Recently in Review Category

This is the first fiction book that I've read this year. I've been eyeing it since it was released last May. Tim Downs is a favorite author of mine - he wrote the Bugman novels, as well as a few stand-alone books. (Side note - Plague Maker is excellent. I HIGHLY recommend it.)

Brief description of the book's plot: Liv Hayden is an aging movie star in a medically-induced coma due to injuries suffered in a car accident. Kemp McAvoy is a night nurse with a chip on his shoulder assigned to Liv. He comes up with a brilliant plan - adjust her meds, impersonate an angel, and sit back as the next runaway "deathbed encounter with the hereafter" bestseller makes him rich. Contrasted with Kemp's fake angel is Leah, his girlfriend's six-year-old daughter who claims to be able to see real angels.

My opinion of the book: The characters are a little thin. They're either all good or all bad. Kemp McAvoy is a low-down, despicable, completely rotten-to-the-core person with extreme narcissistic tendencies, and it's very difficult to understand how he and Natalie (Leah's mother) got together. Natalie is nearly saintly, a nurse and single mother sacrificing for her daughter by working the graveyard shift. The only hint of imperfection in Natalie comes near the end of the book, when after she and Kemp have a fight, she looks for "something stronger" to mix with her cranberry juice, but finds nothing. Without adequate character development, the story is somewhat one-dimensional.

The story itself is decent. Mr. Downs has written an entertaining story that starts a little slow, but builds to a conclusion that leaves the reader satisfied. With the Bugman novels and Plague Maker, after I finished the final page, my only thought was, "More. I must have more." This does not deliver that same feeling. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that's enough.

A few nights ago Alex asked me to read Doggy Slippers for his bed time story. When I opened the cover my eye caught the words "award-winning poet" on the inside flap. I groaned a little on the inside. It's not that I don't want my children to enjoy poetry; I hope that they do. Perhaps I don't understand it enough because it seems to me that poetry in children's literature is very simplistic "the dog on the log" or just plain weird. Doggy Slippers falls into the latter.

Doggy Slippers is a collection of various poems about pets. They don't tell a story and seem to be in no particular order. Some seemed just plain bizarre with comments like "He can't remember now that he was hit by a truck..."

My favorite of the bunch was about a turtle:
My turtle, Coco, is happy,
is green,
is slow,
except when she falls
down the stairs.

The accompanying sketch of a turtle sailing through the air after bouncing on several stairs adds to the flavor...as does the owner in a cape.

In the end, we discover that many children contributed to this book, which, I suppose, gave it an odd fell.

What poetry do you share with your children?

The past two nights have brought two interesting and different stories into our bedrooms. First came Fred Stays With Me! a story told by a young girl about her life that is split between living with mom and with dad. She opens saying, "Sometimes I live with my mom. Sometimes I live with my dad. My dog, Fred, stays with me." The book is not preachy, does not judge, and does not really explain divorce but it is instantly relatable by children in split families. I enjoyed this story because it lets children of divorce know that they are not unique and it has the potential to start conversations with children who are unaware that others live in that world.

Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher is about a pig that wants to be and is eventually invited to Shabbat dinner - a great story about inviting others to be a part of your faith traditions no matter what they believe. This book also led us into a great discussion about Judaism, the Bible, what others believe and expanded our children's vocabulary.

While our life doesn't line up with either of these books and yours may not either they are both great opportunities for engaging with your children.

I just finished reading same lake, different boat and enjoyed it more than I initially thought I would. Honestly, I didn't think I would enjoy it - it addresses a subject that is out of my comfort zone, ministering to people with disabilities. It's not that I do not like people with disabilities or think that they should be ministered to by someone else - indeed, some of my best moments in ministry have come while serving along side people and parents of people who have a disability.

I suppose that my discomfort stems from two things, both of which are addressed in Stephanie Hubach's writing. First, disabilities are not thought of as mainstream, even though they are all around us. And secondly, I live in a fallen world and struggle with sinful attitudes and the desire to put myself first.

Stephanie, who writes of her struggles, fears, and joys of raising Timmy, her youngest son who was born with Down Syndrome points out the churches strengths and weaknesses in addressing people with disabilities. Same Lake, Different Boat is not a "how to minister to people with disabilities" book rather a "questions you need to ask as you minister to all people" book. She points out how our churches can be strengthened and draw closer to God as we minister to those who are disabled but is honest in the struggles it brings...but rightly points out that when we abandon "the lame, the blind, and the sick" that our ministry moves from a place of life saving to a social club.

For me, her prominent point is how the Fall changed our creativity and productivity.

"Instead of operating from a God-centered, relationship based hub of creative and productive activity, we now struggle with an agenda-centered focus that reveals our underlying lust for personal control. We want our lives to be organized around our individual goals, while relationships to God and neighbor remain secondary - or, even worse, nonexistent. The problem with an agenda is not necessarily the content of the agenda, though that can be an issue, but it is the context of the agenda."

This brought to mind an interview with Phil Vischer, the creator of Veggie Tales. You can see the whole interview, but specifically of relevance is the wrap up beginning at 4:09.

At Catalyst this year I had the opportunity to hear Mitch Albom talk about his new book, "have a little faith." He spoke of getting to know Reb, his rabbi, after the strange request to speak at the rabbi's funeral. He also shared a parallel story about getting to know a minister in Detroit that had a strange path to the pastorate. After hearing Mitch speak, I knew it was a book that I would enjoy and indeed it was.

Albom's writing is very easy to follow and greatly helps you appreciate the people that he is writing about. One of my favorite stories was from Reb's past of him driving his son and a few of his young friends back to New Jersey from Philadelphia. "As they approach the toll booth, he asks if the boys have their passports.
'Passports?' they say.
'You mean you don't have your passports - and you expect to get into New Jersey?' he cries. 'Quick! Hide under that blanket! Don't breathe! Don't make a sound!'
In this, Albom relays how another family memory is forged.

Albom moves easily between Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, rich and poor and helps the reader grab a picture of a meaning full life and believing in something bigger than themselves.

One of the biggest things that I've learned in the last two years at seminary is how our view of scripture is influenced by the things in our lives. As a middle-class white male living in the suburbs of a large U.S. city, the gospel means something completely different to me than it does to a young African girl that has to walk five miles a day for just to retrieve fresh water for her family. Our scriptures may have the same words but the messages we receive are different. This is the subject matter of Scouting the Divine: my search for God in wine, wool, and wild honey.

Margaret Feinberg, a speaker at this year's Catalyst Conference as well as recent CreationFest and YouthSpecialties event, spoke about her journey into the lives of a shepherd, a beekeeper and a vintner and how those people have forever changed the way that she reads scripture. The author of Organic God and The Sacred Echo gave each attendee of Catalyst a copy of her book and I'd like to offer it to one of our readers.

To celebrate the launch of her new book, she's organizing a 100-stop blog tour and I would like this Bookworm site to be one of those stops. Sadly, I won't have time to read the book until after classes which means I would miss the cutoff date of November 20. So, if you can read quickly (it's only around 200 pages) and will agree to post a review here (you may cross-post elsewhere) by November 20th (though I would prefer the 13th) leave a creative comment that will let me know who you are and what flair you would bring and I'll pick a winner on October 20th. I'll go for what I think will be best for the blog, but in the case of a runoff, I'll choose randomly between the best comments.

Good Luck!

As a semi-veteran (if there is even such a thing) in Children's ministry, I'm excited that there is a huge push towards family ministry that is sweeping through the churches in America. It hasn't been that long since the church began segregating the families and taking over the spiritual responsibilities and I'm glad that the church of the information age is seeing the error of the church of the industrial age.

That said, I also enjoyed hearing a somewhat new voice on coming on the scene in the form of Shift, by Brian Haynes. Brian is the Associate Pastor overseeing spiritual formation at Kingsland Baptist Church in Katy, TX and has been given a great vision of leading families through the spiritual pathways of life. I stumbled on their Spiritual Milestones website a few months ago and learned a great deal of how their ministry helps families grow in Christ together. It's akin to the idea of Raising a Modern Day Knight. While Raising a Modern Day Knight focuses on marking points along a boy's journey into manhood in order to help them understand the importance of those milestones, Kingsland does the same for families by marking 7 key points in the journey of a family's spiritual life: Birth/Dedication, Coming to Christ, Preparing for Adolescence, Purity Commitment, Adulthood, Graduation, and Continuing Life in Christ.

As a children's pastor how is moving his church toward a family ministry paradigm, I found the book lacking. I think that Children and Family Pastors are the target audience, but the book does little more than give a brief overview of the ministry model of Kingsland Baptist. The theory and thought behind the milestones are presented in brief toward the end of the book and are valuable to thinking through how you may do something similar in your ministry. (Props to Brain for pointing out that this is a way that works in their context and to make sure you do what God is leading you to do in yours.) Having already looked through their website I didn't think there was much to glean from reading Shift.

However, that is not to say that the book is not valuable - it is, very much so. While I didn't think that the "meat & potatoes" were there, I did think it was a very choice appetizer. I think that passing on this book to your Senior Pastor (or whatever visionary guides your church) would be an excellent way to get them to begin thinking of bringing families together rather than always keeping them apart. I'd even say that going through the book as a church (senior) staff would be a great idea to shift your focus toward equipping parents - I think I may grab a few more copies and suggest that to our staff.
In short: Get it, read it, mark & highlight it, and pass it on to your supervisor along with your ideas of family ministry in your setting. But don't expect to use it as a resource for how to do family ministry or even how to implement Spiritual Milestones in your church.

Today Kevin started reading the "Andrew Lost" series. He went through two this afternoon, "With the Dinosaurs" and "In Time." They're chapter books that are suitable for readers beginning the transition from Easy Readers. While they are fiction, they have the added bonus of teaching science. Each book deals with a specific topic from underwater life to life in the jungle.

They seem to be a perfect fit for boys who enjoy reading in that they touch on some of the "grosser" side of science, like bugs, garbage, or life on a dog. In addition each book ends with True Stuff, additional facts that the author wanted to convey but may not have been able to put in the story or explanations of terms that may not be known, such as quicksand. True Stuff is followed with Where to Find More True Stuff, a bibliography of sorts encouraging children into non-fiction science books.

Kevin enjoyed that it was a series and says that he is looking forward to reading all of them. Specifically he liked that there was a time machine and how they were put into dinosaur times (side note: he's really enjoyed historical fiction lately). Overall, he rated the books: "Really good."

When I asked him if he learned anything, he said that In Time taught him that you should "Listen to your parents and show them respect, cause listening to your parents is respect."

Other things that he noticed about the series overall was that the beginning of each book is the same, so you can skip those pages and if you forget where you are there's a table of contents.

I enjoyed that the second book Kevin read sparked a discussion about what happens at the death of a star as well as the beginning of stars. It wasn't an in depth conversation, but it is an inroad into teaching more about astronomy. On the flip side, I'm disappointed that the author presents the Big Bang and Old Earth theories as absolutes. While she presents various information on dinosaurs as "We're not absolutely sure..." or "No one knows for sure..." information about the beginning of everything is presented as "Scientists have figured out..."

All in all, I would recommend this series for your young reader. The discussions that could result if you are engaged with what your children are reading are extremely valuable and easily dwarf the issue of presenting theory as fact. Of course, I would always advocate knowing what your children are reading about so that you can help guide them through issues that are presented in both their fiction and non-fiction reading.

I've always had an interest in "Big Cats." When I was younger I often wondered what it would be like to have a tiger as a pet and when I am at the zoo I rarely leave without a visit to the lions, tigers, and other assorted cats. So, when I was at the library a while back, Zamba: The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived, boasting a large lion and a small girl on the cover was hard not to notice.

I carried it down stairs while the boys played and flipped through, reading through chapter 17 first - I was hooked. I took the book home and flew though the pages, finishing the book in 3 days. By far, this is the best book that I have read this year and one of the best books that I have ever read.

The writing is down to earth and very conversational, which may turn some people off. Zamba is also about doing something no one should ever do - have an exotic animal for a pet; so that may turn off some readers as well. However, if you can get past those two minor hurdles, you're in for a treat. I laughed, I cried, and I couldn't get the story out of my mind.

Author Ralph Helfer was the first person to use affection based training on Hollywood animals and in doing, revolutionized the industry. The level of trust that developed between him and Zamba makes the story almost unbelievable. The love and the care that they show one another as they face floods, Africa, and the movie industry pulls you into the story, encouraging you to root for, fear for, and care for Zamba even though you have never met.

Rarely does a book pull as much emotion from me as this. Twice, I cried - once almost uncontrollably sobbing as I worked my way through the pages seeking a happy outcome. At times, I was angry or disappointed at the turn of events but remembered that this is a true story and not every subplot will have a happy ending. As I think about how this book spoke to me, I realize that I will be tempted to ramble, so let me close this review with a question. After Zamba loses his sight, Henry wonders why animals are so accepting of their circumstance: