A TASTE OF PARADISE ON BRIGHT MONDAY

Happy Bright Week! Christ is Risen! 

On the heels of Pascha (for all my Orthodox readers), and Easter for those of you who celebrated earlier in the West, I hope you're enjoying after-Pascha-treats from your basket. We certainly are! Especially my yummy Russian Pascha cheese, which kind of tastes like paradise. 

But that's not the taste I'm here to tell you about today...

I have a soon-to-be-released children's book to share with you:  A Taste of Paradise, Stories of Saints and Animals. 

This delightful picture book is by Katherine Bolger Hyde, illustrated by Anastasiya Sokolova. It's exquisite, and I love it! And I think your kids will too. 

It seems safe to say that most children love animals and animal stories, and this book is a wonderful way to introduce them to some extraordinary saint stories...

Long ago in Paradise animals and men walked side by side.  When we return to Paradise, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them.  In the time in between, many holy men and women have befriended even the fiercest beasts through the power of God's love.  Come and meet a few of these saints and their animal friends in this beautifully illustrated collection of inspiring stories!

Starting with Modestos, the patron saint of animals, we are introduced to saints from around the world (St. Herman of Alaska, Elijah the Prophet and the ravens, St. Kieran of Ireland and a wild boar, and St. Melangell of Wales and her rabbits, to name a few). 

Anastasiya Sokolova's luminous illustrations will draw you into each of Katherine Bolger Hyde's beautifully descriptive accounts of the saints and animals - perfect for children ages 4-8!

Be on the lookout! This book can be ordered soon from Ancient Faith Publishing.

LOVE COMES DOWN

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!   

A bouquet of flowers I received for Valentine's Day from my young goddaughters are serving as the perfect backdrop for my highlighted picture book today. It's new from Ancient Faith Publishing...

Love Comes Down, is a song by Natasha Frasch, which she put into a sturdy board book form for little hands.  The sweet illustrations are by Avery Mefford.  

It's about the humble nature of God's love through the Incarnation of Christ. I'll start with a stanza from the end of the book:

For love always comes down, down, down

and cares for the very small!

And we can care for the least of these...

because Love came down and cares for us all.

Even young children will understand through the text and illustrations of the book how God cares for them everyday, and how He sent His Son to care for us that we may care for others in our world.  

There is even a QR code on the opening page of the book so you can listen to the song, beautifully sung by the author/composer!

Happy Saint Lucia Day

Click here for my Saint Lucia Day Remembrances post (we started having a St. Lucia Procession at our church when my daughter was only two and a half years old.  Now she's a Mama who bakes Lusseketter and shares in the tradition with her own children!)

A Day at the Seashore

This might seem like an odd title for a November post, but here in sunny Southern California, we get some of our best beach days in the fall.  Take for instance last week, when our temperatures hit the low 90's!

My daughter and granddaughters were visiting from Michigan to meet their new baby cousin, and we took full advantage of the hot day to go to the beach, equipped with sand toys, towels, and a little Golden Book about two siblings - Nancy and Timmy - who go with their parents to the beach: A Day at the Seashore.

Nancy and Timmy hop out of their beds one summer morning and help pack their swimsuits and lunch. And then it's off to the seashore! In a charming rhyme, this Little Golden Book from 1951 (then titled A Day at the Beach) describes what preschoolers will find there: "You can catch little crabs—if you're quick! You can draw great big pictures right on the beach with a piece of a shell or a stick."

Ah, the glorious days of childhood...

Time Traveling with the Saints, Beyond the White Fence

A bunch of curious (and sometimes feisty) cousins, a garden gate leading to time travel adventures, and a peacock to guide them - who could ask for a better juvenile fantasy chapter book??  Especially one where kids will learn about saints' stories - and actually feel like they are there!

If your child likes C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, he or she will enjoy Beyond the White Fence. It all starts with a grandmother's backyard and a girl named Katie... 

Katie discovers that the valley behind her grandmother's garden is more mysterious than it seems.  After tumbling into tenth-century England and encountering Saint Edith of Wilton along with her wild animal menagerie, she is helped home, wondering whether her adventure was truly real.  

But after Katie, her cousins, and a neighborhood friend are drawn back in time once again, she realizes her grandmother's garden gate is a portal into faraway worlds, where patron saints are real people making real-life decisions.

Join Katie and her cousins as they mingle with Rachel and Jacob, meet Saint Mary Magdalene up close, trek across the sand with the matriarchs Naomi and Ruth, and have a nail biting adventure with the heroic Saint Katherine of Alexandria. In seeing the richness of the family of God, they glimpse how very much they are a part of it all.

Author Edith M. Humphrey, a grandmother herself (of twenty!) does a great job of storytelling in this new chapter book for 9 -13 year olds (and precocious 8 year olds) from Ancient Faith Publishing.  A former teacher and lecturer of theology (at Pittsburg Theological Seminary), she does an excellent job of bringing Orthodox theological truths and historic saints' stories alive for kids - with excitement, humor, and even some movie references - in a non-preachy or didactic way.  She tackles the topics of marriage and sexuality with the same amount of matter-of-factness as sibling rivalry.

Written in five parts, the last one makes for an especially suspenseful ending - Humphrey's handling of the bravery and martyrdom of Saint Katherine is wonderfully told.  The reader will feel Katie's dread in anticipation of her patron saint's death, but it is reckoned with the power and glory of God in His Saints. It brought me to tears.

Beyond the White Fence is available now from Ancient Faith Publishing.

Sisters, Sisters...

There were never such devoted sisters!

My granddaughters are the cutest.

We love singing them the "Sisters Song" from White Christmas - especially in light of the fact that Maria (the youngest of my daughter's four children) was born in December - on Christmas Eve!

My husband recently found a long lost box high up on a shelf in our garage.  It was full of some of our kids' favorite childhood picture books!  I separated them out according to each (now adult) child so they can pass them along to their own kiddos.

When I came to the pile of my daughter's books I smiled as I thought of her little girls enjoying their mommy's old books...because they already love books!

Today I'd like to highlight a story about two sisters, Snow White and Rose Red, heroines of one of Grimm's fairytales. I remember it being a favorite of my childhood fairytales.  Growing up, we had a recorded version with a follow-along Little Golden book.

There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage. In front of the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore white and the other red roses. She had two children who were like the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose-red... 

I loved Gustav Tenggren's illustrations of the blonde and brunette sisters, as different in their personalities as their red and white rose bushes - and I could never decide which girl I'd rather be. The story also features a bear, and an ungrateful dwarf (who always reminded me of Rumplestiltskin).

This beautiful version, Snow & Rose written and illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin, was gifted to me by my daughter! It's a nice chapter book version for kids 8-12, with beautiful illustrations throughout.

From Publisher's Weekly:

Sisters Snow and Rose once lived a charmed life in a grand house with a beautiful garden. After their father disappears into the woods, the girls and their mother are forced to move into a small cottage in the same forest. There, they befriend a boy named Ivo, discover a mysterious library filled not with books but objects, are tricked by a strange little man, and bond with a protective bear. 

Unfolding over episodic chapters that build to a well-deserved happy ending, this moody fairy tale emphasizes family, friendship, and the powerful bond of sisterhood. Martin’s characterization of the two contrary sisters is especially moving: Rose is the type of person who “holds on to a thing she loved as tightly as she could,” while Snow wants “to see or hear or taste something she loved over and over again, to remind herself that it was real.” 

The sisters’ contradictions make their relationship all the stronger, and Martin’s prim full-color paintings and spot illustrations tenderly highlight key characters and moments. Ages 8–12.

Incidentally, when Maria was born, I gifted her with one of Emily Winfield Martin's picture books, The Wonderful Things You Will Be.

And this past Christmas, we gave her a cute little stuffed doll of the protagonist baby (her doppelganger), who, along with sister Lexi, keeps Maria company day and night.

Oh, how I miss our little Snow (Lexi) and Rose (Maria)!  Such devoted sisters.

Love at Lent - Family Activity Pack Giveaway

Blessed Feast of the Annunciation! Today, I'd like to highlight Love at Lent, a new offering from Ancient Faith Publishing.  Orthodox Lent and Pascha are a bit late on the calendar this year, and so am I in getting this post out, but nonetheless, here you go... 

Michelle Bonanno Triant, along with illustrator Maria Constantinescu, has curated a sweet boxed set of 50 Lenten activity cards for the whole family that will encourage forgiveness, gratitude, generosity, prayer, and love. 

These daily tasks and prayer cards will get your family involved in the Spirit and work of Lent.  You can choose one each day of Great Lent and Holy Week to discover a new simple task to complete. The cards can also be utilized in other settings, such as Sunday school, church ministry groups, and homeschool cooperatives.

I just LOVE Maria Constantinescu's illustrations on the front of each card.  So bright and perfect for spring!

I think parents will appreciate that the tasks on the back of the cards are simple and straightforward, and not overwhelming at all. They don't even need to be done in a specific order (although there are a few that go especially with Holy Week and Pascha.) Along with the activities, all the cards include "Tips" and "Bonus Fun".

Here are a few examples of specific tasks:

Read a Bible Story

Say "I Love You" in Another Language

Give Away a Toy

Take a Family Walk

Dance

Decorate a Pascha Card

GIVEAWAY: I know this fun pack of sturdy activity cards will be anticipated by kids and used year after year!  I'd love to send it to someone.  

Be the first parent, grandparent, godparent, or Sunday school teacher to leave a comment and the pack is yours. Then send me an email {wendyb[spam]1963@sbclgobal.net} with your mailing address. 

*Of course anyone is welcome to leave a random comment and not enter in the giveaway, but please specify that. Giveaway is only open to my readers with children in their lives that could benefit.  Not to be re-sold under any circumstance!  The cards are available here from Ancient Faith Publishing.