The Girl From the Train, by Irma Joubert

     The Girl From the Train is a delightful journey that I simply did not want to end.  It is a must read for anyone who likes historical fiction from the 1940s and 1950s

     Gretl is a little German girl who escapes a train bound for Auschwitz.  Jakob is a young Polish man who rescues her and takes her into his home.  She lives with his family for a few years, but circumstances force her to leave.  She ends up being taken in by a South African family.  This story is about the growth and self-discovery both of these characters make through an interesting time in history for both Eastern Europe and South Africa.

     Joubert writes with such elegance, and her characters are so real you feel as though you've known them forever.  A former teacher, Joubert's research into these times and places is quite evident in the book.  Jakob's love of Polish traditions and his involvement in Polish politics of the time are fascinating.  Gretl's story is equally as captivating.  She's a girl with multiple experiences which she must learn to reconcile - her German, Polish, and South African roots conflict with each other almost as much as her Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic backgrounds do.  And through all of this is woven a very compelling and innocent love story.

     In a word, this novel is breathtaking.  It's one of my new favorites, which I plan on rereading many times.  I highly recommend it to anyone who knows how to read.  Seriously.

Disclaimer:  I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Five out of Five Stars, in case you couldn't tell.   =)

   

Motivate Your Child, by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller

     After years of searching, I have finally found the parenting resource I've been looking for.  Motivate Your Child is the first tool I've seen that finally acknowledges that the conscience of a child needs to be trained before your child is expected to know right from wrong.  Other, more popular, parenting programs assume that your child already has this skill.  And that's a fail, in my opinion, because kids don't always know right from wrong in every occasion.  And for the teachers who are reading this, you already know that there are kids who almost never know right from wrong.  

     This book won't get the credit it is due (A) Because it doesn't have a catchy title and (B) It doesn't have a marketing machine getting it in the hands of every parent and teacher in the country.  What it does have is a keen understanding of what makes children and teens tick.  So it's definitely worth more than a look.

     Here's what you'll get from reading this book:
-    A discussion of a child's conscience and why it needs to
     actually be trained before you can expect a child to
     understand society's rules.

-    An understanding that strong-willed children are already
     internally motivated to do what they want and will naturally

     challenge any other system of reward and consequence

     (even natural consequences) that are put on them.  

-    A guide toward helping your child develop the ability to

     question his/her motives in a difficult situation and to

     analyze not just the appropriateness of his actions, but to

     determine what a better choice would have been.

-    A discussion of natural vs. logical consequences and in

     what cases each technique is more appropriate than the

     other.

-    A guide toward helping your child become a person of  

     integrity who is able to make choices that are best for him

     or her independent of a parent telling them what to do

     every step of the way.

     This is a Christian book.  The second half of the book is a wonderful resource on how to bring more spirituality into your family without being overbearing about it.

     However, the tools in the first half of the book are relevant to anyone, Christian or not.  I personally used suggestions from the first half to help some of my students learn how to make better choices in social interaction.  It worked better than any other technique I've tried in over 15 years of teaching.  

     I highly recommend this book to anyone who works with children.  These authors understand kids better than any other I've read.

     Disclaimer:  I was provided this book by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

     Five out of Five Stars

Women Are Scary, by Melanie Dale

     Women are Scary is ostensibly a book about how to find, make, and keep female friends while managing to be a mother at the same time.  What it ends up being is a humorous memoir about the difficulties that mothers have trying to maintain adult friendships.  Which, as most moms get, is a tough thing to do.

     I'm still not quite sure what to make of this book.  It starts off very funny, but the style started to wear on me after a while.  The author is a blogger, and while I'm sure her writing style is perfect for a blog, I think there just isn't enough substance here to be worthy of a full length book.  The premise is interesting, but you can't buy this book thinking it's going to be full of awesome relationship advice.  For moms out there, truly, I think we know who makes a good fit for us and who doesn't.  It all comes down to the time that we have for socializing.

     This book is valuable if you just want a good bubble-bath kind of a read that's going to cheer you up at the end of a long day full of too much spit-up and not enough adult conversation.  This book is going to remind you that you are fulfilling a very important God-given role, and that you are not the only one who doesn't channel June Cleaver every day.  

     I also appreciate this book because it acknowledges all mothers equally - adoptive, birth, "working", "stay-at-home" and every other label that society has put upon us.  It also has some incredible suggestions for simple charitable works that mothers can do while on play-date outings with each other.  I'll be looking into some of these ideas myself, and the book is worth a read if only for those suggestions.

     Three out of Five Stars

Disclaimer:  I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Don't Give Up, Don't Give In, by Louis Zamperini and David Rensin

  This is the book I've been waiting for since I finished Laura Hillenbrand's biography of Louis Zamperini, Unbroken.   I loved that book, but it seemed to me that the real story of heroism came after the war, when Zamperini was able to overcome the atrocities that he was subjected to.  

     This book, which was finished just before Zamperini passed away, tells that story.  I felt on reading Unbroken that it glossed over the power of God in Zamperini's life.  Don't Give Up gets more into how instrumental Zamperini's faith was in helping him overcome post traumatic stress and its symptoms.  As his son writes in this book, "miracles happened to [Zamperini] to demonstrate the power of God in his life."  And that's the story that I think most people don't get to hear about outside of this book.

  
     More than just a testament to Zamperini's faith, this book also tells the lessons that he learned throughout his life's journey.  How do you forgive someone who has deeply hurt you?  How do you stay positive enough to weather the bad times?  How can you maintain your self respect and dignity at all times?  These questions and more are answered in this book.  And in providing us with his wisdom gained through years of unspeakable trial and a life given in service to humankind, I think Louis Zamperini has shown himself to be the kind of hero our society desperately craves.

     I highly recommend this book not just to those interested in Zamperini's story, but also to anyone who feels that there should be more to life than what they have. Life is not meant to be simply survived, but lived.  And Louis Zamperini understood that.


Five out of Five Stars