Recently I was asked to review two books by Randy Alcorn.  At this point I have been able to read one of the books.  This book is called Wait Until Then by Randy Alcorn and illustrated by Doron Ben-Ami.  What a wonderful book!

This book is about a young boy and his grandfather.  Both the grandfather and boy are disabled in different ways, but the grandfather tries to teach the boy that he is still valued and that when they get to heaven their infirmities will no longer be there.

It is a very touching story, even causing me to get teary.  It is intended for children to help them understand heaven in a biblical way.  Randy Alcorn did a wonderful job in presenting this topic in a gentle and theologically sound way.  Both my children, dd7 and dd4, listened and enjoyed it.  Although, it talks about death, it is done in a way that I feel is not frightening to children.  It also opens up the possibility of dialogue that as parents we can often find hard to start.

I also want to just say that the art work in this book is outstanding!  Doron Ben-Ami has an amazing talent that just amazed my husband and I. The pictures had a photo quality about them...so life like! 

I would highly recommend this book.  I think that it handles the subject of death and heaven in such a way that children will have a healthy understanding of it.  If you are in need of dealing with this topic, consider reading this book.

About a month or so ago, I was given the opportunity to review a book.  Having never done so before, I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try.

I was sent a book called Confessions of an Amateur Believer, written by Patricia Kirk.  I had never heard of this book until now and the topic she wrote on sounded interesting.  Here is a summary of what the book is supposed to be about according to the publisher(Nelson Books...A Division of Thomas Nelson Publishers):

An entertaining collection of inspirational, gritty, challenging writing that follows an unwilling atheist's first encounters with God, her ensuing struggles and progress as a reluctant believer, and her ultimate discovery of contentment and rest in faith.

To be honest, I have conflicting opinions as to how I feel about the book.  Patricia Kirk is definitely an engaging writer.  She is humorous and honest...quite blunt at times.  It was easy to read each chapter, because it was so filled with honest feelings and rather funny stories.  Each chapter seemed to take an experience that she had and then bring it in the light of her faith or lack there of, depending on the moment in her life it fell in.  Her honesty of how she felt about God and life was refreshing.  However, I found that the chapters did not clearly show what she was wanting to.  The idea was that I was to see her "evolution" from child-believer to atheist to reluctant believer and finally to her contentment and rest in faith.  I could see her unbelief and her belief, but the chapters did not flow well for me.  Each chapter just seemed like a collection of thoughts with no connection to each other. 

All in all, I believe Patricia Kirk is a good writer, but this book left me feeling disconnected a bit.  If you would be interested in reading it for yourself...it came out in stores this month.