Leslie Leyland Fields edited this gem and it truly is something to inspire women over 40! It’s a book to encourage those of us who are older and dealing with aging, dying, and the challenges and gifts that later life offers.

I love pomegranates and this book was full of pomegranate seeds. There are tons of favorite sentences and life lessons. I tried to find a favorite but it’s just too hard. Each one speaks to me in a slightly different way. Moving from one essay to the next was like eating a pomegranate one seed at a time reflecting on the virtue of each: each was delicious but different from the last. Try one more. Read one more. Yes. I recommend this book to anyone woman who dreads turning 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80. There's good news; there is even wonder as time passes.

It is an anthology of women authors who are navigating firsts, lasts, and always in life. Firsts in the authors’ second half of life includes embarking on adventures, learning skills, embracing new professions, missions, and relationships, pulling up roots, caring for older family members, and making peace with their own aging. Lasts encompasses letting go of child-bearing, grown children, bikini bodies, perfection, jobs, regrets, and loved ones. Then there were the always: enjoying the beauty of God’s creation, spending time outside, finding joy wherever you can, talking with neighbors, taking care of yourself and one another, and keeping on the move—mission. Though I prefer essay collections over anthologies (4.5 would be my truer rating), this anthology is a lovely collection. 

I would also like to mention Leslie Leyland Fields brilliance as an author. I was first introduced to her in The Spirit of Food, another collection similar to this. Her last book, Crossing the Waters is another book worthy of your time. This woman who is familiar to modern day fishing techniques has great insight into Christ as a fisherman! Go get the book and be blessed by wonder!

Mary Ann Hoberman's The Seven Silly Eaters is a family favorite in this house!  The illustrations are lovely, the text is amazing, and the overall structure is great.  

First, let's talk about the text. It's a long running poem about the beginning of a large family all the way to a family of seven children and it's just beautifully written.  If you have a large family you are going to laugh along the way as you meet Peter Peters, Lucy Peters and the rest of the clan! Clever, fun, and funny.

The illustrations are fantastic. The illustrator, Marla Frazee, has done an excellent job capturing the fun and chaos of family life.  I also love the pictures of the mother and her reactions to the challenge of raising a family.

Lastly, the structure. It's a celebration of life. The birth of each and every child is celebrated and in the end we celebrate the wonder of a mother who finds something delicious in the oven.  A family favorite here!
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I've made no secret of Sarah Mackenzie's brilliant first book, Teaching from Rest.  This is no exception.  She has taken so many of the gems said in the Read Aloud Revival Podcasts and compiled them into this great handbook for parents and educators who are interested in getting their children into books.

If you are one of those people who would like to get started reading to your kids, this is a great place to start.  She is a great storyteller and she drops gems on how to get kids excited and into reading.

The Read-Aloud Family has three sections. Part 1 goes through all the pertinent research about the benefits of reading aloud to our children. For all of the times when I wonder if what I'm doing is actually worth anything, I will remember the information gleaned here. The biggest takeaway for me is that reading aloud is the BEST use of my time with my kids. From making ourselves present for our kids in a highly distracted culture, to inspiring virtue and compassion in them (and us!), to encouraging our kids academically, reading aloud does it all.

Part 2 is all about practical application. Sarah describes what she calls a "Book Club Culture" at home. She provides us with the right questions to ask about books to encourage deep thought and great conversation. We don't have to be experts on literary analysis to have a good conversation about books. We just have to be able to ask compelling questions. An really valuable part of this book is the chapter on how to pick books for your family, and what makes a good book.

Part 3 is the book list. Sarah breaks her book list into four age groups, 0-3, 4-7, 8-12, and the teen years. One of the things I appreciate about this list is that many of the books and authors are newer. Booklists for older books abound (see John Senior's 1000 Good Books), but navigating the world of new books can be tough for busy parents. I don't have time to read everything before my kids get to it, so this list is valuable. I trust Sarah's opinion and through being a "Sarah MacKenzie Groupie" I have found many gems that have become family favorites. Of course Sarah does not discount classic literature, and encourages families to read it in this book. But because lists for newer literature are not as easy to find (and if you do find one, can you be sure it's a good one?) the list in The Read-Aloud Family belongs in every home.

I am a bit of a book nerd, so I have looked at other resources about reading aloud and this is going to be a new favorite!  But Sarah's book is so much more than just a book on reading books. Sarah's book is about building up the family culture while providing an avenue to have wonderful conversations with our children and deepening family bonds. I highly recommend The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids.  Its worth your time and your money.

Jamie C. Martin wrote this one and its for those of us who interested in having our children learn about the world.  She has amazing book lists in here and you can find a lot of the books at the local library.

The other thing that is amazing about this author is that she organizes a Read the World book club every summer and she is doing it again this summer. If your child loves books and is interested in other cultures, this is a great way to go. If your children or students are more solitary readers, it's still a great resource.

Be blessed and try any of these resources!

I'm a mother of three boys and a Children's Ministry Director and I have looked at many different Bibles. I've been excited to introduce my children to the Bible, but totally overwhelmed with finding a Bible that would faithfully communicate the Scriptures at a level that made sense to young children.

The Jesus Storybook Bible seeks to show how God's plan of salvation is unfolding through each story, and largely succeeds in doing so. Let me try and demonstrate what I mean.

First of all, there are children's Bibles like the Read With Me Bible that are simply bland. Granted, toddlers are not going to pick up on every nuance of a story from the Bible, but the Read With Me Bible often chooses the wrong points to emphasize, entirely leaving out important points of narrative along the way.

One story simply lists miracles Jesus did with no context, failing to communicate that Jesus' miracles actually anticipate and begin to realize a new world, a world where God's Kingdom and rule are breaking into the world in a new and exciting way. Now, children obviously won't grasp the entirety of this message (indeed, even the most mature Christian is still growing in their understanding) but Jesus is more than a magician, he is more than simply amazingly powerful, so why drain the miracle stories of their power? If salt loses its saltiness, what is it good for?

The Jesus Storybook Bible works to explain the big idea, and big picture of the Scriptures at every turn. The focus is on God's love for the lost, the great problem of sin, and the great hope we have in Christ. So, for example, the story of the Exodus is told not as the story of God's great magic show, but instead on the great, mighty, and terrifying rescue of God's people from their slavery, pointing forward also to humanity's slavery to sin and coming rescue in Jesus. That is why the subtitle to this Bible is "Every Story Whispers His Name." Every story anticipates the coming of Jesus and the great rescue he brings to those who put their faith in him. This is a great concept, and a great work for children. 

Now is this Bible perfect? No, and no translation is, much less a paraphrase. Other have commented on some of the shortcomings of this Bible. Sometimes the language and tone is a bit casual, although casual doesn't necessarily mean disrespectful. Every story doesn't say as much as it could, although this is a strength rather than a weakness for a paraphrase (See: The Message). Not all of the theology expressed in the paraphrase matches perfectly with my own, but I see that as a teaching opportunity rather than a fatal flaw, not to mention that I think children should know early on that there are many ideas in the world, and not all of them are equally valid, and certainly not all of them are true. But again, the strength of this Bible is that it gets the story right, interpreting the main idea correctly and always pointing toward Jesus.

This is the point. It continually turns you toward Jesus. From the beginning to the end, everything points towards Jesus Christ.

Here are a few other opinions:

“I LOVE to give people The Jesus Storybook Bible because from the very first chapter it paints a powerful picture of God’s epic love for each one of us. Sally Lloyd-Jones has a unique way of inviting the reader, young or old, to dive in and discover for themselves the truth and hope of the greatest story ever told.” Amy Grant (Amy Grant)

“Sharing the Gospel with The Jesus Storybook Bible has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.” Ann Voskamp (Ann Voskamp)

“I would urge not just families with young children to get this book, but every Christian–from pew warmers, to ministry leaders, seminarians and even theologians! Sally Lloyd-Jones has captured the heart of what it means to find Christ in all the scriptures, and has made clear even to little children that all God’s revelation has been about Jesus from the beginning–a truth not all that commonly recognized even among the very learned.” – Dr. Timothy Keller, NYC (Dr. Timothy Keller)

The last thing I want to mention is that the pictures for this are incredibly well done. Jago is one incredibly talented artist and this book is beautiful.

I would be so bold as to recommend anything by Sally Lloyd-Jones. She has a real gift for communicating truth to the very young or the very young at heart.

What does it mean to have a voice?  

Terry Tempest Williams has delivered a testament with "When Women Were Birds." It's a tiny little book; very subtle; very polite; very powerful. This is non-fiction. This is not a memoir yet we travel through her life with her; this is not religious, though we are given a cat's eye view of the Mormon home; this is not a love story, though it overflows with love. This is an edict. This is a decree; a proclamation. Finally, this is a manifesto. 

Chapter one begins: "[Mother] was dying in the same way she was living, consciously. `I am leaving you all my journals but you must promise me that you will not look at them until after I am gone.' I gave her my word... A week later she died." There were three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound books. "The spines of each were perfectly aligned against the lip of the shelves. I opened the first journal. It was empty. I opened the second journal. It was empty. I opened the third. It, too, was empty, as was the fourth, the fifth, the sixth--shelf after shelf after shelf, all my mother's journals were blank." Then there are twelve blank pages before Chapter Two begins.

What does it mean to have a voice?

"In Mormon culture, women are expected to do two things: keep a journal and bear children."

The physics of sound are such that three elements are required to make sound: something must create a vibration which creates a sound wave. The sound wave must then be picked up by a receiver, such as an ear or a recording device. If a tree falls in the woods and there is nothing there to hear it, there will be no sound at all. There are many loud voices in our world but none of them are heard. (All of my Mothers' journals are blank.) "When Women Were Birds" is, in part, a book about a woman's quest to find and define her voice. Ms Williams does this with a whisper. There is no blame; the experienced pain has been weighed, applied as a spiritual lesson and expressed so as to benefit our experience. Alice Parker once said, "To be certain that someone will listen you must sing softly with intensity." This is just her voice, years in the making, using our own history and human experience to suggest the ways in which we can find our own voice.

Where women are concerned, and in Williams' case, a Mormon woman, finding her voice was a quest because her mothers' journals were blank; This was a message, of some kind, directly from her mother to her. All of the fifty-four variations on voice speak of just about any issue. We join Williams in jail, incarcerated but still human. We join her as the victim of a violent crime. Still, we move on. We join her in the choice to break from Orthodoxy by taking birth control, and the pain that this choice would bring. We join her in serious, life threatening illness, the downs within a four decade marriage, the fight against the system and a male dominated board room. All of these elements of life lead to the voice.

What does it mean to have a voice?

Williams writes, `In my remaining days in the Sawtooths I wanted to tell someone, anyone, what had happened. I wanted to speak. I wanted to say how scared I was, how I was almost murdered... and it wasn't my fault, but I didn't believe it. I believed it was my fault. I betrayed my instincts. My body tried to warn me. The owl tried to warn me. But I ignored them all and walked past my intuition. When one woman doesn't speak, other women get hurt."

When one woman doesn't speak, another woman gets hurt. This is something to which we can all connect. Men and women alike, though most of us are intruded upon in regard to sexual abuse, but we all know what it means to stifle our own voice as we weigh the horror of what has occurred with the horror of what talking about it will be; we will relive the trauma and we will place ourselves and our humiliation upon a stage, lit brightly enough so that we will have no shadow and the opinions and voices of anyone who chooses can be sent our way, like a flaming arrow. This is why we battle the age old fear of using our voice in this manner. And Terry Tempest Williams is right: When one woman [or child or man] doesn't speak, another woman [or child or man] gets hurt. Williams takes responsibility for her own actions and does not judge those of us who made the same choice (and statistically that's one out of five of us) though as we think about her choice, we feel a little less alone in our own place. This is possible only because Williams choice, at last, to use her own voice.

What does it mean to have a voice?

It unites us it breaks down the walls between us; it allows us to see inside the world of another culture (it does not have to be the Mormons); it forces us to think about our own voice while respecting the voices of others. But there is no book that will help you understand your voice. You will need to take your own journey. And as a 25 year old you looked ahead at your life: the world was a blank page of possibility (just like her mother's journals) but at 25 we do not realize how quickly that life and that page will fill itself. Whether you are fifteen years old and looking ahead or sixty five and looking back, "When Women Were Birds" is a book that you must read. It's almost an obligation as a member of the race, a member of our country, a member of your gender, a member of your family and a piece of the chain of life that extends from before we know in our past all the way into the future of what is a mystery.

Our voice is important because it's a piece of the mystery that connects us. We are part of a chain of life that seeks to improve the quality of life for those who are in their present. Our voices are our legacy to them. Our obligation to our children, whether we chose to have our own or not: the unknown child who swings in the park on your street is also your child.

It is my prayer that I was able to convey the importance of this book so that you will read it yourself because why take my word for it? Read her words yourself. I choose to use my voice to encourage you to experience an emotional and spiritual journey more important than any of your life. This journey includes the way that her book turn into a flip book where a single bird approaches you then flies away over the two hundred pages; it includes many blank pages throughout for us to fill ourselves. These tools are there to make us stop and slowly ponder. We cannot find our voice or listen to the voice of others when we are moving as fast as our lives make us believe we need to move. We will not find the voice of God in heavy traffic.

James Lapin and Stephen Sondheim opened their musical, "Sunday In The Park With George" with these words and remarkable music, "White. A blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole. Through design. Composition. Balance, Light, and harmony." And a Pulitzer Prize winning musical blooms like a flower beneath us.

Williams uses her voice both literally and as a metaphor. I was reminded of an important piece by the quintessential voice, Robert Frost, in his poem, "Choose Something Like a Star." "And steadfast as Keats "Eremite'/ Not even stopping from its sphere / It asks a little of us here / it asks of us a certain height / So when at times the mob is swayed/ to carry praise or blame too far / we may choose something like a star / to stay our minds on / and be staid."

Sometimes the only way to find our voice is to remain perfectly silent and listen to the voice of others: our parents, our grandparents, our children, the wind, the birds, the very voice of God. To do so, one must be very silent, still; /one must be staid. And then one can hear the multitudes of voices and be able to add ours to it. It won't be with trumpets blaring and canons blasting, but rather with a whisper. I would like nothing more than to learn that Terry Tempest Williams' book, "When Women Were Birds" is as big as Stephen King's "Carrie", Dan Brown's "DaVinci Code" or Jacqueline Suzanne's "Valley of The Dolls." This would mean that so many people will have lived the experience that I did. Should that not happen, it was with full sincerity and gratitude that I offer my thanks to Terry Tempest Williams as her book, with its power to change the world, has certainly changed mine.

"In the emptiness of this beloved landscape that has embraced me all my life, I hold my mother's journals as another paradox, journals without words that create a narrative of the imagination.  My mother's gift is the Mystery. Each day I begin with the empty page."

Read the book and discover this gift.