Just Enough and Not Too Much by Kaethe Zemach

This has been a repetitive book for our family! It illustrates a great message. Just because you can buy something doesn't mean you have to have it. Just because culture presses "MORE! MORE!" doesn't mean you have to succumb. Materialism is bungle some! Simple is sweet! It opens room for experience and freedom and if you have, giving is so much sweeter than hoarding! Contentment! Contentment! Contentment!

This was one we read often last summer just for fun and it has been one that has resurfaced through conversations about why make some of the choices we make! The American chant of "Big house, nice car, new everything when you have perfectly good ones that have been proven dependable (backpacks)" is ringing more loudly in their ears.  This is a confidence building story that brings back the value of less.

I Timothy 6:6 "But godliness with contentment is great gain."

Philippians 4:11b-13"...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to bein need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I CAN DO ALL THIS THROUHG HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH."

Did I Tell You I Love You Today? - by Deloris Jordan

One draw for this book for kids especially boys is that Michael Jordan's mom wrote it. One draw for this book for moms is the prayerfulness that begins it and ends it.  There are so many ways that parents communicate that they love their children and so many ways that God communicates it too his children too. Some of these can be overlooked by kids and parents and this book points them our beautifully!

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

This is one of my favorites! This was a possibility for a novel study in Dax's fifth grade class and so I read it along with a few others out of curiosity.  It is a wondrous collection of life lessons woven in nonsense tapestry to bring some great Truths to life.  The argument between Dictionopolis and Digitopolis has long been in my mind- for my adoration of words long outweighed my opinion of digits. However, they are both helpful to life. One of the most perplexing things to me as an only child are sibling rivalries similar to the one between the two kings.

Answers to questions like "what is the point of this monotonous stuff?" do come out in real life parallel to how they happen in the book.  I have longed for independence and control like Milo did with the symphony.   I have experienced doing something with pure motives as he did with the "BUT" and finding I had made a mess for others.  As my aging wisdom grows, I have become so fond of Rhyme and Reason. Reason's quote, " You must never feel badly about making mistakes...as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do my being right for the wrong reasons," in Chapter 18 stirs my heart.

My absolute favorite is Chapter 9 "IT's all in the Way You Look at Things"! I love perspective discussions.  I love seeing things from God's point of view when He makes it possible; I love seeing things from someone else's perspective.  I am no longer afraid of life changing my mind on some things.

2 Timothy 2:23-26 "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.  And the LORD's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.  Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. 

Don't Push the Button! by Bill Cotter

This book cracks us all up!

It is a great way to introduce to young kids the following concept:

When one rule is broken, often more rules follow.

Like in Eden...

...One rule...(Gen 2:17)

became a few...(Gen 3:21-24)

and  then added Ten...(Exodus 20)

and then many, many more.  (rest of Exodus:)

I love how the character Larry specifically states "there's only one rule"...then he starts guessing at others... finally he consults the book titled "so you've pushed the button" to reconcile the pushing of the button. Don't we as humans do just that: break a rule; guess at others to fix them; and hopefully finally consult The Word (both Scripture and Jesus himself) to reconcile all the buttons we push in this life.

A practical example we have used: I used blue painters tape (can even use long string for each "rule" to show how entangled we get in breaking rules; we think freedom is in breaking rules but really is more freeing to follow if it is right set of rules):
Parents tell you "don't play in this area; it is dangerous". You break rule, play and break your arm. Parents take you to the doctor and the doctor says, "you have to keep arm still for several weeks. (stick on piece of tape)  I am putting you in a cast. You can't play sports. (stick on another piece of tape) You can't get it wet, you can't take bath. (and another)You can't go swimming. (and another). You even have to be careful brushing your teeth. (and another)"

One rule has now become FIVE!

The Blue Day Book for Kids by Bradley Trevor Greive

We so enjoy the pictures in this book! It is great opening into a conversation about the difference between circumstances and choices!

There will be bad days but we can choose to remember WHO has got the day and to maybe look at it in a different way!

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - (Jesus) John 16:33

Nothing To Do by Douglas Wood; illus by Wendy Anderson Halperin

We are not "human doings" :) according to this author in the author's note. Love it!! This book is amazing especially illustrating growing through experiences that often are not achieving what the world would acclaim, something it would describe as "nothing".  This is one of those little reminders to look at everything that a book offers especially the illustrator's notes. The message is beautifully communicated and is perfect to bring up:

"Be still and know that I am God.  I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth." -Psalm 46:10

and discussions on how the busy-ness of American culture can rob us of the worship of doing nothing!

In the Fiddle Is a Song by Durga Bernhard

This has rocketed to the front of my top favorites list for ANY age!!!! (even though it is a lift the flap board book)  Intriguing that such a trite thing has as much POTENTIAL as this little gem!

The art is beautiful and the message is amazing truth that easily reminds me of so many of God's Truth. All of the things in the book have amazing potential and there were plans for them that involved much change and transformations.  This book is a narrative of so many things that happen in nature and some of what is crafted by workmen's hands which both reflect the creativity of the Creator.

"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." - Philippians 1:6

"For we are God' workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." - Ephesians 2:10

"'For I know the plans I have for  you,' declares the LORD. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11

"And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." - Ephesians 2:22

Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne

I love this author! I love this book!  There is so much here and yet one can easily miss it.  It is a simple story told from 4 differing perspectives about taking a trip to the same park.  The words tell part of the story, the fonts tell part of the story, the characters tell part of the story, THE ILLUSTRATIONS are the story!  Those who have "outgrown" pictures (or who think they are too good for pictures) will be lost and will miss the strength of the message. One of my favorite things about the book are the things to which each character is blind.  This book definitely is a wonderful display of what I read in Matthew 6:22-23:

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"

 "But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The LORD does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." -1Samuel 16:7

Dax (almost 9) saw a stack of books and knew I had been to the library.  He just finished Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightening Thief and needed something for his 20 minutes of reading for homework. He asked me which I suggested. Upon first reading it alone, he rated it as "not my favorite."  He never once took notice of the pictures and read it strictly as he would a chapter book only he didn't even pick up the change in fonts.  Later while David had taken Cole to a birthday party and K was sleeping, I asked if he'd like to read it together; he conceded because he will take any snuggle time we get when the others are away.  As we read and discussed the pics, he became animated in the hunt for clues in the illustrations and began to interpret some things similarly to my earlier interpretations and some differently.  I realized that we too had different angles on the book much like the characters had different angles on the park; perspectives and opinions can be synonomous.  In that moment, my heart yearned to have my Father's angle on people and things.  I have been drawn to truth for much of my life both practically and Absolutely; begging Him at times to let me see reality and not my own perception.  But with Dax reading this book at this juncture I long for His Angle / His Opinion, to see the proverbial "park" not exactly as the "park" is but as He sees it!

This was momentary. Two days later and after this morning of getting the boys up and off to school, I confess I did not see them the way He does this morning.  I hope and pray for more moments and maybe just maybe moment by moment I will give to Him and become more like Him!