Kid Lit Classic, Middle Grade Christian Nonfiction, Adult Christian Nonfiction, Young Adult Historical, a DNF
Betsy-Tacy Treasury, Best Friends and Mean Girls, Adorning the Dark, Cascade
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The Betsy-Tacy Treasury (Betsy-Tacy #1-4) by Maud Hart Lovelace
5 STARS (synopsis on Goodreads or StoryGraph) Kid Lit/Young Reader Classic, My format: read-aloud to girls ages 8, 6, and 4
Betsy is a lonely 5-year-old until a large family moves in across the street and she meets Tacy. The two girls become inseparable and enjoy many childhood adventures that we get to participate in as they learn and grow together.
Personal Review:
We all love Betsy in our house! She is a relentless story-teller that reminds us all of my second daughter. We love how she is bold and makes friends with shy Tacy. We love when they go up the Big Hill - and later go beyond it - and when they make friends with Tib who lives in the mysterious chocolate house. The characters are so fun and unique and they felt like our friends by the time we finished the treasury!
The adventures that the girls have are innocent and could be a part of anyone’s childhood. And as the girls get older, their adventures and the way they react to them mature at a steady rate. I especially love Betsy’s mother and the patient way she reacts to the mishaps along the way. The other girls also have healthy relationships with their parents.
My oldest (age 8) read these books on her own but I read them aloud to all of the girls. There were no scenes that were too scary for us to enjoy together.
Content Warnings:
near-death illnesses, death of a sibling, witnessing bullying
A Girl’s Guide to Best Friends and Mean Girls by Dannah Gresh and Suzy Weibel
4 STARS (synopsis on Goodreads or StoryGraph) Middle Grade Christian Nonfiction, My format: read-aloud with 8-year-old girl
In this Christian book for young girls, we read about how to be a good friend, how to choose good friends, and how to deal with the not-so-friendly.
Personal Review:
I have some theological disagreements with Dannah Gresh, so I read her books with caution. But I thought this one was really helpful for my daughter, especially since we read it together so we could discuss the topics.
I think the best thing this book did for us was to give us language for what can happen when there is more than one girl in a room. It was good to talk with my daughter, too, because the book mentioned things that we don’t encounter often as homeschoolers. For example, we’ve never talked about the concept of a “best friend” and I’m not a fan of the term, so I was able to explain why I don’t like that concept. The Bible study portion is a little childish, but we did read the Scripture that went along with each chapter.
Concepts covered include choosing friends, being a good friend, jealousy, being hurt by a friend, being Jesus’ friend, and sharing Jesus with your friends.
Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making by Andrew Peterson
4 STARS (synopsis on Goodreads or StoryGraph) Adult Christian Nonfiction, My format: paperback
This book is part inspiration and part memoir as Peterson makes the case for telling the truth as beautifully as we can.
Personal Review:
This is definitely worth the read, even if you don’t consider yourself to be a creative person! This is also a very interesting look into Peterson’s story of pursuing songwriting and singing as a career.
I like that he encourages all people to believe that they can be creative and to use that creativity to proclaim the Truth of the gospel. I have to admit that I actually enjoyed his personal stories more than the parts that were “pep talks” for being creative.
But the book also gave me a feeling of belonging; his mind definitely works in a similar way to mine and it was a good study in learning to manage the thoughts that never stop going through. I plan to save this book for my daughters to read (it would be good for them to read as teenagers but might not interest them until they are older).
Cascade (The River of Time Series #2) by Lisa T. Bergren
3.5 STARS (synopsis on Goodreads or StoryGraph) Young Adult Fantasy/Historical Fiction, Christian Author, My format: paperback
Gabi and Lia take their mom with them on a second time-travel adventure to a time of knights, castles, and the threat of the plague.
Personal Review:
This book was extremely difficult for me to rate. If I was reading this for myself with characters that were in their twenties (not teens) I might even give it 5 stars. But there were several scenes that I felt were too mature for the age of the characters.
I love the premise of this series,. The time travel element is well done. We meet many good-hearted people from a different time in history. The men that the girls fall in love with are gentleman who wish to act honorably and give the girls space to make their own decisions (I really appreciated this aspect, even if I thought the girls acted too hastily and deserved skepticism from the guys). The fight scenes were truly amazing. The combat, the pushing through thick brush and forests, and the battle scenes were clear in my mind and exciting to read.
However, there were a few things I was uncomfortable with. Gabi and Marcello steal several kisses that made me nervous they’d go too far for my taste. The crudeness of the enemy knights was very difficult to read. Even if that was true to the time, I thought it was too much for the age group. One scene was especially beyond my limits - when knights cheered as a captor threatened to remove Gabi’s clothing (this was stopped before happening). The faith element is also very weak - so weak I’d almost prefer there was none at all. There was a moment that could have been great, where Marcello could have shared his faith with Gabi, but it was cut short and left hanging. I hope the third book shows Gabi and her family valuing their faith more.
I will advise my daughters not to read this series until they are in their older teens/ twenties.
2024 Edit: I have decided to not continue with this series or to even keep it in the house. The sexual tension was just way more than I want more girls to have available to them, from Christian authors no less.
Content Warnings:
several “deep” kissing scenes (only kissing, nothing else described), a lot of death in violent ways (daggers, arrows, spurting blood), innuendos, adult men eyeing and cat-calling after teen girls
Did Not Finish
At about 60% of the way through, I decided to skim the rest of Lost in Darkness by Michelle Griep. There was nothing overly wrong with this book but it was taking me forever to get through. It is a Gothic romance, so the general feel of the book is dark and gloomy and I just don’t like being in that kind of world when I’m reading.
I thought the Christian content was fairly good. There was also a slow burn romance happening that was okay. It wasn’t my favorite but there was no particular reason for it other than it was just a little boring. I read parts at the end because I wanted to know what happened and felt that the story could have been much shorter than it was to get the point across.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?