Book Review

Product Review–Adventures of Rush Revere

June 21, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I’ve been seeing references in various places to the Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series, and was thinking I’d like to read some of them so I could review them for Esther’s website. When I had the opportunity to sign up for a review of the Adventures of Rush Revere #1 New York Times Bestselling Book Series by Rush and Kathryn Adams Limbaugh, I grabbed the chance. I found these books interesting, but not a great fit for our family. For the most part, the history seems to be quite accurate; I noted below where I was in question about it. This is a creative way to teach history and make it fascinating! What I don’t like so much is the magical aspect. The main character, Rush Revere, a history teacher who dresses like Paul Revere, has a magic horse who can take people through a time portal to any time in American History. The horse starts running, saying the words, “Rush, rush, rushing into history,” and a swirling yellow and purple circle opens up in front of them. Whoever jumps through quickly, before it closes up, is instantly transported to the time and place they chose. The horse can also stop time briefly.

Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims Rush and his horse take two children from the history class for which he is substitute teaching to visit the Pilgrims. First, he takes Tommy to the Mayflower as it is traveling across the Atlantic Ocean, and then he takes both Tommy and Freedom, a girl who looks somewhat Native American, to Plymouth Plantation to watch the Pilgrims starting their new life in the New World.

Rush Revere and the First Patriots Rush is now visiting the American colonies in the 1770s, as the colonists are becoming upset with the English king. He takes Tommy and another boy from his history class, Cam, along. Then, Elizabeth, the principal’s daughter, sees them jump through the time portal and figures out what is going on. She demands to be taken along somewhere, so they take her to see George III. However, she decides she wants to become a queen, so she decides she is going to tell the king about the Boston Tea Party and change history—how can they stop her? Rush and his friends participate in that event, as well as meet Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, George Washington, and Patrick Henry—among other famous Founding Fathers. What I really didn’t like in this book? Freedom is able to communicate telepathically with the horse.

Rush Revere and the American Revolution Now, Rush Revere is taking his students to visit scenes from the opening of the Revolutionary War. They witness Paul Revere’s ride and the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Throughout the book is woven the story of a young boy who is struggling with being upset about his father’s deployment in Afghanistan and problems with a bully. He uses the lessons he learns from watching the early battles in the Revolution to win a battle with the bully. What I really didn’t like in this book? In chapter 1 Cam gets in a fight. In chapter 3 the horse, Liberty, pretends to be a vampire, and later Rush tells Cam that fighting is sometimes necessary.

Rush Revere and the Star Spangled Banner Rush’s young friend Tommy is not feeling very happy, since his grandfather is in the Veteran’s Hospital and not doing well. To distract him and cheer him up, Rush takes Tommy, Cam and Freedom on a summer field trip to Washington, D. C., where they visit the important buildings, see the original documents that set up the United States, and learn about the government. They also time-travel to various events in the past, such as the writing of the Constitution and the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner. The word gosh appears on page 51, chapter 3.

Rush Revere and the Presidency Cam wants to be elected as the president of his middle school. Rush Revere and Liberty help Cam and his friends to put a campaign together, as they learn a lot about the United States Presidency and how people become President. They travel back in time to witness President Washington’s inauguration and his farewell speech, meet John and Abigail Adams as he begins his presidency, and visit Thomas Jefferson at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. I did have to wonder about the accuracy of this book; it sounds as though even the first two presidents campaigned for votes, but the way I remember reading it, that didn’t start until much later. I did appreciate the way it was explained that the President’s motive needs to be to help people, not to be popular and famous. The word gee appears on page 110 in chapter 5.

I also do not agree with the author’s view of the United States. He believes the United States is the greatest nation that has ever existed. I do agree that it is the only country specifically built on the principles of freedom and equality, but to say that it is the greatest nation? I certainly don’t believe that it is any more. Also, I believe in two kingdoms—the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. I don’t believe the two can be mixed; secular government is needed, but we as Christians should not be involved (Romans 13). So, as I said, this series of books is not a good fit for our family for various reasons, although a lot of families who believe differently than us will love them.

These books would be good for roughly 8-15-year-olds who enjoy fantasy, history, and adventure all mixed up. The books are beautiful; they have good, solid hard covers and the pages are lovely heavy paper. One thing that made this fun was receiving the books tied up with a blue ribbon! It was so pretty I took a picture.

Read my full review here.

Adventures of Rush Revere Book Series {Reviews}

Connections

May 18, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

I love the connections we sometimes get to make. We’ve been reading aloud a book titled The Broken Blade, a story about voyageurs who traveled from Montreal to Grand Portage in 1800. The main character is a young boy whose father got injured just before signing up with a crew for the summer’s trip, so Pierre went in his father’s place. In the chapters we read this morning, the five canoes reached Lake Superior, and as they crossed a large bay a fierce storm came up. They barely reached the shore of an island before the canoe sank.

At lunch, we often watch some educational videos online. One we watched today was from an article I came across this morning, about a shipwreck recently discovered in Lake Superior.

We watched the video, and then read a bit of the article. As we were reading, I wondered where the wreck was, so then we went to Google Maps to find Michipicoten Harbour. As we looked at the map, we started thinking it looked like the map in The Broken Blade that we had been studying this morning. We grabbed the book, and sure enough, it was the same bay! What fun.

By the way, The Broken Blade is quite a gripping story about the voyageurs and the hard life they lived. We are really enjoying it, although there are some very graphic places, such as when they killed a deer or when one man was killed. It’s so real, you feel like you were there. We are rather upset with how the author made the one man die, and wondering why it had to be him. We’re hoping there is a good reason later on. What I loved about all this was the connections some of the children made, between the book and real life, and what’s happening today! I also loved that it was totally unplanned!

This is the map we were looking at in our book; the yellow arrow shows where the canoes got caught in the storm. As far as we can tell, they landed on the island.

Here is the Google Maps page we looked at:

And I just realized, we actually did a bit of geography today! That doesn’t happen every day.

Book Review: Shepherd, Potter, Spy—and the Star Namer

April 6, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

A couple of months ago, I received the offer to review the book Shepherd, Potter, Spy—and the Star Namer for Peggy Consolver. She had been intrigued by the story of the Gibeonites, found in Joshua 9 and 10, and wanted to write a novel about them. Well, I was immediately intrigued by the idea; I had never come across a story written from that point of view before! So, of course, I signed up for it.

Keshub is the main character; he is a 12-year-old as the story begins. He lives in Gibeon, and is a shepherd for his family. One day, he runs across an Amorite boy on the border between their lands, and is startled to learn that the boy, bin Zedek, a son of Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem, hates his own father. Why? He learns the terrible reason a few months later. As Keshub grows, he graduates to a new job, helping in the family’s pottery business. He especially loves helping his uncle sell their wares in nearby Jerusalem and Jericho, and badly wants to travel outside of Aijalon Valley. But soon, disturbing news reaching the village occupies his mind. A huge group of people, the Hebrews, are camped on the border of Canaan. Some 40 years ago, they came out of Egypt, leaving chaos in their wake—what will happen now? As they come closer to Gibeon, Keshub’s people prepare to defend themselves. Soon, Keshub and his brother are involved with spying on the Hebrews. Their people still haven’t figured out how to save themselves, although Keshub’s father is beginning to think that the Star Namer he has heard of, the God who made the stars and everything else, may be the same God who is allowing the Hebrews to cross the flooded Jordan River on dry ground, and making the walls of Jericho fall outward before his son’s eyes. What will he do with this knowledge?

We enjoyed this story. The terror in the minds of the Canaanites, and the various ways they reacted to the threat of the Hebrews as they approached, was really brought to life. I also appreciated the way the author switched back and forth, mostly telling the story from Keshub’s Canaanite point of view, but at times showing us the life of a boy in the Hebrew camp. I hadn’t thought about it much before how the people would have known that all the men of a certain age and older would be dying before long, before they would enter the Promised Land. That dread is brought out in this story. The family relationships were beautiful, too. We especially liked one line, where Mother said, “Boys, beware when your brother wears that look. He can talk you out of your woolen blanket on the coldest day.” I also felt like we really got a feel for the geography of the area. It was obvious that the author had spent some time there, learning to know what the place was like.

Although we enjoyed the historical aspect of the book, there were a few complaints we had. It seemed like the narration was rather long-winded; we felt like it could be cut down by half or even two-thirds and tell the same story without dragging so much. I had a little trouble with the quality of proofreading, as well; words were not always divided properly at the end of lines, which made it hard to read aloud, and one character’s name was spelled three different ways. We also wondered about the total lack of religion in the lives of the Gibeonites.

All in all, I would recommend this book as a very clean, fairly accurate story of Bible times. We read it aloud, and all the children were listening in. It is not a story with a lot of tension; I didn’t get many requests for “another chapter.” On the other hand, my 7-year-old wouldn’t mind hearing it again sometime!

The author has created a study guide for the book. I did not purchase it, but did look over the sample. If you wanted to do a unit study on Ancient Israel, this would be a wonderful resource. She has some maps, and many links to help you learn more about various topics mentioned in the book.

Book Review: Meddlin’ Madeline Book Two—Such a Tease

March 29, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

About the Book

Book: Such a Tease
Author: Chautona Havig
Genre: Christian Fiction/Historical/Mystery

My Thoughts:

After reading the first book in the Meddlin’ Madeline series,Sweet on You, last year, I really wanted to read the second book, but it hadn’t been written yet! Now it has, and it’s better than the first book. I loved reading Such a Tease. If you enjoy light mysteries, or stories about human interactions, you’ll probably like this book.

Madeline is still wondering about Vernon’s true character. She spent the whole of the first book trying to determine if he was a fit husband for her best friend, and now she’s trying to decide if his scheme of electrifying the entire city, starting with the slum area, is truly for the benefit of the people of that poor district—or for the benefit of his pockets? How can she expose him, if he is the fraud she thinks he is? Or is he the caring, loving man he portrays himself as?

Madeline has a new job in this book; she is now working at the bank. This, of course, gives her the opportunity to observe even more people, in different ways. It also gets her into some pretty interesting situations. Because she is working for Mr. Merton, the father of her best friend, she has to walk a tightrope, being very careful what she says, to whom.

There were many threads in this story that were skillfully brought together into one cohesive whole. Russell is still paying a lot of attention to Madeline, only, of course, because his sister asked him to keep her from becoming lonely while she was away in Europe. Madeline has several other friends, too, and they have a lively social life. The president is shot, and, as the city’s mayor, Madeline’s father is quite affected. I also appreciated seeing Madeline’s spiritual life growing. I’m liking her even more than in the first book!

I really enjoyed reading this book, as I said. I loved the way Chautona Havig wrote in the style of the early 1900s, and I loved the little details that gave the flavor of the time—such as stepping around “an unfortunate package left by the passing horses.” Then there was Madeline’s statement, “That arrogance will cause mistakes. I only intend, if possible, to observe them.” I also had to chuckle at her thought, “Your pride in your humility serves only to create annoyance for all, Mrs. Hardwick.” So true! And then there was the word I was sure was a misprint—only to discover much later that it was intentional on the author’s part. I laughed out loud, literally, when I realized why she used that particular word.

WARNING: A woman is found murdered about halfway through the book.

The author’s synopsis:

Madeline, with a little assistance, discovers her old adversary is gaining a following in Rockland! Can she expose him for the fraud she’s sure he is? In book two of the Meddlin’ Madeline series, Madeline Brown has a new endeavor to occupy her time. But is it to keep her out of the way or a reward for her work in Sweet on You? With the help of her young friends, Madeline discovers her old adversary is gaining a following in Rockland! What’s a girl to do? But her new position also gives her opportunities to observe, and what she sees sets more than one new investigation in motion. What does her old suitor, Delbert Jackson, know? Why is Mr. Merton giving important papers to that scoundrel, Vernon Smythe, and whatever happened to poor Abigail Cooper? Add to these intriguing questions Henry Hardwick’s continued attentions, Edith’s newfound devotion to the temperance movement and Madeline’s determination to find her a more reliable suitor, and strange behavior from her Aunt Louisa and things heat up as summer fades from Rockland. Her dear friend, Russell, busy with an important project at work, finds himself unable to help keep her out of trouble and away from danger. Is Madeline going too far? Will her meddling get her in serious trouble this time, will it destroy her reputation irreparably, or will she rid Rockland of a scoundrel once and for all?

About the Author

Author of the Amazon bestselling Aggie, Past Forward, and HearthLand series, Chautona considers herself blessed to live in California’s Mojave Desert with her husband and five of her nine children. When not writing, which she admits isn’t often, Chautona enjoys blogging, paper crafts, sewing, smocking, photo editing, and old (read: before her parents’ time) music.

Guest Blog Post from Chautona

Leon Czolgosz is my new nemesis. He’s dead, but he ruined my book. No, really. The guy totally destroyed the opening pages of Such a Tease. Now, these days, not a whole lot of people remember the name of Leon Cozolgosz. I didn’t. But I’ll never forget him now (although I may never remember how to spell his name). Who is he? Only the guy who shot President McKinley. Why am I annoyed with him over a hundred years later? The idiot did this thing on September 6, 1901. You know, four days after this book opened? Yeah. Couldn’t he have done it on say… January 6, 1901? Even January 6, 1902 would have served my purposes. Look, I’m not as callous as I appear. Truly. But if President McKinley had to die, did his murderer have to do it when it would completely mess up my book?

How did it mess up my book you ask?

I’ll tell you. I left it out—the whole assassination thing. There I was, fixing a wedding date for one of the characters, when a thought occurred to me. She could be married on Flag Day—if Flag Day was a thing then. I didn’t think it was. I really thought Wilson was responsible for that—you know, creating holidays in between his notes to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany or something like that. But I hoped. Somehow—just maybe. I mean we had Labor Day from Cleveland, why not Flag Day from McKinley. But noooooo. He didn’t. What did he do? He got shot. Four days after my book opened. And there wasn’t a single word about it in the story. Like I could ever get away with that. This was news! Big news. And nothing about it in the life of a daughter of a politician? I think not. Not only did this Leon Czolgosz (no, really. It’s spelled correctly) shoot the president on September 6^th, but he didn’t do a good job of it! Look, I think I’ve established that I didn’t want President McKinley killed. But if the guy with the unpronounceable last name had to do it, couldn’t he have done a good job of it? Couldn’t he have shot the president in the head? McKinley suffered for eight days before he died. Eight days! They thought he was getting better and then gangrene killed him. It would have been a mercy had Leon just shot McKinley in the head or the heart. Why the abdomen? Cruel, if you ask me, even for an anarchist. And it made adding the whole affair to my book even more problematic. No, really! Think about it. I couldn’t have the newspapers announce the death of President McKinley on September 7^th and then have a few mentions of the bank being affected or something. No… no… now I had to have a headline event, give false hope, and then add the death on top of it all. Look, I do an obscene amount of research for my books. No, really. Keen was slang in 1901. Woohoo! Look up “peachy keen”? Yeah. Can’t use it. 1950s. The telephone? Can Madeline expect to use one in a burgeoning city in 1901? Considering there were over 850,000 telephones in use, yes. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that a photographer who works for a local paper might have a telephone in order to receive calls requesting him to come photograph some big event—like the Mayor’s speech on the death of President McKinley, perchance? Yep. Somehow, I almost missed one of the biggest events in US history. Research saved the book—and ruined my timeline. All at the same time. Gotta love history. Or not. And Leon Czolgosz? Yeah. Thanks for nothing.

Buy the book on Amazon here.

Book Review—Bessie’s Pillow

March 23, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We recently had the opportunity to review Bessie’s Pillow, a new book by Linda Bress Silbert, published by Strong Learning, Inc. I read the book to myself first, after a couple of people in an online forum mentioned some possible concerns with it, but decided that it would be fine to read aloud to my children. I’m glad I did! We really enjoyed this true story. One thing that made it even more meaningful to us is that we have a family living with us at the moment, and the wife came from Latvia; she was born in Lithuania, where Bessie came from! I was glad to be able to ask her how to pronounce a Russian word.

Boshka Markman was only 18 when her parents managed to save enough money to send her from their village of Glubokoye (Glue-bo-ko-yeh) in Lithuania, to New York City to live with her older sister. Life in Lithuania, the Pale of Settlement, was increasingly dangerous for the Jews, and Boshka’s parents didn’t want her hurt—or worse—in a pogrom. They also didn’t want her to be in danger as she traveled alone across the Atlantic Ocean, so they bought her a first-class ticket. As she was leaving, a woman gave her a beautifully-embroidered pillow, asking Boshka to give it to the woman’s son in New York.

Although Bessie, as she was known after her name was changed at Ellis Island, was able to find her sister in New York City without too much trouble, she was disappointed with what she found there—and very thankful for friends from Glubokoye who were happy to take her in. She was not willing to live off of their generosity for very long, however, and soon learned more about how most Jewish people in New York lived than she had ever wanted to know.

After living in New York City for about a year, Bessie finally brought herself to find the owner of the pillow in New Rochelle. What happened next? Well, let me just say that we’ve read so many books now that my boys can detect a budding romance pretty quickly! The book tells the story of Bessie’s married life, with its joys and tragedies and triumphs, for the next 20 or 30 years. World War I is described from her perspective, as well as the Spanish Influenza and the Great Depression. Something I particularly enjoyed was the mention of homeschooling her children during and after the Influenza. The book states that many people did that at the time, to protect their children from illness.

We greatly enjoyed Bessie’s Pillow. Esther commented that it has a unique perspective on immigration. Most of the stories that are written about European immigrants to America tell about people who traveled in steerage and lived in the tenements. Bessie was more upper-class, however, so the perspective is quite different. Another thing that was different about this book, from most, is that it is written in first-person, present-tense style. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book quite that way, but it worked well. You are really drawn into Bessie’s life. There are flashbacks here and there, which are clearly marked with italics. When I was reading aloud, I did make sure to mention that this was a flashback so no one got confused.

WARNING: The prologue mentions murder and rape. Chapter 2 does, as well. Chapter 3 describes how the women were forced to undress for a medical examination. Chapter 5 mentions that Jewish boys often maimed themselves so they would be unfit for military service. Chapter 10 has a veiled reference to prostitution. Chapter 15 includes a description of a kiss. None of these were extensive; it was easy to censor as I read aloud. I wouldn’t necessarily want a child younger than teenage to read the book on their own, however.

Product Review—Circle C Stepping Stones Books

March 16, 2017 by NZ Filbruns 2 Comments

Mr. Intellectual, the only boy in our family who reads much of anything, has really enjoyed the other Circle C books we have (most of each of the Circle C Beginnings and the Circle C Adventures series). When I had the opportunity recently to sign up for review copies of the first two books in Susan K. Marlow’s newest series, Circle C Stepping Stones, published by Kregel Publications, I knew he’d love them. I read both Andi Saddles Up and Andi Under the Big Top aloud to all the children, and the boys really enjoyed them. Mr. Sweetie badly wants me to get the rest of the books in the series. Mr. Intellectual really likes them, and so does Mr. Diligence, although I can’t get any more out of him than that! Even Mr. Imagination enjoyed them. Here he is holding them:

Book #1: Andi Saddles Up. Andi (her real name is Andrea) is nine years old now, and finally able to ride her beloved filly Taffy with a saddle! She desperately wants her very own brand-new saddle for her birthday, but there isn’t one with her pile of gifts when she arrives at the breakfast table. Not only that, but an irate neighbor shows up in the kitchen, yelling at Andi’s big brother Chad, who runs the ranch since the death of their father many years ago, about a boundary dispute. During the next few weeks, Andi faces a couple of temptations to disobey. What happens to her when she directly disobeys an order given by Chad? The results are surprising! I asked one of my boys what he didn’t like about this book. He answered that he didn’t like the yelling and arguing. We all liked the conclusion of the story, though!

Book #2: Andi Under the Big Top. A circus is coming to town! This must be the most exciting thing Andi has ever seen. All the children of the family go to town to watch the parade, and the whole family attends the afternoon show. Andi is enthralled with what she sees. Then, she talks to Henry, a young boy who is part of the circus. It turns out that there is another side to the circus, which she hadn’t seen before. Is there any way to help Henry? And what about when something very dear to Andi disappears? I appreciated the way the circus was portrayed so realistically, and not held up as something glamorous. I was slightly apprehensive about reading it to my children, since we don’t do things like going to circuses, but it turned out to be fine, in my opinion.

There is a study guide on the author’s website to go along with these books. Although we won’t be using it, it would be a great resource if you want to do a unit study based on these stories. There are also coloring pages which can be printed. I printed a set for each of the four children ages 4-7 who are living in our house right now, and they have really enjoyed them. There are six pictures for each book. They are the illustrations in the book, each one in a full-page PDF. We really enjoyed doing this review, and I’m hoping we will have the chance to review more books for this author. We also loved that Kregel Publications was willing to mail physical copies of them to us, even though we live in New Zealand!

Read my full review here.

For 60 other reviewer’s opinions on these books, click on the banner below:

Book Review—Baggage Claim

February 15, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was not going to help launch this book. I decided I was busy enough that Esther could help Cathe Swanson launch her books, and I’d stick to helping Chautona Havig with hers, and Esther was happy about that. Of course, since she got Baggage Claim to read in advance of publication, she sent it to my Kindle when she sent it to hers, and I started reading it a couple of weeks ago. Oops! I ended up wasting a lot of time reading it instead of getting right back to work when I should have. And now, Esther hasn’t even had time to finish the book, so guess who volunteered to write a review and help promote the book! It’s a good one—you won’t regret buying this book and reading it. It published today, so you should be able to get it immediately.

I don’t know when I’ve read a book I’ve enjoyed as much as I enjoyed Baggage Claim. I loved all of it. Cathe Swanson is one of my very favorite authors! I hope she keeps writing. This is only her second published book, but it’s a winner.

Ben Taylor is a young widower with four children, and he has a nanny who keeps his life in order. Teresa Cooper not only takes care of the children, she also keeps the house tidy and meals on the table. Ben has never had life so easy since he got married at 18 after Anneliese got pregnant. Now, though, he is searching for his birthparents. What a mess he finds!

One thing I love about this book is the many stories interwoven skillfully into one. Teresa has a fascinating story; Ben’s history is mysterious and I absolutely loved what he ended up finding; Ben’s life ends up full of intrigue and possible danger. I also love the setting. Ben lives in Chicago, but he ends up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a few times. One thing I really liked was the mention of Bond Falls in the U. P. I had never heard of it until our family was traveling through that area a number of years ago and saw a sign pointing down a side road toward Bond Falls. It was the most spectacular waterfall I have seen in my life, and is a very special memory, so I was delighted to see it in a book. It was also fun to see the mention of Ontanagon, just because it’s an unusual name for a place, and it’s real. I think I would love this book just for the portrayal of my home state, even if the story wasn’t quite so good!

Besides simply enjoying the story, there were some very meaty parts to it, too. One scene that really stands out in my mind is when Teresa is telling the story to a friend of her experience in a women’s shelter. She describes another woman who was in there, and says that she was the reason that Teresa became a Christian. It wasn’t because she told Teresa about Jesus, but rather that she was a “living testimony” that other women could build on to explain salvation to Teresa. I shared that passage with my husband one afternoon when he was talking about his frustration with himself and not sharing Jesus with the world as much as he wants to. Teresa’s friend’s response was just what my husband needed that day, “Some plant the seed, some water and some harvest. God put it all in place for you. He’s just amazing that way.”

I highly recommend Baggage Claim if you’re looking for a great story that’s perfectly clean and pulls you in. It is a long book, but keeps moving. I’m hoping for a sequel—Ben had some unfinished business at the end, although Teresa’s story had a satisfying conclusion! Oh, and my favorite quote from the book? “And Jonah couldn’t find the outhouse at all.” You’ll have to read the book to find out who Jonah is and how an outhouse comes into the story.

Note: I received a free copy of this book, and chose to review it.

WARNING: When Ben is searching for his birth parents, he hears a fairly detailed story from his teenaged mother’s best friend. Later in the book, a girl who is babysitting Ben’s children hits a man over the head with a gun to knock him out so she can tie him up.

Note: The links in this post are Esther’s affiliate links, so if you purchase the book through them you’ll be helping to support her website.

Book Review—New Year’s Revolutions

December 30, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Chautona Havig has written yet another book this year! After writing Christmas Stalkings, she wanted to tell Neal Kirkpatrick’s story—he’s sort of the villain in it. New Year’s Revolutions, therefore, is both a prequel and a sequel to Christmas Stalkings (see my review here).

Christmas Stalkings is told mainly from Wendy’s point of view, as she prepares for Christmas with her seven cats and deals with someone entering her house and moving things around. New Year’s Revolutions tells the story from her neighbor Neal’s point of view—but starts earlier and goes on a long ways after the first story ends.

Neal Kirkpatrick is the town grump; some teenagers even call him Jerk-patrick. Wendy is sure he hates her, the way he is always barking at her. Neal, however, sees something in Wendy that he hasn’t seen in many, if any, other women of his aquaintance. Neal has always looked on women as purely sexual objects, to just enjoy, use, and walk away from. Wendy, though, is different. She isn’t perfect, but when she does something wrong, she makes it right. What makes the difference in her life? When Neal finds out that she reads the Bible, and actually believes it, he buys one and starts reading it from cover to cover, over and over, trying to figure out if it is true and if God really exists. Can an atheist actually turn around and believe in God? If so, how? How can God prove that He exists?

I found the process Neal went through quite intriguing. His entire view of life was revolutionized—his New Year’s resolutions were truly revolutionary that year. There is so much in this book. Read it and be challenged yourself! I really appreciated the way Wendy lived her faith. I also enjoyed the humorous scenes. You don’t want to miss the time Neal bought kittens!

WARNING: Men’s temptations with lust are mentioned frankly, and Neal refers to sex a number of times, although never with any details. Two or three times a woman tries to get him to go with her.

To buy the book, just click on the title. I used Esther’s affiliate links, so if you buy a book through them, she will get a little money to put toward maintaining her website and it won’t cost you any more.

Book Review—Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day

December 26, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We have finally finished our science course for the year. It was very hard to get in time for science this year, with the crazy schedules we had all year, and a lot of time off school for one reason or another. Toward the end of the year, after several of the boys finished some subjects and I had more time, we were able to do lessons more often. I have thoroughly enjoyed our study this year, of Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. I am greatly enjoying getting an in-depth look at various topics from a strongly Christian, Creationist point of view. Jeannie K. Fulbright has done an excellent job with this book, as with the other books we’ve used that she wrote.

The lessons in this book cover aquatic animals in general and the oceans, whales, seals and sea cows, aquatic herps (reptiles and amphibians), primeval reptiles such as plesiosaurs, fish, sharks and rays, crustaceans, mollusks, cephalopods like squids and octopuses, echinoderms (sea stars and sea urchins), cnidarians like jellyfish and coral, and other aquatic animals such as sponges, worms, and some microscopic creatures. We learned a lot of very fascinating facts! I think this was the most interesting book from this series yet, for us, since we live very near the ocean and have seen many of the creatures covered in the book. In fact, a few days before we did the lesson on octopuses, a couple of my boys found an octopus among the rocks at the edge of the sea!

The favorite part of this book appears to have been the very last lesson we read. It was about microscopic creatures, specifically rotifers and tardigrades. That was apparently the most intriguing thing for a couple of my sons! Another of the boys remembered quite a few things. He enjoyed learning the difference between true seals and eared seals; we have eared seals in our area. He also liked learning about the sizes of some of the giants of the sea, such as manta rays and leatherback turtles. Another favorite topic for him was symbiosis, the way various animals work together to live, such as clownfish and sea anemones. He also mentioned being fascinated with the Man O’War, which is actually a colony of several animals!

As we have done other years, I purchased the notebooking journals that go with this book. They cost a fair bit, but they really help me organize our study. As we read each section of the lesson (which takes us about four days of reading together to get through), I have the boys write a sentence or two about what they learned in that section. After we finish the reading, each of them creates a mini book from pages provided in the back of the notebook, writing down information about the various animals and topics covered in the lesson. I do the writing for most of the boys, because they struggle so much with it and will come up with a lot more if they don’t have to do the mechanical part of the writing. There are also copywork pages for each lesson, vocabulary exercises, and usually a crossword puzzle for the older children. The junior notebooking journal has other activities to review vocabulary. There is also a page of review questions in the older book. There are book suggestions for most lessons to expand the study, but our libraries here don’t have many, if any, of the books. There are also suggested experiments, and you are supposed to build a diorama of an underwater scene as you go through the entire book. We don’t do a lot of those activities, though. Especially this year, we were struggling to just read the book and do the review! If we had more time, it would be fun to do more.

I highly recommend Apologia’s Young Explorers Series. This is the best science course I have come across. It will take something pretty amazing to lure us away from using these books! I love being able to learn fascinating facts along with my sons. We also love the way the author honors God and shows His design in the way the animals are made and act.

History 15—Part 3

December 17, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I thought surely I had done at least a third post in this series! Life got pretty crazy in October, and we haven’t done much of our history reading. Right now, Esther is on her way home from America, and I’m a couple of chapters ahead of her. Time to do a bit of serious reading, Esther! I’ll share my notes up to where she has read. For the first two installments of notes on Unwrapping the Pharoahs, go here and here.

Chapter 15 talks about Thutmosis I. He was an extremely rich, powerful king. It is likely that he is the Pharoah whose daughter Solomon married, and the father of Hatshepsut. One bit of supporting evidence is that none of his records mention invading the hill country of Israel, although he did invade Syria. He erected the first obelisks.

Chapter 16 is about Hatshepsut. She became regent for her stepson Thutmosis III at the age of 15 when her husband died. Seven years later, she proclaimed herself Pharoah, at age 22, and ruled for 22 years. She was likely the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. She left inscriptions describing a trip to the “Land of Punt”. Egyptian inscriptions refer to the Land of Punt as being in Palestine. Jesus mentions the Queen of the South coming to visit Solomon, and Daniel refers to the king of the South being from Egypt. She would have been going to visit her sister, who married Solomon.

Chapter 17. Thutmosis III conquered many cities, making them tributaries. He is more than likely the “Shishak” who looted Jerusalem in Rehoboam’s day. He seems to have been friendly toward Hatshepsut, who usurped his rule at first, until late in his reign when he destroyed all her inscriptions.

Chapter 18. Amenhotep II, son of Thutmosis III, wanted to imitate his father’s victories. He took immense amounts of booty and prisoners in his second campaign, but a subsequent one was different. They went no farther than south/central Palestine and only 2 horses, 1 chariot, and some bows and arrows returned. Was this the battle in which God miraculously defeated the “Ethiopians” for Asa?

Chapter 19. Thutmosis IV became Pharoah even though he had 2 older brothers. He claimed that the Sphinx told him that if he removed the sand covering it he would become the next Pharoah. He died young of a wasting disease.

Chapter 20. Amenhotep III had over a thousand wives. His favorite was the daughter of commoners. He had many statues made of himself. His 38-year reign was peaceful. His huge statues were made of layers of stone rather than one huge one, so they weren’t repurposed for other uses.

Chapter 21. Akhenaten tried to change the worship in Egypt to the sun disc Aten rather than the sun god Amun. By the revised chronology, he was contemporary with Ahab king of Samaria, meaning that neither Moses nor David could have copied him, as they are accused of doing. His wife Nefertiti was a beautiful woman, and they had six daughters.

Chapter 22. Tutankhamen was insignificant as a Pharoah; he is only famous because his tomb was left intact. He married his sister (who had been married to their father); she had 2 stillborn children.

Chapter 23. Soon after Tutankhamen’s death, the 18th Dynasty ended. Rameses I became Pharoah, but only for a year. His son Sethi I accomplished a lot, including an invasion of Syria and Palestine.

(The link in this post is an affiliate link for Esther’s website, and if you purchase the book through this link it will help her website. I would have linked directly to the review on her site, but the website is down right now and will be till Esther gets home to work on it.)