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Little Mole Gives Thanks- A Giveaway!

EDIT: WE HAVE A WINNER! Congratulations, Jo Love! I’ll be in touch!

I have mentioned before how much my children enjoy Glenys Nellist’s Little Mole series and it’s time to get one of these fabulous titles into your hands. This giveaway is sponsored by the publisher, Beaming Books, and is open to entrants living in the USA. We have a copy of Little Mole Gives Thanks for one reader. All you need to do it comment here and you’ll be entered to win. (My very fancy random generator, a.k.a. my kids writing your names, dropping them in a bowl, dumping them on the floor, crumbling a dog biscuit among it all, and pulling the paper that my dog’s nose touches first in his quest for a cookie, will be working Thursday night. Winner announced next Friday, October 27!)

Psalms of Wonder; Poems from the Book of Songs

It’s no secret that I love books. I love old books, new books, even e-books. I have floor to ceiling bookcases in every room in my house, save for the kitchen, which can only fit a small half shelf to cradle my most beloved cookbooks. No one is surprised that I married a librarian- it just made good sense that I would fall for someone who loves books as much as I do. You would think that I don’t need more books, given that I have such a giant collection in my own home and have a spouse that can and will access anything I’m looking for from libraries across the country. You would be correct- I probably don’t need more books, but, boy howdy, do I want them. Since our children have inherited our love of books and have their own burgeoning collections, we need to be smart about what we bring into our home. It has to really matter to us emotionally, it has to really serve a need for our work, or it has to really be a useful and almost daily reference for us in our everyday lives. I had already done a culling of the shelves in our living room and office when the package bearing Psalms of Wonder; Poems from the Book of Songs by Carey Wallace and Khoa Le arrived from the publisher. I was enjoying the unjammed nature of the shelves, finding books that I had neglected a bit, and not really planning on adding anything new for a bit. But as I opened up the package, I audibly gasped at the gorgeousness that met my eyes and hands and knew that Psalms of Wonder  needed to stay and become part of my life.

Psalms of Wonder is organized around the themes of songs of wonder, songs of courage, songs of comfort, songs of joy, songs of protection, and songs of love. Each section has several Psalms, retold in language that honors the original text but also introduces how we would say things in today’s parlance. The illustrations are absolutely breathtaking, balancing light, shadow, darkness, emotions, and multiple representations of what God’s children look like. The text is in accessible font, surrounded by space and illustrations, providing an uncluttered and peaceful book. Nothing is removed from the text; adults who are familiar with the book of Psalms will not be disappointed, nor will people who are just now being introduced to these ancient songs. I have read these with my young children (ages 3-10), my middle children (13 and 15), and shared them with my adult children (ages 18 and 20). Everyone loves this book and finds great comfort from and expression in it.

There are so many different ways that I am planning on using this book in ministry and in my family life. Copies are going into each of the classrooms at the church where I work. It provides the perfect reading to start a class, to rally a group of children who are having difficulty with the planned lesson, to end a session, to send people off, to learn pieces of for memory verses, to spur art responses to the songs, to set to tunes they already know, and to bring peace into a situation that is unsettled. This is going to be the Lenten gift that I give to families later this winter. It will be the spine of a congregational reading of Psalms. This would be a marvelous choice for an adult book club during faith formation time. It may be marketed towards children, but this book is anything but childish. Comparing the songs in this book with favorite Biblical translations, discussing how our understanding changes over time, and challenging each other ot find ways to work readings of Psalms into our everyday devotions are just a few of the ways I would approach using it with adults. I would get a copy of this book, just to take apart, laminate, and hang in various classrooms and children and family spaces. This book is not to be missed. It is absolutely spectacular. 

All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings Children’s Edition

I’ve been a fan of the original edition of All Creation Waits for a few years now. In fact, I like it so much that I used it as part of the parent/caregiver book club for our Advent Holy Moments this year. Imagine my excitement when I found out that the author and publisher teamed up to release an edition just for children! As I waited for it to arrive from the publisher, I actually daydreamed about what it could be like. When I opened the package, several of my children were around me and heard my audible gasp and were concerned that another cricket had gotten in with the mail. “No, no, loveys”, I said. “It’s this book. It’s gorgeous.” At which we all abandoned what we were doing, plopped down on our favorite couch, and settled in for a good read together.

All Creation Waits, Children’s Edition is organized similarly to the original edition. Twenty four different animals are featured, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas. Each animal has its own two page spread, featuring gorgeous color illustrations and text that describes the animal’s habits of waiting and resting. There is plenty of space around the text and the illustrations softly and accurately depict the animal’s life. Each two page spread closes the same way; The dark is not an end. It’s a door. It’s the way a new beginning comes. This simple repetition, paired with the text about waiting, helps drive home why we celebrate the season of Advent. It’s not about anticipating presents and decorating everything possible; it’s about waiting for the new beginning that comes in the birth of the infant Jesus.

This book holds many opportunities for your ministry. If you use our parent/caregiver bookclub from Holy Moments, it would be quite natural to use this children’s edition as the spine of your elementary and middle grades faith formation time. You could set up three centers in your classroom; one where the texts are shared with the children, one where the children create their own two page spread of art that depicts what they take away from the lesson of waiting, and another center where the children assemble pinecone bird feeders and pet blanket packs for animal shelters as a response to creation waiting for us to help care for them. This book would make a wonderful Advent gift for families; no need for tchotchkes from an online retailer that will just wind up broken. This book provides for conversation about who we are and why we observe Advent better than any ‘color your own Christmas ornament’. Pair it with a handful of Zoom/Google Meet gatherings midweek where everyone gathers to follow an online drawing tutorial of an animal from the book, and you’ve got a dynamic gift plus multigenerational ministry offering. I would also purchase a copy just for the prayground and take it apart. I would laminate the pages and put a few out in the prayground, along with dry erase markers or watercolor for the wee ones to color/paint as they participate in worship. It could also be used as the spine for children’s moments in worship. This sweet volume is quite versatile and would provide lots of material for your ministries!

Share The Joy; A Christmas Lift-The-Flap Book

Anyone who has spent time with young children in the days leading up to Christmas knows the energy that they bring to the season. The wonder with all the lights, the charge as the decorations trim the tree, the excitement while decorating cookies- there’s nothing quite like it. There’s so much energy around the season that it’s little wonder that wee ones have trouble settling down and finding pockets of calm. That’s where I harness the power of stories- whispered family lore, songs sung to tell about the anticipation of the birth of Jesus, and a special trove of board books especially for the youngest of our crew. When Paraclete Press sent me a copy of Share The Joy; A Christmas Lift-the-Flap Book by Valerie Ellis, my toddler and I pulled up a spot on Cozy Yellow (our favorite couch) and had ourselves a little read, after which I promptly popped this book into my little trove of board books to help with the energy around Christmas.

Share The Joy is a sweet little book, designed for the youngest in our midst. Each page spread features a different family with different cultural representations of how they observe Advent and Christmas. There is a lift-the-flap in each spread to show more of the family’s practices. The words are presented in clear fonts and set to the cadence of simple rhymes. The flaps are durable enough to hold up to the little hands that will eagerly lift/accidentally over-extend, and the pictures feature enough details to hold up to multiple readings. The adults will not get bored, nor will the children. 

This little book has many uses in your ministry. If you haven’t chosen an Advent or Christmas gift for young families in your congregation yet, this would be a lovely option. This would be a good addition to your pew baskets and prayground. This would be a lovely springboard for an Advent midweek enrichment art ministry or for during the long Christmas break; have people illustrate what their family does during the seasons of Advent and Christmas using watercolors, oil pastels, or chalk. Use the illustrations to create a church family display or as the covers of Christmas cards to be sent to homebound congregants. You could also use one page spread per week of Advent and Christmas, making it a springboard for discussion on what our siblings around the world do as we prepare for the birth of Jesus. This is especially easy to tie into the RCL, year B and Narrative Lectionary readings this year. Just be sure to follow copyright practices if you are livestreaming to a public platform. This little board book packs quite an effective punch for children and family ministries in addition to being a delightful part of a family’s read aloud life. 

Little Mole Gives Thanks

There is a handful of book series that my children adore; The Chronicles of Narnia, The Penderwicks, Harry Potter, and anything by Robert McCloskey and Virginia Lee Burton. They have created many impromptu plays around the stories, recreated the worlds from the stories using legos, paints, and items found in nature, and retold the stories countless times while often tucking into bed at night with at least one of these volumes in hand. Comfort reading, they tell me. My husband and I have been parenting for over twenty years now and have three distinct waves of children; the bigs, the middles, and the littles. Each group has their individual book treasures, and my youngest crew have had the blessing of adding the Little Mole series to their days. When Little Mole Gives Thanks by Glenys Nellist arrived on my doorstep from the publisher, it was met with much whooping and hollering by my littles and all other exploits were abandoned in favor of reading the newest edition to the Little Mole series.

Little Mole Gives Thanks centers around our favorite mole and his quest to create a meal to remember for loved ones. He meticulously spreads a beautiful table, preparing to welcome three special guests. As each one comes down the lane, Little Mole is greeted by the disappointing news that each one cannot attend. His friends, who watched his preparations and cheered him on, rally to comfort Little Mole. Little Mole brightens and decides that the feast was actually for these friends and welcomes them all to the table. He makes room for each, toasts them all, and together they give thanks for the fanciest forest feast ever. The book concludes with ideas for the reader to use so they can plan their own fancy feast. The words are soothing, the font accessible, and the illustrations cozy. 

This book is typical of the author’s work; welcoming, homey, and versatile for use in ministry. It definitely deserves a spot on your children’s and family ministry shelves. Families will enjoy reading it together wherever they land; the hardcover ensures it will be durable for many, many reads, even if they wind up happening in carpool lines, doctor’s office waiting rooms, or couches surrounded by people, pets, and snacks. I have already popped a copy on the shelf that welcomes families into our Sunday School space each week and have had children scoop it up and drop to the floor for a read. I would recommend a copy for your shelf when you are looking for a tool to help discuss the parable of the wedding feast, as it connects beautifully. Definitely, you can add this to pew baskets and praygrounds. This book is also a great resource for adults when they’re working through ministry plans that have caused them to pivot. Honestly, a read aloud of this book to start a church council meeting when big decisions around change need to be made would be a solid foundation to guide prayer, attention, and discussion. So much versatility from one Little Mole!

A Path Through Pain; How Faith Deepens and Joy Grows Through What You Would Never Choose

We all know the pithy saying from Benjamin Franklin about what is certain in life; death and taxes. I would add that pain is something else that is common to the human condition. There are varying sources, degrees, and manifestations of pain, but it comes to us all. Most of us would like to avoid pain, and when it does come, we seek paths to navigate us through it as quickly as possible. Ed and Lisa Young have authored a book dedicated to such; A Path Through Pain.

A Path Through Pain details the pain and aftermath of the death of the authors’ daughter. Ed and Lisa Young discuss how they found ways to cope, what brought them comfort, and what lessons they learned as they lived through the time after their daughter’s death. They also give us glimpses into what life was like with their beloved daughter, as well as what her struggles were like for them. Chapters are devoted to topics like what to do when crisis comes, is God good, and unchecked baggage. Personal anecdotes are interspersed throughout, and each chapter concludes with a Take a Step section, giving the reader ideas about how to process and move forward through their own pain.

This book is a provocative read. It helped me wrestle with concepts, think more deeply about the lives of those around me, and what a loving response toward someone in pain is. This is a book that would be good for your resource shelf. This is a book that would be an interesting book club selection for adults. There is much to be gained when a community discusses the origin of pain, personal responses to pain, and personal responses to those in pain. When church communities commit to understanding pain, how people respond to pain, and how people effectively care for those in pain, the greater community can only benefit. This book can provide you with the springboard for these types of conversations.

Picture The Bible: KidLit Kit: Jesus of Nazareth

Remember the television show, Cheers? Remember how a certain character would walk into the place and everyone would call out, “NORM!” That’s me when I walk into a library or our local bookstore. I rarely leave home with a book, and that’s because I usually leave with at least 3; two for my kids and one for me. Hand me a book and I squeal like a child on Christmas morning. Put me in a classroom with children, I’m going to be reading at least one book to them. Have you ever seen my year outline for children’s ministries? It has the usual suspects; teachers, dates, subs, lessons. But there’s also a column for ‘books to read’, paired with a subheading for each month of books to pull off shelves or get from libraries and bookstores so that we don’t have to worry about it for the month. Maybe this will help you understand the outright glee I have because of the Picture The Bible KidLit Kit; Jesus of Nazareth that landed in my inbox. The author of Picture The Bible shared this with me and it is the resource I didn’t know I was missing.

Picture The Bible KidLik Kit: Jesus of Nazareth revolves around fourteen stories of Jesus’s ministry. Each story uses the telling of the Scripture from Picture The Bible, background information for the leader, a creative project using materials commonly found in children’s ministry supply closets, a piece of children’s literature to read with the children, and a way to connect it with the Scripture. The lessons have many pieces to them, so the leader can pick and choose what works best for the class they are with. Additionally, the diversity of the activities makes it so you can easily use this in a multiage setting, tailoring to each distinct group within the larger one. The creative projects are accessible to all ages and ability levels (I say this as a special education teacher and as the parent of a child who has muscular and vision issues and a child with a reading disability). The children’s literature is diverse, and most are available at your local library. The resource is thoughtfully laid out and comes as a digital download. More units like these, but with different themes, will be released in the coming months. 

Are you looking for something that is flexible and child-centered? This is for you. Are you working with a limited budget that requires materials you already have on hand? Here you go. Perhaps you want something that will span a whole semester of learning. Snag this. Maybe you have a group of children and families that are ready for a focused study on Jesus’s ministry. This would be excellent to use in a two generation Sunday School class or to be used with the children in faith formation time, supplemented with take home craft kits so families can work on the creative project together. Use the suggested children’s literature for the spine of your bedtime stories and prayers ministry and you have a whole semester planned. It would also be a good resource for those planning children’s chapel times and children’s moments in worship. The flexibility of this resource, paired with easy formatting and easy downloading, makes it one that you should check out.

Forever Home

There was an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Penny accidentally shot Sheldon’s favorite couch cushion with a paintball. Penny winds up taking the cushion to the dry cleaner, and Sheldon has a hard time adjusting to a different seat while he waits for its return. When it is done, he sits in utter bliss, declaring that he was home. It may seem odd that little things like cushions equal home to humans, but when we get down to it, comfort and familiarity are the essence of home. Comfort and familiarity with others, as well as comfort and familiarity with special items are the building blocks of who we are. What happens when those building blocks are cracked, shifted, or worse? This is what Anh Lin explores in her book, Forever Home; Moving Beyond Brokenness to Build a Strong and Beautiful Life.

Forever Home opens with an introduction titled The Demolition. In it, the author lays out what her early years were like and how they formed her understanding of the world. Through the rest of the book, organized into sections titled Foundation, Framing, Inspections, and Adorn, we read about how the author explored how to heal from the brokenness of her younger years and lay the foundations for growth. Each chapter explores the topics more deeply, winding down with a section to help the reader process the information, apply it to their lives, and work it into their prayer lives. The tone is conversational rather than prescriptive and judgemental, making it a softer and more compelling read.

This book has some varied uses for your ministry. It would be a lovely addition to a church library for people to self-select and read as they feel called. It could be a good selection for a women’s group or even a mixed group adult book study. Since each chapter ends with reflection questions and prayer prompts, it would be simple for a leader to pull conversation questions for a group session. For such a time as this, when people are exploring how brokenness as affected their day to day lives, especially while processing relationship shifts through the pandemic, this book has a place on your resource shelves.

The Little Philosopher

I am not a person who lays down rules when teaching a class. I find them to be prescriptive, and not of the behaviors we desire in the classroom community, but of the ones we try to prevent. I also find that they create an environment where children are either nervous or rebellious. (Don’t worry- I know there are times for rules. I am the mother of a child that sprayed hand soap all over the walls, ceiling, and floor of a bathroom simply because I never told him not to.) When we are in a classroom community, I establish a covenant among all members, children and adults alike, where we live up to three expectations; we do our best, we use kind words, and we take care of each other. Reinforce these with positive comments, provide redirection to desired behaviors, and communicate concrete examples of desired behaviors to reinforce what you expect. One of my favorite ways to do this is through books. We read biographies, we pore over picture books, we delve into characters and look at how they respond to challenges, and we pay close attention to how they behave when no one is watching. When The Little Philosopher by Jim Sorge landed on my desk from the author, I did a little happy dance at the possibility of having another book to add to the collection dedicated to this purpose. I was not disappointed. 

The Little Philosopher follows the life of Marcus Aurelius in ways that are relatable for children. Adults familiar with Aurelius’ Meditations will find echoes of the teachings running throughout this book. Marcus, as the main character, is popped into situations that today’s children will find familiar; arguing over what game to play with friends, accidentally causing damage to a neighbor’s property, how to connect with a new student at school, and even having difficulty with sports. The author moves past the challenges and shows little Marcus focusing on the positives in challenging situations, being honest when it would be easier to lie, being kind and welcoming when someone is new, and persevering in difficult tasks. The stories and lessons are presented conversationally so that children and adults can discuss other situations that these apply to. 

This book has several uses in children’s and family ministry. I have a copy on my shelf of books that I read as we build our classroom community, reinforcing behaviors that contribute not only to personal development but to positive and healthy communities. I plan on popping another copy into our children’s and family lending library at the congregation where I serve, as I frequently get questions from parents and caregivers who are looking for new ways to discuss healthy character development with their children. I also plan on snagging another copy for my teachers’ lending library. Everyone can use a book in their collection to help them find new ways to discuss healthy behaviors and responses with children. Additionally, the congregation where I serve hosts an afterschool ministry for the local elementary school children. This book will be in their library, as well. This little book packs a lot of use into its pages!