March and April Book Reviews

"Woman Reading By A Window" by Julius Garabaldi Melchers (1905)

 

Until the Streetlights Come On: How a Return to Play Brightens Our Present and Prepares Kids for an Uncertain Future by Ginny Yurich (audiobook) ★★★★★

I have been listening to some of Ginny's podcast (The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast)  and heard about her global 1000 Hours Outside movement sometime last year, but was daunted by the high number of hours outside. But in September 2023 (six months ago), I decided to download the tracking app and shoot for 1.5 hours outside everyday with the kids (half of the 3 hours/day to get to 1000 hours in one year) and decided we likely won't get to 1000 hours outside in one year, but I can set our own pace and even if we only reach a fraction of the 1000 hours, we will still be outside more than in previous years, so that is a win! This book combines a lot of the topics she discusses on her blog and podcast, highlighting a ton of great reasons for families to be outside more. She discusses the importance of unstructured play and creativity for kids' developing minds,  the dangers of schedules too jam-packed with events (even good ones like sports and music lessons can be touch on a child sometimes), the value of social play and sunlight and decreasing screen time by increasing outside time, and so much more. It is an easy-to-read book with a ton of research broken down to bitable chunks so the reader doesn't get lost in the weeds or bored out of their minds with scholarly research reviews. She is an engaging and honest author, and just a delight to read as well as listen to on her podcast. She reads the audiobook and you can just feel her passion for what she's writing about and that she is living it out with her family. If you'd like to have some momentum and inspiration in getting outside in nature more with your family, this is a great book. If you're not ready to read the book, check out her podcast to get an idea of what she's all about. 

Content rating: G 

The 40-Day Sugar Fast: Where Physical Detox Meets Spiritual Transformation by Wendy Speake (audiobook)★★★★☆

I did a 40-day sugar fast with a few friends and we read this accompanying devotional. Each day's devotional was really helpful for staying motivated to stick with our difficult goal. The book helped he dig deep and discover some reasons I run to sugary treats in time of stress, exhaustion, or feeling I deserve it after a hard day. Wendy's goal is to help you shift that need for being satisfied by sugar to realizing God wants us to be satisfied by Him, a holy hunger for His presence. Most of the devotional focused on spiritual aspects of the fast, but there were still plenty of helpful, practical tips for avoiding sugar for forty days. She even goes into many other things than can weighing you down, so I added a two-week social media fast hallway into the fast after a convicting yet encouraging reminder of the mental clarity possible without the noise of social media. I learned a lot from Wendy's Triggers: Exchanging Parents' Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses, so I was familiar with her writing style and trusted her as an author. It was a great accompaniment to my sugar fast and helped me a lot along the way. 

Content rating: G

The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens (audiobook) ★★★★☆

Written for his children over a three-year span (1846-1849), this is a retelling of the four gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) that tell of Jesus' life. It seemed to be his way of teaching about the Christian faith and Jesus specifically to his children. There are short explanations in between the narrative, which were really sweet because I could imagine him stopping and explaining something foreign to the kids in an easier way to understand with things around them that they know about. I don't know about Dickens' personal life nor his faith journey, so it may have been helpful to research that a bit while listening to this, but I still enjoyed it during the week of Easter in addition to actually reading the Bible's account of the death and resurrection of Jesus. There were a few minor things he said that theologically I didn't align with or wish he would have explained a bit more ("Jesus was such a good man he was called the Son of God." He WAS the Son of God, not because the people decided to call Him that after seeing His goodness and miracles) and a few comments leaned more towards Catholic beliefs (that if we do good like He did then we will see Him in heaven one day). So I would definitely explain things a bit more fully if I would read this to my own kids, but for my own personal reading, I just mulled on the phrases I was unsure about and then kept going, not letting them detract me from the rest of the reading. I enjoyed how simply yet engaging he wrote about Jesus' story. No fluff or extra parts to make it more entertaining for young kids.

Content rating: G

Bitter and Sweet: A Journey into Easter 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 reading this one again for Lent (I read it in 2023 for the first time)

Content rating: G

Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic ★★★★☆

A collection of short chapters each focusing on a different are of motherhood with young kids from a Christian perspective. Rachel wrote it when she had five under five (including twins) fifteen years ago, so a lot of what she says was applicable to my life (though I only have two under four). She brought humor in with some really solid theological thoughts and useful application. It was an easy read, especially with the short chapters. And since it was such a slim book, I packed it in my diaper bag all month to read snippets here and there whenever the kids were playing contentedly. She has funny-sounding chapters that usually matched with an analogy or metaphor she uses with her kids. Spirited Riders (chapter five) was about how she teaches her kids that emotions are like wild horses and we can help tame them. Know Your Sheep (chapter ten) was about studying your kids to know what delights them as well as what makes them tick since each of your children are different than one another. Grabby Hearts and Grabby Hands (chapter sixteen) had great idea of what to say when siblings squabble. She does mention spanking a few times, but if that's not a discipline method you use, don't let that deter you. The conversations she has with her kids and the way she talks about them is encouraging while other mamas are "in the trenches" themselves. 

Content rating: G

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (audiobook) ★★★★☆

This was a wild ride of a book, especially since its out of my wheel-house of genres and the multiple plot twists had me in constant whiplash! It's about a young adult woman named Evie Porter -- except that is not her real name. Mr. Smith, her mysterious and sketchy boss gives her jobs she must complete and the latest has her actually falling in love and beginning to trust, which is nearly impossible for her. Through the book, which jumps around in her timeline (jumping back months to years between present-day chapters) you see glimpses of this mysterious woman with a not-so-reputable profession. Her false identities and lying get her into a web of dicey circumstances and the suspense of it all was a thrill ride. 

Content rating: PG-13 (a ton of F-bombs, some sexual references but no graphic scenes)

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma  by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. (audiobook and physical copy) ★★★★★

This book is an incredibly helpful resource for anyone who is caring, wither professionally or personally for someone who has experienced trauma (mental health counselors, teachers, parents, spouses) and especially for a traumatized person themselves. It is definitely dense at parts with a ton of research and brain anatomy descriptions, but it is worth pushing through because all of that drives the point that our bodies do carry trauma and can be affected in so many ways. The second part of the book, where he laid out many treatments (that do not include medicine, and usually work a lot better than medicine) and how they correlate with all the research he laid out in the first half. He digs deep into why modern talk therapy and antidepressants aren't helping traumatized people long-term and how to either add some adjunct therapies beside these, or try other options altogether, from trauma-focused yoga, EMDR, neurofeedback, theatre focused for trauma backgrounds, psychomotor therapy, and others. It took me nearly four months to read it because I was jotting down chapter summaries and sometimes needing a break for a week when it was heavy, but it was very enlightening and helpful for myself and for being able to better understand people with PTSD.

Content rating: PG-13 (a few curse words, but mainly the rating is because of the sometimes graphic and heartbreaking stories of abuse that are shared)

Morning Time: A Liturgy of Love by Cindy Rollins★★★★★

An incredible resource for moms who want to add some kind of family time (whether it is in the morning or another part of the day) when beautiful topics (Scripture, poetry, Shakespeare, hymns, folk songs, art and music studies) are explored. It would be most useful for homeschooling moms who follow the Charlotte Mason and/or classical education philosophies, since they include all these subjects within their curriculum, but it can also be for a mom who has her kids in school, but wants to add some of these during the evening or summers, for example. The first quarter of the book is the Why and How of Morning Time, while the rest of it is a generous and helpful anthology of all of Cindy's favorites in the subjects listed above. I loved reading through the poetry, most of which is too difficult to read to my 4-year old right now, but I loved it for myself. The short blurbs of chapter books she loved reading aloud was great, along with the historical documents she listed as important for students to be familiar with (Declaration of Independence, I Have A Dream speech by MLK, Gettysburg Address, etc). I have been doing Morning Time for several years, adding more as my son grows, and it has been a delight to memorize Scripture, learn hymns and fun folk songs together and poetry together, listen to beautiful classical music and admire classic masterpiece paintings together, so I look forward to using more of her suggestions when my son is older. 

Content rating: G

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller (audiobook)★★★★☆

I have been curious about Helen Keller story, since I have only heard bits and pieces about this blind and deaf woman who became an author and graduated from an esteemed college, so it was great to read her own words. Due to a severe illness at 19 months old, she was left blind and deaf, and she was understandably difficult to control because of severe temper tantrums from the frustration of not being able to communicate with the world around her. But a few years later, Anne Sullivan came into her life as her teacher and her whole life was transformed. In this autobiography, she recounts her first twenty-two years and the pivotal moments that propelled her towards learning to communicate and learn. Her courage and grit were admirable, alongside Anne Sullivan's, who was her main teacher and companion throughout her childhood and early adulthood. It was a tad slow, which I didn't mind since it was still very interesting. 

Content rating: G

7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child by Naomi Steiner and Susan L Hayes ★★★★★

I first read this in 2020 when my son was an infant and I re-read it now that he's a four-year old and I have another infant in the house so I wanted a refresher. An incredibly practical and in-depth guide to raising bilingual children. It gave me a lot to think about as I navigate teaching our son my Romanian language. She included convincing research as well as anecdotal stories of families who are successfully raising bilingual children. Here are her seven steps, each described in detail throughout the book.  Step 1: Building the foundation for your child's bilingualism (what does it mean to be bilingual? What are advantages for a child to be bilingual? Debunking myths about bilingualism). Step 2: Making it happen (defining goals and making decisions, such as how proficient you want your child to be and picking a start date). Step 3: Becoming a bilingual coach (deciding who speaks which language and when. The OPOL, One Parent One Language method is recommended). Step 4: Creating a Bilingual Action Plan (organizing when and how the language will be learned at home, extended family/community involvement such as grandparents speaking only in the second language, school resources such as bilingual schools, online programs and TV shows). Step 5: Leaping over predicable obstacles (mixing languages, parental insecurity that they speak that language well enough to teach their child, what to do if a child no longer is interested in learning the language, etc). Step 6: Reading and writing in two language. Step 7: Adapting to School. I felt like a lot of my reservations about starting this journey were addressed, such as wondering if there is a speech delay in bilingual  children (short answer: there is not). I also felt like there were enough suggestions that I could formulate my own Bilingual Action Plan to best suit our family, which I was able to put together after reading the book. Learning a second language isn't  one-size-fits-all. There are different ways that work for different families, so I appreciated that she wasn't prescriptive and only recommended one way; instead, she gave many examples of how families are making this work for them. This book was written in 2008, so there are many new technological advances (such as YouTube) that obviously were not mentioned, so parents will need to do their own homework and find newer resources than audio cassettes and other older media that was recommended.

Content rating: G

A Philosophy of Education (Annotated Edition by Rachel Lebowitz) by Charlotte Mason

This book me nearly four months to read, but I am glad to have read it (and glad to finally be done!). I read Home Education, Charlotte Mason's first book in her six volume series on homeschooling, last fall and knew I would want to dive into this volume next even though the Victorian language was a bit rough at times to understand. The annotated versions by Rachel Lebowitz are a great help with this though, because she has short notes about the many references Charlotte uses (poetry, contemporary scientists and thinkers, books, etc) without changing or defining her text (she lets you still do the work of learning what Charlotte is saying, which is a very Charlotte Mason thing to do). I found the long introduction chapter and the last few chapters to be a slog (mainly because the focus was on British culture and her disagreements with how education was being handled at the time), but enjoyed the sandwiched middle (Book 1) that dove deep into different parts of the Charlotte Mason education philosophy and method. I was familiar with a lot of the areas covered, but it was still great to read Charlotte's words in the original context since I have read and heard her words in different books and podcasts. Her twenty principles that guide her educational philosophy are explained as practical ways to implement this education are laid out as well. This book is dense and hard to get through at times since it took a lot of brain power to understand  overall, but I enjoyed diving deeper in the concepts and feel more equipped with the philosophy of the Charlotte Mason educational model, which has positively impacted our home so much even in the early years before formal education. 

Content rating: G

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What are you reading right now? Any great books you recently finished? Share in the comments below!