Reclaiming Lily by Patti Lacy

This is one of those books that after you pick it up you have to keep reading because you can’t even begin to predict what will happen next. I learned much about China’s cultural revolution and its effect on a Chinese family, about adoption from China, both during Mao’s time in power and more currently. I also found out a great deal about PKD, a deadly kidney disorder. The stories of the Chinese family’s history that are interspersed throughout remind me of my beloved Pearl S. Buck books that I read as a teenager.

Dr. Chang Kai, a Chinese immigrant and Harvard educated doctor searches out and finds her younger sister who has been adopted by an American couple. She had medical information that may be crucial to the young girl’s life. How they meet and how the pieces come together for the adoptee, the adoptive parents, the older sister (Kai) is the heart of the story. Each person has things in their past that is making their present difficult. As they find each other, many of those issues are dealt with. Not the least of these issues is the search for God by both the sisters and the total surrender to God by the adoptive mom.

This story is so compelling I recommend it to anyone who wants an enjoyable read and anyone who wants to gain knowledge when they read. Bethany House provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Love on the Line by Deanne Gist

When Bethany House offered Deanne Gist’s latest book for review, I jumped at the opportunity. I have read every one of Ms. Gist’s books so far and they never disappoint. In fact, they just get better and better. This book was one of those page-turners for which you want to put everything else in your life on the back burner. Georgie Gail is a telephone operator around 1910 in a small Texas town. Lucious Landrum, a.k.a. Luke Palmer, is a Texas Ranger undercover as a lineman for the telephone company. He is trying to track down a famous outlaw and his gang. He is hindered by the fact that the outlaw has the sympathy of the townspeople due to the popular pulp fiction that is circulating and the outlaw’s Robin Hood-like manners during the train robberies.

Add to the mix, Georgie’s campaign to stop the use of bird parts on women’s millinery and Luke’s genuine enjoyment of hunting and some sparks are sure to fly. This story had a lot of interesting twists and turns and had me up late trying to find out what was going to happen next. If you want something far from ordinary and mundane and unlike the formula novels some authors are churning out, then just pick up this, or any other, book by Deanne Gist and enjoy!

This book is a true story about a subject dear to my heart: foster care and adoption. I have been a foster parent and my children are foster-adopt parents. Many of the situations mentioned in this book struck a chord with me.

John and Kelly Rosati became interested in foster care and adoption when he was stationed in Hawaii in the Air Force. Their first experience, a one month foster care stint with an 11 year old girl very nearly put them entirely off the idea altogether. God, however, had other plans and sometimes reluctantly, they began to follow those plans and the adoptions fell into place one at a time. Although they felt happy with two adopted children, eventually two more came on the scene and they now have two boys and two girls. The family now lives in Colorado where Mrs. Rosati works for Focus on the Family.

Anyone considering adoption would do well to read this story and get a taste of what the process entails. It is not an easy process by any means, but there are many waiting children in the United States and if someone is willing to provide them with a family and has the desire and the stamina to go through the process, the rewards are great for all involved. The process varies from state to state but is pretty much the same as described in this book in most states.

This book will be a great resource for adoption agencies, families looking in to foster care and adoption, ministries that support adoption and other related organizations.

In addition to containing a lot of useful information, this book was just enjoyable to read and very well written. I read it through in one day.

A Whisper of Peace by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Wow! Kim Vogel Sawyer has done it again. She has woven a beautiful story encompassing the wonder of God’s Love and an intriguing historical setting. This book takes place in Alaska among the native people there. Clay Selby and his sister, Vivian, go as missionaries to a native tribe and meet Lizzie, a woman with a native mother and a Caucasian father. Their struggles to reach the people in the tribe and Lizzie’s struggle to belong in her mother’s world, along with Vivian’s struggle to reconcile her past all make for an interesting story. This is another one of those books you can’t put down until you have savored the last word. The sweetest part of it is the acceptance of the Father (God) by the people in the story and the firm reliance they put on His care.

Much rich detail in contained in this book and obviously Ms. Sawyer did a lot of research. I love the setting of this story and I love the fact that it is about missionaries. The missionaries of the past and the missionaries of the present are my personal heroes. The wonderful way Ms. Sawyer tells the story of their faith and reliance on God makes it obvious that she has a deep personal relationship with the Father. So many books of Christian fiction just do lip service to God and personal relationship with Him, almost an afterthought added in to make it “Christian.” Not so, here. I was so blessed by this book. It renewed my zeal to see others given an opportunity to embrace His salvation. Thank you Bethany House for giving me this book to review. And thank you Ms. Sawyer for another wonderful book to read. I am waiting in great anticipation for the next one to be published.

A Most Unsuitable Match by Stephanie Grace Whitson

A Most Unsuitable Match
By Stephanie Grace Whitson

This book had some surprises. It was interesting to learn about the boats going to the Montana goldfields and the reality of the harsh life once one arrived there. The heroine was somewhat daring but a LOT naïve. All the characters in this book were interesting in their own right.

The story is about Fannie who after the death of her parents discovers she has an aunt she hasn’t met. Disillusioned by the state of affairs she finds herself in and the poor management of her financial advisor, she takes off to find her aunt. The people she meets along the way and her aunt, when she finds her, help shape her life and turn it in an entirely unexpected direction.

The author left out some details at the end that would have helped resolve some of the conflict in the story, so one is left wondering if a sequel will ensue in which we will learn more of those details.
All in all, this was a very delightful book and I am grateful for Bethany House giving me the opportunity to review this book and discover Stephanie Grace Whitson who will join my list of preferred authors.

Interview with Mike Halpin of Haptoon

The Old Schoolhouse magazine is having a Blog Hop. Here is their blog: http://blog.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/ . Each participant was assigned someone to interview. I got my first choice, Mike Halpin of Haptoons. Here is that interview!

1) How did you first begin combining art with a spiritual message?

When Jesus saved me back in 1971.

I left my hometown of Detroit, Michigan soon after I graduated High School and moved to Berkley, California to pursue a career in underground cartooning. (All the major underground companies were located in the Bay area.)

By God’s grace, I was not successful and because of my excessive hedonistic lifestyle, hit rock bottom.

Thanks be to God the Rock was Jesus. He save me and turned my life around to serve Him. I automatically began to express my newfound faith through the media of cartooning.

In 2001, I was involved in a creativity group at Calvary Chapel. One of the assignments was to take a little sermonette and do something creative with it. I wrote a poem and did the following cartoon:





At the same time, my niece’s husband, Justin Kaake, created the Haptoon website and “The Seven Truths of John 3:16” was the first cartoon. Since then I have created over 200 Haptoons. (Unfortunately the website crashed and I hope to start a new website soon.)

2) What do you hope families receive through your Haptoons?

Haptoon is a personal reflection of what I am learning as I seek to know God through His Word. It is also a calling to proclaim the Gospel. I echo the Apostle Paul’s conviction “Woe to me if I do not cartoon for the Lord!” (1 Cor. 9:16)

I pray as one reads my cartoons, God’s Word will minister to them. I try to include scripture references and hope they will dig into God’s Word for themselves.

Finally, I hope my Haptoons will encourage us all to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.” (Heb. 12:2)
My greatest joy is when I receive e-mail from parents who are using Haptoon to teach their children God’s Word. It doesn’t get much better than that.

If you would like to personally receive Haptoon, please e-mail me at haptoon@juno.com and I will add you to my list.

Thanks and God bless.

Horse Dreams (Backyard Horses Series) by Dandi Daley Mackall

This is the first book in a new series by Dandi Daley Mackall called Backyard Horses. If you have an elementary school-aged girl that is enamored with horses, as many of them are, this would be an excellent series to gift her with. This is a paperback of approximately 150 pages.

The story is about 10-year-old Ellie who has asked God daily for several years for a beautiful black stallion. When a rather down and out pinto unexpectedly comes into her life, she takes a great interest in the horse but doesn’t realize for a while that she has finally received God’s answer to her prayers. If I tell you any more of the story, I will spoil it for you so I will leave it for you to read. The book is very engaging. Both my granddaughter and I read it in one sitting.

Tyndale gave me this book to review and I look forward to reading the rest of the series as it comes out. This particular volume has a bonus of the sign language alphabet (Ellie’s young brother is deaf) and a “Horse Talk” glossary.