"Planet Middle School" Book Review

Wouldn't life be great if our kids behaved the way we assumed they would before they were born? I hereby officially apologize for any parenting advice I doled out before having my own. Now, as a mother of three teens, I'm far quicker to say, "I don't know what you should do but I'll pray for you."

With most parenting books, I come away from them with an odd mixture of empowerment and defeat. The problems seem too big, I've made too many mistakes, and it's too late. "Planet Middle School" was no exception. While reading this, I found myself wanting to pray, "Please God, let the rapture happen today because otherwise my kids will fall prey to drugs since I didn't tuck them in with words of affirmation every single night. Plus, the other day, I accidentally fixed my son's collar in front of his friend so I know he's going to end up sleeping with the girlfriend he's likely hiding from me." However, after my momentary panic, I think, "Wait a minute. My kids love being at home. They are very respectful and quick to help. Why am I assuming the worst? "Planet Middle School" by Dr. Kevin Leman doesn't only point out the dangerous traps your child faces. It also shows how a parent might accidentally push their child into one. Thankfully, it also talks about pulling them out.

This book arrived just as I was discovering one of my kids was hiding something from me; something that could have dreadful long term implications if not dealt with immediately. "Planet Middle School" does a great job of laying out when to go with the flow and when to take command. This was definitely a 'take command' situation and I believe this book helped me to understand what I was up against clearer and how to deal with it calmly. (not to mention the importance of calmness - something my Italian genes don't compute)

In a nutshell, here is what I learned from this book:
You are the boss but don't boss your kids around. Don't let them boss you around either.
Food is the way to a middle schooler's heart.
Calm wins.

The rule about food is a good one. My mother and I used to go downtown to tell people God loves them and hand out bibles. If we came with only bibles, no one wanted to talk to us. When we came with bibles and oranges, we made instant friends who would talk and want prayer. This is one tip that I intend to implement in our home.

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.

"Until the Dawn" Book Review

Fluffy novels are novels that you read when you want to feel light as the end. There's nothing distressing about them nor are they mentally strenuous. They are also surprisingly hard to write well. Too often they fall victim to painfully repetitious statements of doe-eyed  optimism and continual misunderstandings between the main characters. So when the author of "Until the Dawn", Elizabeth Camden, manages to pull it off, I applaud. Life is exhausting; well written fluff is greatly appreciated.

Oh, I'm not going to lie, the main heroine's inextinguishable love of cooking for a man who casts cruelty her way at every turn is not exactly relate-able but the touch of mystery in this romance makes up for it.  Plus, the characters were well written and the plot moved along at a good pace. Also the main female character's good nature's effect on the characters is a good reminder of what it means to be a light in the world.

Thankfully, I was given "Until the Dawn" to review just as the flu hit. My stomach was in turmoil but my head was clear which led me to read. And read I did. The calming nature of this delightful tale lent itself nicely to my distressed state. Imagine how joyful it would be with a healthy body.

 (spoiler warning) I'll try to be as vague as possible as to not give away more detail then necessary to make my point.
My one concern with this book is this:
As I sit here typing, my 13 year old daughter is reading "Until the Dawn" and I wonder, "Should I be allowing it?" The book seems to say that if you're a Christian, your good nature and love will make up for a person's surly attitude and Atheism. It also seems to say it's okay to jump into a marriage as soon as someone makes a profession. More than once I've known of people who 'convert' for the sake of someone they have their eyes on only to admit later that it wasn't genuine. Truly, I'd counsel anyone to wait until they see sufficient fruit to prove the new life within a person. Perhaps I'm being trivial but given the ramifications, I think not.

Apart from that, "Until the Dawn" is a delightful tale where good conquers evil which, in the day and age we live, is sorely needed.


Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.

"Every Little Thing" Book Review

Ah man, this is the worst. I hate having to say anything negative about a book because I know that it's their heart on paper. However, I just couldn't finish "Every Little Thing" by Deidra Riggs. The redundancy was painful.

The following are excerpts from the book as examples of what I mean.

"The lies we tell ourselves - I'm too old, too young ,too big, too small, too dark, too light, too new at this whole thing, too messed up too busy, too bored, too boring, too comfortable, too sinful, too far gone - stand like sentinels between us and the callings God has uniquely designed for us."

"On that night, there were no cell phones to keep us tethered to one another. No email. No social media. No text messages Nothing."

And the coup de grace: "My sister, Karen, is four years and eleven months young than me...When she was five, I was ten. When she was ten, I was fifteen."    Seriously??? After telling me the age difference between the two of you, you feel you need to say it two more times? There aren't enough hours in my life.

Does this book have a good message? Likely, but I was too busy poking myself in the eye with a fork at all the grocery list paragraphs to notice. And if these list style paragraphs were sprinkled throughout the book for emphasis, that would be one thing but they literally make up at least half of every page. Painful.

I home school my three children and when my oldest son was in grade 6, he fell into this style of writing. But as his 'editor', I didn't let it fly because it's poor quality.  So my big question is not what was the author thinking but why didn't the editor stop this before it went to print?

Here my free writing lesson for everyone out there:

Imagine that every word you write is worth a dollar and when you're finished, you're going to have to pay for that book to be published. Always use the fewest words possible to get your point across.  See it as a game.


Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.