March + April Book Reviews
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Noël Piper, wife of well-known pastor and author, John Piper, shared some of their family’s traditions and the importance of recurring traditions. She discusses how traditions, both “everyday” and “especially” traditions can point families to God as well as give trust and security to children. Daily traditions like nightly Bible reading and discussion and predictable rhythms to the week (with room for spontaneity. “Especially” traditions are special occasions, like holidays and birthdays. From poems written by their dad to a Noël Calendar for Advent/Christmas, to many, many other sweet ideas, this book was a great resource.
Content rating: G
Can I Trust the Bible? (Crucial Questions #2) by R.C. Sproul (audiobook)
This book is part of the Crucial Question series by the late R.C. Sproul, which are short booklets (around 2 hours on audiobook) and each break down a different Christian doctrine. I read several of them so far (Who is Jesus? and Does Prayer Change Things?) so I was looking forward to this book. But it was very technical, scholarly, and seemed to be much more targeted towards seminary students and pastors than the average lay person. This was surprising since his other books (including my favorite, The Holiness of God) are great at presenting high level theology for the average Christian reader. I think it was because most of the text was directly from the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy that Sproul and other pastors took part in 1978. It felt very much like a dry legal document. There were valuable points, but it was so hard to follow for me because of this very specific layout.Content Rating:G
A Literary Tea Party: Blends and Treats for Alice, Bilbo, Dorothy, Jo, and Book Lovers Everywhere by Alison Walsh (ebook) ★★★★☆
What a creative and fun book for bibliophiles, especially those who also love to bake. The drink and dessert recipes in the book all looked delicious and Alison found unique ways to pair them together while connecting them to different classic books. From sipping on White Which's Hot Chocolate and Turkish Delight (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) to Drink Me Tea paired with Queen of Hearts Painted Rose Cupcakes (Alice in Wonderland), Hannah's Sweet Potato Bacon Pastries and Jo's Gingerbread (Little Women), and many more... there was a treat and a drink for everyone, including tea alternatives for those who prefer other options. I enjoyed reading the snippets from each classic that inspired the tea or dish as well as her little blurb about why and how she created the specific recipe. I even read many of the actual recipes because I was curious about her techniques, since some of the recipes were quite complicated. The tea blends were very interesting to me too. I enjoyed it even though I didn't actually make anything from the cookbook. Our family has too many food allergies for me to figure out how to substitute certain foods, and I don't have the finesse nor the time to spend on many of the intricate instructions. But if you love baking and classic books, I am sure you'll have a better chance with trying some out! Content Rating:G
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell (audiobook)★★★★☆
I have enjoyed all of the Gaskell novels I have read thus far (North & South, Cranford, Wives & Daughters) and hope to read more of them. She has a keen gift for connecting social commentary (a la Charles Dickens) with captivating plots, and including her own Christian faith in the lessons learned (or sometimes ignored) by her characters. She develops real, flawed characters who grow along the way. This lesser-known classic is not an exception in the least, though it is the heaviest and most melancholy of my Gaskell novels. Ruth is an orphan and working as a dressmaker apprentice when she is swept off her feet by the wealthy Henry Bellingham. He persuades her into living with him for several months until his controlling mom finds out and cuts things off. A few weeks later, she finds out she is pregnant at sixteen years old. A compassionate elderly man and his sister take her in, where she experiences God's forgiveness and has a new fervor for raising her son to know what is right. Years pass and her secret is locked away since everyone in town thinks she is a young widow. Her is employed by the most self-righteous man in town, who would have a conniption fit if he knew her past. As her past threatens to creep back up, it is her admirable character and trust in God's goodness and protection that are a lifeline. The way that Gaskell explored the way we deny, diminish, and excuse our own wrongdoing was powerful and convicting (as evidenced by the aforementioned self-righteous man when he comes face-to-face with his own bad decisions as well as a son's) and his daughter (who is a polar opposite to her dad and actually confesses her own bitterness to Ruth after a long period of struggling through her anger). It explored God's grace and how many times, people cannot forget or forgive someone's past, even when they themselves have also needed grace and forgiveness for their own wrongdoings. It was a sad book and incredibly long, so it was a hard read at times, but I still found it to be a great read. Content Rating: G (the affair was assumed, not explained in details, so there weren't any sex scenes or language)
Journey to the Cross: A 40-Day Lenten Devotional by Paul David Tripp ★★★★★
I really enjoyed Tripp's Advent devotional to prepare my heart for Christmas, Come Let Us Adore Him, so when I saw this Lenten devotional at Barnes & Noble, I picked it up right away. Each day has an essay that is deep, often convicting and soul-stirring, and always points to the Cross. Lent can be difficult since it is a somber time of reflecting of Christ's suffering as well as mourning our own sin. So this is not a light-hearted jaunt, yet it still produced much joy because you have to hear to bad news (our sin separated us from the holy God) before we can truly understand the good news (that Jesus came to take our sin and make a way for us to come close to God). It made me anticipate Easter and the joy, hope, and redemption it brings. Tripp is able to explain theological truths really well, with great analogies that help me understand and apply God's truth. 
Bitter & Sweet: A Journey to Lent by Tsh Oxenreider ★★★★★A Lenten devotional that focuses on the seven vices (pride, gluttony, lust, greed, envy, anger, sloth) and how they can be present in our modern lives. The importance of turning from these and turning towards God-honoring virtues that correspond to each vice (humility, temperance, chastity, generosity, love, meekness, diligence) is explored with each day's devotional from Ash Wednesday through Easter. It also had helpful history about liturgical traditions of Lent, from fasting to almsgiving (generosity). There is a suggested song on each day as well as artwork for every Sunday (and every day of Holy Week), as well as a prayer (many times from the Book of Common Prayer or saints like St. Thomas Aquainas). I really enjoyed this one and am planning on reading the Advent devotional, Shadow and Light, later this year.
That I May Live by Meara Dixon ★★★★★
I've read a lot of WWII fiction and always learn a lot about that difficult era through the context of fiction based on true events. When I found out the sister of a close friend recently published a WWII novel for middle-school age, I was interested and brought it up as a possibility for our book club. A few months later, we were able to have the author join us for book club, which was such a treat! This novel was thoughtfully researched and written, with an engaging and intriguing plot that had me rooting for the main character, Sylvia, through all her challenges, as well as including history I wasn't aware of. I appreciated that Meara was very intentional in the amount of pain and suffering she exposed the reader to, since it's a book that targets a younger crowd. For example, she didn't want the reader to step foot in a concentration camp, so there weren't scenes in one, though there were several people who were sent to them, so the reader can still learn of those atrocities without the extreme heaviness of all the details. I also loved how the book focused on the many different people who helped Sylvia along the way to help her survive as a Jew in occupied France. There are illustrations in the novel that may help a middle-schooler to better connect with the story and imagine the scenes. This would be a fantastic book for a parent to read with their middle or high-schooler as they discuss WWII, though I enjoyed it as an adult and didn't feel it was too simple or juvenile at all. I am adding it to my list of favorite WWII novels since it impacted me so much and hearing about the writing process from the author made it such a rich reading experience. Content rating: G to PG (alludes to certain violence against Jews but very careful not to share too much).
A group of moms from church have been discussing this Christian book on discipline and it has brought up great conversation even if I didn't agree with everything Ginger encourages in the book. There is a focus on redirecting the child's heart towards God's righteousness rather than just focusing on behavior. Drawing out the issues of the heart, such as sinful attitudes, selfishness, and disobedience, is hard work with a long-term view since we are tempted towards sin all of our lives, so she isn't about quick fixes that only target behavior. She discusses why teaching children to obey parents is a way to honor God, so it's a big deal for both the parent and child to work on. She discusses the importance of using Scripture for training and correction and gives a lot of examples (many of them didn't seem realistic or natural to me, but I can see her intention). I liked her tip to role play and have do-overs to practice the right behavior. That's always been helpful for my son, so it was a good reminder to keep doing it. She does a good job of reminding parents not to discipline in anger and for their correction to always point toward's Jesus' redemption rather than only punishment, and gives examples of probing questions to get to the root issues. There was some useful information to glean for me in the first two sections (Reaching the Heart of Your Child and How to Give a Biblical Reproof) even though it was hard for me to connect with her style and her judgmental comments about seeing misbehaving kids in the grocery store were a bit annoying. There was a big focus on telling kids, through Scripture, what their behavior should be in that moment, and I agreed with most of it, but struggled with some of what she expected from children. Absolutely, we have a responsibility to train and point them to God, if we are Christian parents, but it is God through the Holy Spirit that changes hearts, and often times that doesn't happen right away on our timetable or because we follow her Wise Words for Mom pamphlet. Expecting they'll be repentant after a correction/reproof/discipline can end up teaching the child to pretend to be remorseful just to get out of trouble, or if they're naturally rule-followers, they become prideful little Pharisees who think they are very good on their own. Obedience is not the most important thing; the good news of the gospel is. I don't think it was her intention, and probably just my own interpretation, but it was easy for me to read the book and assume she's saying, "good parenting in, good children out". Or, if I use her scripts and follow her instructions, then my child should respond right away, apologize, obey or whatever is expected in that moment. She expects immediate obedience and immediate remorse over a wrongdoing, and I don't think that's always realistic. It takes kids a while to see the gravity of their wrongdoing and as Christian parents, we ultimately have to trust the Holy Spirit to convict their hearts, not our repeated lectures and reproofs and even consequences. Although I believe using Scripture is good, I feel like always reminding them of Bible verses in the heat of the moment can actually close a child's heart to the gospel at times, so I struggled with her examples. While I definitely think sin should be addressed and consequences should be administered where necessary, I think there needs to be an emphasis on telling your child they do not have the ability to obey the way the Bible teaches without God. I can't just say, "have self-control because this Bible verse says it." They don't have the ability on their own, no matter how many Bible verses they memorize to obey. God can help him to do what is right in His eyes even when a child doesn't want to. God can help him have self-control. If they could muster up the willpower to obey on their own, they wouldn't need Jesus or His work on the cross. So reminding and praying with my son about his need for God is an important piece that I wish she spent more time on. She talks about this at times (particularly for moms to remember, but I don't remember a time she gives an example of saying it to a child), but I think as a reader, constantly coming back to this truth will make our parenting less about us and our techniques and more about God's work in us and in our children in His timing. I think it is good to tell your child to obey because the Bible says so, but I definitely add, "I know you can't do it on your own. I know it's hard and you want to do what you want in that moment. I have trouble obeying rules sometimes too. But because Jesus died and rose for our sins, you CAN say "no" to disobeying. You can say "yes" to choosing the right path that honors God because God can give you the power to choose." She stands by "delayed obedience is disobedience" and while I think that should be something to discuss with older kids who dawdle, make excuses, etc., I don't think it's super realistic for toddlers who can take several seconds or even a minute to mentally compute what you're asking of them when they're so engaged in play and because of their normal mental development. Sometimes their delay isn't willful disobedience, it's childishness that will grow out with patient reminders and pointing towards the goal of quicker obedience. It's a good ideal to work towards, but there is a lot of room for grace, patience, and realistic expectation for their developmental stage and ability. They aren't robots to program for perfect obedience; they'll struggle just as we as parents struggle with doing the right thing at the right time, so it'll be a long journey that I can't expect him to master at three-years old. Ginger says this at one point, but then it doesn't always match up with her high expectations or her advice to discipline (with spanking) when they're not immediately obeying. Which brings me to the third section (the Biblical Use of the Rod), which brought up a lot of good conversation and led me to pray about my own convictions about this area of discipline. For a lot of reasons, I didn't agree with her stance that spanking needs to be used by all Christian parents (and that we who don't spank are doing a disservice to our children by not spanking them or not following Scripture). So in a sense these chapters were hard to apply and a bit frustrating, but I still appreciated hearing her opinions and some of the guidelines she encourages surrounding spanking (not to do it in anger, not to do it for a mistake or for expecting something that isn't age-appropriate/result of childishness rather than defiant disobedience, not to do it before having all the facts). There was plenty to think about and leave aside while other things that I did decide to glean and learn from, which is typical for me when I read parenting books because each child and family unit is different. While there can be valuable principles, especially when rooted in Scripture, that can be very helpful for Christian parents in parenting books like this one, we have to follow the Holy Spirit's guiding as well as our own knowledge of our family unit to decide what can be applied to us personally. This book pushed me to pray more for discernment and when I disagreed with something she said, it helped me to process it with my husband and within the community of Christian moms reading the book to evaluate if it was merely a preference of mine or difference in style or personality that Ginger, or whether it was something that I was not willing to obey in the Bible and need to address, pray for a softened heart, and study Scripture surrounding that specific topic.
For those who love Little Women, I think this would be am enjoyable, lesser-known novel by the same author to read. It started off with only six chapters when serialized in a magazine over the summer of 1869, focusing on the young country girl Polly's visit to her wealthy friend in the city, Fanny. But fans loved the story so much, that they wanted more, so Alcott continued the story and published a novel, focusing on the girls as young women. Polly is old-fashioned in her dress, manners, ideals, and desires, which sets her apart in the modernized and materialistic city where Fanny and her friends are obsessed with dressing up, gossiping, and flirting. Polly's influence impacts Fanny and her siblings (her youngest sister reminds me of Amy from Little Women), but Polly is no saint. Her own blunders and desire to fit in cause some consequences that take work to un-do, which made her relatable and believable rather than some perfect character. I loved the story and ended up rooting for all the characters as they matured and worked through challenges that helped develop their integrity and overall character.
Don't Make Me Count to Three: A Mom's Look at Heart-Oriented Discipline by Ginger Plowman ★★★☆ ☆
A group of moms from church have been discussing this Christian book on discipline and it has brought up great conversation even if I didn't agree with everything Ginger encourages in the book. There is a focus on redirecting the child's heart towards God's righteousness rather than just focusing on behavior. Drawing out the issues of the heart, such as sinful attitudes, selfishness, and disobedience, is hard work with a long-term view since we are tempted towards sin all of our lives, so she isn't about quick fixes that only target behavior. She discusses why teaching children to obey parents is a way to honor God, so it's a big deal for both the parent and child to work on. She discusses the importance of using Scripture for training and correction and gives a lot of examples (many of them didn't seem realistic or natural to me, but I can see her intention). I liked her tip to role play and have do-overs to practice the right behavior. That's always been helpful for my son, so it was a good reminder to keep doing it. She does a good job of reminding parents not to discipline in anger and for their correction to always point toward's Jesus' redemption rather than only punishment, and gives examples of probing questions to get to the root issues. There was some useful information to glean for me in the first two sections (Reaching the Heart of Your Child and How to Give a Biblical Reproof) even though it was hard for me to connect with her style and her judgmental comments about seeing misbehaving kids in the grocery store were a bit annoying. There was a big focus on telling kids, through Scripture, what their behavior should be in that moment, and I agreed with most of it, but struggled with some of what she expected from children. Absolutely, we have a responsibility to train and point them to God, if we are Christian parents, but it is God through the Holy Spirit that changes hearts, and often times that doesn't happen right away on our timetable or because we follow her Wise Words for Mom pamphlet. Expecting they'll be repentant after a correction/reproof/discipline can end up teaching the child to pretend to be remorseful just to get out of trouble, or if they're naturally rule-followers, they become prideful little Pharisees who think they are very good on their own. Obedience is not the most important thing; the good news of the gospel is. I don't think it was her intention, and probably just my own interpretation, but it was easy for me to read the book and assume she's saying, "good parenting in, good children out". Or, if I use her scripts and follow her instructions, then my child should respond right away, apologize, obey or whatever is expected in that moment. She expects immediate obedience and immediate remorse over a wrongdoing, and I don't think that's always realistic. It takes kids a while to see the gravity of their wrongdoing and as Christian parents, we ultimately have to trust the Holy Spirit to convict their hearts, not our repeated lectures and reproofs and even consequences. Although I believe using Scripture is good, I feel like always reminding them of Bible verses in the heat of the moment can actually close a child's heart to the gospel at times, so I struggled with her examples. While I definitely think sin should be addressed and consequences should be administered where necessary, I think there needs to be an emphasis on telling your child they do not have the ability to obey the way the Bible teaches without God. I can't just say, "have self-control because this Bible verse says it." They don't have the ability on their own, no matter how many Bible verses they memorize to obey. God can help him to do what is right in His eyes even when a child doesn't want to. God can help him have self-control. If they could muster up the willpower to obey on their own, they wouldn't need Jesus or His work on the cross. So reminding and praying with my son about his need for God is an important piece that I wish she spent more time on. She talks about this at times (particularly for moms to remember, but I don't remember a time she gives an example of saying it to a child), but I think as a reader, constantly coming back to this truth will make our parenting less about us and our techniques and more about God's work in us and in our children in His timing. I think it is good to tell your child to obey because the Bible says so, but I definitely add, "I know you can't do it on your own. I know it's hard and you want to do what you want in that moment. I have trouble obeying rules sometimes too. But because Jesus died and rose for our sins, you CAN say "no" to disobeying. You can say "yes" to choosing the right path that honors God because God can give you the power to choose." She stands by "delayed obedience is disobedience" and while I think that should be something to discuss with older kids who dawdle, make excuses, etc., I don't think it's super realistic for toddlers who can take several seconds or even a minute to mentally compute what you're asking of them when they're so engaged in play and because of their normal mental development. Sometimes their delay isn't willful disobedience, it's childishness that will grow out with patient reminders and pointing towards the goal of quicker obedience. It's a good ideal to work towards, but there is a lot of room for grace, patience, and realistic expectation for their developmental stage and ability. They aren't robots to program for perfect obedience; they'll struggle just as we as parents struggle with doing the right thing at the right time, so it'll be a long journey that I can't expect him to master at three-years old. Ginger says this at one point, but then it doesn't always match up with her high expectations or her advice to discipline (with spanking) when they're not immediately obeying. Which brings me to the third section (the Biblical Use of the Rod), which brought up a lot of good conversation and led me to pray about my own convictions about this area of discipline. For a lot of reasons, I didn't agree with her stance that spanking needs to be used by all Christian parents (and that we who don't spank are doing a disservice to our children by not spanking them or not following Scripture). So in a sense these chapters were hard to apply and a bit frustrating, but I still appreciated hearing her opinions and some of the guidelines she encourages surrounding spanking (not to do it in anger, not to do it for a mistake or for expecting something that isn't age-appropriate/result of childishness rather than defiant disobedience, not to do it before having all the facts). There was plenty to think about and leave aside while other things that I did decide to glean and learn from, which is typical for me when I read parenting books because each child and family unit is different. While there can be valuable principles, especially when rooted in Scripture, that can be very helpful for Christian parents in parenting books like this one, we have to follow the Holy Spirit's guiding as well as our own knowledge of our family unit to decide what can be applied to us personally. This book pushed me to pray more for discernment and when I disagreed with something she said, it helped me to process it with my husband and within the community of Christian moms reading the book to evaluate if it was merely a preference of mine or difference in style or personality that Ginger, or whether it was something that I was not willing to obey in the Bible and need to address, pray for a softened heart, and study Scripture surrounding that specific topic. An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott ★★★★★
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Elle Alice