Giveaway! and, Announcing a New Website

I am excited to be able to announce the launch, today, of a brand-new website! Esther had the inspiration, last October, to build a website of book reviews to help people make decisions about books for their families, and help moms find books to go along with their history studies or just for their children to read. Building a website turns out to be a lot more work than I ever imagined, but Learning Resource Directory is finally ready to go! Have a look at the website and its companion blog, Purposeful Learning. You can even enter a giveaway Esther is holding in celebration.

This website seems to be unique—at least, we haven’t found anything quite like it. Each book featured on the site has a several-paragraph review, so you know what the book is about. Each book also has warnings attached to it, so that if you are concerned about books containing violence, bad language, or romance for your children you’ll know about it. Esther has also created a search feature that I think is really great. If you want a book set in Ancient Greece, you can find it. She has the books sorted by genre, as well as historical period, location, and reading age level. You can also do a keyword search to find more specific topics. There are only 48 books featured on the website right now, but more are coming very soon (I think, between the two of us, we have another 50-100 reviews written that she hasn’t had time to post!), so come back for another look. And, if there are books you’d like our opinion on, let us know through the contact form on the website and maybe we’ll be able to read and review it. We have somewhere around a thousand books in our house, and friends with a lot more that we have access to.

This also fulfills a long-time dream of mine! Many years ago, I read a few books of book lists (Honey for a Child’s Heart, Books Children Love, for example), but they all included books I didn’t like and left out books I loved! Of course, that’s to be expected. However, I wanted to write my own book of recommendations. Life, and children, got in the way of that dream, though, and I hadn’t even thought about it for years. Then when Esther came up with the idea for this website, I was excited! This is much better than a book, because it can constantly be added to. Esther was happy to let me write reviews for her, and I’m sure enjoying doing so. When you’ve enjoyed a book, it’s fun to share it with someone. So, go over to Learning Resource Directory and have a look! Esther’s reviews are a lot of fun to read. You might find a book you want to take a closer look at!