God Gave Us the World by Lisa Bergren and Laura Bryant

I picked this book to review because I felt like my kids don't have enough books. Kidding!! Seriously, though, most of our books are Dr. Seuss or nursery rhymes or we've just read them a thousand times.

I loved this book. I loved that the characters said realistic things, like, "I've never seen 'em!" and slang terms. It showcased different types of bears, where they live, and things that are specific to them, such as sloth bears who like to hang from trees. It was a fun way to learn about different animals. The book also did a great job of explaining why we are all different, and praising God for being our Creator without being cheesy or difficult to understand.

I loved the pictures, and so did Brianna (21 months old). I loved that they changed the font based on words, such as making the word "quiet" very small and making the word "loud" very big and bold. That will be useful to children who can read this book on their own, helping to show the difference between these words. Brianna sat still through this entire book, which is fairly long, and that in itself is a rave review for this book because she rarely sits still through a whole book!

All in all, I thought this was a fantastic book and I would highly recommend it for anyone with children. It is actually recommended for ages three to eight, but trust me, you can start them young on this one!


I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

Tandem by Tracey Bateman

I wanted to read this book because I love Christian fiction and I love suspense novels. I thought this book, "Tandem" by Tracey Bateman sounded intriguing and thrilling.

Unfortunately, to me, it left a lot to be desired. It took me several chapters to really understand the characters and their relationships. I felt like there was a lot of background that was not covered well. It made me think this book is part of a series, and I'm still not sure about that. Some of the characters irritated me because they went back and forth between being very strong and confident to suddenly becoming weak and whiny. Some were very transparent, although the other characters seemed to be completely fooled by these people.

It was a story about vampires, which I could not tell based on the back cover of the book. I do not particularly enjoy vampire stories, but I believe I gave this one a fair chance.

The main character, Lauryn, was fixated on a boy from her childhood who she hadn't spoken with in many years. I felt that this obsession over him was unrealistic. She also had a relationship with her father, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and their relationship and his outcome was unresolved in the end, which made me wonder what would happen next. Not enough to read another book involving these characters though.

I feel like some people would like this book but it just wasn't for me. The characters did not interest me, and really, I felt like Christianity really wasn't a theme in this book and I felt like I expected that going into it. It was a pretty easy read, so if someone offers it to you I would say you could take a chance on it but I'll not read any other books along this same line offered by this author.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.