Sunday, February 5, 2017

Book Review: The Behemoth Dinosaur in the Land of Uz

I am not quite sure how to start this review. I have very mixed feelings about it.

I'm always looking for new books to read to my god-daughter who is three. She loves dinosaurs (girl after my own heart!) and I was hoping that this would be another book that we could add to our collection.

Firstly, when I look at it, it reminds me of a story that a child would have written, based on the artwork, and the style of writing.

Secondly, there are lots of grammatical errors, all through the book. I think that the editors should have looked more closely to these. I could let some slide (I mean, you usually find errors in even the classics), but there were errors on almost every page.

Thirdly, I was very confused at first when I started reading. The book offers an English and a Spanish version. English was written in blue, and Spanish in green. I think that's a great concept to have the two languages side by side, but it truly confused me at first. Also, I do not speak Spanish, so I am not sure if the styling is correct.

Fourthly, the book doesn't follow much a storyline. Job sees Dippy (the dino), asks to give him a hug, there is a complication with the villagers, and all of a sudden Dippy starts talking about how his grandparents were on Noah's Ark. It's all very confusing.

And I do not wish to give this book a poor rating, especially if that is the case, but, if this is an adult writing a child's book, I have seen much more exciting stories, even for young children, written.

Book Review: Whatever Is Lovely

This came at the right time because I was looking for a new Bible study to do to start the year.

When I started reading it, I noticed that this is a book mostly focused for the teenage girl.

However, as a 30-something woman, I often find that these seem to speak to me better than a lot of the other Bible Studies out there.

This was no different. The devotionals are short but informative enough to really grasp the concept and the verse for that day. I also like the journal entries. I received the e-book version, so it took a little longer for me to enter my entries because I had to type everything on a tablet (fun fun...). It's a nice keep sake though, if I ever decide to do it again. Doing a paperback journal, if you write in it, you sometimes run out of room. However, with a digital version, you can date your entry, and just keep adding on for all the times that you decide you want to complete the devotional. It's nice to see how you've grown from the previous time(s) you completed it.