayer, communicating wisdom, reading, and discussing the Bible, telling God's stories, and sharing the gospel."
So these are biblical ways of naturally discipling and sharing our faith with our children and grandchildren. What I love about these books that he's written, the introduction is so full of information and everything he writes is in a very conversational style. It's very easy to understand, laid out very clearly and just makes it very doable. So I really love these books. I haven't read all of the books in the series, but I have looked at this one, Discipling Your Grandchildren. Another one I've looked at of his is just called Grandparenting: Strengthening Your Family and Passing on Your Faith. He mentions how he saw this T-shirt not long after becoming a grandparent for the first time, and it read: "Grandpa's to do list, spoil them, fill them up with sugar, send them home." You know, we might smile about that, but that is kind of the attitude of our culture.
And really, I think God has called us to so much more. That was from the foreword written by Calvin T Harper in the book. And he's the founder and president of Christian Grandparenting Network. So that's Calvin T Harper, but in the introduction written by Josh, he says, "This was what hit me as under the need. A number of years ago, when I began a PhD program in family ministry, my initial discoveries about the lack of resources for Christian grandparenting were shocking. I found zero in depth, biblical studies on grandparenting, one ministry to equip Christian grandparents (The Christian Grandparent Network led by Calvin Harper who wrote the forward), one small group or Sunday school DVD series on grandparenting, and seven books on grandparenting published in the past 15 years, not counting gift books for grandparenting or grandparenting journals. I discovered that there are millions of Christian grandparents with limited training and resources everywhere. I looked, I saw a huge need."
And so that's what caused him to focus on this series of books that he has written to help equip grandparents, to be great Christian grandparents, to pass on their legacy, and also to disciple their grandchildren or to be a partner with the parents in discipling their grandchildren. I love these books. They're actually very motivating and inspirational. So, I highly recommend his books. I think it's wonderful that God put on his heart to write these books. And so some of the others he's written that I've looked at Biblical Grandparenting: Exploring God's Design for Disciple-Making and Passing Faith to Future Generations. And like I said, he has a whole series of these books. So they're Grandparenting Matters is the series of books. And I'll have the links in the show notes for this episode, but there are so many in this series that just are great books.
Some other books, Grandma, I Need Your Prayers: Blessing Your Grandchildren through the Power of Prayer written by Quin Sherrer and Ruthanne Garlock. This book starts out the first chapter, a grandmother's spiritual influence. So they're talking about how we, as grandparents can affect our children and by praying for our children and grandchildren, we can help bring them to the Lord. And I love that my husband came to the Lord, at least partly because of his grandmother, praying for him and sharing Bible stories with him as a child.
This is what Quin wrote in the first chapter of this book, "Perhaps you're wondering whether your prayers can actually make a difference in your grandchild's life. I (Quin) had an encounter one day that reminded me how much of a difference at grandmother's prayers can make.
"'I'll Bet you had a praying grandmother,' I said to the professional basketball player I'd been chatting with while we were waiting in the Atlanta airport for our flight to be called.
"'I Did. But how did you know?' he asked looking surprised.
"'While We've been talking you mentioned her several times and spoke about how much you love and admire her,' I answered.
"'Yes,' He said softly dropping his head. 'When My mom left, my grandmother took me in to live with her through all those years. She prayed for me and encouraged me in every sport I ever tried. She always told me I could become a professional athlete if I set a goal, practiced for hours, and depended on God to strengthen me.'.
"'And It looks like some of those prayers have been answered,' I replied.
"'She Was always praying for me,' He continued with a smile. 'I Could call her from anywhere I was playing a game, and she'd pray on the phone for me right then. She was a wonderful grandmother, old now, but still praying.'.
"What A tribute to a quiet little grandmother who poured her life and prayers into an abandoned grandson, never dreaming he would one day become a well-known athlete, and what an encouragement to praying grandmothers, that their efforts are not in vain."
I love that. We are impacting the next generation. This book is just very sweet. It has lots of stories to encourage us of different ways that grandparents have prayed for and helped their kids. Then it has essential prayer keys.
"Years Ago, while attending a writer's conference. I (Quin) sat across the dinner table from Catherine Marshall, whom I had long admired, knowing her reputation as an author and also as a praying mother. I asked her, "Can you give me some advice on how to pray more effectively for my three children?"
"Be as specific in your prayers as you can, and plant waiting prayers for your children's future," she advised. Then she asked, "When you pray, do you really expect anything to happen?"
"I pondered that question. Do I really expect anything to happen when I pray? I can tell you now that without a doubt, I do. I not only listened to her advice, but I went home to dig through the Bible to read everything I could find on prayer. As I endeavored to pray for my children and see results, now, many years later, I use these same biblical principles in praying for my grandchildren. Though I share here some things I do in my private prayer times, I'm sure you can add to this list."
And then she lists several things: "Be specific, be persistent, be in agreement, be Bible-based, be open to the Holy Spirit, be submitted to God's plan, be thankful, be willing to fast, and trust him always. The rest of the book goes through how to pray, how to bless your children, how to plant seeds in their lives. The chapters in this book are "A grandmother's spiritual influence," which has all the stories and testimonies, "Praying for spiritual growth," "Praying for homes and families," "Praying for friends and schooling," "Praying for protection and health," "Praying for hurting grandchildren," "Praying for families broken by death or divorce," "Praying for adopted grandchildren and step grandchildren," "Praying for prodigal grandchildren," "Praying for choices and turning points," "Taking the role of parent or co-parent," and "Leaving a lasting legacy."
So this book has so much information and so many good things to offer a grandparent in knowing how best to pray for their grandchildren. Okay. So now very quickly, I'm going to go through some other titles of books that I think are worth looking into to get, as you're preparing to really intentionally grandparent your grandchildren. There's one by Glen Schuknecht and Ellen Schuknecht, and It's A Spiritual Heritage: Connecting Kids and Grandkids to God and Family. And so this is about building a heritage.
And then this one is by Steve and Annie Chapman called 52 Prayers for My Grandchild. In the beginning of their book they have a Grandparent's Prayer. And I'm just going to share this with you.
Thank you. I've seen my children's children. Heaven's love his flesh and bone. Oh, how sweet it is to hear them laughing where it's been quiet far too long. Lord, I pray for these treasures. You have given to my years until they meet you in forever. Take their hand and keep them near Lord. I pray when they get older and my name comes to their minds. May it be the one thing they remember, they saw your blessed face in mine.
Isn't that beautiful? So that's in the first part of this book 52 prayers for my grandchild.
Another one by Ruth Towns and Elmer Towns is Great Lessons and Grand Blessings: Discover how Grandparents Can Inspire and Transform Their Grandchildren.
Larry Fowler has one Overcoming Grandparenting Barriers, and this is from the Grandparenting Matters series that Josh wrote. But this is another book in this series written by Larry Fowler, How To Navigate Painful Problems with Grace and Truth.
This book is called Heirlooms: Passing Faith Stories to Your Grandchildren by Tina Houser. And so this one says, "If you're looking for a way to impact the next generation in a big way, this book is ideal for grandparents, parents, and others who have an opportunity to speak into the lives of children and youth."
The heirlooms book is about sharing our stories and how through our stories, our children and grandchildren can get to know us and our faith. And so this is kind of a unique take on how to share our lives with our children and grandchildren.
Now, I want to cover some of the children's books that are out there. A book that just recently was released is Grandma's Snuggles written by Glenys Nellist and illustrated by Gail Yerrill. And this one's really cute and it goes through the animal kingdom and each animal is talking about their grandma. And so it's just a very cute little board book for babies. It's a rhyming book. And it ends of course with my grandma and talks about a person, a human with their grandma, and it ends with a Bible verse. Every good, perfect gift is from God, but this is just a sweet, sweet little board book. And another cool thing is that Glenys will be my guest on this podcast in October. And we're going to be talking about another book she has launching for Christmas. So be sure to watch for that. And that interview will be a lot of fun.
Some other kids' books that are just really cute--there are tons of different kids' books about grandmas and grandpas. There are board books and picture books. So, I'm going to list just some of the ones that I thought were exceptionally cute and share those with you, but you can definitely Google or check on Amazon, and you'll find lots of them. One book is called Here Comes Grandma by Janet Lord and illustrated by Julie Paschkis. And it's just a book where the grandma is determined to get there any way she can, and it shows every kind of transportation imaginable. And then when she arrives, she hugs the grandchild, but it's just cute because it's like a little adventure of how the grandma gets to see her grandchild. Two of my favorite books about grandmas and grandpas is How to Babysit a Grandma or How to Babysit a Grandpa by Jean Reagan and illustrated by Lee Wildish. And these are so cute because the child is explaining how to babysit your grandma or how to babysit your grandpa. And of course, it's actually the child getting to spend time with the grandparents. The little girl is with her grandma and she describes how to feed her and how to entertain her and how she'll react. And it's so cute. And then in the grandpa one, the little boy is at the--with the grandma when the little girl goes to the grandma's house and spends the night with the grandpa, when it's just like an afternoon, while the parents are away--in each one, the child reassures the grandparent, "Don't worry. The parents always come back." And it's just like if a child were afraid that their mom or dad weren't coming back. They're just adorable.
This is an older book from 2008 by Billy Crystal and illustrated by Elizabeth Sayles. It's called, I Already Know I Love You. And it's a board book that Billy Crystal wrote and I just love this one. It's written to a grandchild even before they're born. How I already know, I love you, and I'm looking forward to this and that in seeing this grandchild grow, and he wrote this for his very first granddaughter Ella.
Another one is I Really Want to See You, Grandma by Taro Gomi. Yumi is the little girl in this story. And she wants to go see her grandma, and her grandma wants to see her. And so they wind up going to each other's house at the same time. So ,they miss each other. Then they go home, and they miss each other, and then they try again. And finally they're on bicycles going to see each other. Cause I really want to see you grandma. And she's like, I really want to see you Yumi. And they meet in the middle, under a tree. And they decided from then on, they would always meet under that tree. But it's a very cute book. Just adorable.
There's another couple books that are really cute. One is when Grandpa Gives You a Toolbox and the other one is When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree written by Jamie L B Deenahan and illustrated by Lorraine Rocha. These books have a twofold purpose first to appreciate what grandparents give as gifts, but also to show how to respond to a gift that you were not expecting and was not on your list. And the writers do a really cute job with that. Of course, with the grant poets, a grandson with the grandma, it's a granddaughter. And with the lemon tree, the tree grows. She's able to make lemonade and sell the lemonade and then is able to go buy exactly what she wanted. And with the toolbox, he's able to make the item that he really wants, and his grandpa helps him, but both are really cute stories and lots of humor in there.
And this one is a little strange, but it's a fun book called Hey Grandude by Paul McCartney and illustrated by Kathryn Durst. And it's a little adventure magic book. The grandpa shows the kids some postcards, and then he has a magic compass that takes somewhere they want to go, and they wind up then coming back at the end of the day and going to sleep. It's just very different from most of the other picture books that are out there about grandparents. He doesn't call his grandkids grandkids, he calls them chillers. So they call him grandude and he calls them chillers. And it's just cute. There are dozens of very sweet board books. That would be really fun to just package up a whole little collection of board books for grandparents to read to their grandkids.
There's Thank You, God, for Grandpa by Amy Parker. And she also has, Thank You, God, for Grandma. There's I Love You, Grandma by Jillian Harker and Kristina Stephenson, and there's quite a few others that are similar. This one is unique. My Nana and Me by Irene Smalls and illustrated by Kathy and Johnson. And I love this book. It's a grandmother African American grandmother and granddaughter and the adventure they have as they go through the day, the grandma then gets into the little girl's bed to fall asleep. And the little girl decides, okay, I'll fall asleep too. So it's kind of a going through the day, but then leading to going to sleep. So it'd be a great bedtime story book.
And then there's Grandpa's Promise and Grandma's Promise by Susan Jones and Lee Holland, and these two books are really cute. It's different animals talking to different grand animals. And they're like, I promise you this. And it talks about all the things they're going to do together and what they're going to teach them and how they're going to feel safe. And it's just really heartwarming. So those books are just sweet as can be. And then there's this one, a really cute book called The Grandpa Book by Todd Parr. This is one of those that your kids can learn to read fairly early because there's very few words in it, but it talks about what a grandpa does and all about a grandpa. And so it's really cute that he, you know, he has lots of pictures of you in his wallet and he likes to tell fish stories and stuff like that. And then of course, there's The Grandma Book that tells all about grandmas. In these it looks like the pictures have been drawn by a child. And so it's very cute. And it's one of those to encourage early literacy and emotional development. It's a good book, especially if you're wanting your child to read on their own. This would be a good one for them to start with that.
There's so many picture books and board books geared towards grandmas and grandpas. I hope you can pick up one and enjoy it together and celebrate Grandparent's Day. This Sunday honor your grandma and grandpa, and enjoy being a grandma and grandpa.
Thank you for joining us for books that spark a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of this podcast. And my blog, my website is terriehellardbrown.com. And when you sign up for my mailing list, remember you also are eligible to download several different freebies that I offer for those who join.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this BONUS episode we explore study Bibles for older children and adults with Pastor Dave Brown.
Books Discussed in This Episode:
Transcript:
Terrie: Welcome to Books to Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. I'd like to introduce you to our guest today. His name is Pastor Dave Brown. He is my husband, and he has been a pastor in the ministry for over 35 years, 15 of those years, he was a missionary pastor in Taipei, Taiwan. He has a website called Finding God and speaks regularly about prayer, our search for God, and seeking after God's heart with all of our hearts. We're going to be talking about study Bibles today. As your children get older, you may want to get them a really good study Bible. We have several that we like, and we have four kids and got them all different study Bibles. And so, we have a lot to share with you today about Bible resources and study Bibles. Let's just dive right in. What is your favorite study Bible?
Dave: Actually, my favorite study Bible is the Life Application Study Bible. And I like it because I can access it on my phone or my iPad through Tecarta Bible. I'm able to access that and I have access to just about everything they've got, which I love. And the reason I like it is because you have your scripture text in the translation. New Living Translation is what the standard Life Application comes in. And the other thing I like about it is the resources are always there right around the place that you're reading. So when you're reading about a particular place, you know, maybe the first missionary journey of Paul you'll have a map that actually shows that missionary journey right there, where you're reading, instead of having to dig to the back of the, of the book to find the map, you actually have it right where you need it. And so, I love that and they, they even have that same function in the online version or the cell phone version. Should you decide to go that route? So that's my favorite.
Terrie: Yeah. I liked that one too, because they also have a timeline, and I'm always needing a timeline to keep track of the order of the history of things. And, you know, the Jewish Bible was not really linear. And so, it helps me to see a timeline and keep all the stories in the right chronological order in my mind. And then the other thing I like about the Life Application Study Bible is it has character studies of the different characters in the Bible and talks about their strong qualities and their weaknesses, and the synopsis of each book is also really good in the Life Application Bible. And, of course, the whole point of the Life Application Study Bible is life application, to challenge our kids and ourselves as we're being discipled and discipling to apply the word of God to our lives day by day. That's what we're after anyway. So, I think, practically speaking, the New Living Translation is easy to understand. It's easy to teach, it's easy to learn. And then you have the life application part of that, as well as a lot of background information, the maps, the timeline, the character studies, and also they often put in parallel scriptures and Old Testament compared to New Testament on the same subject and stuff like that. It's really a beneficial study Bible. I really like it too. My other favorite one is the Master Study Bible, and I have used it so much that mine has fallen apart. The cover is no longer with us, but the Master Study Bible is typically the New American Standard Bible. And so, I do like that. Like I said before, I like to do my word studies in the New American Standard, but it has a Bible Encyclopedia as part of the study Bible. And so that's really awesome when you first start studying the Bible to have a concordance and an encyclopedia right there with your Bible where you can go and look up words and try to understand what you're reading and what the story is all about is just excellent. And I first got this when I very first started discipling other people. My mom bought this for me, and I have just used it and worn it out like crazy, but it's an excellent one for your high school and older kids. I think the Master Study Bible is phenomenal.
Dave: I'd like to also mention my other favorite, which, and Terrie mentioned the Master Study Bible. This is a pretty old study Bible. This is one of the study Bibles that was popular maybe in the 1970s and 1980s. And another one that was really popular back then was the Thompson Chain Reference Bible. And I had one of those. I still do have it. It's in my office. And I absolutely love it. What I loved about that is it, it has just umpteen number of resources. You know, some of its archaeological resources, they have character studies and word studies and all of these different things. When you pick up the Thompson Chain Reference Bible, half of the Bible is all these other resources, which to me is just phenomenal. Absolutely love Thompson Chain Reference. These are the older versions of study Bible--some of the earlier versions that came out
Terrie: For our daughter who is often on mission trips overseas, we felt that she needed a Bible where she could get a quick reference if she needed to counsel with someone or help them with a situation. And so, we got her The Help Finder Bible: God's Word at Your Point of Need. And this Bible has many tools in the front of the Bible for if you're counseling with someone or ministering to someone, and they have a question and you want to find a quick reference for that. For instance, it says, “disagreements, discernment, discipline, dignity,” and then it has verses that go with each of those subjects. “What is the purpose of discipline? How does God discipline his children?” And it has verses that answer these questions. And so, especially with someone who's young in high school, college, getting ready to do mission trips and they are not totally at ease and comfortable with trying to find a verse on the spur of the moment, this Bible is a really handy reference for trying to find the different verses that go with different situations, different questions that people might have. “How can I be sure of my salvation? Is salvation available to everyone? How can I be saved?” And “how can I deal with stress and pressure? Should I be surprised by the stress of life?” So, these are all questions that are in the front of this Bible, and then it has the Old and the New Testament. And each beginning of the book has information about that book and what you'll be reading about. So, it gives you an outline for each of the books of the Bible. This one just happens to be paperback. So it was lightweight for carrying in her suitcase as she went to Asia. So, it's a great little reference study Bible, more of a reference Bible.
I have another one that I really like, and this one is called The Evidence Bible. It’s compiled by Ray Comfort. Kirk Cameron wrote the forward in it, but it has such great information in between the passages for talking about how to use apologetics. When you're talking to people to answer their questions about how we know that the Bible is real, it's irrefutable evidence for the thinking mind. And I think it's really well done. And one that's similar to that, that we bought for two of our kids and for our daughter's boyfriend is the Apologetics Bible. And so that one also has throughout the text. It has little notes for how to talk to people, answer their questions about the Bible, answer their questions about why we believe what we believe and to use apologetics, to answer people's questions. And so, I think especially today, when people haven't been raised necessarily with the Bible and knowing what all it says to be equipped and to be prepared, to know how to answer their questions is always beneficial. Okay. Do you have another one you'd like to talk about?
Dave: Yeah, actually I have several because I have the Tecarta Bible on my iPhone. It's an app. I have multiple translations that I'm able to download, so I don't have to be online. You can get it, you can access most of these for free that translations you can, but the study Bibles, you usually have to buy those. But I have several study Bibles that I really like that I'm able to access and they're on my phone. This is what I love about modern technology, you know, with iPads and Kindles and stuff like that. You can take a whole library of your books with you in one little device. And here I have, I have four different study Bibles in my iPad that I can both access because of Tecarta. And I have the Life Application that I mentioned a minute ago. I also have the Lucado Life Lessons Bible, a study Bible. I have Maxwell Leadership Bible, which if any of you are familiar with John Maxwell and his leadership principles and stuff, this is a study Bible that actually shows you the different leadership elements throughout scripture. And it's incredible. And then of course, those of you who love Charles Stanley, probably the most famous most popular TV preacher on television. He has The NASB Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Study Bible. And I like Charles Stanley because it's very practical. I like the Life Application because the commentary notes, the explanations of the text are very application oriented, which I love that. And Charles Stanley's Study Bible, The Life Principle Study Bible is the very same way it deals with daily life principles and how the Bible answers those. And these are incredible study Bibles. It's like they have a study Bible for everything now. And I just love that, you know, that you can, if you want to find a Bible that a study Bible that helps you to focus on a specific thing like apologetics or like archaeology, or like, you know, leadership or all of these different things, you'll be able to find just about anything you want. It's just determining if you like the author and the notes that they're going to write. And the fact is there so many out there you're bound to find something good and helpful for you.
Terrie: And speaking of archaeology, for our other son who wants to be a history teacher we got him The Archaeology Study Bible, which gives you a whole lot of the historical and archaeological background for the scriptures and the setting in which they were written and took place. And so, we got him that study Bible because that's where his heart is and what he's interested in. I also have the amplified study Bible, and I also have a Jewish study Bible. So, I have a lot of different study Bibles for the different situations. And then another study Bible that I think would be wonderful to give to your children who love art, the study Bibles, where you illustrate them, where you put the journaling and the pictures into the Bible. And so, I have the Christian Standard [Notetaking] Bible and it has on every single page, a place to write notes. And then you have certain pages that are blank for you to draw pictures. And so, our daughter who's an artist would just love this and being able to write all over her Bible and draw pictures, and I do the same thing. So, this is fun to have, and it's like making the Bible your own and really taking ownership for it. So, when you're looking for study Bibles, you want to also check some of them have the version. That's just the regular version. And then they have one that's a special version for students. And these are usually geared toward middle school and older. So, you want to make sure that they're appropriate for the age of your child. If you are wanting to get a study Bible for your child, who's still in elementary school or better yet. If you're wanting to get a Bible that you can use as a family to study together for your family devotions, there's a couple out there. A Family Worship Bible Guide includes the text of the Bible. It includes daily prayer, time, daily singing and praise and daily devotionals in scripture, reading together as a family, you can also use a simple One Year Bible Reading Plan to go through the Bible with your family. Another one that is just a guide for doing family devotionals, but this one has a guide for using the Bible for your family devotions and how you can keep your children engaged in the conversation and can open up conversations with your kids for Bible study. Now for the younger children, there's of course The Discoverer’s Bible. There's several different Bibles geared toward children of different ages. And last time, like we mentioned, there's the very young Bedtime Devotions with Jesus Bible. And then we have, you can go a step above there with the adventure Bible and there's different ones that will step up until you get to these study Bibles for your middle school, high school and college age children.
Dave: There's one here, the NIRV, the Study Bible for Kids. And this one is put out by Zondervan it's for younger kids, and it has pictures and stuff like that, but it has helpful tools and things like that to help kids who are, are learning to read the Bible. It's written at a third-grade reading level. And so it's perfect for learning those learning to read. It's got colorful artwork, easy to read Bible text and fun features.
Terrie: We used to use this in one of the schools where I taught it is like a paraphrase of the NIV. So, it is more of a paraphrase, but it is excellent for that very young reader who is just learning to tackle the Bible. So that is something to consider. And so, it's really well written. And of course, the NIV is a great translation. So it isn't, you know, bad. It's just be aware of what you're getting when you get that for your child. And so, it is one that's great for the third grade level. If they're at sixth grade level, the NLT new living translation, and if they're at 11th grade level, then you can go into any of them. But the NASB is the 11th grade level.
Dave: There's a New Believers Bible. So if your kids become Christians and they have just invited Christ into their life where maybe, you know, someone in your church who has just become a new Christian, who's a young believer, the New Believers Bible would be a good one for them. It'll have some helpful tools and helping them kind of get through the beginning phases and the challenges that a new believer deals with, you know, cause this study Bible will be able to help you with some of those things. There are so many different possible choices: Life Journey Bible, you know, the Life Connect Bible. There are some really cool study Bibles here. The NIV Student Bible is a good one for students so that if you're especially dealing with your children or you're dealing with you know, middle schoolers or high school students, there are so many choices. You just have to kind of go check them out and see what best appeals to where you think they are and what they need to hear.
Terrie: Yeah. And that's what we did with our kids. We looked at what our children were interested in and what would best meet their needs as they were studying the Bible. And that's how we came to decide what we were going to get them.
Dave: They even have some that are gender related to a particular gender of a teenager. Like here's the Revolution Bible for Teen Guys, which I think is nice. So, it deals with, you know, girls and boys and especially in their teenage years have different focus and different needs. And so this would be a good one for them.
Terrie: Yeah. That one, the devotionals that are in the margins of the book are geared toward guys, and they have one that's geared more towards girls.
Dave: Yeah. It's the True Images, The Bible for Teen Girls.
Terrie: Yeah. And so those are cool. I think we got one for our younger daughter at one point. There's a lot of material out there. If you have any questions about them, feel free to shoot me an email or put a question in the comments, and I'll try my best to answer your question. We've done a lot of research on a lot of different Bibles because we wanted to get good study Bibles for our own kids over the years. And so, we've researched a lot, and I've had so many different ones that I've liked over the years that I've used for study and for preparing. 'Cause I write Bible studies and write devotionals and as well as my children's books, so I have a lot of good study Bibles at my fingertips all the time. I hope this has been helpful to you. And as Dave was mentioning for you as the parent, there are some excellent online Bible study materials that are free, that you can access. Of course, you can always go to BibleGateway or Bible.com which is also a crosswalk. Yeah, but there's also the, a sword ESword has commentaries. It has the Naves Topical Index. They have Bible dictionaries, word studies. So those are available online for free. And then you use Tecarta. You said? Where can they find that? Is that a free one?
Dave: It's a free app on your phone. And some of the translations are free. If you have data on your phone, then you can access all the translations for free, as long as you're streaming, as long as you're able to, to use the internet, but you can download them onto your phone so that if you don't have access to the internet and some of those you need to buy, but you have access to all of these different Bible study Bibles on the Tecarta. So you can have multiple study Bibles in your phone and have access to all of those and be able to access them very easily.
Terrie: We want you, of course, as we're going through the Books that Spark podcast, to first, the most important book that we can introduce our children to is the Bible and to get them excited about knowing and reading and memorizing the Bible. And as we teach our kids, we get more excited about the Bible as well, and can dig in deep. And I love digging in deep to the word of God and just really learning more and more and more about the heart of God as we study the Bible together.
Dave: I would like to do a pitch for a book that is geared towards Bible study. If you can get your children to love to study the Bible, we have all of these study Bibles, which are wonderful, but there is a tool that I have used for years. It was the first one like it that ever came out written by Rick Warren called the Bible Study Methods. And in that, in that book, he talks about the different ways of studying the Bible. There's the devotional method and thematic studies and word studies and, and chapter studies, character studies and biographical studies, all these different study methods. And one of the things he says just to whet your appetite is he says the answer to studying the Bible is learning to ask the right questions. And he tells you what questions you need to ask for each of these Bible study methods. And he also shows you the resources that you will most likely need for each of those Bible study methods. So, it's a wonderful book still in print. After 25, 30 years, it's been a tremendous resource. And so, I highly recommend that to you. Bible Studies by Rick Warren.
Terrie: I hope that this will challenge you to dig deep into the Bible and share it with your kids. Thank you for joining us for books that spark a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of this podcast. And my blog, my website is TerrieHellardBrown.com. When you join my mailing list, you automatically have several freebies that you can download and enjoy with your kids.
Our Guest:
Pastor Dave Brown
Dave is the English pastor at Life Change Baptist Church in San Leandro, California. The church has Indonesian, Mandarin, and English congregations.
He is my husband, and he has been a pastor in the ministry for over 35 years, 15 of those years, he was a missionary pastor in Taipei, Taiwan. He has a website called Finding God and speaks regularly about prayer, our search for God and seeking after God's heart with all of our hearts.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we explore different Bible translations and which ones are best for children at different ages.
Pastor Dave Brown is our guest on this episode.
Books discussed in this episode:
Our favorite Bible for children over all is the ERV (Easy-to-Read Version) of the Bible. Second choice for children is NLT (New Living Translation) and, third is ICB (International Children's Version).
Transcript:
Terrie: Welcome to books, the spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. I'd like to introduce you to our guest today. His name is pastor Dave Brown. He is my husband, and he has been a pastor in the ministry for over 35 years, 15 of those years, he was a missionary pastor in Taipei, Taiwan. He has a website called finding God and speaks regularly about prayer, our search for God and seeking after God's heart. With all of our hearts. I asked him to join me today because we're going to be talking about what is the best Bible to use with your kids. And we're going to be discussing the different types of Bibles and what's best for each age group. Welcome Dave. First. I have three points that I want to share personally.
When choosing a Bible, when I became a Christian, I was seven years old and my mom's best friend gave me a Bible. Of course, it was King James version because that's really all we had back then. I would try to read it as I got a little older, I would try to read it, and I didn't understand any of it. And so, I prayed and asked God to help me understand what I was reading, and the very next day when I got up and read my Bible, all of the sudden I understood it. So the first thing I want to mention is we don't want to discount prayer when we're using the Bible with our kids, the Holy Spirit can help them understand what they're reading and can make the Bible come alive to them and open up God's word to them. So that part is, is imperative that we pray first and let the Holy Spirit work. But I think then we can choose wisely and make the best choices for our kids. The second point I want to make is the Bible definitely has some PG and even R-rated sections. How would you suggest handling that with your kids?
Dave: Well, that's a good question. I keep thinking about how VeggieTales did it, if you notice they dealt with some of those subjects and they kind of told the story without necessarily sharing the PG or R-rated content while still managing to get the point across. And so, I thought that was very well done. And I think having the right translation can help there are children's translations that do that.
Terrie: Yes, there are in some don't talk about, they just talk about how well, especially with Bible story books, Bible story books, sometimes talk about how Adam and Eve had a baby and they don't talk about how Adam and Eve got the baby. And then there's others that talk about them having relations or whatever. So, so you can pick and choose and choose wisely for the age of your child. The third thing is: Please get a translation and not a paraphrase. A paraphrase is almost like having a commentary or a storybook. It's not the real Bible. It's not the full translation and they're fun to read. Sometimes I enjoy reading the message sometimes, but I wouldn't use it as a gift for a child or an adult. And I wouldn't certainly use it for Bible study. When you have a paraphrase, it's limited in its scope. It's related to what the person interpreted it as. Do you have any comments on that?
Dave: It is it is exactly that probably the most famous paraphrase would be the living Bible. And the living Bible was written by a man who wanted to give a Bible to his daughter that he thought she could understand. And so basically, he went verse by verse and then interpreted it. A paraphrase is good for reading, but it's not. If you're wanting to study the Bible, it's not the best way to go.
Terrie: So, I want to go over some of the main and most respected translations that are available. And we're just dealing with the English Bible today. If you speak a different language and have questions about that, please post a comment and we'll be happy to try to answer that question for you. We know about Spanish and Chinese Bibles. We don't know about all the others, but we have experience with Spanish and Chinese, but we're just going to talk about the English translations today. And of course, the most famous English translation is probably the King James version. What do you think of the King James version?
Dave: The King James version, two issues I have with the King James one is that it was written in English. That's 400 years old or older, and they spoke different back then. It was wonderful for that time. But it's not how we understand English today. And for the average person, especially a young child, who's trying to understand God's word. It's not the best choice because the language poses a challenge and a struggle. The second thing is that we now, because of the dead sea scrolls have more current information on the Bible, there were more scrolls that, that completed things that made the Bible more, I guess, complete is the best way I can say it. And because of that, the King James version is okay, but it's a, it's probably not the best.
Terrie: And there's also the New King James version and the KJ21. And there's also the Third Millennium Bible, which is a version of the King James and all four of those still use the older English, even though they've updated it and tried to make it more contemporary. The one thing I hear is a positive for King James is if you're wanting to study and memorize scripture, it's very poetic and it's easier to memorize sometimes. So that's something to keep in mind. Okay. And it is a word for word translation from the manuscripts they had at the time does not include the dead sea scrolls. Okay. One that I really like, and I think probably the two top translations for word for word would be the new American standard and the revised standard. My favorite is the New American Standard. If I'm doing a word study or trying to do an inductive study, I'm going to pull my NASB out every time. And I may read it alongside my other translations, but that's one of the main translations I'll look at when I'm doing an inductive Bible study. What do you have to say about the NASB and the NRSV?
Dave: Well, the NASB, it's not the easiest reading, but when you're doing word studies and you want to delve into a more accurate word studies than the New American Standard is definitely the way to go. It benefits from having the, the, the scrolls that came from the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, we have a more accurate, more current translation when it comes to that. But the sentence structure and the New American Standard Bible is, especially for children, a little hard to read because it doesn't read like a typical person would speak or understand. And it also uses some of the older language that the King James used. It's definitely the most dependable go-to Bible. If you're going to do word for word study, it's definitely the best revised standard is a little older, you know, it's, it's also a word for word, accurate Bible, and it's a, it's a little bit of a different field, same thing. It has a lot of the old language. And so, it's a little bit harder to understand, but it has its merits. It has its benefits. You know, it's not the kind of Bible I will read every day, but when I'm digging down into deep Bible study, I will certainly probably more likely go for the New American Standard version.
Terrie: Now the New American Standard Bible is written at about an 11th grade level. So if that helps you also understand if you have a child who is preparing for ministry, you know, they're called into ministry and they're in high school, this might be what you would want to get them as a study Bible in the NASB for them to start preparing word studies and inductive Bible studies. And to really dig deeper into the word, another word for word translation is the English Standard Version. And it's become quite popular as well. But I think overall I prefer the NLT New Living Translation, which is about a sixth-grade level of reading. So, it's still not going to be first grade, second grade level of reading, but a sixth-grade level is certainly easier to tackle then 11th grade. And it's a thought for thought translation. So, you have your word for word translation, your thought for thought translation, and then your paraphrase. And so, the most reliable as far as going from the original languages of Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic would be your word for word. And then thought for thought is what would you like to tell us a little about what it means by thought for thought?
Dave: Sure. Well, first of all, let me just say that any of our English translations are not really the original God inspired translation. Those you have to go to the Hebrew and the Greek, the original Hebrew and Greek that were inspired, but these are translations from those texts. The word for word we talked about is literal word for word the thought for thought Bibles, basically take the sentence and actually put it in an accurate translation. But speaking more about the thought in a way that we can understand in today's English that is helpful. And once again, the paraphrase is just a, a person's personal interpretation rather than going to the text and actually drawing out a, what we would call exit Jesus. The actual translation from the language, a paraphrase is coming from the interpretation of what the reader is or the writer of that paraphrase things that it means. And because of that, it's not as dependable, but a thought for thought Bible is definitely a dependable translation. It is actually derived from the original text but done so more with a thought for thought understanding rather than a literal word for word and description.
Terrie: And the probably the most popular thought for thought translation would be the NIV. And we both agree. We like the 1984 version, much better than the 2011 version of NIV. That's the New International Version. And it's probably the most widely used in churches today. If they don't use the KJV King James version, they usually use NIV. Another one, of course, I mentioned a minute ago, the sixth grade level one is NLT, New Living Translation, which was to take the place of The Living Bible paraphrase. They wanted to make an actual translation. And so the same people who did the living Bible did the new living translation to make it an actual translation. But what I like about it because I've taught ESL [English as a Second Language] for so long, that's why I fell in love with the NLT because my ESL students could understand it. And so that when I found out it was a sixth-grade level, that fit pretty well with children. I enjoy using the NLT as well. The HCSB, the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation. It has now become the CSB. They've updated it and they call it the CSB and the New Century Version, which is when you, like, why do you like the new century version?
Dave: It's simple. It uses, uses less words. So, you know, if you think of, you know, of different age levels, I know because I grew up overseas, Chinese characters, they have 2,800 characters in all, but modern day. They only use about six to 800 of those characters in everyday language. Well, think about the kinds of words that might be used in a stronger translation that is meant for older readers and bring it back to a childhood level where children use a smaller vocabulary. It uses a smaller vocabulary that keeps it in a very simple, easy to understand format, and it is a translation.
Terrie: From that translation, actually it came about from a children's translation, the International Children's Bible, which is a popular children's translation of the Bible. And the New Century Version came from that. I mean, they updated it to the New Century. The ICB is available in children's Bibles. We're looking at The Bedtime Devotions with Jesus Bible. It's a kid friendly early reader edition of the Holy Bible with selections from the ICB, The International Children's Bible. This does not have the entire Bible. It takes out the PG and the R-rated parts of the Bible. It's just the parts that are kid appropriate. It has some prayers and devotionals in it as well. So, it is the Bible, but it's not the whole Bible. So, it's just like, it would be a great first Bible for young children. Okay. So, my two favorite versions of the Bible, I love to read the New Living Translation on a daily basis and the Amplified Bible. Now the Amplified Bible takes each word and expounds on it. And I've read some comments on the amplified in some say it involves paraphrase a little bit because it's the interpretation of those words beyond just a literal simple translation. But what I love about it is it kind of expands the language because English is limited sometimes, and the Greek is much more specific. And so it expands that word more to give us the nuances that the word might hold. And sometimes in the simpler translations, language-wise you lose some of those nuances. So, I love to do side-by-side studies with the new living translation and the amplified. And then again, if I'm doing inductive, I'll include the NASB. How about you?
Dave: I also am a fan of the new living translation. Most of the time, I'm in a little bit different every year. I choose a translation that I'm going to read from, and I try to mix it up a little bit just so that it doesn't become so repetitious to the point that you're reading and saying, Oh yeah, I remember that. And you just kind of ignore the rest. I want to hear it from different perspectives, but I definitely lean on the new living translation when I'm working in my sermons. I use the new living translation as my base translation when I'm dealing with my sermons and stuff, but I also use other translations frequently and I will read different translations to, to kind of help me to see a different perspective or, or just to just hearing it a little bit differently. Maybe allows that verse to jump out at me a little bit differently. It doesn't change the meaning at all. It just like Terry was mentioning earlier, the nuances can kind of with the amplified, it kind of gives you, Oh, that's what that could mean. And so, I kind of liked that the amplified, I love it because it definitely helps you to look at that verse. You can just take the amplified Bible and read it and you can stop at a verse and just think about the different ways that it's saying a particular word and think, well, how does that apply? And it just opens things up a little bit more. So, I definitely like that.
Terrie: Okay. Now, as we were preparing for this podcast, we read through several different versions of the Bible that we hadn't necessarily been reading a lot of. And we actually found one that we really like for children, and it's not necessarily written for children. It just is such a simplified translation that we both agreed. We liked it a whole lot. We looked at the International Children's Bible and it's good, but we actually preferred (you want to do a drum roll?) We actually liked the Easy-to-Read Version. The ERV and this Bible was originally the English version for the deaf. I don't know if you know about the deaf language, the American sign language, but it is not a literal translation from English. It is a different language. And so when they read the Bible, sometimes deaf people would have trouble understanding what was being said, because we speak differently in English than we do in American Sign Language. The syntax is different and, and we say things differently. And so they wrote this easy to read version, which was taken from the English version for the deaf. And I think they've done a really great job for a child to understand scripture. Would you agree with that?
Dave: Yeah. in fact, one thing I liked about it, especially when you're dealing with children and their ability to focus some of the versions as we were reading them side by side tended to be really wordy and had, you know, it's like it, they took a simple verse that we know, and it made it longer. It seemed and simplified but longer. And the ERV what we appreciated about it was that it kept the words few and made the meaning very clear. And so that's probably why we liked it so much.
Terrie: So our second choice when we were just looking at versions together that we thought if we were going to buy a Bible today for a child, that's probably in grade school, we both agreed the ERV would be our first choice and our second choice would be NLT. And then third would have been new century. Right? Correct. Yeah. So that's kind of an ICB and new century are basically the same thing. So one or the other, but we both, as we went through all these different translations, we both felt the same way. So that would be our recommendation. If you have a child who's in early elementary, I would say the ERV would be an excellent translation to get for them. If you have a child who is in higher elementary than I would say the NLT, and if you have a child who is just infant to toddler age, either get a Bible storybook or get the bedtime devotions with Jesus Bible that I mentioned, that's the ICB version and is only part of the Bible for your child to start reading.
If you have any questions, you can certainly put those in the comments as well. We love your questions. We love your comments. And if you have a favorite Bible, put it in the comments and tell us why it's your favorite. And I'm very glad you joined us today. Thank you, Dave, for being here and sharing your words of wisdom. Thank you for inviting me. And I hope that our discussion sparked some ideas for you that will lead to some great discussions with the word of God, with your children. And if you'd like to get notifications of our podcasts, to be sure to subscribe, I hope you were blessed today and that you have a great week. Thank you for joining us for books that spark a podcast, celebrating books that sparked imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of this podcast. And my blog, my website is terriehellardbrown.com. When you join my mailing list, you automatically have several freebies that you can download and enjoy with your kids.
Our Guest:
Pastor Dave Brown
Dave is the English pastor at Life Change Baptist Church in San Leandro, California. The church has Indonesian, Mandarin, and English congregations.
He is my husband, and he has been a pastor in the ministry for over 35 years, 15 of those years, he was a missionary pastor in Taipei, Taiwan. He has a website called Finding God and speaks regularly about prayer, our search for God and seeking after God's heart with all of our hearts.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode my husband Pastor Dave Brown and I discuss choosing Bible Story Books.
Books Recommended in This Episode:
Transcript:
Terrie: Welcome to Books that Spark a podcast for parents and caregivers, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion, leading to teachable moments with our kids. I'd like to introduce you to our guest today. His name is pastor Dave Brown. He is my husband, and he has been a pastor in the ministry for over 35 years, 15 of those years, he was a missionary pastor in Taipei, Taiwan. He has a website called Finding God and speaks regularly about prayer, our search for God, and seeking after God's heart with all of our hearts. And we're going to talk to you today about Bible story books for your kids. Dave, thank you for joining us today.
Dave: Thank you.
Terrie: When we're looking for Bible storybooks for our kids, there are about five things that I consider.
- We want to check the publisher or the source. Some of the publishers I highly recommend for Bible storybooks are B and H Kids, which is a part of Lifeway, David C. Cook, Zondervan or Zonderkidz, and Beaming Books. Those are four good resources.
- Check that the stories are true to the Bible that they stick with, what the Bible says, and don't take too many liberties or a poetic license, and you can do that by looking at the pictures as well. And that brings me to number three—
- Make sure the pictures are pretty and are interesting and are going to keep a child's attention because the little kids are going to look at that book over and over again because of the pictures.
- Think of the developmental age of your child. That's always the case with any book we buy, but we also need to consider that with our Bible storybooks. And you need to think about whether you want them to read it by themselves or with you. And so you think of those kinds of things. And that goes to number five—
- Consider the size and shape of the book. If you're going to be reading it together as a family or reading it before bedtime together, then you want possibly to have a bigger book that you can share. Some of the Bible books are bigger in size than others are like a paperback novel and are small. And so they're just for someone who's reading on their, then the last one is--
- The educational element. Do you want one that has questions for discussion at the end of the story? Do you want extra facts added in sidebars or bubbles or whatever to make it more fun? Do you want it to be very straightforward? A very simple five minute devotional type of one to two pages, long story. So, look at the educational elements, look at the way it's formatted to see if it fits your needs exactly.
First, I want to ask you why is it important for us to read Bible stories?
Dave: Well, Bible story is, especially when you're really young help capture your imagination. And I remember as a child, you know, my grandmother used to read Bible stories to me and it stuck with me and my parents always had a Bible story book in my bookshelf. So on rainy days, that was a book that I commonly pulled out and led to read stories about David and Goliath and Daniel and the lion's den and many others that let, I just loved reading about and that spoke about God. So, they're really good for little kids who can't sit down and actually read through a Bible and get something every time. Definitely a good way to start.
Terrie: I know you were not raised in technically a Christian home. So how did having that Bible story book affect your coming to Christ?
Dave: Even though I grew up in a home where we didn't go to church and we weren't Christians, my parents would have told me that we were Christians and we went to church once a year. We were one of those kinds of people. So there was always this essence that we believed in God, but we didn't know anything about him. And you know, reading the Bible stories helped me to actually know something about the Bible in a way that I was able to sit down and actually have a motivation to read something. You know, we as kill it as kids, we love reading stories of heroes and people who defied the odds and different things like that. Like David and Daniel and others, Samson, and, you know, those kinds of stories captured my attention and I loved reading them. And they were written in such a way that, you know, that it was, it was in a story format. So I absolutely enjoyed that. And I spent most of my life reading those and I believe God used those moments for the time when I finally did come to Christ to kind of give a foundation and push me in the right direction, because I had that basis of knowing these stories and these you know, these events that actually happened in history.
Terrie: Yeah, the same for me, my grandfather, well, I was raised in a Christian home. My dad was a deacon, and we went to church every Sunday from the time I was born. But my grandfather had a whole set of records that told Bible stories and it had sound in the background. It's like listening to a radio show that had the Bible story acted out. And I just fell in love with the word of God because of those stories. And so, Bible stories can have a profound effect on a child's development and on preparing them for a future relationship with God and a love for the word of God. I believe it's a very important thing. We also show them by reading from these stories that they matter to us and we can start teaching them to that. These are historical stories. These, like you said, these are things that really happened in history.
So, I've done some research on several different Bible storybooks. And what I've found is no matter what, when you get, you're going to have something to criticize and that's because these are not the word of God written out by inspired by God writings. These are people retelling stories. And every time I read one, some of them, I think they're just, they've told the story so beautifully. And so well, and then another time I'll read in the same book, man, I would have said that so differently. I could have done that better or whatever. And I've read many comments from parents who've said the same thing or how they would say it differently, or they didn't think it was well done or they left out something they felt was important. I did try to avoid the ones that changed the story. And I don't understand that I don't like the Bible story books that take liberties, you know, maybe they consider it poetic license.
But I think when you're dealing with the word of God, you don't want to take poetic license to the point that you're changing what the story actually says. For instance, one Bible story book had at creation that on the, that when God said, let there be light, he created the sun, and we know he didn't create the sun until later the that was just light separated from dark. That was not the creation of the sun. And so, either someone didn't reread their Bible to know what they were writing before they wrote the story, or they just made up their own thing. And I think that's a problem. So, I found Bible story books that I liked the best for different reasons.
The first one is 101 Favorite Stories from the Bible by Ura Miller. And the pictures are very realistic. And I love that because I think if we're going to help children understand that these stories are real, that they need to have pictures that look real and are not all cartoony. And the other thing I like about this, each story is on one page. And then it has the actual scripture that goes with it. So, if you want to look at the scripture, you can, and then it has a thought for the parents, either a Bible verse or a question or a thought. And then it has a few simple questions for the kids to kind of evoke some conversation between the parent and the child. So, that was one of my favorites.
And then the other one that I liked was it's like a comic book. It's a paperback. It has, but it only has black and white drawings, but they are realistic drawings. I shouldn't say comic book because they're not comic pictures. They're more realistic pictures again. And this is the 365 Read Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories. It's by Barber Publishers. It has, again, the stories are one to two pages long, usually one page long. And there's one for each day of the year. So, you can use it almost like a devotional book. And it also has the scripture reference. And it also has a question at the end of each story. And so that's another one that's and it's more paperback. So, it looks, it has the look that would be more appealing to a little bit older elementary kid. Wouldn't you say? Yeah. And then I think this first one would appeal more to the younger kids. And my favorite is the Jesus Storybook Bible. Every story whispers his name written by Sally Lloyd Jones and illustrated by Jago, but this one is much more colorful. The drawing is not really cartoon. It's more stylistic. What would you say?
Dave: Kind of makes me think of a children's story based out of, out of Europe. I'm trying to think of the girl Madeline. Oh yeah. Madeline. It kind of reminds me of Madeline. Caricatures and so it's kind of unique in that way.
Terrie: That's really pretty. And I'm drawn to this kind of artwork, I think is why I like these two [book and coloring book]. And so, the stories are fairly short. Because there's so many pictures, they do cover more than just one page. They actually cover several pages and, you know, they've taken a few liberties, for instance, this one picture shows is an Eve, Adam—Eve holding the snake. And I don't think that that ever happened, but the drawings are well done. The stories are told really well, and it's really beautiful. I think a child, any child would just enjoy looking at the pictures, even if they couldn't read it for themselves. When the parent isn't reading it, I think they would look at all the pictures and it does cover a lot more of the stories. Well, with the 365, you're covering most of the stories, but it does cover the Old and the New Testament. And they do have some Bible verses in here that have been paraphrased by the author and they do acknowledge that, that they are paraphrased and then others are just quoted. And then there's also some quotes from some other great Christian leaders and writers. This is published by Zondervan and or Zonderkidz. And there's been over a million copies sold of this Jesus Storybook Bible.
Another one that I think is beautifully done. I would think it would work for a little bit older elementary up through middle school. Even I think a high schooler would enjoy this book. It's called The Promises of God's Storybook Bible: The Story of God's Unstoppable Love by Jennifer Lyell. The artwork is beautiful. The way it is written is very well done. This is of all the story books I've read. It's the most straightforward, right? From the scripture of just telling the story as it's written in the scriptures. And so, I do like this book a lot.
Now for the very young child, there are some very cute board books and lift-the-flap Bible story books. That would be good to have for the very young child when they want to read and look at the pictures and on their own a little bit, or with them in your lap.
One is the Lift-the-Flat Bible Stories for Young Children by Andrew J DeYoung and Naomi Joy Krueger, and illustrated by Megan Higgins. And this book is very well-written, and the pictures are very simple, colorful pictures with little questions and information along the way, talks about how God asked Adam to name the animals. There's not a lot of detail in the story. It's just a very simple telling of the stories, but I think it's very well-done, and it is published by Beaming Books. And they're one of the publishers I really like. I think they do a good job.
Another one for you—this is for level one readers. So, this would be a K, one, two level book. It's called I Can Read My Illustrated Bible for Beginning Readers, Level One from Zondervan and illustrated by Peter Francis. And so, it is an illustrated Bible and has few words so that the young reader can read the story.
For instance, for Genesis 1-2, it says, “Long ago, there was no world. There was no sun, there was no moon.” Then you go to the next page. “God said, I will make the world. So, God made the earth. God said, I will make the sun and stars. He said, they are good.”
Now this one doesn't put in every part of it because in between there would have been the separation of the land from the water. But it still has quite a bit of detail, enough detail that it's well done. And I think a young reader would enjoy being able to read it on their own, but even a very young child younger than that would enjoy having it read to them. So that's one that I would recommend.
And then one last one for the really young reader, Early Readers Bible by V Gilbert Beers. This one is as 64, easy-to-read Bible stories. And this one, I really like. It's by Zonderkidz. Again, it's made where if it's like a first grader, they could read most of this, definitely by second grade, they could read this on their own, but it's got enough of a text that it would be fun to read to a child. And the pictures are simple, but very colorful. So, children would enjoy looking through the book. It's definitely not the full Bible. It's not the full story, but it does a good job for the very young reader.
The one I found that is closest to just repeating what the Bible says in a way that children can understand would be the one that's called The Promises of God's Story Book Bible: The Story of God's Unstoppable Love by Jennifer Lyell, and that one I was most impressed with how they told the stories. As far as the one that is the most poetic and beautiful as far as the illustrations is The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd Jones. It's the one that we gave away in our giveaway in July, along with its companion coloring book. And it's one of my favorites as far as Bible storybooks go.
For graphic novel style books that you would want for older children to read on their own, the two best of those that I found were The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story Action Bible Series by David C. Cook and illustrated by Sergio Cariello and edited by Doug Mauss and the Epic: The Story That Changed the World by Aaron Armstrong and the B and H kids editorial staff, and Heath MacPherson. These two are done really well as like a graphic novel style of writing and art that would be excellent for an older elementary through high school child, especially one who isn't reading their real Bible, but you're wanting to get them started in understanding what the Bible is all about.
And if you have children who are even older in high school and older, and you just want them to read some books based on Bible stories, just to enjoy digging deeper into some stories, then I highly recommend Francine rivers. She has a series of books that are about men in the Bible and women in the Bible. I've been reading the ones about the women in the Bible. I love hers about Ruth. She has one about Mary, one about Bathsheba and went about Rahab [and Tamar called Lineage of Grace.] And they're just amazing. And then there's the one she has the ones of about several of the men in the Bible who were the like second in command, not the main character, but second in command [called Sons of Encouragement]. And she digs deep into their stories. Of course, it is fictionalized like historical fiction because we don't have all the details that she includes in the story. But she did extensive research on the culture of the time and tried to be true to the biblical culture and to the scriptures in her retelling of these stories. Each of those also has a Bible study companion to go along with it. These are really good. I would recommend trying those out.
If you're wanting to get a good Bible storybook, research it well. If you're giving it as a gift, I recommend reading all of it or most of it before you give it to a child, just to make sure that you do agree with what's being said. The child is looking at this as a storybook, and even though sometimes the stories were not told exactly right, by the time we get old enough to understand and look into the Bible, we find those discrepancies and throw out the falsehoods. I remember as a child when I was in Sunday school, we had a picture of Adam and Eve, and Adam was over there sleeping, taking a nap. And Eve was over at the tree, talking to the serpent and grabbing the fruit. And that picture stuck in my head for years and years and years. And I always questioned why God was upset with Adam poor Adam was asleep and Eve came over and gave him the fruit. He probably didn't even know what fruit it was. This was my thinking when I was a little kid because of that picture. So, the Bible story pictures will affect our kids and they are man-made pictures. They are man-made interpretations of the stories. We do have to be aware of that. But what I did was then when I read the Bible and just read it for what it said, I realized, it says very clearly, and Adam was there with her. He just didn't say anything. So, it's more understandable why God was upset with him. He's just standing there letting her talk to the serpent. And then when she hands him, the fruit he's like, thank you. So, then it makes it more understandable. When we do give our children the Bible, we need to make sure that they are reading what the Bible says and putting some of these misconceptions out of their minds.
Dave: I would like to just mention too, when I was reading the Bible stories as a kid, the thing that did catch my attention were the pictures. And, and it's what kind of drew me to it. I mean, think about it when you were a child, you know, you could have written a, read a novel, or you would have read car comics. Well, why did we read the comics? They had pictures and the pictures kind of helped with the story. And, and it, it drew us in, well, when you're a little child, you kind of need that little bit of extra help to really draw you in. And I think like I like Terry was saying, you need to make sure that the pictures are telling the story correctly, as much as possible, but as long as you know, it, it does a pretty good job. And we like it. I think we're fine. It's just, and also understand it's not a Bible translation, it's a storybook, but the storybook definitely helps to point the child towards Jesus. And that's the ultimate goal of them reading these things.
Terrie: Do you have anything to add as we finish up with Bible stories today?
Dave: No. I just think I think these were some really good choices. I remember the ones I couldn't tell you the name of the one I read when I was kid. I do remember that it was bigger. It was like a regular you know letter sized, you know, paper, the book was that size. So it was a bigger book and some of these are smaller, you know? So that's something to consider too, when you're looking at kids, they, they like bigger books, I think, but otherwise these were good, good choices.
Terrie: Well, thank you so much, Dave, for joining us again, and thank you for joining us as our listeners. We hope that you were blessed today and that you got some ideas for choosing the right Bible storybook for your kids and can start sharing the Bible with them and opening up great discussions about our wonderful God and what his plan is for their life. Thank you for joining us for books that spark a podcast, celebrating books, spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of this podcast. And my blog, my website is terriehellardbrown.com. When you join my mailing list, you automatically have several freebies that you can download and enjoy with your kids.
Your Host:
Your Host: Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we take a break from the seriousness of life and laugh at some fun and humorous books.
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.” (Proverbs 17:22, NLT)
Books recommended in this episode:
Transcript:Welcome to Books that Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers where we review books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and conversations leading to teachable moments with our kids.
Today, with all the seriousness of our times and the stress people are under with school changes, illness, finances, and the whole political arena, I want to talk about the importance of laughter and play for our children. We are very blessed in the kid lit marketplace to have some great books that can make us laugh together.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 17:22, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.” (NLT) And we certainly can feel that sometimes, that we just don’t have as much energy as we usually do because we are burdened by what’s going on in our lives.
Play is important work for a child. Laughing is excellent for a child’s spiritual and emotional well-being, but it also stretches their lungs and helps them feel better physically as well. So, having fun together and laughing together is not only fun, it’s excellent for your child’s well-being.
Learning humor helps a child understand culture. We lived overseas, and I always found it interesting what each culture finds humorous. I also found out how we can offend others with our humor cross-culturally…and that’s a very important lesson to learn quickly when you go to another culture!
Plus, it is very important for children to develop the ability to laugh at themselves. Once they cross that threshold, they will find it easier to have and keep friends and to be happier in social situations.
Think back to your childhood, most likely some of your favorite memories were when you were laughing and having fun with your family. Sharing humorous books with your children can create some fun memories with the whole family. It’s healthy and good for you and your kids to do this together besides making memories, and it helps your child to develop in his understanding of cultural and social interactions. So, there are a lot of benefits of reading funny stories together besides it just being fun and a nice break.
I’m sharing with you some of my favorite silly books today, but there are so many available. The main warning that I will give you is to read a book before you share it. I found some books that say they are funny to either be empty, not really have a story to them, and not very funny at all, but more strange than funny. And I found some to have humor I found inappropriate, although I know some kids enjoy that more. In addition, be aware that very young children will have trouble understanding sarcasm. We have to with any books we’re reading think about our child’s developmental age and what they’ll be able to process. So, we should always look at the book before we read them to our children.
We all should know the story of The Three Little Pigs. But have you heard the story from the Wolf’s perspective? It’s an old book called The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf as told to John Scieszka and illustrated Lane Smith. “Everybody knows the story of the three little pigs, or at least they think they do. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nobody knows the real story because nobody has ever heard my side of the story. I’m the wolf. Alexander T. Wolf, you can call me Al. I don’t know how this whole ‘big bad wolf’ thing got started, but it’s all wrong. Maybe it’s because of our diet. Hey, it’s not my fault wolves eat cute little animals like bunnies and sheep and pigs. That’s just the way we are. If cheeseburgers were cute, folks would probably think you’re big and bad too.”
Then he tells his side of the story. The pigs are very impolite throughout the story, and the wolf has a cold, so he sneezes, and the straw house fell down killing the first pig. He didn’t want to waste food, so he ate him. He goes through the rest of the story, and at the end he says, “The news reporters found out about the two pigs I had for dinner. They figured a sick guy going to borrow a cup of sugar didn’t sound very exciting, so they jazzed up the story with all of that huff and puff and blow your house down. And they made me the big bad wolf. That’s it. The real story. I was framed.
If you haven’t read this one, you should. It’s a fun one. And there are quite a few different fractured fairy tales and fairy tales where they fix the fairy tales and retellings of fairy tales with a twist, that are so much fun. And some are not appropriate for some children, so do vet them ahead of time, read them ahead of time and make sure they are appropriate for your child. Some of them are truly hysterical. One of my favorites is actually a version of Hansel and Gretel which is not appropriate for certain ages of children because the kids in the story are not well-behaved and they have a lot of sarcasm, but for an older child, they would really enjoy it. I didn’t put that one in the program exactly just because I know for little children it wouldn’t really be good. But I will put that in the show notes in case you’re interested in looking at that particular story for a little bit older elementary, middle school kid. And this same writer has other funny fairy tale retellings that are irreverent and silly that I think older kids might enjoy.
Another fun, hilarious story is called Carnivores. It’s by Erin Reynolds, illustrated by Dan Sintat. It starts out, “The Lion is known throughout the animal kingdom as the king of the beasts. The great white shark is the most feared predator in the oceans. And the timber wolf’s howl strikes terror into the hearts of fuzzy woodland creatures everywhere. But even savage carnivores get their feelings hurt. The lion tries to ignore it when the gazelles whisper behind his back. He pretends not to see the zebras looking down their noses at him. The wildebeests call him “bad kitty” just because he’s eaten half the neighborhood. It hurts; it really does. The great white shark, he gets such a bad rap. All those shark movies don’t help. Everyone talks about his feeding frenzies. But he’s simply a fast- eater. Nobody understands.”
So, in the story they try to go vegetarian. Toward the end, we finally understand this is who they are, and we should accept them as they are—that they aren’t bad for being who they were meant to be.
Most of Mo Willems books range from heartwarming and silly to outright hilarious. One of my favorites is Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. It starts out, “Once upon a time there were three dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur, and some other dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway.”
So, from the beginning your children will laugh because Willems has changed the story unexpectedly. In the original Three Bears story, they are oblivious to this girl coming to their home. However, in Willems’ book, the dinosaurs have an evil plot.
It says, “One day, for no particular reason, the three dinosaurs made up their beds, positioned their chairs just so, and cooked three bowls of delicious chocolate pudding at varying temperatures.
“‘Oh boy,’ said Papa Dinosaur in his loud, booming voice. ‘It is finally time to leave and go to the—uh—some place else.’
“‘Yes!’ continued Mama Dinosaur. ‘I hope no innocent little succulent child happens by our unlocked home while we are…uh….some place else!’
“Then the other Dinosaur made a loud noise that sounded like a big, evil laugh but was probably just a polite Norwegian expression. The three Dinosaurs went Someplace Else and were definitely not hiding in the woods waiting for an unsuspecting child to come by.”
Willems also brings in reality which every kid will enjoy. It says, “Sure enough, five minutes later a poorly supervised little girl named Goldilocks came traipsing along.”
Throughout the book is talks about how she doesn’t listen to people and is poorly supervised, so it’s kind of funny. Throughout the story are surprises, but it follows the basic story except that everything is huge because they are dinosaurs. Goldilocks comments, “The bears that live here must be nuts.” Then, she looks around and starts to realize it’s not the bears’ house, but it is some dinosaurs’ house, and she escapes out the back door.
The story has two morals. One: If you find yourself in the wrong story, leave. And for dinosaurs: Lock the backdoor.
Another one of my favorites is by Ryan T. Higgins. It’s called We Don’t Eat Our Classmates. This one is perfect for the start of school too, so it’s a great one to get right now. Penelope is a T-Rex, and Higgins puts right in the front of the book a disclaimer to the kids that no T-Rex will eat them because T-Rexes are extinct which is very kind of him to help our children not to be afraid.
Penelope is very nervous about her first day of school. She asks questions and gets her backpack ready, and when she gets to school the next day, she learns that her classmates are children! And children are delicious, so she eats them.
The teacher tells her, “We don’t eat our classmates,” so she spits them out. The next picture shows the kids all covered with slobbers. They don’t want to be her friend anymore. We can talk with our kids what it means to be a friend and when we lose our friend’s trust it is sometimes hard to get it back. She tries to tell her classmates they can sit by her, but they are too afraid. She is very sad and alone. The next day she tries really, really hard not to eat her friends, but she couldn’t stop herself and she eats one boy. A child tattles and she spits him out.
So, all the students won’t go near her. They don’t trust her. She’s very sad. But then she sees the goldfish Walter, and she says, “Will you be my friend.” She puts her finger in the bowl, and the fish looks at her and “Chomp!” bites her finger. She screams and says, “He’s eating me!” and realizes being eaten hurts!
She eventually is able to make friends with her classmates and not eat them. She understands how to be a better friend. This book has a lot of cute themes throughout that, even though it is funny, it may open up some great conversations about school and making new friends, keeping a friend’s trust, and thinking about how others feel when we do what we do.
A perfect book to read today since it’s Tuesday is Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and illustrated by Daniel Salmieri. It starts out, “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” But then we are warned that dragons hate spicy salsa. So, the boy in the book plans a party for the dragons, but of course, he accidentally gives them spicy salsa. Soon everything is destroyed as the dragons burn down everything. The story ends with the dragons helping to rebuild everything.
It is just a silly story, very entertaining, very funny, but it is so much fun to read. And I love how the dragons help after they made such a mess of everything.
Another goofy book is Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang and illustrated by Max Lang. I love this book. One beautiful day Monkey named Jim wakes up grumpy, but he keeps insisting he’s not grumpy. Everyone has ideas of how to make him feel better and keeps asking him why he’s grumpy until he explodes, insisting he’s not grumpy. He walks away and sits by himself and realizes that maybe he is grumpy. His friend Norman the gorilla comes by, and Monkey asks if he’s grumpy too because he looks upset. He says, no, that he had been dancing with porcupine, and he has quills he’s pulling out of his hind end.
They sit on a tree, and Monkey asks if he still hurts, and he says yes, but he thinks he’ll feel better tomorrow. Then he asks Monkey if he’s still grumpy, and he says yes, but he thinks he’ll feel better tomorrow too. Norman says, “It’s a wonderful day to be grumpy.”
Both of them start feeling a little better.
I love that this book is about feelings and understanding that they are temporary. I love that all the friends like to try to help, but it also shows that sometimes it’s better just to sit with someone rather than trying to fix their problem or change their mood. It’s a cute, funny book with a lot to offer.
Two alphabet books are very funny. One is P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter, illustrated by Maria Tina Beddia. This whole book is about words that don’t follow the rules of pronunciation. E is for ewe, A is for aisle and aeon. It’s a great book for introducing these wacky words and to give your kids some great new vocabulary words. It’s a fun book to read and try to pronounce all the words in it. I would say this book is for a little bit older kid. It would be too much for a really young kid who is literally just learning their alphabet. But for older kids who already know the alphabet and phonics and know how to read, I think it would be a fabulous book to read with them.
Another one that I love that would work with younger children who know the alphabet and are still learning is A Is for Salad by Mike Lester. A is for salad shows an alligator eating a salad. B is for Viking shows a beaver dressed as a Viking. So, each picture has a word that matches the letter shown, but the page chooses the wrong part of the picture for its line. Kids will have fun correcting each page with the word that matches. It’s really cute and a lot of fun. It will make really young children crack up.
But Not the Hippopotamus is a book by Sandra Boynton. This is a cute book. The animals are all doing things together except for the hippo. Finally, the animals invite the hippo to join them, and he joins in, but not the armadillo. This is a cute board book that shows that someone can be left out if we aren’t careful. And when we include someone, we need to see if someone else is being left out. Boynton also has several other funny books. Some about hippopotamuses. They are very cute and entertaining. I love her books. They are fun.
Giggle, Giggle, Quack is a great book. I love it because the child infers information throughout the story. A farmer goes on vacation and leaves instructions for his brother to take care of the farm, but he warns his brother to watch out for the duck because he’s trouble and a bad influence on the other animals. It’s so funny. Kids will love it. I don’t want to give away the story, but it really is adorable.
Some oldies that are still fun to read are any of the Amelia Bedelia books by Peggy Parish. She has several different illustrators for her different books. Each of these books has a play on words throughout the story, and the children have so much fun realizing she has misunderstood and is doing the completely wrong thing. In one book she’s told to dust the furniture which she thinks is very strange, but she gets powder and puts dust all over the furniture. In another book, she checks her boss’s shirts by literally painting checks on them and removes the spots on Mrs. Roger’s dress by cutting out the polka dots. These are great books for learning to play with words, understanding literal and figurative meanings, and it helps kids anticipate the reaction of her bosses when they see what’s she done.
Another book that plays on the literal versus the figurative meaning of words is the book Just a Minute by Teddy Slater, illustrated by Dana Regan. It also teaches math for grades K-2 and has math activities by Marilyn Burns. Fred wants to share his picture with his family, but everyone keeps telling him “Just a minute.” Then his brother tells him he needs to walk the dog, and Fred says, “Just a minute.” In the meantime, the dog has an accident on the floor. So, they have to talk about how long a minute is. And everyone learns not to say “Just a minute” unless they really mean it. You’re dealing with math and the length of time a minute is, but you’re also dealing with the figurative language when we say, “Just a minute.” It could mean 15 minutes or half and hour if we’re not careful.
Also, when thinking of middle schoolers, another great series of books that are humorous but educational are the Horrible History series and the books related to those. These are certainly not going to be appropriate for young children. They deal with a lot of disgusting things from history, but those books, in particular, helped all of my kids develop a love for history. And it helped them so much to just jump into their educational history books, the curriculum they had to learn, but they had such a fascination by then with what really happened in the past. So, I do recommend those for the middle schoolers and high schoolers if you’re okay with the rough edges in those books.
Many picture books and board books share humor. Some are meant to make you laugh out loud, but others just make us smile at the subtle humor. Either way, they can be a blessing to you and your family as you share them together and take a break from the heaviness and seriousness of life now and then. And remember, you’re always creating wonderful memories with your kids as you do this.
Thank you for joining us today for Books that Spark, a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope these books will spark meaningful conversations with your kids. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of this podcast and my blog. My website is terriehellardbrown.com.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
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In this episode we have the second part of my interview with best-selling author Deb Gruelle. We celebrate her book launch of Sleepy Time Colors, her second children's book, a companion to her best-selling book Ten Little Night Stars. We discuss the benefits of reading to our children.
Books Suggested in the Episode:
Transcript:
Terrie: Welcome to Books that Spark a podcast for parents and caregivers, where we review books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and conversations, leading to teachable moments with our kids. Today, we have the second part of my interview with author Deb Gruelle. Deb is a bestselling and award-winning author for children and adults. She writes for children to entertain and offer them a sense of security. Yes, she's related to Johnny Gruelle, the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy, and she loves being a third-generation writer for children. She feels honored to share stories with children to enrich their childhood memories and writes for adults to offer them hope. A recovering technical writer, Gruelle’s also authored a book on infertility for women, over 100 articles for national women's and parenting magazines, as well as storyboards for children's games. She also serves as chaplain for Inspire Christian Writers, teaches at writer's conferences, and has fun spreading her love for children's literacy at school author visits. Thank you for joining us again today, Deb, for another interview. I'm so glad you're here.
Deb: It's my pleasure, Terrie. I'm so glad to be here with you today.
Terrie: Well, today is an exciting day. Would you like to tell our listeners why this is such an exciting day?
Deb: Today is the day my newest book comes out Sleepy Time Colors, and it's my second children's book, and it’s a board book. And I am really thrilled that it is finally here. Yay!
Terrie: And for anyone who goes to my website and comments on the blog, you will be entered in a drawing to possibly win a free copy of this new book, sleepy time colors. So please go by, we're having this contest open until the 15th. So, before time is up, go to my blog and just make any comment. Say, “Yay, Deb, for your new book!” or whatever, and you'll be entered in the drawing to possibly win a copy of her new book, Sleepy Time Colors. My website is terriehellardbrown.com. So, congratulations. I'm so excited for you.
Deb: Thank you so much, Terrie. It's really fun.
Terrie: Well, we wanted to take this time to go ahead and do a second interview and talk a little bit more about how books and reading with our children can help them with feelings of insecurity and uncertain times because we certainly are living in uncertain times right now with all that's going on in our culture. So how can reading with kids help during these times of uncertainty?
Deb: I think that the first thing is that reading allows us to slow down because it's hard to read while you're walking or running or going places. And especially if parents and kids are reading together, it just allows that connection in this space of a slowdown that you can journey together into books. You can read books that are specifically for comfort, but also, you know, a book that will—I’m thinking of the little house series, those books, you get to travel in time. And, and those books are very comforting. They have problems that they encounter on the Prairie, but there's a resolution to them, a gentle resolution. And I think many of her books ended up at Christmas. So, it has this seasonal piece to it, which is also a great thing, just to be reminded what's happening to us right now is going to pass. It is not going to be here forever. And we can just spend time in books with our kids, that we can get a break from the reality that's going on and we can connect with each other. So, you know, there's picture books that you can do that with, especially if your child really enjoys the book, you're gonna help them enter into a peaceful, fun, or exciting journey together.
Terrie: I've heard of some kids who grab their favorite stuffed animal and their favorite book when they need to be comforted. And that's their happy place. That book and stuffed animal, there's that comfort there? I love that.
Deb: I remember just sitting and reading with my kids is very comforting to me as a, a mom too, when there are just so many things we can't control deaths in the family and, and financial worries and things like that. But you can just compartmentalize a little bit and just, that's not good to do that and not connect your life, but to not give a concern or anxiety reign over your whole life. I remember one time we were going through a period that just the anxiety was really high in our family. And we set aside a time and let's talk about that for 20 minutes a night. Anybody who wants to say anything about it can, and then we're going to focus on other things for the rest of the time so that that doesn't take over our whole life. We couldn't change the outcome that was going to happen, but we could change just how we lived and to not set aside all the good things and let that anxiety overwhelm the rest of life.
Terrie: Two things I’ve heard that help kids to identify as part of the family and to feel secure are the dinner table and the bedtime routine. And I love that your books, both of your children's books deal with that bedtime routine. Could you touch on that a little bit?
Deb: Oftentimes picture books look deceptively simple, but there is an underlying theme or message. And that is in my books to be comforting to kids because the first one I wrote when my dad had just died and I thought, how do I fill this hole for my children? I couldn't, I could not fix that, but I whittled it down to what I could do. And what I could do was to first be intentional and second do small things every day that would help them feel that they knew what was coming next and that they were loved and that together, those things would help make them feel secure and more resilient to the difficult things that happen in life. So, my books are about teaching kids about counting and colors, but underneath is this theme that I hope it resonates with kids of, “I feel secure enough that I can go to sleep.”
Terrie: What are some of the other benefits of reading besides helping a child feel secure?
Deb: Well, I think it's the connection that there's a, something that happens in children's minds. If they're sitting in your lap and they feel the comfort and they have their favorite blankie or stuffed animal, and they will equate that with reading. And so that will encourage them to read more. So, there's all sorts of studies that show that vocabulary, kids who read or read to have a much larger vocabulary than children who are not read to. And what a great gift that is to give a child and just in learning, they can become stronger learners. I don't ever want to make parents feel guilty for not doing what they can't do, but this is just an encouragement that if you think this doesn't mean anything, that I'm spending five minutes or 10 minutes at night, reading to my child, it is meaningful just that little bit of time can over time accumulate to a really great gift.
Terrie: I agree. Yeah. One of the things I'm seeing--I've been a teacher for over 20 years and in more recent years when we've seen kind of more going towards video and video games and not so much reading my students aren't able to comprehend what they're reading at the same level that they could when reading was more, a part of our daily culture and our daily lives, like you said, five, 10 minutes with our kids, helping them to enjoy a story from beginning to end and comprehending what you're reading, what you're being told is a tremendous gift to help them succeed even into their high school years. Even talking about the story afterwards. And a lot of times young children will ask questions in the middle of a story it's showing comprehension. And, Oh, my goodness, that helps so much with their grades in their later years of schooling, even into middle school and high school. It starts when they're preschoolers and we're reading that little five-minute bedtime story to them. We really, we can't discount that at all. I think parents should feel very happy and encourage that they are doing a great thing. Like you said, giving their children a great gift as they read together.
Deb: Absolutely. And sometimes that's hard for parents because parenting can be so cyclical. And you think at the end of the day, do I have anything to show for today? You know, maybe yeah. I took a shower. Yeah. It was really great. And you think, you know, I read to my kid, but does that really add up to anything? And it is, it's amazing. You don't see it. It's cumulative effect that it also can help extend their focus. I had two children with severe ADHD and studies have shown that reading to your children helps them focus longer, a different thing than the video games and things like that. So it's a good thing. It's it just is. If you start looking into it, you can find so many positives for reading with your children. And just the fact that you're stopping your world and saying, I'm going to do this with you. Is something we both enjoy. I think that has a lot of power to say what's happening in life is not going to overwhelm us. We're going to stop and enjoy each other and be there for each other in the midst of what's going on. And that sends a signal to the child that it’s going to be okay.
Terrie: Yeah, we're in this together. So, reading to a child, it helps them make that connection. You're usually even physically closer to the child while you're reading, you're creating that circle with them and it's adds a comfort and security. So, you have that physicality of touch of, of talking together, being together. If you add into that, like we said, the vocabulary, the reading comprehension, and even the realizing that we are placing a priority, not only on our relationship with our child and giving our time to our children, but our priority on reading and that we value that. And we see that as important. Then builds that same love for reading in our child or at least that they understand it's important, even if they don't love it. Because I know some children have dyslexia or other challenges, so it's a hard thing for them to embrace, but they can see that at least we place importance on it and that it has a place of importance in our lives and education.
Deb: Yes. And I think kids with dyslexia, it's important to read to them longer. I think, I just think how frustrating it would be to want to know the story and get stopped by not being able to decode the words and having someone read to you. We'll still get that story into you without you having to work so hard at the decoding. So, it can, if you can do that for longer as a parent, it's helpful. I just want to ask you too. Have you heard of the books printed in the dyslexic font?
Terrie: No, I haven't. Tell me about that.
Deb: The only thing that I know is when a fairly small publisher I'm looking at McLaren Cochran publishing has started printing books in this dyslexic font that is supposed to be easier for children or people who have it, but they do children's books. So, they like redid the Wizard of Oz and it doesn't have any--it's san serif. It doesn't have the little short lines on all the letters. And it's just, so I was listening to teachers at a reading conference, the California reading conference, and they were discussing the different fonts that some of them are much easier for kids with dyslexia to read.
Terrie: I have not heard about that. That is great. What we do naturally as a parent with reading to them, with helping them, being active with our children—all of these things help our kids and it helps them in their reading ability. And it helps them cross over some of the challenges they might be facing later in school. We’re laying a huge foundation for them when we’re reading to them. Some of the things that can really help your child, your preschooler, become an avid reader is making sure they crawl. If they skipped crawling, get down on the ground with them and crawl around, do an army crawl. The other thing you can do is march with them. It may seem silly, but that something as a parent that you can do with your little preschooler. Doing that movement--the left hand and the right leg or the right hand and the left leg are moving at the same time—dancing, marching, crawling. That will help their reading ability. The other thing, is as we’re reading to them aloud, and they’re reading along, but they should naturally pick up phonics and naturally begin teach themselves to read, or they should have a desire to read. So, if you’re not seeing that in your child, or if there is a disconnect somehow in there, then we know there is a red flag. It may be nothing. But it also could be a sign that we need to be watching for an auditory problem. I had one student in one of my kindergarten classes. She was always cheating off everyone’s paper. I’m like, what is she doing? You know, I would have these little quizzes where I would say draw a green circle or draw a blue square, so they could practice their shapes and colors and following directions. And she would always look on someone else’s paper. I should have realized she wasn’t hearing me, but she always answered so well. She had learned so many coping mechanisms even by Kindergarten to cover up her hearing loss that we didn’t catch it. Her parents didn’t catch it, and I didn’t catch it. We finally had her tested. And she needed glasses and she had hearing loss. She had so much going on. We felt so bad for giving her a hard time when she was just learning to cope with what she was dealing with. So, I'm a huge proponent for early intervention. I know, as parents, we don’t want to have our kids pigeonholed. We're afraid of getting them tested too soon. We don't want them to be put into a box, but there is such a benefit to early intervention; it can make a huge difference. In my own son’s life, having early intervention helped him to be successful through school even with dealing with autism. He just graduated from high school. He loved school, and he had a lot of friends, and it was all, I believe, due to his Kindergarten teacher and having him diagnosed at the age of five. So, it’s amazing what early intervention can do.
Deb: Yes, I'm hoping there's more openness to understanding that kids' brains work differently. And if you can see if people have done enough study to see if their brain works this way, try this, because it seems to have helped other people whose brains also work that way. That's a great thing. You don't want them labeled for labels sake. You want them to have information about other brains that are similar to their so that they can work with that information to, to eliminate 700 other options and try that one as a priority.
Terrie: And finding the right thing that will help them. That's an awesome thing.
Deb: As a parent to focus on what is going wrong. But the other part to connect back to what we were talking about is that of studies have also shown that kids, students learn better when they feel safe. So as a parent, if you, you can create that environment of comfort and, and relate it to learning, some of the barriers are down. So, it just, I just know, I kept focusing on this is the problem. How do I get past this problem? And I guess just in treating the child as a whole person, that those emotions are happening at the same time. And it's good to deal with those at the same time.
Terrie: Yeah. And you learn to accept who your kid is and how to best help them succeed. And we do that with all kids, whether they have a learning disability or not. And so whether it's dealing with a disability, a quirkiness in their personality, or a fascination with dinosaurs, we're just as parents, we're feeding into that and helping them to find joy and find success and reading has a lot to do with. So, when we're talking about fear and anxiety, we should be conscious of what books say and how that translates for each child's developmental age. How can we determine what is best for each age group of children?
Deb: It's like other hard subjects. As a parent, you have to know your child, know what they're ready for, know what they're capable of handling. And you just answer as truthfully, as you can, as simply as you can. Like kids who have asked where babies come from, you don't go into a long discourse on it for a two year old. You answer very succinctly. And, and the question that they're actually asking at that point, they're not asking for a medical list of all the things they're asking for. There was nobody there now, and now there's a baby here. How did that happen? So, I think the same thing is to, to answer simply if kids are asking questions about why are people wearing masks, then you, you just answered that question simply. And if they there's just their options of, if they're showing fear from that, it's really hard on kids because you can't see smiles behind masks, and they might not want to wear a mask and just things have changed. And it's you can do things like have a craft that is let's make masks and put it into a different context rather than a fearful context. So, there's lots of those options online of make a mass with your kid. And it will be very different than a COVID mask, but it will be something that they can relate, Oh, that maybe is similar to what people are wearing. It doesn't change their face. It's just something in front of their face.
Terrie: I read one cute book called Lucy's Mask. That deals specifically with COVID and the mask wearing. And I thought they handled it really in a cute way. The little girl, Lucy, starts out with like a Batman mask or Halloween mask, and she’s thinking about how she can wear the mask and she can do this and be this kind of person. And she ends of talking about, “And I can be a superhero!” And then her mom is making her a COVID mask to wear. And so she puts that one on and her mom says, “Now you're really a superhero. With this kind of mask you’re helping protect people.” And I thought it handled the subject really well. And in the show notes, I’ll have this information.
Deb: That's wonderful. Sounds like a great book.
Terrie: One thing though, I did notice in some of the books, because I’m vetting several different books dealing with COVID. Some of them, I think, like you said, they give too much information. And so we have to be aware before we read the book to our children what level it's really speaking to. There was one that it's really good, and it has a lot of good information, but I wouldn't read it to my preschooler. I think it gives too much information and might add to their concern or their fear. I would read it to an elementary child, third through fifth grade. But even in that, there were some of the statements in the book that I felt were a little too over generalized. Like one page says, “Everyone is catching COVID.” Well, no, not everyone is catching COVID. Thank goodness. So, if you read that, you would want to discuss it with your child and say, “The writer was exaggerating here.” But definitely make sure, you know, that each book is geared toward your child’s developmental age. Therefore, they’ll be able to relate to the book much better.
Deb: That's the balance. And I had one kid who had an incredible imagination, which was a super gift, but it also, it was hard for him to shut it off. So, if I had to be more careful with that child to not stimulate that imagination in the wrong way, because he then couldn't go to sleep. He would just be concerned about things at a, he made connections of huge events and I could see, he felt very, unpowerful like all these huge things, you know, what if hurricanes came to our house, what if an earthquake came? What if, and he was maybe three or four and these, the weather, it was enough to make him very concerned. So, we got books that talked about weather, but I did would never have let him watch the news, or if it was a bad, you know, after a tornado when people were homeless. And I knew that that child's mind needed to not be exposed to that at that young age.
Terrie: So, what are some books that you would recommend to help with dealing with fear and anxiety with young children? Do you know of some good ones you could recommend?
Deb: One is called a Stay through the Storm, and it's just a book by Joanna Rowland. It's a book about a storm is coming and these two little girls decide to stay with each other while the storm comes and they, you know, make a little blanket tent and, and they hang out together and eat popcorn. The symbolism is we'll hang on to each other while the storms of life come past us. She she's a, I think a pre-K teacher. And so she just knows that age really well and does a good job of not introducing things that aren’t appropriate for that age. And then she also wrote another one called When Things Are Hard, Remember, and it's, it's talking about loss and that you can put together a memory box of maybe a grandparent who died and you can pick up things of cards or something around your house that reminds you of them. And then when you feel lonely, you can look in that box and remember them. And so the story is this little child going through that process. And I thought that was a really tactical way to bring a big idea down to a small child's viewpoint and give them a tool to help deal with it.
Terrie: As we're finishing up today. Deb, again, thank you for being with us and giving us your time. Can you just tell us a little bit more about your brand new book that's launching today, Sleepy Time Colors.
Deb: It's Sleepy Time Colors. It's a lift the flap book, Zonderkidz made it a lift, the flap book, and it has wonderful illustrations by Gabi Murphy. She was also the illustrator on my first children's book, Ten Little Night Stars that came out two years ago. And it's a bedtime story with sleepy time rhymes that as cuddly animals, the same animals from Ten Little Night Stars getting ready for bed and taking a bath and putting their favorite jammies on. And they're their favorite colors. And they're excited to get these cozy pajamas on and it ends with falling asleep. So I just think of it as, as an a love story to cozy pajamas because I love getting cozy in my pajamas, and my kids didn't do it. Was that sense that the day was winding down and we were stopping rushing, and we got to just snuggle and shut the door on the world.
Terrie: And I love the illustrations. The pictures are just so lovable. They're just beautiful and the colors are gorgeous. And so, it's a fun book to read and to see the pictures together with your kids and think about going to sleep and having a nice sleep.
Deb: Yes, and I love the big, big tummies on the, on the baby animals and their little emotions that come out through the illustrations. Very cute. I can say that because I have no illustration ability at all. So I admire Gabi’s.
Terrie: Oh, I know me too. I'm always amazed at the illustrators and how they can just bring a story to life. You have last time, you mentioned that on your website, if people go to your website, they can find some lesson plans to go along with this new book.
Deb: I love to use picture books as a way to teach and, and these lesson plans are six days that each day focuses on a different color and the colors found in the book and that gives a craft or fun things that you can do along with it to learn each color. So, I hope kids enjoy those.
Terrie: And you have one that's focused on the general public and then one that's for Christian teachers or parents as well, right?
Deb: Yes. So, they can choose which one they would like. And that is interesting. That's one of the other things I think in comforting children is we, as parents, learn a lot from raising our kids and in dealing with their anxiety, we really have to learn to deal with our own as well. And I think that when God has comforted us, we then learn how to comfort our children. And so, there are verses that he has given us to remind us we are not alone. And if one sheep is lost, he will go after that one and, and make sure that that one sheep is safe and will not leave it out there alone and lost. And that's the verse of Matthew and those verses, we can share the comfort that we receive from God, with our children.
Terrie: Speaking of that, Deb, do you know of any books you would recommend to help parents to cope with the anxiety they might be feeling?
Deb: I think there's some amazing books written to deal with fear, and I've read a number of them. And one of them, a general market book is The Gift of Fear, and that just tells us what can, what benefit we can get from recognizing our fear and paying attention to it. So, it's not always a negative just to be pushed down, but one that in the Christian market that helped me with fear was a Max Lucado's book, Fearless. And the subtitle is, Imagine Your Life without Fear. And that helped me realize how I had let anxiety or fear creep into parts of my life that I thought this was normal, and reading this and just picturing what could my life be like if I did not have fear and I really trusted God with everything that was happening. And it just opened my mind up to thinking there are other options in this.
Terrie: All right. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else you'd like to leave us with or how can we best support you?
Deb: Well, first I would just like to say to parents, this is a really tough time, and you are doing a great job in whatever you can do. And if your kids are acting out or angry or they're showing different symptoms, then you wouldn't really identify it as anxiety. It still can be this underlying thing that sometimes we, you know, snap when we feel an underlying anxiety and we have to stop and figure out where did that come from? And now we can blame everything on COVID, but just that process of stopping and recognizing this is not my normal child. And can we take a minute to think about what's going on and communicate about it? It may seem like a little thing, but again, that, that effort to do that over time can build emotional resilience with your children.
Terrie: Well, thank you so much. I look forward to talking with you again another time, but thank you for sharing your book launch with us, and we wish you all the best with your new book.
Deb: Thank you for celebrating with me.
Terrie: Thank you for joining us for Books that Spark a podcast, celebrating books, that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations in your life. Remember Deb's new book, Sleepy Time Colors, lunch today. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to Deb's website, lesson plans, and more. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of this podcast. And my blog, my website is terriehellardbrown.com.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
#Zonderkidz #sleepytimecolors #booksthatspark
In this episode, we get to talk with Deb Gruelle about what sparked the ideas for her two board books Ten Little Night Stars and Sleepy Time Colors. Join us as we talk about the importance of a bedtime routine and what it means in a child's life.
Check out Deb's website: https://debgruelle.com/
Giveaway for August 1-15: You could win a copy of Deb's newest book: Sleepy Time Colors. Comment on my blog between August 1-15, 2020 to be entered into the drawing: https://terriehellardbrown.com/blog/
Transcript:
Welcome to Books that Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers where we review books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and conversations leading to teachable moments with our kids.
Today we have a special guest with us, Deb Gruelle. Deb is a bestselling and award-winning author for children and adults. She writes for children to entertain and offer them a sense of security. Yes, she’s related to Johnny Gruelle, the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy, and she loves being a third-generation writer for children in her family. She feels honored to share stories with children to enrich their childhood memories and writes for adults to offer them hope.
On August 11, 2020 Gruelle’s newest children’s book Sleepy Time Colors releases. A companion book to her bestselling going-to-bed and counting picture book, Ten Little Night Stars, (with over 125,00 copies sold) Sleepy Time Colors helps children feel secure enough to fall asleep while teaching them colors.
A recovering technical writer, Gruelle’s also authored a book on infertility for women, over 100 articles for national women's and parenting magazines, as well as storyboards for children's games. The second edition of her nonfiction book, Aching for a Child, releases later this year.
She serves as chaplain for Inspire Christian Writers (inspirewriters.com).
Terrie: We’re so glad you’re here with us today, Deb. Thank you for joining us again today.
Deb: Thanks, Terrie, I’m so glad to be here.
Terrie: So, first of all, I love your book Ten Little Night Stars; I’ve given it as gifts to a few people already. Can you tell us a little bit about your two books Ten Little Night Stars and Sleepy Time Colors?
Deb: Sure! I wrote Ten Little Night Stars when my youngest son was one year old. It took a long time to get it published though. I was back in California at the time, and my father had passed away. I stepped out of my mom’s busy house with my one-year-old son on my hip. We were taking a breath of air from all the work that dealing with a death involves. You know, creating the memorial service and those things in the midst of grief. I just stood looking up at the sky, thinking about how far away my dad felt. He was such a rock. He gave us such a sense of security. He had such integrity and loved the Lord. And I wondered, how I would be able to pass that sense of security on to my children? Because he wouldn’t be around to do it. And so, as I held my son, I thought about that huge hole in our lives that my dad’s passing had left. I wondered if I could step into those shoes in any way. And as I was thinking about that, the first star appeared in the sky. I pointed to it and said to Matthew, “Look, one little night star.” He copied me and pointed to the star too. That line just kept going through my head. So, that line along with the longing to pass on a sense of the security my dad had offered was what compelled me to start writing. I started writing Ten Little Night Stars that night. I tried to sell it to a couple of places; it didn’t sell, so it went into a drawer for 16 years until I was going to a writer’s conference. I thought, why don’t I just take pull this one out of the drawer and take this little children’s book along with me? There happened to be a children’s editor there for Zonderkidz, and Jillian liked it. That’s how it was sold. It was definitely God’s timing.
Terrie: It’s been a couple years since it came out. And you having Sleepy Time Colors come out this August. How long has it been in between?
Deb: The first book came out in 2018, so it’s about two-and-a-half years between them.
Terrie: And how did Sleepy Time Colors come about?
Deb: Well, this one happens to be inspired by my mom. She’s the artist in our family. So colors matter to her. She is an award-winning artist, known for her paintings of warm ocean water. The artistic gene skipped my generation completely, because you wouldn’t even recognize my stick figures as stick figures. (But my kids have artistic talent!) But my mom saw nuances of color everywhere, and sometimes it was hard for her to live in a family who didn’t see or care as much about those colors. So it mattered to her that the family room carpet matched the linoleum in the kitchen when it was time to buy new carpet. But my dad was really practical and cared mostly about the budge. And nobody else could really see that it didn’t match, except for her. It probably felt to her that she lived with a family that was color-blind, because she saw the world so differently. She was so thrilled one day when that changed. The house across the street was painted, and somebody said it was now blue. But my younger brother, Steve, said, “I think more of a blue-green color.” My mom was so excited! “Wow! One of my kids can recognize color distinctions!” So, this book is for my mom and those who love color.
Terrie: That’s so neat. Both of your books are about nighttime routine. So, how important is having a nighttime routine for children?
Deb: It’s interesting. There are studies that show a nighttime routine for children is very important. When you think of the big idea: How can I pass on a sense of security to my children? It’s in the little things that we do every day. We take a bath, then put on jammies, then read a book, then go to sleep. That sense of knowing what comes next becomes a small tradition that gives kids a really big sense of security. A parent can’t control what is wrong in the world, but they can choose to shut the door on it for a moment and think, I’m going to take a minute from my crazy day to stop and simply focus with joy on my child for five minutes. Sometimes that’s all it takes to read a children’s book, but the child senses their parent has stopped and given them a few minutes of total, peaceful focus. And that can ground them to help them feel secure enough to fall asleep more easily.
Terrie: I love that. I know with my kids, if we change something suddenly, it’s a catastrophe because three of them are on the autism spectrum. Routine is so vital to keeping them feeling secure and at ease.
Deb: It’s even more important with some kids than others.
Terrie: Your books are educational as well. Do you think it is important to use story time to teach basic skills to our children?
Deb: That’s interesting. One of the reviews for Ten Little Night Stars said it was “sneakily educational,” and I really liked that because I first want to entertain. If the kids don’t enjoy it, then they’re not going to ask for it again, so I think that’s got to be the primary goal. And then I want to convey an emotion through the book. The parent is really the hero of the story, and the book is just something they can use in the bonding process with their child. So, if I can evoke that emotion that helps the bonding between the parent and the child, that is my second goal. Then, if I can sneak in something that’s educational in there, that’s gravy. I just know as a mom, I really wanted to be a good mom. And I knew how important it was to read to my kids. I knew it mattered for their brain development. I knew it helped their vocabulary. You know, all those positive things, but I was often exhausted. So I wanted to provide a book that could be read in a very short time. Even with asking questions, it can take 8-10 minutes, and you’ve done something good for your child. You’ve bonded with them. And now they’re ready to go to sleep, and you can too. Hopefully! I have such a tender heart for tired parents.
Terrie: You’ve written for the very young. Both of your books are board books. And that’s the 0-3 range, correct?
Deb: I believe now it’s 0-5 years, babies to preschool.
Terrie: Is there a reason you focused on that age? Do you plan to write books for older children at some point? Or is that just where your heart is?
Deb: Well, it’s really interesting. My son happened to be one year old when I wrote it and my daughter was two. I wrote for those ages in mind. In fact, before my story was published, I typed and printed out the story and read it to my children from a three-pronged folder. I couldn’t draw, so I only drew the bedroom window then illustrated the pages with stickers of children and stars. I’m so glad I didn’t wait until it was published to read it to them! And I’m so grateful for Gabi Murphy, the beautiful illustrator for both books. The publisher, Zonderkidz, was the one who decided to make it into a board book.
Terrie: Why do you have such a passion for young children and tired parents?
Deb: I was a tired parent. I loved being a mom, but I had little energy because I had health issues. I didn’t have a ton of energy to do a thousand things I wanted to do for my kids. I ended up homeschooling each of my kids at different times. I just had kids who were like square pegs trying to fit into the round holes of school. The school needed them to learn a certain way, and my kids were not that way. So that’s why I ended up homeschooling all of them. So, I especially appreciate the desires of moms to want do the best they can for their kids, but that they still have limitations. If I can help make it easier for them to accomplish a good goal they have for their kids, then I feel like I’ve done a good thing.
Terrie: I think that any homeschooling parent is my hero. I’ve been a classroom teacher, and when I tried to homeschool my kids, I didn’t do well with that, and my sister was a brilliant home school mom. Anyone who can homeschool, I think is amazing. When you’re in the mindset of the classroom, and you try to shift gears, it’s not always easy to do that.
Deb: Well, I admire both parents and teachers too. When my kids were little, I volunteered in both the nursery and preschool at church. And I would just be exhausted by the time church was over. I would immediately go home and take a nap! It was so difficult to handle all those kids at once too.
Terrie: Yes, that’s true. It’s a different skill set.
Deb: And depending on what your kids’ needs are.
Terrie: My kids were misdiagnosed for … my two older ones, for years. That’s when I was homeschooling. So basically, what I was doing was completely wrong for them.
Deb: You didn’t know what they needed.
Terrie: And I felt like a horrible parent because I had studied special education in my Masters program. So I knew a little bit about these different things, but nothing was matching up. And that’s the thing with autism: it presents differently with each kid. So, I wasn’t seeing a pattern. What worked for one didn’t work for the other. I was setting timers because I was told they had ADD. Well kids with ADD do better if you set a timer and say, “This is how long you need to work on this, and then you can be free.” But it would stress my kids out and give them anxiety, and they would shut down. I’m just like Uh! I was going crazy with trying to figure it out. It wasn’t the best of times for me.
Deb: Yes, I did the same thing. I spent a lot of time researching and trying to figure out, Why is my kid not fitting the norm? Both my boys had pretty severe ADD, and I did lots of research on that. How frustrating that would be to think you’re doing what the research says would work and it not working.
Terrie: No, totally causing shut downs. It was not good.
Deb: Two of my kids were twice exceptional too. They had giftedness in some areas, and they also had learning disabilities. So, it was tricky to figure out. It took a long time to figure out their diagnoses.
Terrie: And I don’t know if people understand if they’re on the outside looking in. It is not an easy process to go through, to figure out, even if they’re gifted, what’s going to work best for them, how to best educate them, and just everything comes into play. It could be like treacherous waters sometimes.
Deb: Exactly. You have to be like a detective as a mom to figure out what worked yesterday and what didn’t work today. My brother has dyslexia, and some days he could read, and some days he couldn’t. And sometimes the teacher would get very frustrated and say, “I know you can do this. You’re just choosing not to.” It’s really hard to know how best to help our kids.
Terrie: In this podcast we’re talking a lot about how to start spiritual conversations with our children. How early can we start teaching them about God’s love? And how can we encourage some of the moms who are overwhelmed with toddlers and all that’s going on to bring those spiritual conversations into their relationship?
Deb: I was just reading a study today about reading to your children. It was talking about kids can understand so much before they can even respond in words to what you’re doing and what you’re saying. So, I would think from birth. When we pray with them, they will absorb what we’re doing even if we think it isn’t making sense to them. They can pick up on this is a comforting thing. This is a conversation with God, just like having a conversation with Dad or Mom. And we’re just modeling our spiritual life. We don’t have to be didactic about teaching at this age. We can simply live what we know to be true, and they will absorb it.
Terrie: That’s good. My boss, I work for the Association Office here for the Baptist Churches, and my boss would talk about how people say that the teachers who are teaching babies don’t have much responsibility. And he’s like, “No, they’re the most important.” Because exactly what you said: they teach that God is comforting, that we can have peace when we pray. And he talked about that. He felt those teachers were the most important teachers in the church—those who worked with the babies and the nursery workers. I thought that was really awesome.
Deb: How good for him to recognize that. I agree.
Terrie: I thought it was interesting. I was reading the reviews for Ten Little Night Stars on Amazon, and one of the moms said, “They brought prayer into it.” I thought that was funny since it was a Zonderkidz book. I thought readers would know it was a Christian book. Tell us a little bit about what spiritual aspects you introduced in Ten Little Night Stars.
Deb: It was interesting. Zonderkidz is a Christian publisher. But before I was an author, I wouldn’t have necessarily known what publishers were known for. I wouldn’t look at that when I bought a book. I would just choose the book. That being said, everyone has a right to their own opinion. Being a Christian, part of our kids’ bedtime routine was saying prayers. That was just a very natural part of the day—sharing with God what we were grateful for that day or anything that concerned us or just telling Him we loved Him. Those were a very natural and important piece of life with my kids and a part of where my security comes from, so I included that. Also, one of the lines talks about the stars up in heaven. And the inspiration for this book came when my dad died and thinking about him up in heaven. So I used the word heaven, and somebody took offense at the word heaven also. But I know, you can’t write for everyone. I’m hoping that it will introduce children just to the idea of a caring God. It’s not a let’s give the child theology and the whole Gospel message laid out book. But I hope it introduces the idea that there is a God who holds the stars in heaven and who also holds me. Just introducing that idea and being there to answer questions for children if the book brings them up, then parents can respond when they ask. What is heaven? What is prayer? When children are ready to learn more, parents can answer. That’s how any book can spark questions and start a conversation when kids are ready for more.
Terrie: And how about the second book?
Deb: My second children’s book, Sleepy Time Colors, is written as a general market book. It’s another rhyming book about cuddly animals putting on their favorite jammies when it’s time for bed. And how snuggly and cozy those pajamas are. And each animal has a different favorite color of pajamas. For this new one I’m also providing parent/teacher guides to teach children colors, I have one that’s for parents who want to include the Christian aspects of why did God make colors? It’s because He loved us and wanted us to enjoy beauty in the world. God could have created the whole world gray, but because of His love for us, He introduced beauty into our world. And colors are part of that beauty. So, the parent or teacher can choose which one they want to use to teach. It’s six days of preschool curriculum that further introduces children to colors
Terrie: Oh, well that’s awesome. So, you’ll have resources for both markets. We’ll have the link, I assume those will be on your website?
Deb: Yes, right now if you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll receive the teaching guide as a free resource.
Terrie: I’ll have that link in our show notes so people can access those. I want to ask you one more question, and then I think we’ll be out of time for today. I know that you’re involved with CASA. Can you tell us a little about this program and your passion for working with that organization?
Deb: Sure. I love being an adoptive mom. One of my children joined our family through adoption. We went through infertility for a long time, so for a big part of our life, we focused on building our family. I’m not able to adopt more children. But CASA is a way to help kids in foster care. It stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate. You can volunteer to help one child through the foster care system. You are legally appointed to be that child’s CASA for the length of time that they are going through the court system as a child in foster care. I think it’s a wonderful program because there is so much change in these children’s lives. For one child I worked with, everything had changed in her life. The judge had changed, her attorney had changed multiple times, and so had her social worker. Her foster mom remained the same the whole time, which is often unusual. It’s a great program to just be a voice for the child. Often the judge has a short time during court to decide what is best for a child. And the child could be with a new attorney or a new social worker at that point. CASAs add some continuity and are there as a voice for the child.
Terrie: Wow, that’s amazing.
Deb: I think it’s a very rewarding program.
Terrie: Well thank you so much for sharing with us today. I look forward to talking with you again. We will have another episode where we’re going to talk about a little bit different topic. So, we’ll look forward to that. How can we as listeners support you in your work and in your ministry?
Deb: Well, thanks, Terrie. If your listeners want to find me or connect with me, they can on social media. I mostly use Facebook and Instagram, and on my website, that would be wonderful!
Terrie: Well, we will have all those links in our show notes. I encourage listeners to check out her website. She has some great articles. There’s one article in particular I almost want to put in the show notes, it’s so good about reading to children. So, please look that up. Take the time. It’s well worth it. Thank you. Anything else you want to add?
Deb: Parents, I applaud you. God knows your heart of wanting to do the best thing for your children. And He also knows your limits. He’s cheering you on, and so am I.
Terrie: Amen!
Thank you for joining us for Books that Spark, a podcast celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions. I hope our discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to Deb’s website, lessons plans, and much more. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of the podcast and my blog. My website is terriehellardbrown.com
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
#Zonderkidz #sleepytimecolors #booksthatspark
In this episode we look at the importance of helping our kids learn to listen and truly hear what people are saying. We also explore how to help them understand that we hear them and God hears them when they pray.
July Giveaway:Enter the drawing by commenting below "Books that Spark," Episode 1 on my website: https://terriehellardbrown.com/books-that-spark-episode-1-expectations/
Two winners drawn on July 31, 2020:
1st prize -
Praying the Scriptures for Your Children: Discover How to Pray God's Purpose for Their Lives by Jodie Berndt
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
The Jesus Storybook Bible Coloring Book for Kids: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
2nd prize -
ICB, Bedtime Devotions with Jesus Bible from Thomas Nelson
Transcript:Welcome to Books that Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers where we review books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and conversations leading to teachable moments with our kids. Thank you for joining me today.
I want to remind you that our giveaway is this Thursday, July 31st so, if you haven’t already, please comment so I can enter you in the giveaway. You need to download the free course Parental Guidance Requested and comment. [Simply comment on my blog on my website for the first episode of Books that Spark to be entered into the drawing] That’s it! Then, you’ll be entered in the drawing.
We’ll have two winners. First prize includes Praying the Scriptures for Your Children, The Jesus Storybook Bible, and The Jesus Storybook Bible Coloring Book. Second prize is The Bedtime Devotions with Jesus Bible. You can find more information on my blog or in the show notes below.
August on Books that Spark is going to be exciting! I have two interviews with two wonderful authors debuting new books. Deb Gruelle will be my guest on August 3rd and 10th. Jennifer Grant will be my guest on August 17th. You won’t want to miss hearing about their new books and the stories behind them. The last two weeks of August, my husband and I will share with you about which Bible translations and Bible story books we recommend.
Be sure to check out my website for freebies and items for purchase to bless your home and church. In addition, if you sign up for my mailing list, you’ll get two freebies that are only available to those on the mailing list. First is a choice of three different phoneme books you can print, and the second is a list I compiled of over 100 picture book and board books that are written from a Christian worldview or don’t contradict the Christian worldview. All are books that I’ve vetted. They are excellent in their story and illustrations. It’s a great resource for building your child’s library or for knowing great books for gifts.
My goal is to help equip parents, teachers, and caregivers with the ability to have materials and have resources that will help us as we’re discipling and teaching our children and as we’re helping them to grow in their understanding of God and His purpose for their lives. And in addition to that, I also try to speak into your life as a parent, as a teacher, and as a caregiver. Because we need to be discipled too. So that is what I try to do with my website, my podcast, and my blog is to encourage you and help equip you so that you can help equip your children.
Scripture says, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry” in James 1:19, NLT. Today I want to share some books about listening and being heard. Part of the reason I’m so passionate about reading books together that spark conversations and questions is because we need to be communicating and sharing together with our families. Our children need to know that we value our relationship with them and respect them as people. We want to hear what they have to say and what they are thinking. We want them to be heard, and we want to be heard. As a part of parenting, children need to understand the importance of hearing and of really listening to what we’re teaching them. It is part of being teachable and part of becoming life-long learners. If they do not learn how to listen, they are handicapping themselves. Through hearing each other, we show respect, we learn other perspectives, we learn how to reason and use critical thinking, and we aren’t puffed up by our own self-importance. Listening and truly hearing what someone is saying is a huge skill we need to help our children master. And they need to see us model it as well.
The first book I want to share is a fun, very cute book called Lacey Walker, Non-Stop Talker by Christianne C. Jones and illustrated by Richard Watson. Lacey Walker is an owl who loves to talk. The book says, “Lacey Walker was quite the little talker. She liked to talk and talk and talk.” Everyone throughout her day asks her to stop talking and do what she needs to do and to listen. But she just keeps talking. Then one day, horror of horrors, she wakes up with laryngitis, and she mopes through her day, but had time to finish breakfast, her homework, and realizes her friend is funny and she likes the same movie her brother does. When she gets her voice back, she can’t wait to tell her family what she learned. She still likes to talk a lot, but she also takes time to eat and listen to her family and friends. The book ends with “Lacey Walker still liked to talk and talk and talk, but she liked to listen once in a while too.”
I like this book because it is so cute, and it shows someone learning on her own by natural circumstances and consequences. I like it because it is also light-hearted about a subject that could be shaming if not handled well. So, it is just a very cute book, and I really recommend it for approaching this subject of someone who talks too much.
Another cute book is My Mouth Is A Volcano by Julia Cook and illustrated by Carrie Hartman. This one is funny and repetitive, which makes it fun to read aloud. It also puts the problem of blurting out whatever comes to mind into a concrete problem that can be understood easily. Plus, it helps children find a possible solution to the problem. I love that the main character Louis talks about his mouth erupting like a volcano instead of his talking interrupting. But you can tell by the way Cook wrote the text that it’s like a child misunderstood the word interrupting and started saying erupting and then started imagining that their mouth is a volcano. It’s really cute.
I like that Cook uses humor like in Lacey Walker to handle a touchy issue kids might feel frustration in dealing with. This story focuses mostly on interrupting people and tackles that issue specifically.
It says, “My name is Louis. People say I erupt a lot. I don’t think I do…I have a lot to say, and all of my words are very important to me.
“When other people talk, words just pop into my head. Then they slide down onto my tongue. My tummy starts to rumble. And then it starts to grumble. My words begin to wiggle, and then they do the jiggle. My tongue pushes all of my important words up against my teeth, and then…I erupt! Words just explode out of my mouth. My mouth is a volcano!!!”
After erupting all day, he’s so excited for show and tell at school. But as he’s sharing, a friend interrupts him with his story, and then when he starts sharing again, another friend erupts with her story. He’s so frustrated. Later, he interrupts his mom twice, and she gives him some advice on how to control himself better. He tries it, and he learns that he can control his words and that it is only appropriate to interrupt in an emergency. Part of his concern is that if he doesn’t say things right when they come to his mind, he’ll forget the words; he’ll forget about it. His mom showed him that if he just takes a breath and waits and minute and listens to what the other person is saying, those words are still there, and he can share them then. I think it’s a really cute way to help kids understand, that in an emergency yes, it’s okay to interrupt. But we can hang onto our words and still listen to someone else and be able to share when it’s our turn.
This book handles this topic very well and helps children learn they can control their words and learn to listen as well as appreciate when someone listens to them. I love that they brought that into it as well.
This next book is one of my favorites I found about listening. The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld is a wonderful book. Taylor is building a something special with his blocks. He’s so excited, but then some birds fly by and knock it down. Then each of his animal friends come by and have their suggestion of what he should do. One says he should get really angry. One tries to get him to forget it and rebuild and go on like it never happened. Another says he should go knock down someone else’s blocks. Then the rabbit comes up and sits next to Taylor and just listens as Taylor cried, gets angry, wants to knock down someone else’s blocks, and then decides to rebuild. He needed someone to listen and let him feel what he felt without telling him how to feel or what to do.
I love this book so much. It teaches something important that we aren’t often taught. We need to be heard. And we need to let people who are hurting talk and feel what they feel. It is terrible to tell a child or anyone how they can feel. We can help them learn how to deal with what they feel, but we feel what we feel. It’s just the way it is. And when someone doesn’t feel heard, it adds to the hurt and frustration. I think it even prolongs the pain. The power of feeling heard can make a person feel loved, valued, and respected. We can help children know they are heard by giving them our focused attention and by responding to what they’ve said with either a question or a restatement of what we heard to check for understanding, or just a nod or a hug to let them know we’ve heard them.
That brings me to another book: I Have a Little Problem, Said the Bear by Heinz Janisch and illustrated by Silke Leffler. In this book the bear goes through town and says, “I have a little problem.” Well, he tries to. Some interrupt him and finish his sentence for him. But each friend he encounters thinks they know what he needs.
It starts out with:
“I have a little problem,” said the bear, “You see, I…”
“Of course!” said the inventor. “I know exactly what you need. A heavy bear like you needs something to make him feel lighter. I have just the thing.”
He got a pair of wings from his workshop and fastened them to the bear’s shoulders.
“Hmmm,” said the bear. Then he shrugged and went along, looking worried.
“I have a little problem,” said the bear, “You see…”
“Indeed I do,” said the tailor. “Your wings are very handsome, but you need a scarf.” And he wound a long scarf around the bear’s neck.
“Hmmm,” said the bear. Then he shrugged and went along, looking worried.
Then, the story goes on until he goes back home. It says:
The bear unfastened his wings. He took off his hat and scarf. He took off his glasses and the pig on a chain. He kicked off his boots. He set his vitamins and honey on the ground. Then he sat down on the hill and sighed.
And just then a fly comes up, asks him what’s wrong, listens to his problem, and is able to help him with his problem.
I love that a little fly solves his problem. It shows that someone who listens, no matter how big, small, young, or old, they may be able to help; but they’ll never know if they don’t listen first. This book shows the importance of hearing what someone is saying. I think sometimes it is tempting as parents to think we know what a child needs instead of hearing them out finding out what’s really bothering him. It’s hard sometimes when our children are slow to explain what’s on their minds or don’t quite have the words to describe their feelings, so we try to help them out, and sometimes we jump to conclusions. If your child has trouble with explaining their feelings or thoughts, we can use a tool to help them. I shared it in one of the mini lessons in Parental Guidance Requested: The Incredible Five-Point Scale by Kari Dunn Buron and Mitzi Curtis and Buron also has a reusable 5-point scale poster we can have handy if a child is upset and having a hard time explaining what they are experiencing. So, these are some tools that you can use if your children if they do have trouble discussing their feelings and explaining what is going on.
But we need to have patience to listen, question, and respond rather than jump ahead or try to fix what we’re sure is their problem. We also need to realize that, as much as we want to, it is not always our job to solve or fix our children’s problems. Sometimes we just need to listen and be there. One of my goals has always been that our home would be their-my children’s-haven, the safe place they could always come back to, no matter what happened in their day. I’ve tried to help my kids know that I may not always agree with their decisions, but we are still their safe place where they can talk and ask questions. Our kids should feel that. They should feel like they can come to us and they are going to be heard, and we are not going to jump to conclusions and try to fix everything.
Another part of this is helping our children understand that not only do we hear them, but God hears them. The Bible says in Psalm 116, “I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen,I will pray as long as I have breath!” and in Lamentations 3:56, “You heard me when I cried, “Listen to my pleading! Hear my cry for help!”
Max Lucado has a cute book in the Hermie & Friends series called God Listens When I Pray. In the story, (he’s a caterpillar) Hermie’s ant friend has his foot stuck under a rock. Hermie tries to help him, but he can’t move the rock. He runs everywhere trying to find help, but everyone is too busy to listen. Then, God talks to Hermie, and Hermie prays asking for God’s help. He helps, and Hermie’s friend gets unstuck.
The story is really cute and shows how listening is important, but the main point is that God always listens, and God answers prayer. In the end all his friends apologize for not listening. I like that they apologize. I like that Hermie does what he can. Even though he can’t move the rock, he leads his friend to pray as well, and he gives his friend water to drink. It shows that he does what he can do to help. At the end, he gives glory to God, and everyone celebrates God. So, I love that too. But the main point is driven home that God always hears our prayers. Our kids really need to know that above all things that God hears their prayers and answers prayer.
One last book that is hard to find, but I like it because it lets children know they can ask God anything is called God, Can You Hear Me? by Justine Simmons and illustrated by Robert Papp. The only thing missing is the answer to the question. Throughout the book children pray and ask God questions on the left page, and on the right page, an answer is given to explain some things, but I wanted a last page that said, “No matter what you pray, God always hears your prayer.” It’s still a great book, and it does start out with saying that you can ask God anything. Some of the situations in the book deal with single parent families, stepfamilies, disabilities, loss, and feeling different from one’s friends. It’s a nice book that would be wonderful for opening up all kinds of conversations with children. It deals with some really difficult subjects. The illustrations are quite beautiful.
Several places in scripture God affirms that He hears us. I find that tremendously comforting. We need to definitely let our kids know that God hears them. I love what the writer David Augsburger said, “Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.” Isn’t that good? Being heard is like being loved. I’ve seen it driven home so many times in our ministry and over the years as we have worked with people. They don’t even have to see a change or someone do something. Just knowing that someone has heard them is so powerful. In our world today, it’s like we’ve lost this. It’s such a gift to someone, and we’re withholding that gift so many times because of political differences or religious differences. We don’t want to hear what someone else has to say. We want everyone to either agree with us or be quiet. I think if we can reason together and listen and be heard that it mends fences, it mends relationships and builds stronger relationships and is a powerful skill if we can teach our kids to do this. And especially when we are dealing with children dealing with ADHD or Autism, they have a hard time with listening and focusing on other people. They have a hard time even listening when they told us something and we’re responding back to what they’ve said, they don’t even always listen to that. But if we can teach them the skill to really hear people and to really care enough to listen, it’s a tremendously powerful thing. And I’ve seen it happen. So, I want to encourage you today to really focus on how you can help your children learn this essential and amazing skill.
Thank you for joining us today for Books that Spark. I hope this discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Remember our drawing at the end of July. Enter before July 31st by downloading the 12 lessons and commenting on the first episode either here or on my blog. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of the podcast and my blog. My website is terriehellardbrown.com
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we look at some great Family Devotions. Below I've included some additional information about how to choose a devotional book for your children and some recommendations.
Remember the drawing on July 31st. Be sure to download the Parental Guidance Requested course and comment on the first episode of Books that Spark to be entered in the drawing.
Bonus Information:
Choosing a Devotional for Your Kids: What to Consider
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Bible translation used
Many English translations of the Bible are available, and then there are paraphrases too. For children, we usually want to go with a good translation that is easy to understand. We will be covering this in more detail on a podcast in August, but my favorite translation is the New Living Translation (NLT). The most common in Children’s Bibles is the International Children’s Bible (ICB), and the other one that we think is really a good translation for kids is the Easy Reader Version (ERV). Some devotionals offer choices for translations which is nice. But it is definitely something you want to consider. -
Perspective of the writer
I recommend checking out the author. Devotionals are one person’s take on the verses being discussed. If the person is from a far different belief system from your own, it can be troubling. One of the most popular devotionals on the market today was originally written with “automatic writing.” This is a mystical, trance-like state that many are not comfortable with and feel it is not from God. Yet, it has become very popular, and now there is a children’s version. Of course, most of us are concerned with whether the writer is charismatic or non-charismatic or anti-charismatic in their theology. -
Focus of the devotional
This is one of my pet peeves. I know we want the devotional to connect with our children, but I always want to make sure the central focus is on God and not on the child. We want the child’s faith and understanding of God to grow, not just read ego-boosting nice thoughts. Yes, God loves us so much and knew us before we were born. But if that’s all the devotional teaches, we may want to keep shopping. Think about: Do the devotionals lead to a response of worshiping and honoring God? Do they suggest affirmations about self? Are the scriptures used in context and chosen to glorify God or the child? -
Need of your child
Some devotionals are geared toward a certain topic and are usually shorter (not a full year). If your child is dealing with fear, you may want to get one that is specific to that issue. As an adult, I loved getting Champagne for the Soul when I was going through a lot of emotional turmoil. It was just what I needed, and it was recommended by a friend who thought it would bless me during that time. -
Time per devotional reading
Most children’s devotionals state clearly what age child they are written for. Some even state the time for each day’s devotional such as the 3-Minute Devotional for Boys. We need to consider our children’s attention spans and abilities to read so that their Quiet Time becomes a cherished time, not an obligation they need to finish. -
Personal devotional or family devotional
The devotionals I covered in this podcast are for family devotionals done together with the parents and kids. However, many devotionals are for children to read on their own.
A Few Recommended Individual Devotionals for Kids:Ages 6-10
Doodle Devotions for Kids by Nancy Taylor– for your artistic child who enjoys reading. Each devotional suggests reading about one-three chapters of scripture, and children use their own Bibles. Each devotional has a drawing suggestion. It’s good for both girls and boys. She also has one that is specifically for girls. 60 devotions.
Indescribable by Louie Giglio – This devotional combines science and the Bible. This one is also good for boys or girls, but it only has minimal scripture for each devotional. I like that it inspires awe for God and His creation, and it would be good for a child who is resistant to reading. He also has one called How Great Is Our God along the same lines. Plus, he offers lunchbox cards that are based on each of the devotions. 100 devotions.
Grace for the Moment by Max Lucado – This devotional is dated for each day of the year. Lucado uses a lot of paraphrased verses, and each devotional is based on one verse, but he does have a section for reading the Bible and talks about the importance of reading the Bible. Each day’s devotion ends with a suggestion of a response to the verse and devotional thought. He also has a version that is meant to be used for family devotions. 365 devotions.
Gratitude Journal and Devotional for Kids: A daily journal for kids that includes gratitude prompts, Bible verses and a prayer journal ALL IN ONE! by Jessica Lewis – The title pretty much says it all. It’s mostly a journal with prompts for journaling and prayer in response to a Bible verse. I would recommend this one for a child who is a thinker and enjoys writing. I love that it focuses on gratitude and teaches kids the habit of reading the Bible, journaling, and prayer.
Amazing Stories for Young Believers by Dave Strehler – This devotional is for boys or girls ages 8-12. Each day has a verse but also suggests a longer Bible reading. It takes your child through the whole Bible in a year. It focuses on the people of the Bible and then applies the lesson to the child’s life. Very practical for helping young believers grow in their faith. 366 devotions.
Enter the drawing by:
1. download the 12 mini lessons of the "Parental Guidance Requested Workshop"
2. Comment below "Books that Spark," Episode 1 that you downloaded them
Two winners drawn on July 31, 2020:
1st prize -
Praying the Scriptures for Your Children: Discover How to Pray God's Purpose for Their Lives by Jodie Berndt
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
The Jesus Storybook Bible Coloring Book for Kids: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
2nd prize -
ICB, Bedtime Devotions with Jesus Bible from Thomas Nelson
Transcript:Welcome to Books that Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers where we review books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and conversations leading to teachable moments with our kids. Thank you for joining me today.
I’m really excited. I’ve been able to interview two wonderful authors who have books debuting in August. The first writer we’re going to talk to is Deb Gruelle, and we’ll be introducing her newest book coming out in August. Second is Jennifer Grant who also has a book coming out. We are going to have her interview on the day her book debuts which is August 17th, so you won’t want to miss Books that Spark in August when we have two very special guests share their books with us. Don’t forget about our drawing for July. Remember our podcast comes out each Tuesday morning. And I’m so excited to tell you that if you sign up for my mailing list you get some freebies. I’ve created three different books of phonemes that you can you can choose from. One is a coloring book, and the other two are just picture books. And you can learn and practice and go through the phonemes of the English language with your children. I have a list when you sign up for free as well that is of over 100 picture books and board books that are excellent to read to your kids, really good stories with excellent illustrations that either are Christian in nature or do not go against the Christian worldview. I was very picky to create this list for you. I also tried to go with writers maybe you haven’t heard of before. I hope this can be a resource that is beneficial for you and your family as your shopping for books in building your child’s library. In addition to that, if you go to my new website, terriehellardbrown.com, you’ll see that I have quite a few free things you can download there. I’m adding new things all the time. I’ve developed in one of the classes I did in Parental Guidance Requested and that I teach in my workshops I have a freebie that is a passport that you can download and make for your children and read different books from different countries, stories, fairy tales, and legends from different countries and learning to count in different languages and these kinds of things. So, I have that resource that will be available soon on my website. I’m also developing some other materials, some cost, some are free, but those are all available on my website. Please go take a look and download what you can use. And just send me a little note. Let me know if you do use the different items with your church or with your homeschooling group or whatever, and let me know how you used it. That would mean a lot to me. My goal is to help equip parents, teachers, and caregivers with the ability to have materials and have resources that will help us as we’re discipling and teaching our children and helping them to grow in their understanding of God and His purpose for their lives. And in addition to that, I also try to speak into your life. Because we need to be discipled too. So that is what I try to do with my website, my podcast, and my blog is to encourage you and help equip you so that you can help equip your children.
Today I want to present a book to you. Actually, I have the Kindle version of it. It is a devotional book. It is The Very Best, Hands-On, Kind of Dangerous Family Devotions Book. It’s for the family that is a more adventurous that wants to incorporate maybe some science experiments with their devotionals. It’s very much a hands-on type of devotional. You might want to use it with your youth group, you might want to use it if you do a daily devotional with your family, then use this one once a week. If you only do devotionals with your family once a week as kind of family worship time, this would definitely put life into your devotional time. It’s kind of object lesion meets devotional meets science project. So, it’s that kind of a thing.
The intro to the book says, “Discipling, mentoring, and guiding our children toward a trusting, thriving, and loving relationship with God is a monumental, incredible, and essential task for Christian parents.” Tim Shumaker is the writer of this. It says, “Tim’s passion for seeing God’s word passed on to future generations comes through as he provides parents with practical, hands-on, engaging, and easy-to-use family devotions. Who wouldn’t like to have fire, food, money, darkrooms, flashlights, and light sticks while learning about what God I telling us in Scripture? This is a must-have for a parent’s devotional library.”
And I kind of agree.
“This has 52 activities in it that your kids will never forget.”
And I agree with that as well.
They do tell you if they are a little bit dangerous and how to make them safe, which I appreciate very much, as you go through the different devotionals. So, that helps you a lot.
So, the first one is kind of funny because we are right now when this is being recorded, we are still on lockdown with the COVID-19 situation. And the first lesson is an object lesson using a TP blaster. So, you may not want to do this one right now while you’re low on toilet paper, but you use a leaf blower and toilet paper to prove a point in this devotional.
They have one called elctro-pickle, Frankenstein factor. The names of these devotionals are very interesting. They give you the synopsis of each devotional in the table of contents. So, it’s not just a list. It tells you a little bit about each devotional and what the theme is and what it’s about so that you can see what would best fit with where you are in your discussions with your kids. And they have an exclamation point warning triangle when it’s a little bit dangerous so you know up front what you’re getting yourself into, and then you can go to the page number to actually read the devotionals. So, there’s lots of different activities. And there is also one here called “House of the Dead” which is for 12 years and up. So that also helps you know that some are appropriate for the whole family and some you need to have older kids because you’re dealing with a touchy subject. And this one in particular is dealing with the dangers of pornography.
Okay, so, let’s take a look at lesson 13 “Catching Fire.” This is one of those with the danger warning exclamation point sign. The theme is “burning for God with passion vs being passive in our faith.” So, we’re going to go to that page, and it says, “This lesson is designed to be done outdoors away from anything flammable.” Then it lists all that you’ll need for this project like a tube of toothpaste, a tube of diaper rash paste, and they use Desitin brand original formula, a tube of fire paste “You can pick this up online or in stores that have a decent camping department. The brand I used is Coghlan’s. This stuff is amazing it squeezes out like petroleum jelly, and when you put a flame up to it, it catches fire and burns. It was designed to start campfires and fires in fireplaces. Aluminum foil to wrap each tube of paste so the kids cannot identify them. You need a 5-gallon bucket filled with water, 3 pieces of wood (he used 6X6 scrap plywood but other sizes work as long that will fit easily in the bucket), some kind of lighter, ideally some kind of fireproof gloves (they are often stocked in hardware stores by the grilling gear).” You can use an oven mitt as well but you won’t have a lot of dexterity. Then it tells you what you need to prepare ahead of time. It is a very thorough book, and I appreciated that. Because you need to know what you need and what you need to prep ahead of time, so when you’re ready to share the devotional, not only have you read the scriptures and read the story and devotional ahead of time showing your kids you value this time you have with them; you’re not just winging it, that you know what you need to do and how much time it’s going to take. So, he’s done a great job. It’s like a lesson plan. It’s all outlined very well telling you exactly what you’re going to be doing and how much time you need to prepare.
Then, you’re going to squirt a dab of each of the pastes on a piece of wood and apply the flame to see if it burns. And only the fire paste should truly ignite. “When you’re done, dunk the pieces of wood in the 5-gallon bucket of water and let them soak there long enough to be sure you’ve extinguished any smoldering flame. And then clean off all the pastes and leave the wood outside to dry. And you’re all set.”
So, then, running the activity: “Be sure the bucket is filled with water and is in close proximity.” He says he keeps it right by his feet. “Have the kids make a 3 inch X on the each of the 3 pieces of wood, using a different paste each time, and keep the tube of paste by each wood sample so you can identify which paste had been used. Tell the kids you want to light the paste and you’re looking to see which ignites and burns best.” You put on your gloves and do this. Then you’re teaching the lesson.
“The three pastes represent different kinds of Christians and how well they burn for Jesus. How intense they are for God. Some Christians never seem to ignite. Others sputter and spark but never really catch fire. And others catch fire and keep burning strong.”
And then he reads the scripture from Matthew 13:3-9 and 18-23, the parable of the sower and the seed. “And Jesus talked about how some people never seem to grow and mature as Christians. They are distracted and lose focus. And then others like with the toothpaste and diaper rash paste wouldn’t ignite. Was the problem with the flame or with the paste? And of course, the problem is with the paste. The fire, like the seed in the parable, is a constant. The paste, like the soil in Jesus’ example, was the thing that changed.”
Then they look at the other parts of the scripture, and then it ends with questions. “What kind of Christian do you want to be? How do you think you’ll get there? Let’s look at some starting points for being the type of Christian who burns with a steady dedication to God.” So, I love that. He doesn’t just leave it at, “Well, what do you want to do?” “Oh, I want to burn bright for Jesus.” Or “I want to be a great strong Christian.” Well, then let’s talk about how to help our kids do that. We do such a disservice when we don’t take that next step and say how do we do that. So, he does that. He talks David and the Psalms. He talks about our choice and the choices we make. When we ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and when we know the right thing to do but we don’t do it, we’re quenching the impact of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And when we quench the Spirit, we quench our own fire. Then he sums up with an ending part to the devotional.
He says, “If you choose to be a Christian who burns hot for God, I believe you’ll never regret that. It’s my prayer that you will have a heart that burns strong and steady for God, that you’ll be passionate for God, not passive. It’s my prayer that you’ll ask God to give you a heart that desires Him enough to say no to compromise. I pray you’ll choose to obey God and His word from your heart, not because you have to. I pray you’ll never forget that He’s chosen you; He’s chosen to rescue you. And for that we should forever be grateful and dedicated to Him. May you always burn for Him.”
I just feel like this is such a well-written little devotional book, and it has some great, fun ideas. If you have very active children who are more kinesthetic learners, maybe visual learners that want to do the hands-on and need to see something to really remember the lessons. These should do it. So, this is a great book for family devotionals if you want that kind of active participation and good object lessons for your kids. And then of course, with the STEM emphasis in our culture in our culture right now and how important that is, how awesome to bring that into our devotional time as well. So that’s kind of cool when we’re leading devotions. I highly recommend this devotional book.
Now for family devotions, if you’re not into such an adventurous endeaver, I’ve also written a devotional book that is a hands-on, family, active devotional book on the life of David. It’s the beginning of a series on Heroes of the Faith. And it involves like a home school curriculum if you choose to use it that way for your Bible class. Or you can use it just as a family devotional. It will be available on my website to download. You can find it there. And it is very reasonably price. You can print it out on your printer.
We use a lot of cooking, a lot of activities and games and puzzles. Not so much blowing things up or catching things on fire. But we still try to keep it kinesthetic, visual, and auditory all in one to really encourage and challenge our kids in their walk with God. For instance, the first lesson is about David’s friendship with Jonathan. And in that one we talk a lot about what it means to be a friend, and we make friendship cookies. In the lesson where Samuel is anointing David, and God teaches him it is important to look at the heart—that God looks at the heart, man looks at the outside appearance, but God looks at the heart. Well, in that lesson, we make homemade pizza pockets, or if you choose you can make empanadas. If you know that recipe, that’s even better. So, we do some cooking. We do some art. We do puzzles. I do try to include some active activities as well in each lesson. So, each lesson has several choices. It is not meant for you to do every single thing in the lesson unless you want it to be a home school lesson, then you might have time for that. You would pick and choose what is most appropriate for your family. With one lesson you may choose to do a cooking lesson, and the next one you may decide to do the team sport activity. In another, you may choose the do the community outreach activity. So, each one gives you that choice for what works best with your family. And then each lesson also has a family worship time, so you may just choose to do the family worship time where you talk about the lessons from the Scripture, and share them together as a family and have communion together as a family, kind of a Shabbat sort of Sabbath celebration. So, that’s what I’ve written in my devotional book.
And then we also have some great devotional books for those who are even more mellow and want to just read together and pray together. And I will put the links for some of those below the podcast here. We have the Family Bible Devotional. And there are some others that are really helpful if you want to teach your kids the importance of a quiet time, of taking time each day to read God’s word together, to pray together, and you don’t want to make it anything fancy or anything big. You just want to share the Word of God and prayer with your kids each day. What I would recommend is really praying about what is best for you kids. Because you want it be captivating, and you want God’s word to really get into their hearts and minds. I would highly recommend that you include memorization of Scripture in whatever devotional program you choose, and that you would use that to help hide God’s word in their hearts because they will never leave them for the rest of their lives. We all know the scriptures we memorized as children, they’re still there. I memorized some Scriptures in Spanish, and I still remember those. It’s just fun when you’ve truly memorized Scripture, how it stays with you and God can bring it back to your memory. So, I would include that and include reading Scripture or a Bible story depending on the age of your children, and prayer. Find a creative way to keep a prayer list together as a family. It might be a special book that you have for your family. It might be something on the wall. It might be a visual prayer request list, especially if you have pre-readers in your family. So, you might have a picture to represent what you’re praying for. Maybe it’s Grandma or Grandpa or whomever, and so you put their picture on the prayer list or on the prayer board or whatever you decide to do, or your prayer book. So those are things you can do.
One of the things that we’ve done as a family as well, and you’ll see this in the David Bible study because we include them, is we’ve written songs together. We have a lot of very easy, simple, sing-able songs you can teach your kids. If you’re not musically inclined, they are easy to pick up. And they’re free with the Bible study; you’ll get the MP3’s to go with those. We had a great time making up songs together. My daughter dealt a lot of fear. As I said, after she turned four and became autistic, she would deal with fear all the time. So, we made up a song, “I will never be afraid, God is by my side.” We sang that all the time. We’d sing it loud; we’d sing I soft; we’d sing it in silly voices—but just to get those words into her mind that God is always with her; she is never alone.
I used to rock my kids and sing a version of “Rock-a-bye Baby” to them instead of the traditional words, I would say, “Rock-a-bye baby in Mommy’s lap…” oh, now I can’t remember. But anyway, it was special to them, and it would have their name in it. I would rock them, and they would just grin as they were falling asleep because they would hear that song that had a special meaning for them.
[I couldn’t remember the words while recording, but here’s what we used to sing: Rock-a-bye name, in Mommy’s lap. When we get tired, we’ll take a nap. We love to laugh, and we love to sing, but rocking with Mommy’s our favorite thing].
We can have so much fun making up songs together. They don’t have to be professional and wonderful. They’re just special to our family, and we’re creating memories with our family. Cooking together, camping together, writing songs together, praying together, reading God’s word together, all of these things build memories, build relationships with our kids, and keep the doors open for communication and questioning and answering those questions and wrestling sometimes with those questions together. As my kids have gotten older, the questions have gotten harder to answer, and we’ve struggled through some of them sometimes, but we’ve struggled through them together instead of separately, and that’s awesome.
Let me know what your favorite devotional has been to use with your children. I would love to know what you’ve used. Maybe you’ve just read the Bible together and haven’t had a specially written devotional. But I would just love to hear what you’ve found to be helpful and beneficial to your family.
Thank you for joining us for Books that Spark. I hope this discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Remember our drawing at the end of July. Enter before July 31st by downloading the 12 lessons and commenting on the first episode either here or on my website blog. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of the podcast and my blog. My website is terriehellardbrown.com
Have a wonderful week. This is Books that Spark, a podcast celebrating books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussions.
Parental Guidance Requested Course--Available through July, 2020
Lesson 1-Reading Picture Books with Our Kids
Lesson 2-Praying with Our Kids
Lesson 3-Praying for Our Kids
Lesson 4-Overcoming the Overwhelm
Lesson 5-Discipling Our Kids
Lesson 6-Keeping Consistent Conversation with Our Kids
Lesson 7-Seize the Teachable Moments
Lesson 8-Creating a Safe, Soft Story Circle
Lesson 9-Building Character
Lesson 10-Leading Kids in the Way They Should Go
Lesson 11-Be Aware of Bias
Lesson 12-Making Room for Reading
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
In this episode we look at some books that spark wonder and joy in life to help our kids embrace joy, peace, and develop resilience.
July Giveaway:Enter the drawing by:
1. download the 12 mini lessons of the "Parental Guidance Requested Workshop"
2. Comment below "Books that Spark," Episode 1 that you downloaded them
Two winners drawn on July 31, 2020:
1st prize -
Praying the Scriptures for Your Children: Discover How to Pray God's Purpose for Their Lives by Jodie Berndt
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
The Jesus Storybook Bible Coloring Book for Kids: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
2nd prize -
ICB, Bedtime Devotions with Jesus Bible from Thomas Nelson
Transcript:
Welcome to Books that Spark, a podcast for parents and caregivers where we review books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and conversations leading to teachable moments with our kids. Thank you for joining me today.
I wanted to let you know that coming up in August, I’m really excited. I’ve been able to interview two wonderful authors who have books debuting in August. The first writer we’re going to talk to is Deb Gruelle, and we’ll be introducing her newest book coming out in August. The second one is Jennifer Grant who also has a book coming out. We are actually going to have her interview on the day that her book debuts which is August 17th, so you won’t want to miss Books that Spark in August when we have two very special guests share their books with us. We had a great time talking about their books and what sparked the stories that they wrote. So be sure to join us in August when we have these interviews. Don’t forget about our drawing for July. Remember our podcast comes out each Tuesday morning. And I’m so excited to tell you that if you sign up for my mailing list you get some freebies. I’ve created three different books of phonemes that you can download. You can choose from the three different books. One is a coloring book, and the other two are just picture books. And you can learn and practice and go through the phonemes of the English language with your children. I have a list when you sign up for free as well that is of over 100 picture books and board books that are excellent to read to your kids, really good stories with excellent illustrations that are either Christian in nature or do not go against the Christian worldview. So I was very picky, overly picky sometimes to create this list for you. I also tried to go with writers maybe you haven’t heard of before. I did not include Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, and I do note that in the intro on the list that those are excellent books and you can pretty much trust any of those. But the books that I did read may be books you’ve never heard of or writers that you’ve never heard of. I hope this can be beneficial for you and your family as your shopping for books in building your child’s library. In addition to that, I’ve decided to make one of my stories available on my website. If you go to my new website, terriehellardbrown.com, you’ll see that I have quite a few free things that you can download there. I’m adding new things all the time. I’ve developed in one of the classes I did in Parental Guidance Requested and that I teach in my workshops I have a freebie that is a passport you can download and make for your children and read different books from different countries, stories, fairy tales, and legends from different countries and learning to count in different languages and these kinds of things. So I have that resource that will be available soon on my website. I’m also developing some other materials, some cost, some are free, but those are all available on my website. Please go take a look and download what you can use. And just send me a little note. Let me know if you do use the different items with your church, with your homeschooling group or whatever, and let me know how you used it. That would mean a lot to me. Some of the things are plays, monologues, and dialogues that you can use in your church services or in your schools. My goal is to help equip parents, teachers, and caregivers with the ability to have materials and have resources that will help us as we’re discipling and teaching our children and helping them to grow in their understanding of God and His purpose for their lives. And in addition to that, I also try to speak into your life as a parent, as a teacher, and as a caregiver. Because we need to be discipled too. So that is what I try to do with my website, my podcast, and my blog is to encourage you and help equip you so that you can help equip your children.
I want to share with you a feel-good story that I love. This book is called My Mama Had a Dancing Heart by Libba Moore Gray, illustrated by Raul Colon. This is one of those books you cherish and that you enjoy sharing again and again whether you’re the parent or the child. It’s such a beautiful story of a relationship between a mom and daughter. It’s about a mom sharing her love for dance and her love for life. In addition, it has great onomatopoeia and imagery and other literary devices that make this book fun for teaching literary devices if you’re a homeschooler. The pictures look like they were either painted or that the colon used pastels. Each picture is full of color.
The book takes us through the seasons of the year. The book says, “My mama had a dancing heart, and she shared that heart with me.” She starts with spring. “Mama says, ‘Bless the world, it feels like a tip-tapping, song-singing, finger-snapping kind of day. Let’s celebrate!’ and so we did.”
For the summer she says, “When the waves would come plash-splashing on the shore, out we’d go into the red-orange morning with kites and balloons tied to our wrists. We’d do a seabird-flapping, dolphin-arching, hello summer ballet, with me following Mama, and the sand stuck between the toes of our up-and-down squish-squashing feet.” Then Moore takes us through fall and winter. The books ends with “and now after satin-ribboning my feet and listening to the violins sing-swelling around me, onto the stage I go air-daring, leap-flying, wing-soaring, letting the spring rain, summer waves, autumn leaves, winter snow carry me along until the music slows and I feather-float down…down to the ground.”
So at the end of the story, the girl has grown up and has become a professional ballerina because of the heart her mom had and experiences they shared together. She takes all that she gleaned from her relationship with her mom and puts her mom’s passion into her own performances as a dancer.
So you can see why I love this book. I think it’s really beautiful to see the relationship and the affect the mom had on the daughter. The conversations from books like this can be about how we influence each other in the family. Our kids may not think about their influence on others. It’s a powerful thing to think about what we can do to bless and make a positive difference in this world and in our families. I think it’s important to teach our kids that they have an effect on people and can bless and influence others.
We also need to think about the influence we have as parents. What legacy do we want to leave for our kids? We have so much influence in shaping who our children become especially while they are young. When our kids are grown, what have we done that is going to influence them to hold on to the wonder and joy of life? We want to deal with values, dignity, integrity, and choosing right over wrong, but we also want to instill joy and wonder in them as well. We want to build creativity and ingenuity in our kids as well as resilience. They watch how we react to and act in life. That will influence our kids more than anything we say. The time we spend together with our kids is going to forever affect our kids. So, we need to be careful not to always be so serious, but to help them see the joy and strength that joy brings in our lives. We need to go splish-splashing in the waves by the ocean. We need to go building sandcastles and swinging on tree swings and whatever gives our hearts delight and share that with our children.
Of course, we must teach our kids about safety and right and wrong, but we also need to teach the love of life. The bible tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Do they see us letting go of that strength or do they see us walking in it?
If all our kids see in us is negativity and defeat, that is what they will learn. If they see resilience and tenacity, that is what they will learn.
I want to share a couple more books with you, but I want to take just a moment to talk to you. For years I battled depression. Now, I’m not talking about clinical depression where we need medication. I have friends who are bipolar and who are dealing with other illnesses and need their medication. If you are dealing with post-partum depression, I suggest talking to your doctor. There are some times in life when we may need medical help. But what I’m talking about is the type of depression that we fall into and amplify by our own thoughts and attitudes. It’s like when one bad thing happens in our day, we focus on that and our attitude is, “I’ve had a horrible day,” when what we really had was a horrible few minutes with a really rude person or whatever.
I’m sharing this with you because we can teach our kids to live defeated, depressed lives if we aren’t careful. Like I said, I’ve been there. I would have something bad happen that triggered my negativity, and I would spiral down into depression. I had a friend who struggles with this too, and she simply said, “It is not God’s will for us to live like this.” That frustration we were talking about and feeling at that moment got me to thinking about it. The bible tells us to take every thought captive under the authority of Christ. So, I started trying to do that. If I start feeling depressed, I think back to where it started. Usually it was something small that spiraled and grew bigger because of my response to it. The thoughts I had after that initial point are usually filled with lies about how useless I am as a human being, how God can never use my life, or about how I should just give up with whatever because I will never succeed…stuff like that. So, as I took each thought captive, I would think of God’s truth in His word, and the lies became apparent. I rejected those lies and began to come out of the depression.
Sometimes I fall into that pit because I’m exhausted. If you haven’t realized it yet, parenting can be exhausting. So, some days, I would just go to bed early deciding I would deal with whatever happened after a good night’s sleep. It’s funny how problems shrink when we sleep on them. Even big problems shrink some and become easier to tackle when we’re rested.
The other thing I’ve learned through this process is that creativity goes out the window when we’re stressed and exhausted. I want my kids to use their creativity and to value it. I want them to see that their dad and I are creative people too. I believe creativity is such a gift from God, and because of it, we can problem-solve and move through life with more grace and beauty in our lives.
So, if you’re exhausted, battling depression, feeling defeated, find a way to get the help you need. If you need to talk to someone or have someone watch your kids so you can take a nap, or if you need to go see a doctor, please do it. I wish someone had talked to me about this when I was a young mom instead of having to battle this for so long alone. Victory is attainable. We do not have to stay stuck in defeat and depression or stay a victim to the lies of the Enemy.
Two last little points I learned along the way: Grief is a painful experience that we must walk through. Do not try to avoid that one. If we are grieving a loss, as painful as it is, we need to walk through it. Medication only delays it. It does not remove it. Second, all feelings are temporary. Mark Lowry, a Christian comedian and singer, says his favorite Bible verse is, “It came to pass.” That’s not really the whole verse in the Bible, but his point is that in all of life, whatever we’re walking through, it’s temporary. We can’t give up, we need to walk through it.
A friend who lost someone to suicide always reminds people that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. All problems are temporary, no matter how terrible they are. We need to realize this, and we need to teach it to our kids.
I just felt I needed to share that today. Maybe someone listening is really struggling or maybe you’re just losing hope in our world’s current situation. This too shall pass.
I have a mentor who is wise beyond her years. This week’s blog post will tell you a little more about this story, but when we were facing a really hard situation in ministry, I called her to lament and to ask for prayer. Her response was simply, “I wonder what God is going to do?” That sentence changed everything for me. I have tried to hold on to that since then no matter what we’re facing because God is ALWAYS at work in and around us. There have been times when He literally fought the battle for us. We were all concerned about something awful that was going on, and the next thing we knew, within a few days, the whole situation had turned around and the problem evaporated. It’s not always that way, but we have seen God work and help us walk through too many situations. With each one, trusting Him gets a little easier.
So, how can we help our kids live their lives in this way: with resilience, tenacity, and joy?
First, by us setting the example for them.
Second, by helping them know the truth of God’s word and His presence with them always.
Third, by instilling a joy for life in them through the wonder and creativity in their lives and all around us.
I think that’s one reason I enjoy poetic writing in picture books. That’s why I like My Mama Had a Dancing Heart. That’s also why I like Hailstones and Halibut Bones: Adventures in Poetry and Color by Mary O’Neill, illustrated by John Wallner. This is a book of poems, but the illustrations and the imagery in the poems are amazing.
“The Colors live
Between black and white
In a land that we
Know best by sight.
But knowing best
Isn’t everything,
For colors dance
And colors sing,
And colors laugh
And colors cry—
Turn off the light
And colors die,
And they make you feel
Every feeling there is
From the grumpiest grump
To the fizziest fizz.
And you and you and I
Know well
Each has a taste
And each has a smell
And each has a wonderful
Story to tell….”
And if you’re homeschooling, this is a brilliant book for teaching imagery and personification.
Another book I’ve shared before is Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Lloyd-Jones and Jago. They also created the Bible story book and coloring book that I’m giving away in the drawing at the end of July. Remember to comment on the first episode of this podcast and to download the 12 lessons from Parental Guidance Requested to be entered in the drawing.
In this book, Jones takes a scripture and poetically described the meaning of it. It’s not a picture book, but it is a fun book to share with anyone. The pictures are gorgeous. On page 59 she uses Colossians 3:15 which says, “Let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.” And she writes, “Let the sun in! When you open the windows, do you have to beg the fresh air to come in? Or when you open the curtains in the morning, do you have to argue with the sun to make it shine into your room? How silly! You just open the windows and the air flows in. You open the curtains and the sun shines in. The Bible says it’s like that with God’s peace. It will flow into our hearts, if we let it. Are you worried? Are you anxious? Is anything troubling you today? Don’t try to work it all out by yourself. Let God’s peace flow in—like sunshine into a dark room.”
On page 69 she talks about 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” She writes, “No Birds’ Nests! Sometimes bad thoughts just land in your head from nowhere. Is having an awful thought a sin? When Jesus was tempted in the desert, Satan whispered awful thoughts and lies to Jesus to tempt him away from God. It’s not the thoughts that count; it’s what we do with those thoughts. Jesus didn’t listen to those awful thoughts. He didn’t believe them. He sent them away. An old proverb says, ‘You can’t help it if birds come and land on your head. But you don’t have to let the build nests in your hair!’”
One more is called “Born to Fly!” on page 212 of the book. Jones writes, “Have you seen eagles teaching their babies to fly? Oh dear. Poor eagle babies. Imagine one minute you’re all cozy in this warm, lovely nest and the next, you’re being pushed out—BY YOUR OWN PARENTS! But the parents know what they’re doing. As the babies plummet, they flap their wings in a panic—and grow stronger. The parents catch them on their wings and lift them back up, over and over, until at last the baby learns to do what it was born for—FLY! And the Bible says you were meant to fly as well—to soar in God’s love, trusting him, loving him. You were born to fly!”
I like the way she describes the Christian life in this book. Her words are full of hope and faith and focus on God’s plan and purposes.
The last book I want to share today is Quinn’s Promise Rock by Christie Thomas and illustrated by Sydney Hanson. This book’s subtitle is “No Matter Where, God Is Always There,” and that is the message of this cute book. It’s the story of a father owl and his daughter owl. As they are flying one night, Quinn, the daughter, suddenly becomes afraid thinking about what if she got lost. Her dad takes her several places and shows her the safety of those places and uses them as analogies for God’s presence with her. He gives her a rock to remind her that God is always with her no matter where she goes.
I love this book because it describes many of the attributes of God. I also love the father/daughter relationship shown in the story. It’s a very sweet story.
I hope you have a week filled with the knowledge of God’s presence at work in your life and that our kids know He’s with them as well.
Thank you for joining us for Books that Spark. I hope this discussion will spark meaningful conversations with the children in your life. Remember our drawing at the end of July. Enter before July 31st by downloading the 12 lessons and commenting on the first episode either here or on my website blog. You can sign up for my mailing list to get weekly reminders of the podcast and my blog. My website is terriehellardbrown.com
Free Course Through July--Parental Guidance Requested:
Lesson 1-Reading Picture Books with Our Kids
Lesson 2-Praying with Our Kids
Lesson 3-Praying for Our Kids
Lesson 4-Overcoming the Overwhelm
Lesson 5-Discipling Our Kids
Lesson 6-Keeping Consistent Conversation with Our Kids
Lesson 7-Seize the Teachable Moments
Lesson 8-Creating a Safe, Soft Story Circle
Lesson 9-Building Character
Lesson 10-Leading Kids in the Way They Should Go
Lesson 11-Be Aware of Bias
Lesson 12-Making Room for Reading
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
What is "Books that Spark" all about?
We review books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and discussion creating teachable moments that lead to meaningful conversations with our children.
In this episode: How do we balance seeking to do our best and seeing goals met with perfectionism and unrealistic expectations?
Experts often tell us that children rise to our high expectations. When does that go from being healthy motivation to pressure causing our children to be people-pleasers or to shut down and give up? One of the keys is recognizing who our children truly are and who God intended them to be.
Books Discussed:
Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall
A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live
by Emily P. Freeman
Other Links:
https://www.terriehellardbrown.com/
Deuteronomy 11:18-21
Enter the drawing by:
1. download the 12 mini lessons of the "Parental Guidance Requested Workshop"
2. Comment below "Books that Spark," Episode 1 that you downloaded them
Two winners drawn on July 31, 2020:
1st prize -
Praying the Scriptures for Your Children: Discover How to Pray God's Purpose for Their Lives by Jodie Berndt
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
The Jesus Storybook Bible Coloring Book for Kids: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones
2nd prize -
ICB, Bedtime Devotions with Jesus Bible from Thomas Nelson
Transcript:
Transcript:
Hi, and welcome to Books that Spark. I'm Terrie Hellard-Brown, your host. I'm so glad you joined us today. This is my first episode of Books that Spark, and I have a treat for you. With this first podcast, I've also opened a 12 mini-lesson course called Parental Guidance Requested with parenting tips for getting the most out of your reading and discipleship time with your kids. If you download those 12 lessons and comment on this episode that you've got them, you will be entered into a drawing for some free resources. I'll have two winners. First prize is Praying the Scriptures for Your Children, The Jesus Storybook Bible and The Storybook Bible Coloring Book. Second prize is Bedtime Devotions with Jesus Bible. So, download the episodes today and comment before the end of July, 2020, and we'll enter you in the drawing. The drawing will be held on July 31st, 2020.
So, what is Books that Spark all about? It began as an idea while I was at a speaker's conference last year. I was talking about blogging and writing books, and I mentioned how I love talking about great picture books. One of the moms there begged me to create a list of the best picture books that I would recommend. Well, as I began to think and pray about that; the notion of starting a podcast kept coming to my mind. And pretty soon I couldn't shake the idea. I would think about it all the time and started developing ideas for episodes and just got really excited about the possibilities. So here I am jumping in and giving this a try. I hope you enjoy it and feel that it's beneficial to you and your family. I hope you discover some great books that maybe you hadn't heard of before as we go through the episodes in this podcast.
Sometimes this will just be me sharing with you from my heart like today, and other times I'll have guests. And I have a couple authors coming next month to share with you from their hearts and share with you about their books. So, it should be a good time and good information, and I hope you enjoy it. Sometimes I will just be sharing with you some very silly, funny books because there's a lot of excellent ones out there that can make your family laugh and have a great time together.
If you go to my website and sign up for my mailing list, you'll get notifications for this podcast as well as my blog. And when you do, you will be able to download for free a list of picture books and board books that I recommend to help build your child's library. There are over a hundred books on that list that you can check out and find out about through the list. (You will also get to choose from three free print-on-demand phoneme books you can make for your kids).
So, if you sign up today, you can find the link in the show notes below. Then you can receive that for free. Today I want to talk about giving ourselves grace and our kids' grace. We tend to be hard on ourselves as parents wanting to be perfect in all that we do, and we can fall into the trap of perfectionism. But I've found, as a recovering perfectionist, that in reality, perfectionism is me trying to be God in my own life because we know that the only one who is truly perfect as God and our attempts at it are not truly perfect; they're perfectionism. And we can also be hard on our kids trying to encourage them to do their best, but instead putting expectations on them as well. So, we have to figure out what is the balance there.
I'm a visual person, and I will never forget the most effective sermon I ever saw on expectations. It was done by Andy Stanley at North Point Community Church. And the introductory message for a series on relationships opened with him discussing hopes, dreams, and desires that we go into relationships and situations with all our hopes and dreams and desires. And he had a box with several items representing those hopes, dreams, and desires of a couple, getting ready to be married. And he puts these items into another box with the label of expectations. His point is that what we may think of as our hopes, dreams and desires become expectations for the other person in the relationship. And that that can be a heavy weight on their shoulders. And so we have to be aware of that, understand that we can be doing that to our children and to ourselves as well. We set the bar high at a certain level, and rather than hopes, dreams and desires, it becomes expectations and perfectionism.
Those are heavy weights to carry, and they will kill the joy in our relationships and in our life if we bow to them.
So how do we balance seeking to do our best, setting goals, and seeing those goals realized, with the temptation towards perfectionism and expectation, especially unrealistic expectations? We know that the experts often tell us that children rise to our high expectations, so we don't want to give them low expectations. So, when does that go from being healthy motivation to pressure causing our children to be people-pleasers or to just shut down and give up? I really think it boils down to grace. Because of grace, we can try without fear of failing, because if we fail, grace is there. This is the way God treats us, and this is the way we need to treat ourselves and treat our children to give abundant grace, but to encourage our kids to try. When our children know that we will show them grace, when they try and fail, they can become more self-confident and willing to try new things and to step outside their comfort zones.
If we have a rigid “do or die” attitude, even if it is just toward ourselves, our children can pick up on that and become unwilling to try new things. And the second thing besides grace is truly knowing who our children are and what they are capable of. That's so important because if we don't understand who they are, we can fall into the comparison trap with either comparing them to their siblings or to a friend's kids. Each child is so unique and so uniquely gifted. We need to look at the individual and see who God has created each person to be. When I was teaching school, I often thought we should develop an IEP Individual Education Plan for every student, not just those with special needs because every student has their own needs, their own strengths, and their own weaknesses. And as a teacher, we try very hard to meet each child's needs. If we had time to sit down and figure out how best to meet the needs of each child, what an effective school that would be.
With our own kids, hopefully we do have the time to do that, to sit down and to pray over and to examine and think about who our kids are and what their individual needs are and what their individual strengths and weaknesses are. When we know who our child truly is, we can set realistic goals and take some of the unrealistic expectations and pressures off of them.
Sometimes the world puts ridiculous expectations on our children that we know they can never meet, and we need to be there to help them navigate that and to understand they have their own strengths. I was very blessed as a child in that my parents always told me I could do anything I set my mind to. And I'm sure they were not right, because there were plenty of things I could not do no matter what, but I believed them and tried many things, even though I was horribly shy as a child. I grew very fast and I had very long legs and very long arms, and so I was a little bit clumsy for a while there. In fifth grade in PE class, the teacher said, “She tries harder than anybody in the class,” but I couldn't do a cartwheel to save my life. I even taught my sister how to do cartwheels, but I could not do one ever, and I've never been able to. He [my teacher] would tell my mom, “She tries harder than anybody.” And that was me; I always tried because I thought, you know, if I put my mind to it and tried hard enough, eventually I'd be able to do it. But unfortunately, cartwheels were not in that list. But my parents did hold me to a very high standard and sometimes they did push too hard, but usually they only emphasized that I should always do my best, whatever that might be. And as long as I had tried my best, they assured me that they would be happy. And that's what I've tried to do with my children as well. And I hope they've grasped that. I think they have.
When we can teach our kids, as long as they're doing their best, that's all we want from them, then they can try things and not be the best but just do their best.
I want to share a book with you today that speaks to expectations and doing what we can do. It's called Red, A Crayon Story by Michael Hall. Red is a crayon who is told by everyone that he is red. He's labeled red, and he came from the factory with that label. He tries very hard to color red, but in reality, he's not red; he's blue.
And so, one crayon tries to show him how to draw strawberries. He tries to draw strawberries, but they're blue. And they're just like, “Oh dear.” And his teacher thinks he needs more practice, but he can't draw red no matter how hard he tries because he isn't really red. He's blue. Everyone comments on Red. Everybody has something to say, and some think he's lazy. Some say he needs to press harder. Others think he needs more time, and he'll catch on. But, of course, he can't. And then he has a new friend further on in the book. And this new friend says, can you make me a blue ocean for my boat? And he says, I can't, I'm red. I'm not blue. But the friend encourages him to try. And he draws a great blue ocean and his friends tell him that he did a great job, and his mom is proud of him, and everybody's cheering him on. He responds with thanking his friend and saying it was easy. When we're doing what we're created for, we find joy in what we're doing, and we find it's easy to do what we were meant to do.
I love that story because it shows that when we are living up to what God has called us to be and created us to be, the pressure and the burden of expectation isn't there. But the joy of just being who we were created to be makes even the hardest things we do seem easy and joy-filled because that's who we were created to be. So, I think this is a fantastic story and a great book to read with any child, but especially a child who's on any kind of a spectrum or has any kind of a challenge in their learning. If they have any learning difficulties, this book can really encourage them.
And one of the reasons I personally love this book is we have four children, and they all deal with expectations that people put on them. I mean, what child doesn't, right? But three of my four are on the autism spectrum. And even my daughter who is not on the spectrum gets so discouraged if she feels she's let someone down and hasn't met their expectations. And so, we deal with this all the time. My other three, no matter how hard they try, they do not live up to the world's expectations for them. They just never will. They aren't geared that way. They aren't created that way. And so, it's hard as a parent to watch them struggle so hard to try to meet those expectations. In the midst of all that, I don't know of a better way to help them understand and that they don't have to live up to other people's expectations than to read a book together and to open up a conversation with them about these kinds of topics.
And so, when we read with our kids, we can open up a conversation that might be hard to open up otherwise, and to help them see that not all expectations are from God and are God-given. As a parent, I put so much pressure on myself to try to help them succeed. At first, they were misdiagnosed, and I was doing all the wrong things for a child with autism. We lived overseas in Taiwan, and they were diagnosed with ADHD. I was homeschooling them using the tools we use with ADHD kids, and nothing was working. In fact, it all became extremely frustrating for all of us, as most days, my kids would just shut down. You see, when you're using different teaching techniques, the techniques we often use with ADHD kids are the exact opposite of what you do with an autistic kid. And so, the techniques I was using were just causing anxiety in my kids, and, you know, I can laugh about it now, but it really was horrible. And I felt like a really terrible parent when I realized what was going on. When they were correctly diagnosed, I realized what I was doing wrong and changed. But by then, I just felt like a failure. I didn't know enough to realize and recognize what I was seeing. I just knew what I was doing wasn't working.
So as parents, we put a lot of expectations on ourselves to understand everything, to know everything, to be perfect, and to just parent perfectly. And we frankly will never do that, and sometimes we fail miserably. But in spite of all of that, I'm so thankful that my kids have thrived and that God has been so good to help them find their place and their gifting in this world. So, in this process, especially in this situation, when I was homeschooling, I had to give myself grace and I had to give my kids grace.
And I asked God for a whole lot of grace and wisdom, and my kids have done really well. Now they're older and preparing for what God has for them in their lives. And it's very exciting to see them succeed because now they are on the right track of doing what God has called them to do. If we can succeed in understanding that we try our best, we respect people, we respect God, and we try to be who he's created us to be; then we can realize that we have succeeded because we are glorifying God with our lives.
I want to encourage you today to give yourself grace. There comes a time when we have to let go of the dream we had for our kids, the idea of perfection that we put on ourselves, and to realize God's plan is still at work in our hearts and lives even when we have messed up. We must let go of those plans we had before our children were born and seeing them as who they really are.
With my oldest daughter, this was especially important and difficult, but it was a very vivid lesson in our lives because when she was little, she was outgoing and never met a stranger. She was bubbly and funny and silly and was afraid of nothing. Then when she was about four years old, one day, it was like a switch flipped, and she changed practically overnight into this fear-filled child with all kinds of sensory issues who didn't trust anyone. She wouldn't eat foods she had liked before, even just a week or two before; she wouldn't eat them anymore. They would cause her to gag. she couldn't wear socks and pants that she had been wearing before because the textures bothered her so much she couldn't even think about anything but her socks or her waistband on her jeans.
And so, we had to change everything, and we didn't know what was going on. We didn't know what to think. And like I said, she was misdiagnosed for many years before we really found out what was going on. Back when this happened, you didn't have many cases of autism. It was really strange and very frightening for us. Letting go of who she had been for the past four years was important. It was really hard because we were still trying to understand and navigate this landscape that we were given and trying to help her cope with all these new feelings. It was just a real challenge, but it wouldn't have been fair to her to keep holding her to who she wasn't, but to learn to accept who she was. That’s what we had to do. There were many days that we just grieved for the daughter we had grown to love who was no longer there.
Now, even today, if she's very relaxed and feeling really comfortable around people, we'll see a glimpse of that silly girl again. And it's just that her autism overshadows it most of the time. But we had to let go of who we thought she was going to be and accept who she is. What's interesting about that is the more we're able to do that, the more she has the freedom to let go of those anxious feelings and to try to be more who I believe God really wants her to be. So, we get to see that funny side of her a lot more these days, as she's becoming more comfortable with who she is.
But we really have to do this with all of our kids. We can't help it. As parents, often we will have a path in mind that we would like them to take. Or, even though we logically know they're not perfect before they're born, there's still a part of all parents I think that really hope our children are perfect. Then, when they're born, of course we know they're not. We have to let go of those ideals and those ideas and accept who our children are. Otherwise, we wind up putting a heavy burden on them.
Sometimes they just choose a different path than what we would have chosen for them. Like my younger daughter, who is not on the spectrum. She's called to missions, and she wants to live overseas. I mean, she grew up in Taiwan. So the first time she goes overseas, she doesn't go to Taiwan, she goes to Myanmar. We had to really let go and let her do what she knew God was calling her to do, even though it terrified me a whole lot to see her go to a country that is really much less safe than Taiwan.
She has faced a lot of crazy situations as a result of that, but God was with her through them all. My mom taught me with all of my adventures that she always said she knew as long as I was in the center of God's will, it was the safest place for me to be. Now, that didn't mean something bad wasn't going to happen, but she knew that's where I needed to be. And so, I've tried to apply that to my kids' lives as well, and especially to Annie's as she goes and climbs mountains and falls off mountains and goes to scary countries.
Now, a second book, I want to share with you that deals with these kinds of issues as well for you. It's not a picture book, it's a book for adults. And if you have older children, I highly recommend letting them read it as well. It is by Emily P. Freeman, and it's called A Million Little Ways. In this book, she talks about how, when we are doing what God has created us to do, that that becomes a work of art. These are the works that God planned for us before we were born it says in Ephesians 2:10. Perfectionism and comparison are not the answer to helping us find excellence, but rather seeking God's calling and gifting allows us to do exactly what we were created for. In that, we create art that blesses those around us and glorifies God. And in the book, she talks about how she saw (she'd gives several examples) this one girl singing, and she was so moved by the girls singing. She just said, it wasn't that she was the most beautiful singer she'd ever heard although her voice was beautiful. And it wasn't that the song was so profound, although it was beautiful as well. It was recognizing that she was doing exactly what God had gifted her to do and called her to do. And therefore, when she did it, there was a divine power behind it because God was in it. And so, it glorified him, honored him because she was doing what she was created to do.
She uses the example of even if you're a waitress waiting tables or a mailman delivering mail or whatever job or vocation or avocation you do, if these are activities that God has ordained for you to do, then you glorify him and you create art in doing them. I just love that whole notion. But the whole book is about finding who God has created you to be and to do those things, a million little ways of glorifying him in our daily walk with him.
As we close today, I ask you to think about some of the women in the Bible and how often they were so imperfect. But in spite of that, how God always was with them; he heard them, he saw them and he used their lives in spite of their weaknesses. We know that he meets us in our deepest needs, no matter what we're going through or how difficult life gets and the uncertainties we have in raising our kids, God sees us and is always with us.
So, take just a moment and think about Hagar in Genesis. She's in the wilderness, and she thinks she's going to die, and she thinks her son Ishmael is going to die. She puts him under a bush away from her because she just can't sit and watch her son die, but she has no water and doesn't know what else to do. And God saw her pain and her fear. And he gave her hope and guidance and gave her water and told her to take her son and that he would be the father of a great nation.
And Sarah, we look at her, I don't know about you, but I can relate to her trying to control everything and trying to solve problems herself. She basically winds up playing God in everybody's life and messing things up. But when we look at her story, we see that God blessed her in spite of herself and used her life to fulfill his plan.
Naomi who knew more grief than most of us will ever know: God sustained her and restored her life.
Leah in Genesis 29:31: God loved her, even though her husband didn't.
Hannah, who prayed for a child and who was ridiculed for not having children: God heard her prayer and blessed her.
Even Eve. Talk about making bad choices in your early life! She lost her home, but not her God. He forgave her. I know the Bible doesn't tell us that exactly, but we know Adam and Eve taught their children to make offerings to God and to know him. And the last words recorded of Eve are her glorifying God for giving her another son.
Just like these women, God sees you when you feel lost and afraid. He blesses you, even when you've tried to take control and have made bad decisions. And He sustains you when you face unbearable grief and pain. And he loves you, even when it feels like no one else does. He hears you even in the noise and busy-ness of raising a family. He forgives you no matter what you've done. If we will allow him into our day and into our expectations, into our perfectionism, he can do amazing things beyond anything we could ask for or think of.
Thank you for joining us today. Join us next week when we'll look at more books that spark imagination, emotion, questions, and conversations in our lives. Remember to download the 12 lessons today and to comment below that you got those so you can enter our drawing. These lessons will be available for free through this month only. So, take advantage of that today, and we'll have the drawing at the end of July. Have a blessed day.
Lesson 1-Reading Picture Books with Our Kids
Lesson 2-Praying with Our Kids
Lesson 3-Praying for Our Kids
Lesson 4-Overcoming the Overwhelm
Lesson 5-Discipling Our Kids
Lesson 6-Keeping Consistent Conversation with Our Kids
Lesson 7-Seize the Teachable Moments
Lesson 8-Creating a Safe, Soft Story Circle
Lesson 9-Building Character
Lesson 10-Leading Kids in the Way They Should Go
Lesson 11-Be Aware of Bias
Lesson 12-Making Room for Reading
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
Research shows that reading aloud to children of all ages makes a difference in their lives.
Books recommended for parents and teachers:
Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Story Time and Get Kids Talking about What They See
by Megan Dowd Lambert
Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook: Eighth Edition by Jim Trelease, Cyndi Giorgis
The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids
by Sarah Mackenzie
Honey for a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life by Gladys Hunt
Quotes from the books shared in the class:
“As a reader, a mother, and a teacher, I know that we carry picture books about with us, not just as physical objects in our hands with pages that we turn, but as remembered experiences with stories and art, and with each other. I pick up a single picture book, and I recall not only the specific story and art on its pages but also the myriad insights that it provoked through Whole Book Approach readings that invited children to read words, pictures, and design along with me.” (Lambert, xii)
“During Whole Book Approach story times, children’s active participation in making meaning of all they see and hear during a picture book reading takes precedence over moving through the pages at the pace of the adult’s oral reading of the text…the Whole Book Approach simply stresses inviting children to react to the whole book—its art, design, production, paratextual and textual elements—in ways that feel natural and enriching to them and to you as the adult reader.” (Lambert, x)
“Children can read pictures.” (dePaola, SCBWI Masterclass)
"...in fact, a truly great picture book could be wordless. So the pictures actually move the story along and move the narrative along…Once the child has had the story read to them, they can remember the story just by looking at the pictures.” (dePaola, SCBWI Masterclass)
“A good book is a magic gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure. Books are experiences that make us grow, that add something to our inner stature.” (Hunt, p.
“I am frankly excited by the potential of books to build a whole, healthy, spiritually alert child who has the capacity to enjoy all the possibilities of life.” (Hunt, p.
“Whenever I’m asked, ‘Why should I read aloud to my child or my students.’ (regardless of the child’s age), it provides me with an opportunity to share why reading aloud is so important, for both reader and listener. The educational values of reading aloud are well documented: introducing vocabulary, modeling fluency, demonstrating expressive reading, developing comprehension, and assisting children in making connections. There is also the personal value of listening to a book read aloud. That experience may generate vivid memories of a story associated with a person, time, or place—a memory often remaining with us for years.” (Trelease, p. 7)
“We read to children for all the same reasons we talk with them: to reassure, to entertain, to bond, to inform or explain, to arouse curiosity, and to inspire. But in reading aloud, we also build vocabulary, condition the child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure, create background knowledge, provide a reading role model, and instill the desire to read.” (Trelease, p. 14)
“Happily ever after is hardly a myth for those who believe in the promise of eternal joy in heaven.” (McKenzie, p. 96)
“If we tell them enough stories, they will have encountered hard questions and practiced living through so many trials, hardships, and unexpected situations that, God willing, they will have what they need to become the heroes of their own stories.” (McKenzie, p. 92)
“[Story] has been the vehicle for truth for as long as the human race can remember.” (Katherine Paterson quoted by McKenzie, p. 93)
“Reading aloud with our kids is indeed the best use of our time and energy as parents. It’s more important that just about anything else we can do.” (McKenzie, p. 56)
Storytelling videos:
https://youtu.be/q10UgcjGAyE
https://youtu.be/mOA8mUflH-Q
One of my favorite storytellers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTQ3FvVFuGk
Learn more about Workshops and my Mailing List:
terriehellardbrown.com
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Transcript:Welcome to parental guidance requested from books that spark. These 12 mini-lessons are based on a workshop I offer for parents and teachers who want to make Storytime and discipleship come alive for their children. Today, we will be discussing creative ways to use picture books with your children.
I want to discuss ways to read books with your children that will give variety and opportunities for learning together. We will be looking at a few important books that you may want to read that are about reading with your children. One is Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake up Storytime and Get Kids Talking About What They See by Megan Lambert. Another is Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook: Eighth Edition by Jim Trelease and Cyndi Giorgis. In addition, the third one is The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids by Sarah McKenzie. Finally, Honey For a Child's Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life by Gladys Hunt. These four books all bring different information to the table. They also have excellent information on how to make the most out of our reading time and why it is so important to have a read-aloud time with our kids.
In Reading Picture Books with Children, Lambert discusses, several ways we can approach sharing a picture book. She calls it the whole book approach. In addition, Lambert says as a reader, a mother, and a teacher I know that we carry picture books about with us. They are not just as physical objects in our hands with pages that we turn. They are as remembered experiences with stories and art and with each other. I pick up a single picture book, and I recall not only the specific story and art on its pages. I also recall the myriad insights that it provoked through whole book approach readings that invited children to read words, pictures, and design along with me. She points out that picture books are works of art. She treats the whole picture book as a work of art. In addition, she respects the illustrator and the writer equally, which we should do when we are talking about picture books especially. We should begin by asking children to think with their eyes.
She says during the Whole Book Approach story times, children's active participation in making meaning of all they see and hear during picture book reading will take precedence. It will take precedence over moving through the pages at the pace of the adults’ oral reading of the text. The whole book approach simply stresses inviting children to react to the whole book, its art, design production, peritextual and textual elements. This is done in ways that feel natural and enriching to them and you as the adult reader. So I love this book, it opens up the whole notion of relishing, every part of a picture book, and enjoying it with our children. Moreover, she goes through in the chapters of her book in different ways. She takes it apart and deals with the different parts of the picture book and how we can look at each part as significant and able to give us more information to make the picture book a richer experience.
Therefore, when we start to read, we should stop and have a conversation about the book. This should be done before we begin reading. As a teacher, we usually do that to access prior knowledge. This is so that the child will connect with the lesson before we begin the teaching part of the lesson. They take ownership of the lesson, they are invested, and they are interested. Well, we do the same thing with picture books when we stop and we look at the cover, we look at the illustrations, we talk about who wrote it and who illustrated it. Then we bring the child into the experience from the very beginning. With picture books, we start with the cover. Picture books are one of those situations where we do judge a book by its cover. Pictures are just as much a part of the story as the words are in picture books and sometimes they're even more so a part of the story than the words. I have an old book called It's My Birthday by Heidi Geonnel that has 117 words in the entire book.
In addition, there is another by Tomie dePaola called The Knight and The Dragon that has quite a few pages throughout the story with no words at all. Moreover, Tomie dePaola said in a class once, children can read pictures. We know that we all learn to read pictures before we learned to read words. In addition, sometimes children will read something that we may miss because we are not in the habit of reading pictures as much as we did when we were young. So starting with the art will not only help the child to begin reading and understanding the story. It will also help the child to have an appreciation for art, and to develop a critical discerning eye and to be able to start reasoning. What is the story about? What is the emotion of this story? Is it scary? Is it happy? We can tell all of that from the cover art on a book.
We may even ask them what might come next as we are looking at different pictures and why something is in a picture and when we look at the cover art on a picture book, Lambert makes it very clear. We want to look at the whole cover the front, the back, and the spine. Sometimes the cover in its entirety is one big picture, one continuous picture. Sometimes it gives us very important information about the story. Therefore, we want to start there with picture books, and look at the front, look at the back, look at the spine and look inside the jacket. This is because sometimes even inside the jacket will be pictures that we need to look at to start the story reading process. Therefore, as we take time to start with the cover of a picture book, we are developing so much in our child's mind, and because the illustrators have taken the time to create these pictures. They have usually created important details. We do not want to skim over as we look at the book and start reading. Sometimes a side story may be happening in the pictures that do not have anything to do with the text and it adds this fun and this wonder to the reading of the book.
A really fun part of reading the book is seeing this little side story that is going on just in the illustrations. In addition, those illustrations often will begin with the cover or with the jacket. When we take time to look at the book as a whole, we are not dissecting it as we would a frog in science class, just assembling the parts and looking at each part, examining it. Rather we are adding to the experience of the book as a whole work of art. Moreover, we are enriching the experience for our child. Tommy dePaola said, in fact, a truly great picture book could be wordless. Therefore, the pictures actually move the story along and move the narrative along. Once a child has had the story read to them, they can remember the story just by looking at the pictures. In addition, I just love that he puts such importance on the words as much as the pictures and the illustrations in the story. We start with the cover. Who wrote it, who illustrated it? We see who else has contributed to the book. Maybe there is an introduction or a comment. How has the lettering on the cover contribute to the feeling of the story? Next, we look at the book jacket, if they have one. The original plan or original art artistic plan for the book is in that first hardcover copy of the book. There was one jacket for a book that I know of that was a poster to hang on the child's wall.
So sometimes, it is really somewhat important that we try if possible to get that original hardcover book. This is because it has the original plan that the artist had for the book. Sometimes the jacket has extra pictures, as I said, on the inside, as well as the outside. It is like a little treasure hunt with your child as you examine the cover, the jacket, and the endpapers too. For example, Lambert discusses in her book. This book called Hush Little Baby, which is based on the old song by the same name. You will see on the jacket in the endpapers of the book, the whole gist of the story. In addition, she is a college professor and she said she had a student write a disastrous essay on the book because she missed the part of the story on the jacket and endpapers. Therefore, she misinterpreted the whole story.
So sometimes, it is vital to understanding the story and enjoying the story to look at the jacket, the cover, and the endpapers. Sometimes the endpapers just add color, they carry that color throughout the book, and it helps bring your eye to certain things in the pictures that you want to notice. Another observation Lambert suggests is to guess why the picture book is in a portrait or landscape orientation. How does that add to the story? It is interesting to consider that most journey stories are in landscape orientation. Think about Polar Express and books that need a taller orientation like Madeline with the Eiffel tower in the picture needs that portrait orientation. It is interesting, one of my favorite books is called Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say, and it is portrait orientation, even though it is about a journey and I thought, well, why is that.
It made me stop and think they have the boat motif through the whole book. Yet the book is not in landscape orientation. I think it is because the story is about being in each place within the story. It is the experience of being a third culture kid. Therefore, it is not so much about the journey back and forth on the boat. However, it is about the journey that he experiences internally as he struggles to find his place and know what is truly home. Moreover, that is more the point of the story than the actual traveling. Therefore, I think that is why it has a portrait orientation. The other thing that is cool about Lambert's book is she gives us questions to ask in an appendix to her book. She calls it thinking with our eyes, and some of the questions are for us as parents and teachers, and some are for the children.
One of my favorite questions she includes is to ask as you have looked at the cover jacket and endpapers. What questions do you have after looking at these pictures? What a great question to ask our kids. What questions do they have after looking at this? Remember whatever questions you ask, you want open-ended questions so that the children will interact more so you can spark conversations with your kids. Then another great question she suggests is what is it that you learn about yourself as a reader and as a thinker when you reflect on your Story time experiences. In addition, we can ask ourselves that we can ask our kids that, what you learn about yourself as we finish reading this book. What did it teach you about yourself? Because picture books have universal themes and experiences, we can all relate. It helps us to relate to the story in some way but also helps us understand our own experiences in life even more.
Then another important point she makes is that we sometimes ask questions while we are reading to children, but we have a preconceived answer we want or expect from the child. When we use the whole book approach, we do not have an expected answer, but we allow the child to think about the question and we may be surprised by their answers. She said many times she's been surprised by the child's answer and they have thought of things she would have never thought about and she has learned from them. Therefore, we do not want to miss those wonderful opportunities. When our child may see something that we missed and help us to grasp even more of the story and make it an even richer experience for us as well. There are many ways that we can read a book to children.
We may tell the story a very animated way. Sometimes if we know the story very well, we almost move from reading to just telling you the story like a true storyteller would with voices and animation interaction with our audience. Moreover, this is truly fun and theatrical and is a wonderful experience for our kids. I will post a few YouTube videos in the show notes for you. This will be on storytelling. It will also be on how this art form can be mastered. You may not want to become a great storyteller, but we can gain some great pointers just from watching these videos and learning how to tell a more animated story. Therefore, I will post those in the show notes. Other times we have something that comes up in the middle of the story that we need to talk about. Therefore, we stopped to ask questions and take time for discussion and thinking, and some think, well, that is going to ruin the story because we are stopping right in the middle, but it really does not.
It enriches the experience. Whatever we do, we need to take the time to relish the books and the precious time we have with our kids. I encourage you to read aloud with your kids, whatever their age is. Our culture tries to make our kids grow up so fast and by reading books together, we can help them enjoy their childhood longer. My four kids are technically adults now, and I read picture books to them. When I find one, I just have to share. They seem to enjoy it just as much as they did when they were little. We do have more grownup discussions about it. We also take the time to read aloud together by reading other books together. We read a chapter or a section of a book and go through a book together as a family and it has been such a wonderful time. Also, in a time of enrichment, a time of sharing, a time when even though they are grown and getting their own lives we have that moment together.
Whether you do a devotional time with your family together, or just reading another book together, we usually combine the two and we read a Christian book together about living the Christian life and bring in the scripture to that and that's what our time together usually is. It is not always easy. We have many scheduling issues now that they are grown with their job schedules and school schedules and everything else, but those times are awesome. I do not care what age your child is. Reading aloud together, whether they are reading aloud to you or you are reading aloud to them is a precious time and cherishes it as much as you can. So sometimes when we are reading together, it is a performance and sometimes it is a co-constructive Story time with education and critical thinking. Also, maybe we have them acknowledge the foreshadowing by having them try to guess what comes next.
However, it is that we read a book together. We want it to be an experience. In addition, Gladys Hunt says in Honey for a Child's Heart, a good book is a magic gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure. Books are experiences that make us grow. That adds something to our inner stature. She also says I am frankly excited by the potential of books to build a completely healthy, spiritually alert child who can enjoy all the possibilities of life. The book Honey for a Child's Heart gives the parents so many ideas for books from a child's early years to books to read, as they grow older. It is an excellent read and an excellent resource. Hunt shares such wisdom and gives information for exploring both sides of some controversial books and the different ones. Some people may say, do not read them as a Christian and others may say, oh, you should read them.
She gives you information from both sides. Therefore, I love that. Her book has, as I said, so much wisdom in it. It talks about how parents give their children milk and honey. Milk is the nurturing. That is the food, the clothing, the house, the necessities of life. However, honey is what we give them when we help them to learn, to experience life, to embrace life, to find joy in life. Therefore, when we read to our children, that's part of the honey part of life and I love that. Then Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook is on its eighth edition. It is a must-have for anyone wanting to look into reading aloud and how to do it right. Nevertheless, it also offers ideas for your children, as they grow older, this handbook outlines all kinds of it is a book's divided by the age, the appropriate time for the book.
Moreover, I love that Trelease emphasizes that everyone should read aloud to someone just like I was saying with my grown kids. He mentions that when he was growing up, he read to his parents, his pets, and his toys. Therefore, aunts, uncles, and friends can read aloud to our kids and our kids can read aloud to them. We can go to the library for story time, no matter who is reading aloud, and who is listening, it should always be an experience filled with joy and wonder and fun and something to be remembered. Trelease also writes whenever I am asked, why I should read aloud to my child or my students, regardless of the child's age, it provides me with an opportunity to share why reading aloud is so important for both reader and listener. The educational values of reading aloud are well-documented introducing vocabulary, modeling, and fluency, demonstrating expressive reading, developing comprehension, and assisting children and making connections.
There is also the personal value of listening to a book read aloud. That experience may generate vivid memories of a story associated with a person's time or place a memory often remaining with us for years. He also includes great research in his book that shows the undeniable value of reading aloud to our children. He adds we read to children for all the same reasons we talk with them to reassure, to entertain, to bond, to inform or explain to arouse curiosity and to inspire. However, in reading aloud, we also build vocabulary, condition the child's brain to associate reading with pleasure, create background knowledge, provide a reading role model, and instill the desire to read. Therefore, this book is so full of information for the parent and teachers. I highly recommend it. Then the fourth book I want to recommend today is The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids by Sarah McKenzie.
Moreover, it is more of a discussion about the importance of reading to our children. She includes research and lots of excellent information. She has a podcast also called Read-Aloud Revival and focuses on homeschoolers. Nevertheless, the podcast suggests quite a few books each time. It is an excellent podcast. I suggest checking it out. It is really good. It is a little longer than mine is. It is usually about 40 minutes long instead of 20, but it is a really good podcast that has been going on for quite a number of years. The Read-Aloud Family is also written from a Christian worldview. One of my favorite quotes from the book is happily ever after is hardly a myth for those who believe in the promise of eternal joy in heaven. Do you not love that? Is that not great? McKenzie also writes. If we tell them enough stories, they will have encountered hard questions and practiced living through so many trials, hardships, and unexpected situations that God willing. They will have what they need to become the heroes of their own stories.
She quotes Katherine Paterson. Katherine Paterson said the story has been the vehicle for truth for as long as the human race can remember. Moreover, it is a wonderful way to deliver truth by telling stories. When reading her book, I have trouble not highlighting the whole thing. There is so much information in there. That is just wonderful. It is such a good book about why reading to our kids is one of the most important things we can do to build a relationship with our kids. I will leave you with one final quote from McKenzie's book; reading aloud with our kids is indeed the best use of our time and energy as parents. It is more important than just about anything else we can do. I hope these facts and books encourage you as a parent and encourage you to take the time to read to and with your child. It is important and it is a gift you give them that they will never forget.
Thank you for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. If you would like to learn more about, parental guidance requested workshops for your church or school check it out on my website at terriehellardbrown.com for more information.
Your Host:
Terrie Hellard-Brown writes and speaks to help children and adults find God’s purpose and plan for their lives. She teaches workshops and writes devotional books, children’s stories, and Christian education materials. Her podcast, Books that Spark, reviews children’s books that spark imagination, emotion, and discussion. For more information, visit her website at terriehellardbrown.com
