SSHH Don't Wake The Baby! - Christmas Children's Book Review

Disclaimer:
I have NOT been offered a free product to write this blog post nor any other compensation.  
The views expressed here are completely my own.

It's Christmas time again and it's Christmas Book Review time.

Today it is a book for young children about the real focus of Christmas.

We have always felt that books are very special to our family and share a love of reading but now that Fred and I have got to the "grandparent stage" we are once again looking at, buying and reading books that are suitable for the "0 - 5 years" age group.


So when I heard about this title and the fact that these books can be got cheaply - more about that later I - and knew the people who were recommending them were reliable (very important!) I was quick to tell my friend at church and if you read on you will find out what that resulted in.

Well back to testing out the book.

If a book is meant for that young age group then it should be tested with children of that age.

We have 3 grandchildren Matthew just turned 4 at the start of last month, Ruby 2 yrs 5 months and Sarah 10 weeks old, all of whom fall in this age group.

Unfortunately Sarah was fast asleep when we arrived back with Matthew to his mum and dad from having a sleepover at our house so we did not lift her out of the cot to disturb her but it will not be long before she is on Nanny or Granddad's knee as we read other stories to them all.


(I forgot to get a picture of Sarah in her cot asleep but here is one from a few days previously when she was asleep in my arms.)

So you can see this book was very apt for Matthew and Ruby because of baby Sarah and Yes even though we were reading the book together and mum & dad were chatting & laughing in the kitchen we didn't wake Baby Sarah.



We had cuddled into the big corner of our son & daughter-in-law's sofa in their living room where we always go in their house to read our storybooks together.



Ruby gets very serious when she is looking at a new book and always seems like she is trying to take in everything on the pages.

At first I think Matthew thought maybe this book was better suited to Ruby's age than to his but it wasn't too long until he was sitting forward to see the great illustrations.

At one stage you have to turn the book round in a circle to read the spiral writing and this really got Matthew's attention

 plus he then decided that he needed to check something from the previous pages before he would let me continue reading.

The book goes back and forth between referring to a baby in the family and the baby Jesus and this did not confuse either Matthew or Ruby at all.

We have a saying in our family - one which was started by our children when they were young
"No Hugging, No Kissing!" they would shout when Fred and I would get too close to each other - and it is still chanted all these years later.

So we laughed when we got to this page

The book was just a nice length for Ruby who was very attentive the whole way through.

Matthew however was a bit sad that it wasn't longer and didn't want me to close it after I read the final words.

The book is a lovely size (6ins x 6ins)  for slipping into a handbag or for little hands like Ruby's to hold.


There is also a hardback version of the book which is approximately 9ins by 9ins but I have not seen this in person.  It would be an ideal size and a sturdier type book for using to read to a group of children.


Here you can see the back cover of the book

So back to the point where I had told my friend in church about this book BEFORE I even had a copy. 

In fact the copy I had for this review was given to me by her because once she had looked it up on the website she just felt it was the right book to get for our church to give to all the children who come to our "Sonshine Club" each Tuesday (our Mums & Tots group).

She ordered 60 books to have today for our Christmas Party and because this book focuses in on Jesus as a baby and the special reason for this baby it is an ideal gift for the children to learn about Jesus, the true reason of Christmas and also for the mums and dads and grannies and granddads who sit cuddled up with the little ones they love and read of the love of God at Christmas.

Now what would be the point in me telling you about this beautiful book which would make an ideal gift for any young child if I did not tell you where to get it.

This book is written by Helen Buckley and illustrated by Jenny Brake and can be ordered from  10 of Those  a company which sell many of their books at great discounts in fact if you order now there is something like 40% off the retail price.

This company also sell some books in large quantities and when these were bought for our church event we got them for only £1 each.


So Deciding thought on this book?

Yes it's a big Tick from me and Fred and the grandkids.

Please note the book is not available through Amazon.co.UK or  .Com however you can find other books by the same author on Amazon HERE

Disclaimer:
I have NOT been offered a free product to write this blog post nor any other compensation.  
The views expressed here are completely my own.

What's on our Bookshelves? - Coffee & Conversation.

Do you enjoy reading?

        Do you have a lot of books?

I have 5 bookcases in my study:

• 1 completely full of Christian novels; 
• another has Christian novels, devotionals and Bible Study books;
• the third has bibles, commentaries, biographies and my Agatha Christie collection (Heron Books); 
• the fourth has language books, photo albums, map books and my hoard of books to use for the Sunday School Curriculum for Church;
• the last one has the rest of my non-Christian novels by various authors but quite a few of Nelson DeMille, Jeffrey Archer, John Grisham, Brad Melizer, Linwood Barclay & Lee Child.

We have lived in 8 different houses since we got married and each time we move we have all these books to pack up and then find the right places in the next home for the bookshelves.  

We keep saying that one day we should be thinking of downsizing so where will we put the books then?  

If they were all available as ebooks would we throw them out and buy them as ebooks? 

I know I would be tempted to keep my nice matching Agatha Christie novels at least as I really am enjoying sitting in the sun room with my hardback copies of these as I read through them all in Chronological Order and then review them here on the blog.

My husband and I read a lot of the same books, just as we watch a lot of the same TV series and this was always very handy when it came to travelling as we took the books we both wanted to read and shared them instead of each packing our own.  

Now of course it is so much handier to just carry our iPads and Kindles and we don't have to spend time beforehand deciding on the joint book list.

The only problem now is that not all the Christian novels we would like to collect are in ebook form.

We also find that those which are available as ebooks are very expensive compared to other novels.

However I do like to keep an eye out through Twitter and Facebook for any indication of free offers on ebooks or reduced prices and swiftly go on Amazon to snap them up.
One way is to try HERE

The great thing about ebooks (apart from the fact that they are easy to carry around in the kindle or iPad) is the fact that you don't need extra bookshelves to store them in, well not real ones anyway.

"Is a book in your hand better than an ebook?"

My oldest son says a book in your hand is so much better than an ebook.
He is worse than us as he has a full wall of his apartment lined with books from floor to ceiling, plus another bookshelf on the wall beside this, then some boxes of books under his bed and of course we must not forget the several boxes of books he still has in our house under the snooker table.

This is like the Daddy.......Chips? question I mentioned in a previous post.

Books........Ebooks?     Which is it to be?

If you are interested in some recommendations for your book shelves - here are some of my favourites:

The Blue Bottle Club by Penelope Stokes

The Presence by Davis Bunn

The Panther by Nelson DeMille

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Misery Loves Company - Book Review

I was privileged to get an ebook reader copy of this book from the publishers and read it during the past week.

Synopsis:

        Don’t tell me it’s terrifying. Terrify me.

Filled with grief, Jules Belleno rarely leaves the house since her husband’s death while on duty as a police officer. Other than the reviews Jules writes on her blog, she has little contact with the outside world.

But one day when she ventures out to the local grocery store, Jules bumps into a fellow customer . . . and recognizes him as her favorite author, Patrick Reagan. Jules gushes and thoroughly embarrasses herself before Regan graciously talks with her.

And that’s the last thing she remembers—until she wakes up in a strange room with a splitting headache. She’s been kidnapped. And what she discovers will change everything she believed about her husband’s death . . . her career . . . and her faith. 

While I was reading this book I thought I couldn't relate the title of the book to the story I was reading but as at other times I know that I may have to wait until I finish the book and then I get it!

       And yes I got it!

Not having read anything by this author before, I knew I would not be expecting a certain type of writing style or plot formula and it was nice to just read and enjoy the story as it developed in the way the author had intended it to and not the way I would be expecting.

Some of the characters were a little typical but not one-dimensional and the development of the storyline in the two separate ways within the story worked quite well.

Twice I thought I knew what was going to happen and I was wrong so definitely not a predictable storyline.  I enjoyed the book as a relaxing read but also in parts of it I found I was drawn in to consider how I would react if I had to face some of the issues presented.

Taking into consideration the fact that this was written by a woman and the main character is a woman I needed to decide if this was going to be a book that would only be categorised as a women's book.  It is not action packed but action and suspense are there and the fact that the rest of the main characters are male I have to say that I would not categorize it as such.

Within the storyline the subject of happy endings or real life, possibly unhappy endings came up but I will not give spoil it by telling you what type of ending this resulted in, just read it and see for yourself.

Misery Loves Company  by  Rene Gutteridge  www.renegutteridge.com 

Published by Tyndale  www.tyndale.com 

Released in August 2013

The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Book Review

Synopsis

Injured and sent back to England from the First World War, Lieutenant Hastings finds himself in a convalescent home very much to his disliking.  Thankfully his old friend John Cavendish invites him to spend the rest of his sick leave at the beautiful Styles Court.  Here, Hastings meets John’s step-mother, Mrs Inglethorpe, and her new husband Alfred.  Despite the tranquil surroundings Hastings begins to realise that all is not right.  When Mrs Inglethorpe is found poisoned, suspicion falls on the family, and who better to investigate than Belgian war refugee Hercule Poirot, another old friend and a retired police detective.

This was the first Agatha Christie novel and apparently publishers were not interested in publishing it. 

         Why?

Of course once one publisher did decide to give it a go then Mrs Christie had lots of interest from many publishers due no doubt to the great interest everyone had in reading and buying this book.

 The following and other great reviews of the time will also have helped.

                       "Though this may be the first published book of Miss Agatha Christie,
                                            she betrays the cunning of an old hand..."

                                                                    The New York Times Book Review, 1920

My View

I had read it years ago and I did remember who the murderer was but did not remember all the fine details so perhaps because of this I have realized now just how good this book is and especially just how good it was for a first book.  All the clues were there, so those who say that she hides some clues are mistaken here. We really just have to read the books carefully to see it all.  

I was even taken with the structure of some of the sentences, very carefully done so that things are not given away immediately but written so that it can get us thinking.  I normally refer to Agatha Christie novels as light reading but if we take it too lightly we will miss the clues, the background info which can often be very important and of course the subtlety in Poirot's musings. 

Written so well in the voice of Hastings, it was no wonder she kept him in many of the Poirot novels and if I had to give my view she should have kept him even later too.

You will find many other BOOK REVIEWS on Sandra's Ark

Book Review - The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

You can find this book on Amazon just click on the pic below.

Here is a link to a list of other novels by Agatha Christie on Amazon
Books by Agatha Christie

If thinking of reading this book in the future why not pin this pic to go back to later.