God Gave us Family

Little Pup is on his way to a family reuinion with his mom and dad.

On the way he asks why there is only one kid in his family but other families have lots of kids.  Papa says that God gives families and every family is different.

While rowing in a boat they pass different families.  The bear famiy has an adopted child.  Th goose family has a single mom most of the time.  One child lives with their grandparents.

Then Little Pup learns that the rest of their pack are family too, even if they are not related to us.  And he also learns that family is still family, even when they are annoying.

In the end they get to the reunion and Little Pup plays with his cousins and pack members.

It is a cute book, from the "God Gave Us...." series of books.  The most popular which I think as God Gave Us You.


The artwork was cute and it would make a great addition to any Christian family's book collection.

I will say that none of the families in the book have parents who are same sex.  Of course since this is a Christian book we couldn't really expect them to include that facet of life could we?

There are also no families without children, so you have to have a child to be a family?

I received my copy of God Gave us Family though Blogging for Books in exchange for an hontest review.  Any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

If you would like your on copy it is on Amazon in Kindle or Hardcover.

Draw 50 Sea Creatures Step by Step

Draw 50 Sea Creatures
The Step-by-step Way to Draw
Fish, Sharks, Mollusks, Dolphins and More!

Available on Amazon

Draw 50 Sea Creatures is a simple book on, you guessed it, how to draw sea creatures!

The only equipment you'll need is a medium or soft pencil, paper to draw on, and a kneaded eraser.

There is not a lot of written content in the book.  There is a letter to the reader giving you just a handful of tips on how to use this book to improve your drawing.

There is also a short letter to teachers on why that even though freedom of self expression is important, its also important for young artists to learn how to do things step by step as well.

From there it is just page after page of how to Draw 50 Sea Creatures.  Most of the creatures break it down into 6 steps.  A couple have 8 steps drawn for you to follow.  Even with 8 steps, some of the more detailed animals have several details are added in one step.

To me this makes this book more suitable for someone with some drawing talent as opposed to an absolute beginner. I'm not a very talented artist.  Here are 2 animals I drew from the book. 

The anemone was pretty easy, but you can see that the step by step didn't do much for me with the seahorse.



Lee J. Ames, the artist behind the Draw 50 series has been drawing for most of his life.  His first job was for the Walt Disney Studios when he was 18.  Since then he has led a career as an advertising artist, fine artist, cartoonist, designer, animation in-betweener, illustrator, and as an artist-in residence at Doubleday. 

It is his minimalist approach to teaching drawing that makes the 26 books of the Draw 50 series such a success.

(Disclaimer:  This book was received from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and comments... and bad seahorse drawings ...are my own.)

Ninth City Burning

An alien race had come to make Earth theirs.  The war has raged for five centuries.  It was nearly the end of the world.

Growing up in this shattered environment isn't easy for anyone.  Some, like Jax, grew up in an elite military academy, training for battle.  Others, like Naomi, grew up nomadic roaming the wilds of a ruined Earth, it means a daily fight for survival.

When paths cross Jax and Naomi, along with other fighters and survivors must find a way to turn back the invasion.  Otherwise their home will finally be completely destroyed.

Ninth City Burning does the thing that so many books do these days that I hate.  It hops back and forth from different POV.  Starting out with different characters in different cities who all eventually converge.  

Frankly I would have like to have seen more of Naomi's story.  I was annoyed that the tale around her and her tribe converged so quickly with the high-tech society.  SO I guess I would have lieked a post apocalyptic survival story instead of a Sci-fi tale.

The overall story was interesting.  How the world handled a multi-year inter-dimensional war.  The underlying theme of "OMG YOU'RE TOO YOUNG FOR WAR, but we're gonna make you do it anyway" got to be really annoying after a while.  Especially since this is a thick 500+ page read.

I could see Ninth City Burning making a big-budget big screen movie one day, maybe, but it didn't really make me want to change my favorite reading genre to Sci-fi.

I did get this book for free from blogging for books, but all thoughts and opinions are mine.