Review: Biblezine Revolve 2010, The Complete New Testament

Mom-approved Biblezine!

Do you remember being a teenager and thinking you knew everything? "No Parental Advice Needed" was my attitude and no matter what advice my parents tried to give me, I pretty much took it with a grain of salt. This Biblezine however, gives advice without being too parental. The "experts" in here are generally young adults in touch with todays lifestyles and problems.

The New Testament presented in Revolve 2010 Biblezine has frequent subtitles highlighting the lesson or story being presented. I found that especially useful to call attention to what the story is about. In between reading the New Testament teens will pick up conservative beauty advice, learn about recycling and donating, and be motivated to eat right and exercise. There was a little too much "beauty and boys" talk, but nothing was offensive to me as a parent of a teen and a tween.

Some of the advice was very useful and some not-so-much so. For example, there was a little article recommending using double sided tape to keep your bra attached to your clothes so it doesn't slip down. How did the contributors come up with that one? Yet, I found about half of the articles to be helpful to teens, bearing the advice that parents would love to give if their teens would just listen.

Overall, this is a great way to keep teens reading and the magazine-styel will fit nicely into a backpack alongside their binders and notebooks. I highly recommend this to teen girls 14-17.

A complimentary copy was provided to me by Thomas Nelson and their Booksneeze program.

The Word of Promise New Testament Audio Bible NKJV

I love audio bibles and have been using them for the past few years to get my mind more engaged with the scripture. I have found that I tend to absorb the words differently when hearing them rather than reading them. It's not that one form is better than the other, I just get different mental reactions to the two and interpret things differently.

The Word of Promise New Testament Audio Bible, NKJV has helped me to visualize and feel the interactions, whereas when reading I turn more inward and become reflective on how I can apply or understand the message better.

My daughter and son both LOVE this audio bible. In fact, both of the kids have been known to go to bed with one of the CD's in their CD player at night. Their exposure and understanding of the scripture is so much more than when I was their age when I basically read along once a week while in church.

Although I'm not going to recommend this one over the other options out there, I would recommend that you visit the publishers web sites to sample the dramatization and see which one feels right for you.

The link for this one is:

http://thewordofpromise.thomasnelson.com/about/

There are several options ranging from New Testament, Old Testament, to full Bible. My daughter especially enjoys the Next Generation Version which features teen celebrities doing the reading (more like acting!). They also come in MP3 version which is great if you are just going to rip MP3's to your ipod, computer, or other music device. Otherwise, if you are primarily listening on your home stereo or on a car CD player, they have the CD version which takes many more discs.

I really recommend this as a gift for time pressed people or older people whose eyesight is starting to fail them.

New Hermie DVD: Antonio Meets His Match

There is a new Hermie DVD that Hermie lovers like myself are going to be enjoying very soon. It's called Antonio Meets His Match.

I first learned about Hermie at church. Last year our group activities were all based on Hermie, so even though I'm 8, I still like watching Hermie DVD's. The lesson of this DVD was to love your neighbors and that you don't always get what you want. My favorite part was when everyone's wish came true because they realized they already had everything they wanted.

I recommend this DVD for church lessons. It's one hour long and the DVD has some coloring pages that you can print on your computer. There is a also a fun trivia game, sing-along, and read-along (really a pray-along) that you can play on your computer.

I give it five stars. Kids who like caterpillars and insects will like this DVD too. I recommend this for ages 2-10, but kids 4-8 will probably enjoy it the most.

I received this DVD from BookSneeze.com, and you can receive things for review too if you have a blog.

Rediscovering God in America

Rediscovering God in America is a very good resource for anyone wanting a broad overview of America's connection to God, as demonstrated by America's founding fathers and other American leaders throughout time.

The book was smaller than I had expected it to be. I also expected more pictures to be included. Unfortunately, there are only a few pictures at most contained within each chapter, and as I found myself reading the text, on several occasions I wondered why an accompanying photo was not included. Since this book was described as a walking tour I expected photos of the monuments, statues, inscriptions, and artwork. There are some photos, just not enough.

Since my family is planning a trip to the Smithsonian this summer, this was a perfect read to get educated on the various Washington D.C. monuments and their meanings, as well as how these fit into our faith and the faith of our founding fathers. I really learned so much in this book, far more than I had ever learned in school and it renewed my interest in American history. The writing is engaging yet succinct.

I recommend this book to home schoolers, people planning a trip to Washington, D.C., as well as anyone interested in United States history. Be prepared to use the Internet as a resource though for additional pictures.

I would also love to see a children's edition of this book. I was able to read it and then talk to my children about the meanings of the speeches, documents, quotes, monuments, and statues mentioned within. A book written on a children's level would have been better though.

I received this book from the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers program.

Reviewed by Mom

Review of NKJV Greatest Stories of the Bible

The NKJV Greatest Stories of the Bible is a nice step in between a children's Bible and an adult Bible. I found the storybook format to be very appealing by keeping the stories to 3-5 pages. It reads like a traditional book with sentences spanning the entire width of the page and chapter titles at the top of each new story.

As a parent, I was surprised to find myself engrossed in the stories and kept reading until I had finished several stories. The format is just so pleasant for reading.

If you are buying this for your children, I would recommend they be at least ten years old because it is true to NKJV of the Bible.

Although this would not make a Bible substitute, it is a good way to introduce new Christians to two hundred and fifty of the more popular stories of the Bible without overwhelming them. Tweens and teens that are reluctant readers would also benefit from the format of this book.

There is a dedication page at the front of the book, and verse numbers throughout the book provide easy reference for further reading in the Bible.

The table of contents at the beginning make it easy to find your favorite stories easily.

Reviewed by Mom

Review: Busy People's fast & frugal cookbook

I love cooking with my mom and inventing new recipes. The good thing about this cookbook is that everything takes less than 30 minutes to make, and it doesn't have a lot of ingredients. I especially liked the dessert section since my mom doesn't make dessert too much. But, if I'm willing to make it she's willing to buy the ingredients.

Even if you don't want your kids baking and using the oven, there are recipes for them to learn. The first dessert recipe is Pineapple Cherry Delight. It takes yogurt, crushed pineapple, splenda, pecans, maraschino cherries, and mini marshmallows. You just mix it up! It's so easy. I like to put this into fancy ice cream cups and it's pretty healthy with the fruit, yogurt, and nuts.

Another easy recipe is Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan-covered Marshmallows (can you tell that marshmallows are one of my favorite foods?) You melt the chocolate and add cinnamon, marshmallows, pecans, and salt. I like to take this for a snack to school in a baggie.

There are also a lot of beverage recipes. I like the strawberry smoothie recipe the best. My mom lets me have that before bed.

Even though this is not a kids book, it's easy for kids to do the recipes in here and learn to cook. There are so many different things to make and every recipe really is easy. My dad said he'll help me make the baked beans wiht smoked sausage this weekend. It just takes sausage, onion, butter beans, baked beans, brown sugar flavored barbeque sauce, and brown sugar splenda. It sounds really yummy and I love hot dogs and franks so this sounds really good.

If you want an easy recipe book if you're just getting started cooking, try this one!

The Jesus Book by Stephen Elkins

My review:

I'm in third grade and I really loved this book. It's the first book I've seen that only talks about Jesus. I learned so much from reading this book and I plan on reading it over and over until I can remember everything about Jesus. My friends also like it, but the CD is not good for older kids. The pictures are very colorful so kids who don't read yet will be able to look at the pictures while their moms read to them. I love it!

Mom's Review:

I was recently taking my daughter and her friend for ice cream and in the car my daughters friend asked her when she was going to have first communion. How do I explain to the little girl the difference between being a Catholic and being a Baptist? I decided to go a different route and explain what our churches have in common. This book was very helpful for the girls to explore the beliefs they had in common.

As soon as we got home my daughter ran to her room to get this book and the girls read it. It was a nice way to bring them together despite the fact they attend different churches.

If you'd like to teach your child about Jesus, this is one of the best books I've seen on the subject. This 96 page book has the following sections:

Who Jesus Is

What Jesus Did

What Jesus Taught

When It Happened

Where It Happened

Why It Happened

How It Happened

The book is written at a 2nd/3rd grade level, but I would not hesitate as a parent to introduce this book to children in Kindergarten all the way up to 4th grade.

As usual with these kind of books, I was less impressed with the CD, but I do think preschoolers would enjoy listening to it.

Scripture references are at the top of each story, so if your older child is looking for more in-depth stories, they can read them right from the bible as well as the condensed version presented in this book.

This hardcover book is very sturdy and smaller than normal so it's perfect for children to hold.

An extended 19-page preview can be found at the following link so you can guage for yourself whether or not this is age appropriate for your child.

http://tinyurl.com/TheJesusBook