Two Mini Book Reviews

I was pondering what book to review this week and realized that I haven’t been reading much that has just screamed, “Hey, review me!” They’ve been good, but what I’ve managed to type up has been similar to a 3rd grade book report.

I read The Yellow River by P. Moore Freely. It was good. There were lots of funny jokes. You should read it too.

I mean, really…what more do you say? So instead, I will do two mini reviews (which is to say that I will tell you two books that I liked recently and instruct you to go read them.)

First up:Lessons Kids Need to Learn: Six Truths to Shape the Character of the Child You Love

This is a short and extremely practical parenting book. Most of what it talks about is common sense – but we all know how common that isn’t. Staal emphasizes that we need to shape our kids by example – because they’re much more likely to do what we show them than what we tell them (especially if what we say doesn’t align with how we act.) Though there are Bible verses sprinkled through it and a few mentions of God, I can’t imagine that any non-Christian parent would be offended by it; it’s not heavy handed in the slightest. And really, the advice is practical for anyone, regardless of their faith.

Second: Knights, Maidens and Dragons: Six Medieval Tales of Virtue and Valor Drawn from the Little Colonel Series

This is a delightful collection of short stories (six of them, in fact), each with its own morality tale woven in. Think Aesop in the Middle Ages. The language is modernized for today (vs. the original inspiration of the Little Colonel tales) and there are luxurious illustrations throughout that make the stories even richer. What’s even better is that you don’t always get the “happily ever after” ending that you expect, but the characters do end up with a better outlook on life than they would have had if they had ridden off into a perfect sunset.