"Blessed are the Peacemakers" by Mike Berenstain

“Blessed are the Peacemakers” by Mike Berenstain is another happy, satisfying story from Bear Country.

Not surprisingly, the antagonists in this tale are Too-Tall and his gang, who target cubs unlike them – especially Ferdy Factual and his friends. Surprisingly, Queenie McBear (of Too-Tall’s gang) and Ferdy earn the main roles in the school’s play of Romeo and Grizzliet . . . and love’s magic takes its toll. When the two stars profess their love on the balcony, Too-tall sheds his role and disrupts the play, and all bears start to push and yell – even Mamas and Papas. At the end, all bears learn a lesson, and the play and the story finish peacefully.

Opening this book after a 20-year hiatus from the Bear Family made me feel as though I was sitting on the couch again curled up next to my mom as she read. I remember also as a kid looking at the titles listed on the back of the books and wishing that I could read all of them, and I found myself doing the same with this book. This is the first book of Mike’s I’ve read, and while I was happy to infer that his books have religious undertones, I was concerned that they might be cheesy. But they weren’t. The peacemaker message was appropriate, concise, and direct, and I appreciated the intentional mention of the Bible. I want to read more of Mike’s books, and I definitely recommend this book to others.

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The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book through BookSneeze®. I was not required to write a positive review. 

Bathsheba Bathed in Grace

Carol Cook’s Bathsheba Bathed in Grace tells the stories of eight Bible women.  

Each chapter is about a different woman: The book tells the stories of Bathsheba, Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Tamar, and Eve. Each woman has a story that reveals some darkness: deception, lack of faith, misunderstanding, etc., and Cook shows the reader how each woman came out on top because of their choice to seek and follow God.  

The first couple of stories were interesting, but after that they were predictable and not challenging and didn’t hold my attention. The characters all had the same voice, and the emotion portrayed through the writing style seemed forced and banal. There were a few times when a new idea was presented; Bathsheba’s entire story gave me a new perspective on her role in the affair, and I also hadn’t before related that Jacob deceived his father and then was deceived by Laban. Most of the time Cook’s stories paralleled the Bible stories, but there were times when her conclusions seemed a bit far-fetched.

While I believe that this book was written prayerfully, I do not recommend it to others.

http://booksneeze.com/blogger/resources/9781400203048

The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book through BookSneeze®. I was not required to write a positive review. 

The Jeremiah Project Part 1: The Scrapbook

A.J. Foltz’s The Jeremiah Project Part 1: The Scrapbook serves as a basic introduction to the book of Jeremiah.

Each chapter (the book covers Jeremiah 1-10) includes a Prelude, a Chapter Study, a Tag-A-Long, and a Scrapbook Page. The Preludes connect general life experiences to the content in the Chapter Study. The Chapter Studies walk readers through verses – a few at a time – and Foltz asks questions and provides commentary (history, context, etc.) to increase understanding. Answers to the questions are included at the back of the Chapter Study. The Tag-A-Long summarizes the chapter and introduces the next, and the Scrapbook introduces Jesus.

I’d been wanting to read Jeremiah for a while but felt intimidated by the content. When I saw this book, I thought it would provide a simple study and context to drive me into Jeremiah. The information provided in the Chapter Studies was intriguing and informative and propelled me to read the next and the next chapter. I didn’t find the other sections of the chapters to be interesting to me, as I was looking purely for a Bible study – not for stories, interpretations, or sermonettes. However, I can see how these sections could appeal to others. One frustration with the book is that the Bible verses that were often given as places for further study didn’t seem to be relevant to the material and topics they were supposed to be supplementing. I’m thankful that this study took me into Jeremiah, and once finished I continued beyond Chapter 10 and read to the end of Jeremiah.  

This book was helpful to me, but if the author wrote a sequel, I don’t think I would read it. So would I recommend it to others? Not highly, but for some reasons and to some people, yes.  

http://booksneeze.com/blogger/resources/9781400203048

The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book through BookSneeze®. I was not required to write a positive review.