The Daily Question for You and Your Child

The Daily Question for You and Your Child *****

Overview: This small, hard-covered book has a question to ask your child every day of the year. Each page has lines to record your child's answer. The pages are divided up into three sections so the book can be used for three years. It is a fun idea to be able to see on one page how your child's answers to questions changed over the years.

Positive elements: The book is pretty and well laid out. The questions are fun.

Negative elements: The book is called a "spiritual journey" but only a few of the questions have a spiritual nature to them. Also, we realized that some of the questions have lengthy answers and you don't have room to record them. You just have to enjoy the conversation.  (And realistically, it will be rather a miracle if I can remember to keep using this book over the next three years and not lose it.)

Conclusion: We are having fun pulling this out at dinner or when we're all hanging out in the kitchen. We are trying to write small and squeeze more than one kid's answers on each page. My five girls think it's fun to give their opinion on some question and have it written down. I would recommend this book for kids who are grade school aged.

I received this book for free, and this is my honest review of it.

The Crescent Stone

The Crescent Stone *****
by Matt Mikalatos

 Overview: A teenage girl is dying. A man from another world invites her to come and fight his fantasy land's enemies for one year. In exchange, she will be completely healed. She enters into this agreement unaware of the full extent of it. In this new land, she finds that it isn't always easy to distinguish who your enemies really are.

Positive elements: The book is well-written. I loved that I didn't have any idea of how it was going to end. It's also perfectly clean.

Negative elements: The book's only downside was that it was a bit preachy. The author wanted kids to think about race and how it has played out in our country's past and how we need to view people of other races today as well. It's a good message, but the "teaching" was a bit unnatural in the story and dragged down the flow of the book.

Conclusion: I would recommend this fantasy book to any age. The characters are teenagers but adults could enjoy the easy-reading story as well. I always have a hard time with current fantasy books because I tend to compare them all to Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and they all fail in that comparison.

I received this book for free from Tyndale and offer this review of my own opinions.