Bunny's First Spring by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Bunny's First Spring by Sally Lloyd-Jones is a delightful read-to-me children's book on the renewal of spring.  Bunny is born in the spring when the earth is warming and grows and plays in the summer.  The earth is growing and green and all is good.  Everything around is growing and lush.  Then something begins to happen.  The days turn cool and the green turns drab and brown.  Things start leaving.  First the leaves fall off the trees and there are no more frogs in the pond.  Bunny grows fearful and thinks that his beautiful earth must be dying.  Bunny is getting colder and more afraid so he does what he has always done.  He runs into his hole to his mama. He gets sleepy and falls to sleep with his family.  And he sleeps and sleeps until once again the world renews into Spring.

This is a great delightful book on the way of the world and how the seasons change and how the animals react to the change.  It would be a good book to read to children of a young age.  It has many colorful pictures for them to enjoy and not many sentences on each page which with my children anyway that was important to them that the pages are turned fairly quickly during the reading of the story.  I would recommend this book for toddler through school age children.
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.

When Mercy Rains by Kim Vogel Sawyer

When Mercy Rains by Kim Vogel Sawyer is the first installment in the Zimmerman Restoration Trilogy so I expect that we can expect to have 2 more novels from this great Amish/Mennonite romance author.  The book begins by giving the background of Suzanne Zimmerman's teenage years.  Back to her mother sending her off to an unwed mothers home to have her baby and then give it away.  Now 20 years later as Suzanne is raising her only child as a single parent.  She has done well.  She has friends, she went to college to become a nurse, her daughter, Alexa, is a 19 year old to be proud of but she still misses her family and home.  That is until her brother, Clete writes her a letter and begs her to come home and take care of her mother.  Can she return to care for the woman who sent her away as a pregnant seventeen year old?  And what about her old boyfriend who presumably still lives there with his new family?  Can she forgive the family who discarded her when she most needed them and help them when they most need her?  Will the community forgive her indiscretions and treat her well or at least understand that she was young?  So many questions and to find them out read this book.

As a lover of Amish/Mennonite romances I quickly read this novel in a little over a day.  It is well written and easily carries the interest of the reader.  Ms Sawyer is as always a good author and it is a pleasure to read her work.  Thank-you for this newest beginnings a the series.
This book was provided by Blogging for Books for this review.

A Woodland Miracle by Ruth Reid

A Woodland Miracle by Ruth Reid is the newest book in the Amish Wonders series. 
What do a good looking trained shoemaker with pretty girls hanging off of him from sunny Florida have in common with a crippled woman with a chip on her shoulder from the cold timberland of Badger Creek, Michigan?  Almost nothing but a common love of Christ and being raised in a loving Amish home. 
Good-looking Ben and his best friend Toby have just been caught trespassing in a hotel swimming pool cooling off after a hot day working for Toby's dad.  Ben's dad has had enough.  So it is off to work in a timber camp in Michigan for his uncle.  Ben has heard that there is 3 girls for every boy so how hard can it be?  Well for one thing he has never felt it this cold.  And the girl who the boys ran into at the station, could she be any more unfriendly?  Then Ben and Toby end up at her house because of the horrible cold rain and a washed out road.  Finding out the her name is Grace and there is only her aunt and little sister living there doesn't help except that Grace seems to be the only unfriendly one there.  They find themselves sleeping in the dark, cold, smelly barn's loft under a pile of covers while they wait for a ride to the bishop's house.  When they finally get to the bishop's home they find out that he is one of the few men still in the community as the rest are in the timber camp.  Ben and Toby find themselves helping the bishop with some of the community needs and getting to know the neighbors.  Everyone it seems is friendly enough except for Grace.  So who is Ben drawn to---Grace of course.  Then things start disappearing and they hear in town that there are dangerous men on the loose.  Can Ben and Grace solve this mystery of who these men are before they do something terrible to Grace?  Do Grace and Ben find love in this cold cold community?   Read this book to find out.
I immediately liked this book and even though I had not read the first book of the series easily understood the plot and met the characters of the novel.  Ms Reid knows how to draw in the Amish romance reader.  I would recommend this novel for Amish romance reader of any age.
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.

Wildwood Creek by Lisa Wingate

Wildwood Creek by Lisa Wingate is a novel once again set at Moses Lake of, "If you're lucky enough to be at the lake, you're lucky enough" fame.  There are 4 books in this series but these are definitely stand alone books.  In this book particularly the people who live at Moses Lake are only slightly mentioned as they drive through the community on the way to Wildwood Creek settlement.  This book is told in the present day--there is a casting call for a docudrama reenactment movie being filmed of the settling of Wildwood Creek in 1861 and Allie Kirkland and her best friend, Kim get parts for the show.  In addition, the novel tells the story of 1861 when Bonnie Rose and her 9 year old sister Maggie Mae come to Wildwood Creek with a group of settlers to start a school for the community children.  Bonnie Rose O'Brien is a soiled woman by the day's standard because she and her sister had been captured in a raid by the Comanche and taken into the lodge as little better than a slave woman and she carried the scars on her neck of the rope they tied her with to make her run behind them. Maggie had fared a little better by being adopted by a woman who had just lost her baby.  They had been rescued and then educated but still Bonnie carried the shame of first being Irish and 2nd being a soiled woman.  The man who offered her the job made her drop the last name and she became only Bonnie Rose.  The history is vague and requires much research so in the reenactment Allie and Kim rely on Stewart from the library to help research the times.  The only thing that they know is that in the settlement people start to disappear and there is a ballad that the locals sing which seems to blame Bonnie. As young women they are looking for excitement and they certainly find it in this summer adventure/job.
I really liked this book.  It is a love story but that is just in the background of the true nature of the mystery of the settlement of Wildwood Creek.  Anyone could read this but I think it is mostly a women's novel for those of at least middle school age.  There is no sexual content nor language problems for the young.  There is some of the slave talk which is written phonically so would possibly be difficult reading for the younger.
I received this book from Bethany House for this review.

Discipleship by J. Heinrich Arnold

Discipleship  is a newly explanded book by the late J. Heinrich Arnold who died in 1982.  Mr. Arnold grew up in post WWI.  His upper-class family left everything in Berlin to live in Sannerz, Germany living as directed in Acts in communal living.  This book explains the Bible in ways not usually expressed by the preachers of today.  He tells of a loving savior who forgives all of our sins but he doesn't let the reader off the hook.  He does not preach of living however you want and then repeatedly asking for forgiveness--he straight out tells the reader that our God is not stupid nor easily fooled.  One cannot continually ask forgiveness if one plans to continually repeating the sin.
This is a difficult read.  It does not tell the story of Jesus' love in anyway that the reader has ever heard before.  If you are ready to change your life and want a life lived close to God then read this book.  This book tells you that you have not become so sinful that you cannot be forgiven.  This book tells of Jesus love for the reader and his sacrifice and grace.  Jesus stands ready to forgive and love all who come to him.  This book teaches humility.  He teaches that the least of these, the poor, the children, the unloved are those who we the Christian must love.  Mr Arnold backs up all of his writings with scripture readings and I don't mean he has a few footnotes, virtually every paragraph has scripture backing it and also has a reference guide in the back.  This book need not be read front to back.  It is divided into 3 parts: the disciple, the church, and the kingdom of God.  Each of these are further divided into little chapters so that it can be used as needs arise in the reader's life.  In the words of Mother Teresa who wrote after reading it said: "....He has not called us to be successful, but to be faithful."  This is a book for those who are seeking and for those who have found but need a guide to keep them on track.  I would advise reading this book for adult readers.
This book was provided by Handlebar for this review.

Hope Crossing by Cindy Woodsmall

Hope Crossing by Cindy Woodsmall is the complete trilogy of the Ada's House series.  Since it contains 3 full length novels it is a big though cost effective book.  The first of the series finds Cara once again on the run from Mike who had been stalking her since before her marriage to Johnny.  Every time she moved and changed jobs though Mike soon found her.  Johnny had married her to protect her from Mike but he loved her and Cara had grown to love him.  Johnny though died in an accident just shortly after Lori, their daughter was 2 years old.  Cara's childhood was a blur after the death of her mother at a young age.  Her dad had left her at the station with the mysterious words, "Stay here until Emma comes to get you".  Cara hadn't moved until the authorities came and took her into foster care where she first came in contact with Mike until age 15 when she ran away and never looked back.  Cara, back on the run from Mike, had gone to get Lori and run without even stopping by the apartment to get their clothes.  Cara, once again in the station finds herself with feelings of  Déjàvu  takes over her mind.  When had she been here before?  She just couldn't remember.  Lori started acting up and Cara gave her the journal that she had had since childhood to look at.  Her mother had always told her never to write in this one space but she had filled in every other space with her writings.  When Lori started writing in that space Cara noticed that an address started to come up in the indentions--Mast Road, Dry Lake, Pennsylvania.  Along with hope filling her heart and plan started in her head.  Cara took most all the money she had and bought tickets out of New York and to Pennsylvania as close as she could get to Dry Lake.  This adventure would take her back to her mother's family in Pennsylvania back to her Amish roots.
The second novel The Bridge of Peace continues Cara's story but concentrates more on Cara's friend Lena Kauffman.  Lena is a teacher in the Amish community in the one room 1-8 school.  Lena has mostly bright eager to learn young students but one, Peter, is a 15 year old child that his parents insist that he go to school until he graduates 8th grade.  Peter is always trying her patience and since she is already on probation since that incident last year Lena is concerned for her job and someone else is sneaking into the school and doing awful things--like the dead cat she found lying on her chair dripping blood from its slit throat.  Why does someone have it in for her?  What can she do to both keep her job and go back to enjoying life?
The 3rd novel continues the story already started with the previous two but concentrate on Sylvia Fisher who is eldest of a large family of girls.  Her father has promised her the farm when she and Elam marry but she has asked Elam to wait until she is older and more ready.  Elam quickly asks her 18 year old sister, Beckie, to marry him.  Sylvia is devastated of course not only by Elam but most of all because of Beckie.  This is the sister that she grew up with, loved and most of all helped her do her chores because she was lazy.  Her father refuses to let her leave the home and so she stays until while helping the young family during a time of sickness Elam kisses her.  Sylvia leaves home and gives up all her chances at her inheritance to live with the Blank family and help them run their dairy herd.  Sylvia grows to love the family even Aaron the only son who has recently returned from rehab for his drinking problem.  What she didn't figure on though was falling in love with Aaron.
I got this book and read it quickly though it is quite large,1026 pages large.  Ms Woodsmall as always though tells a story as no one else can and easily holds the reader's interest.  I would recommend this book for reading for anyone who loves Amish love stories.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

You Can't Sit with Us by Nancy Rue

You Can't Sit with Us by Nancy Rue is the 2nd in the Mean Girl Makeover series.  Ginger Hollingberry is the new kid in the 6th grade class at Gold Country Middle School.  Ginger moves a lot with her family but she has learned a little from all that moving around.  Like don't tell everything you know about your family.  Ginger's mother was killed in a car accident that no one in her family will talk about.  Ginger knows that it must be bad and she doesn't want her dad to go back into that deep hole that he was in when it first happened. Both she and her brother Jackson know that if he goes into that hole again that their grandmother will take them away from him and they will have to live with her. The popular kids at school don't like her much but at this school for the first time she does have a few friends and they seem to like her--even those few times when she slips and lets some of her true self show through.  This group had as its leader, Tori, the person who had helped come up with the antibullying code that most everyone had signed.Then came that awful day when the cruel leader of the bully gang, Kylie, had her come over to talk to them and she told them some of the story that she never let out--the one that she didn't know how her mom died.   Kylie, the only person in school who had not signed the code, had a small gang of friends but they would all do exactly what Kylie told them to do and Kylie could be so mean.  First she told Ginger that if she talked to her friends any more that she would tell them that her mom was killed after getting into a car with a drunk driver.  Ginger did as she was told but then Kylie ramped up the meanness.  She somehow started a Twitter following telling lies about how her Ginger's own dad was the drunk driver.  Ginger didn't have a cell phone so the only way that she found out was when others would tell her.  Ginger knew that her dad was not the driver because he was home with her and her brother when the accident happened but that did not stop the harassment.  This is the story of how Ginger found the strength to keep on trying during this ordeal.

This is a great book.  It tells the story of bullying in a true and honest way.  It brings out how the bully functions and how the bully actually bullies her so called friends into doing what she wants them to do so that she does not get into as much trouble.  It also shows how the bully uses flattery to bring in not only her victims but her gang members and even the teachers.  This book shows how just a few teachers looking past the flattery into the facts can be such a help for these students.  This takes time however and most teachers are not willing to take this time and trouble and it is much easier to just do their job and go home.  Just like in any profession there are a few who are willing to stand up and find out why the student is "acting out" and make a difference.  I would recommend this book not only for reading by middle school and high school students but also parents and teachers.
I received this book from Booklook for this review.