I have two daughters. One is 3 and the other only 18 months. As young as they are, they are best friends. They do fight often especially over toys, but they both love each other too.

As I read Not Again! The Adventures of Breanna and Allyson by Sarah Hays, I thought of my own children even though Breanna and Allyson are older than my kids. Breanna is the older sister. As the older child, she has more skills and abilities than her younger sister Allyson. Breanna must show lots of patience and understanding when her younger sister creates problems.

I think children with siblings will relate to Breana and Allyson. I also think it is a wonderful opportunity to discuss character lessons. Parents’ could ask about feelings presented in the book and get children to think about their own feelings. Parents’ could ask about helping a younger sibling.
I want to teach my children how to deal with negative emotions such as anger and frustration. I want to teach them patience and to share. I think this book will be a helpful tool to assist me to do that. I would recommend it to parents who have children with siblings.

Author Bio:

Sarah Hays is a teacher residing in the central Texas area. She lives with her husband Rusty and two young daughters: Breanna and Allyson. Her interests include reading mystery novels, writing, and spending time with her family. “Not Again! The Adventures of Breanna and Allyson,” is her first children’s book and she is excited to share it with you!

For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/sarahjoannehays

https://sarahjhays.wixsite.com/mysite

Prejudice is a real problem in today’s society. Violent crimes happen every day because of hate toward someone not similar to us. Our children need to be taught how to overcome their prejudices. Our children need to be taught to think when told some stereotype or rumor about an individual rather than blindly accept it.
As parents and adults who influence children, we need to model acceptance of others for our kids. We need to engage them in meaningful discussions about prejudge. A good way to have such meaningful discussions is by reading together books that deal with the subject.
The Muffintops Of Muffinville – The Great Cupcake Battle by Eve Newton is a silly, fun children’s picture but has a very serious lesson on prejudice. A pet cat runs over the fence of Muffinville into another town, Cupcake Land. Rumors and prejudices quickly spread in both towns almost culminating in an all-out war. The sensible Mr. Muffintop stops it with a reminder that “All beings are born free and should be given dignity…”
The book reminded me of Dr. Seuss’ wisdom “that Sneetches are Sneetches. And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.” Books like The Muffintops Of Muffinville – The Great Cupcake Battle and The Sneetches can be great tools to help to teach children about prejudices in a fun way. I would recommend reading books like these with children and to discuss prejudice with them.

Buy it on Amazon

Also available A Tea Party in Muffinville.

What are some core values you want your children to learn? As a parent of 2 daughters, I would like my daughters to learn humility and respect for others. Many problems arise from pride and disrespect. If my children can learn and practice humility and respect, how much better adults they will be.
Most importantly, I must model this for my children if they are to learn. I also believe that reading to them and discussing moral values presented in stories will help to teach them to think and own good values.
Jesus was once at a party and noticed all the guests were trying to sit at the places of honor. He advised people to humble themselves and take the lower seats and then they will be exalted. I was reminded of this incident and advice in Luke 14:7-10 as I read A Tea Party in Muffinville by Eve Newton. Belle wants to have a tea party. She asks the advice of a neighbor who plots to sit at the best place at the party. There is a battle of pride over the best hat at the party. When a humorous mishap occurs, the guests realize how foolish they were. They all get a lesson in humility.
I think this book offers a chance to discuss humility and respect. These values are presented in a humorous way. Children will find the story fun. Adults can use the story to teach values by asking questions such as why does Mosey want to sit by the Mayor? Why does Ophelia wear a high hat and why did Mosey’s hat have a feather?
This is a simple story written in a sing-song style. It is fun and humorous. Children will enjoy it. The real value; however, are the moral lessons that can be taught from the examples of the characters.

You may have read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It is a simple story of a caterpillar who eats various foods, builds its cocoon and becomes a butterfly. It has no moral point. It may have a scientific lesson for kids on metamorphosis. In contrast, I see several potential moral lessons in The Very Loving Caterpillar by Sean Browne. The first is care for the environment. In the story, the caterpillars “took care of the plants surrounding them.” This is a great lesson for kids. We are already teaching our 3-year-old daughter to water the plants. He sees that Daddy often rides a bike to work and to run errands. The next lesson it presents is not to quit trying to solve problems. The unnamed “very loving caterpillar” tries to think of a way to solve an issue of a changed environment. He doesn’t quit and eventually solves it with his subconscious in a dream. I encourage my daughter to keep trying. He loves to do puzzles, but sometimes gets frustrated and asks for help. I encourage her and tell her he can do it. I think this is an important lesson. My professional job is solving problems. I’ve had experiences where I had to let my subconscious work for a while and would solve a problem while out running or some other unrelated activity. The last lesson I see is to be kind and help others. The “very loving caterpillar” becomes a butterfly but doesn’t abandon his friends and family. He shows them his solution to their problem.

I want to read books with moral lessons to my children. I want to discuss the lessons with them so that they will learn to think about moral issues for themselves. I want them to engage in problem-solving. I think this book would be a good book in which to discuss the moral aspects.

I think books like this should be read with children. It has some words and concepts that a child may find difficult to understand. If we read it with children, then we can help them to understand those words and concepts.

My reviews are based on the moral lessons of the book so I rarely comment on the illustrations. However, I really liked the illustrations by Doan Trang. I like pastel colors, so these illustrations really appealed to me and will likely be very pleasing to children.

Author Bio:

Sean had no idea he would be a children’s book writer – or did he? It was after a suggestion from the editor, and in thinking that he wanted to do a film about caterpillars and butterflies – since there don’t seem to be any – that he decided to write this book. This book is to educate and inspire while fulfilling the mission of opening the consciousness of humanity through entertainment and science. It’s a movie!

Do your children ever get distracted and then “forget” to do something you told them to do? In Lilly’s Big Day by Cathy Stewart, Lilly gets distracted and suffers the consequences.

I strongly believe books and media should be used as springboards to discuss moral lessons. This book could easily be used to discuss the lesson of listening to your parents without nagging your kids. It provides the opportunity for kids to see natural consequences of not following parent’s instructions. It gives the opportunity for parents to ask their kids questions: “What did Lilly’s mother tell her to do?” “Did she do it?” “What happened when she didn’t?”

It’s a simple story with a good lesson. If children will learn from Lily’s consequences, maybe they will avoid consequences of their own.

As a Christian parent, I want nothing more than my kids to follow Jesus. I want him to reign in their heart. I want them to listen to him and do what he says. I hope to teach and model following Christ.

I read to my kids every day. I want them to develop a love for reading. I also want to use the books they read as a teaching tool. Not all books will teach values I want them to learn. When they don’t I want to discuss the values with them so that they think about what is being presented. When they do teach good values, I also want to discuss the lessons with them.

Reins of Love by Laurie Salisbury does teach values I want my kids to learn. It teaches showing kindness to people even if you don’t like them at first. It teaches patience when you don’t get what you want. It teaches listening to God and doing what he asks. I applaud these lessons and books like this that teach them.

Reins of Love is a simple and cute story. It is about the lessons to twins learn after the family moves out of the city to the country. The girl, Beth, receives a horse as a gift and her twin brother, Ben, receives a pony. Beth must learn to deal with a trainer she doesn’t like. Ben must learn to accept not getting what he wants. Both learn to listen to God and be examples of love to others. The gospel is presented in the story.

Reading it, I found myself laughing and smiling at times. It had its warm and touching moments. Children may find it a bit preaching at times, but the twins do provide good models of behavior. The twins make sincere efforts to change attitudes and behavior through prayer and relying on God.

I would recommend reading the book with your child and discussing it as you do. It could be a wonderful springboard to discussion how the whole family could better follow Jesus.