Our Thoughts

We are always so encouraged when authors use precious dedication space to recognize the One who gave the author the gifts to imagine and write in the first place. That is the case here, as we open to “All praise and glory belong to my loving God and Savior who made redeeming love and true joy possible in the first place”. Love it. To make it even better we met this author at a recent homeschool conference (where we sought out great Christian options for parents) and her signed note included “May you find joy in God’s redeeming love” with a verse reference to Isiah 43:1 Awesome start. Fortunately, the book lived up to the buildup. Honestly this is just an incredibly good and sweet story. There is no guessing about the Christian content here (as we see a lot in, for example, much of the fantasy offerings from Christian authors). This feels like a much more intentionally Christ-honoring version of something like the Little House series. And while not all parents will think their kids are ready for a story revolving around two characters falling in love, there is no question this is exactly the type of story we should be looking for to reinforce the messages we spend so much time sharing, such as those on who they should look for in a spouse and what dating and eventually marriage should look like. Fiction has a way of getting past our outer defenses and helping messages sync in. Excellent. We won’t be able to list everything, but here are a few examples of the solid content your child will be in store for: Early in the story we meet a woman who, before her husband passed away, adopted six different boys into their loving Christian home. She says these are the boys God gave her. The setting provides an excellent focus on the value of hard work. It is held in a very important and positive light. There are great characters. Julie is blind, but very able, seeking to be a help whenever and however she can. The six boys are all unique and we see wonderful sibling relationships between them. In fact, the oldest steps up completely when the dad of the family passed away. Even this father who has passed away is shown to be a great Christian man through the memories of those who live on. Despite being blind, Julie does her devotion every morning using her braille Bible. Wonderful wisdom is shared throughout the story. For example, we find out the dad led his adopted sons to Christ. As with the previous item, the Christian faith is woven in so naturally throughout. It feels like there is something on every page, but it comes so seamlessly. There is a really positive light placed on the Native Americans in this story. While some are portrayed as wicked (which is no doubt the case), the majority of the book shows wonderful relationships. In fact, we see the gospel come to a people through characters who simply love Jesus. The local church is held in a great light and comes up multiple times in the story. There are incredible prayers of different types coming throughout the story. Very mature prayer is shown. We see very serious grieving done well. There is a lot of self-sacrificial love shown in many various ways. For example, the community comes together and helps each other in many ways during harvest time. The family’s approach to the holidays will likely spark ideas in even the most seasoned of parents. Really neat. You can tell the time and culture were well researched and understood by a talented author. It is a really great peek into this time and place. We see scriptural references, such as to Jesus being the Perfect Lamb. Julie’s favorite verse is shared and shown (Micah 6:8). In fact, we see this awesome example of a character being brought out of despair through reading the Bible. Extremely high view of marriage and traditional Christian family roles. Salvation message is shared. This is a wonderful and sweet story. One we HIGHLY Recommend for children mature enough to read it (and of course, you, their parents).