“Plans For Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness” by Scott Morrison, Australia’s 30th Prime Minister (2018–2022)

 

This not your typical political memoir. It transcends the boundaries of statecraft and dives deep into the intersection of faith, leadership, and personal revelation.

Here’s why you won’t want to miss this remarkable book Behind-the-Scenes Insights: Morrison provides an intimate, candid account of his life as a follower of Jesus while leading at the highest level of politics. Readers gain unprecedented access to the inner workings of a prime minister who openly embraced his faith during his tenure.

I Am A Wonder Woman (Some of the Most Influential Women in History) by Ellen Bailey from Portable Press [Review & Giveaway - US/CANADA]

Portable Press
ISBN: 978-1684125487
Paperback $14.99
Ages 9-11; 128 pages
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Inspiring Activities to try...

Incredible Women to Discover...

My thoughts:  It is always good to see non-fiction in works for young readers and to have it presented in an entertaining way that captures their attention and encourages them to pursue reading.

Girls growing up need to see that girls and women who live long ago and who are currently living have been able to pursue careers and achieve greatness. They need to see that they, too, can reach for the stars in their life.

Each short, very limited biography of these women has an activity that helps the young reader think about the achievement of the individual. This is definitely a "hands on" book; or if that is not quite what the reader wishes to do, they can simply read the short bios.

An interesting book. The illustrations are quirky or  simplistic.

I like the quote on the back cover.....

"There has never been a more important time for girls and women to feel valued and empowered." —Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, MBE, Space Scientist.

About the book:  This is an entertaining and inspirational look at some of the most influential women in history, from ancient times to the modern day, including lesser known visionaries such as Annie Londonderry and Britta Tott, to household names like the Brontës, Cleopatra, Hellen Keller, J.K. Rowling, and more. Each page is filled with amazing stories about the women who have shaped the world and inspired others to follow in their footsteps. Readers can step into the lives of these pioneers by completing unique activities and answering thought-provoking questions for themselves. Quirky artwork throughout helps bring each woman’s story to life.

GIVEAWAY

Begins January 29

ENDS February 22 at 12:01 a.m. EST

Open to USA & CANADA addresses only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are my own and are freely given.

100 Extraordinary Stories for Courageous Girls (Unforgetable Tales of Women of Faith) by Jean Fischer - published by Shilo Kidz

ISBN: 9781683227489
Hardcover | $16.99
Biography/Autobiography

My thoughts: The short, one page biographies about these 100 girls or women spans the centuries. Published by a Christian publishing group, Shilo Kidz/Barbour, would have expectations that these would all be Biblical characters. Not so. This book draws from girls and women of faith throughout history - Biblical and secular.

The connection is their faith. They are courageous in the face of what their experience presents to them and their life is one of faith.  Faith in a God that is there for them in life's circumstances.

Since the stories are all short, these will not bore the young reader as a much longer biographic book or essay might. And yet, the stories give a glimpse into the life of individuals that the young reader might wish to learn more about and thus pursue further reading.

The writing is very good and the illustrations quite colorful and appropriate to the time period in which the ladies lived. I highly recommend this for libraries and homes where girls are growing up. Excellent!

About the Book: Girls are world-changers! And this deeply inspiring storybook proves it! Just for the girls in your life, ages 8 and up, this collection of 100 extraordinary stories of women of faith--from the Bible, history, and today--will empower them to know and understand how women have made a difference in the world and how much smaller our faith (and the biblical record) would be without them.

I received a complimentary copy from Shilo Kidz/Barbout Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review. Opinions are mine alone and are freely given.

Charles Dickens: England's Most Captivating Storyteller (Historical Notebooks) by Catherine Wells-Cole [Giveaway "Miss Emily" USA/CANADA]

This review of Charles Dickens England's Most Captivating Storyteller is one of three books I shall be reviewing that are very well done for children that will take the kiddies a bit into the classical literary world. With these reviews will come a giveaway of one of the books as a courtesy of Candlewick Press. So we'll have a look at Charles Dickens, an anthology of classic poetry, and a delightful rendering of a fictional tale about Emily Dickerson. The books are......

• Classic Poetry An Illustrated Collection by author/anthology editor: Michael Rosen & illustrated by Paul Howard
• Miss Emily author by Burleigh Muten [This will be the giveaway prize book.]
• Charles Dickens England's Most Captivating Storyteller by author: Catherine Wells-Cole

Charles Dickens: England's Most Captivating Storyteller (Historical Notebooks) by Catherine Wells-Cole

ISBN: 9780763655679
Hardcover $19.99
Templar Books/Candlewick Press

My thoughts: When my children were in school it was a real struggle to read biographies because they simply were not appealing. Required reading, definitely! Now children's book publishers have really begun to produce books appealing to various age children and draw them into the world of biographic reading. What a treasure! 

With the "Historic Notebooks" concept comes  innovative story telling that spaces the life of Charles Dickens about with bits and pieces of his life and his works. Using a lift-the-flap method there are interesting nuggets of information scattered throughout. The illustrations keep the reader engaged and enthralled. Reading biographies just got to be fun!

Charles Dickens' stories captured the society of his day and how downtrodden the people were. He captured the vast difference between the haves and the have-nots. The have-nots suffering just to live out each day. He wrote of this world and did it well because he, too, experienced it to some degree. Charles Dickens did receive an education which was not the opportunity of many of Victorian England. This is brought out in Charles Dickens: England's Most Captivating Storyteller. 

I found the presentation and the facts very interesting and they could easily incite more interest on the part of the young reader to further investigation and research. Not only is this an educationally engaging book, but it is also fun. There is even an envelope which can be opened and a note removed. The reader will learn that many of Dickens' characters are developed or modeled after his own family members. 

This shows a two-page spread and two flaps are lifted 
to show additional information. The Family tree flap on right side, top)

Children will enjoy picking this book up and reading and re-reading it for years. As they grow older, the facts tucked away will gain new and richer meaning to them. So this is a really good book to add to the home library. A must for school libraries.

About the book: See the world of Charles Dickens spring to life in his fascinating notebook. Excerpts from his personal letters, guides to his major works, and enthralling facts about his life and times--including Dickens's own amazing rags-to-riches story--are accompanied by fascinating new illustrations, drawings from the original books, and photographs from the period. This novelty-filled notebook immerses readers in Victorian life and allows them to meet not only Dickens himself, but also such enduring and iconic characters as Oliver Twist, Ebenezer Scrooge, and David Copperfield.

Author information: Catherine Wells-Cole has been a principal lecturer and the Director of Victorian Literature studies at Roehampton University for many years. She lives in Surrey, England.

GIVEAWAY

Begins August 30

ENDS September 20 @ 12:01 a.m. ET

Open to USA & CANADA addresses only.

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DISCLOSURE: I was provided a complimentary copy by Candlewick Press to facilitate this review. Opinions are solely my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton by Don Tate [Review & Giveaway]

ISBN: 9781561458257

My thoughts: It is always a joy and pleasure for me to learn a bit of the history of my home state - North Carolina. As with most states in the United States, we have a history of slavery of people - Africans, Irish, and others. Some were enslaved unwillingly as purchased and some willingly as indentured. Some of this history is heart-rending and terrifyingly sad. Some of it held hope, albeit in small measure, to those enslaved. This story is about one such enslaved individual in North Carolina - an African who was a "bought slave." It took place in Chatham Country which is next to Orange County where I lived for many years.

George Moses Horton hungered for knowledge and the ability to read and write. He had a head full of words roaming around forming stories and poems but no way to write them. Finally, he had an opportunity. Even though not freed and not able to purchase his freedom, he was allowed to go Chapel Hill - the home of the University of North Carolina, where he spoke poems to the young students for their sweethearts. Eventually he was taught to write his poems by one of the citizens of Chapel Hill.

George listening to others learn their ABCs

Though a Southern state, North Carolina was in many respects progressive in the concept that the slave, the African, could and should receive an education. Still flawed in action and concept, there were areas of North Carolina where free men of color lived, worked, and progressed. George Moses Horton was the first African-American to be published in America.

It is a joy to read of George Moses Horton's journey into the world of literacy and the happiness that reading brought to him.

Some of his poems were anti-slavery or about
the conditions they lived and worked under

The author, Don Tate, has written a super picture book biography for young children and young readers. This gives the opportunity to garner a bit of this period of history in our country and the resiliency of the enslaved peoples. I believe the author has written this story with pride of race for himself and pride of accomplishment for George Moses Horton.

The illustrations are done in an exaggerated style with softened yellows, greens, and browns. Horton's poems are displayed as background to the pictures on the two page spreads. Illustrations depict conditions and life as a slave prior to and during the Civil War. The text is advanced somewhat and may invoke further discussion and study on the part of young readers. This picture-book biography will fit well into history lessons of the period or for simply pleasure reading.

About the book: Born a slave, George Moses Horton taught himself to read, memorizing the poems he composed until he later learned to write. Hand-lettered excerpts of Horton’s writing amplify his successes and setbacks as he gains a reputation as a poet among students at the University of North Carolina, to whom he sold produce. Horton’s poems drew additional attention and were published (“Needless to say, it was a dangerous time for Horton, whose poems often protested slavery,” Tate writes in an afterword), but freedom remained elusive until the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, when Horton was 66 years old. Tate’s mixed-media illustrations glow with bright greens and yellows, radiating a warmth, hope, and promise that echo this stirring biography’s closing message: “Words loosened the chains of bondage long before his last day as a slave.” Ages 6–10. Agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

GIVEAWAY

Begins September 13 & ENDS October 5 @ 12:01 a.m. ET. 

 Open for addresses in USA

If you have won this book from our sponsor, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification. 
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About the author: Don Tate is the illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed books for children. In 2013, he earned an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor Award for his first picture book text, It Jes' Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw. You can visit Don Tate’s website here.

DISCLOSURE: I was provided a complimentary copy by Peachtree Publishing to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own alone. I was not compensated for the review. The giveaway copy is provided by the publisher and will be sent directly to the winner.

The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower or John Howland's Good Fortune by P.J. Lynch

ISBN: 9780763665845
Hardcover $17.99

About the book: In the first book he has both written and illustrated, master artist P.J. Lynch brings a Mayflower voyager’s story to vivid life.

At a young age, John Howland learned what it meant to take advantage of an opportunity. Leaving the docks of London on the Mayflower as an indentured servant to Pilgrim John Carver, John Howland little knew that he was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. By his great good fortune, John survived falling overboard on the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and he earned his keep ashore by helping to scout a safe harbor and landing site for his bedraggled and ill shipmates. Would his luck continue to hold amid the dangers and adversity of the Pilgrims’ lives in New England? John Howland’s tale is masterfully told in his own voice, bringing an immediacy and young perspective to the oft-told Pilgrims’ story. P.J. Lynch captures this pivotal moment in American history in precise and exquisite detail, from the light on the froth of a breaking wave to the questioning voice of a teen in a new world.

My thoughts: This stunningly beautiful children's picture book brings a fresh voice to the usual Pilgrim, Mayflower, and Thanksgiving story. Based a real-life John Howland who as a young man-servant indentured to Pilgrim John Carver, tells his story in an easy-to-read and easy-to-listen to voice from the past.

During the harrowing journey across the Atlantic, the real John Howland actually fell off the ship, The Mayflower. It was a difficult crossing from the old world to the new world and that was only the beginning of the dangers and problems that would beset the Pilgrims once they landed in the new world.

Winter conditions were harsh and bitter cold with little food and much sickness

The author and illustrator, P.J.Lynch has painstakingly represented each scene with meticulous detail, colors that invoke the darkness and troubles endured, and individual passions of the characters. Pictures that are to be treasured.

Wonderful minute detail in the London scene prior to sailing.

This will be a wonderful addition to any library - home, public, school, or classroom. I envision the story being read aloud to young children and older readers reading it themselves. I can see children pouring over the pictures for hours. I can hear and see a teacher reading it aloud to a room full of students - perhaps a different section each day, and the children waiting expectantly for the next page to turn.

Yes, John Howland was a real person. One who signed the Mayflower Compact. One who lived, married, and died here in America where he helped in the early days of America's founding. A super book.

GIVEAWAY

Begins September 10 & ENDS October 1 @ 12:01 a.m. EDT. 

Open to USA & CANADA.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Author's Comments - Click Here to Read

Author & illustrator, P.J. Lynch, one of the most accomplished children’s book creators working today, has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and the Christopher Medal three times. His meticulous research brings impeccable detail to the twenty books he has illustrated, including The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and Mysterious Traveler by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham. P.J. Lynch lives in Dublin.

DISCLOSURE: I receive a complimentary copy from Candlewick Press to facilitate this review. Opinions are mine alone. I was not compensated for the review. Giveaway copy is provided by Candlewick and will be sent directly to the winner.