Fun Friday- Read Aloud Edition and a Giveaway!

Happy Fun Friday!  Don't you just love the start of a weekend?  For me, the excitement starts on Thursday after lunch.  We are done with co-op then and I come home and breathe a sigh of relief.  No more things we have to do, just one more day of school (which is often a lighter schedule), and then time centered around family.  LOVE IT!

Anyway...

I am excited to share with you this week our newest read-aloud.  This one came to us by surprise, as I was asked to review it by an outside source.  So exciting!


The Reunion, written by Rachael McIntire, and published by Elisha Press, is a lovely little book written in response to the author's need to find good, quality books to read to her own children.  It's subtitled- "A story of redemption for the whole family to enjoy together."

Indeed it is.  The book begins with a four year old little girl desperately praying for a little sister and unfolds with how God hears and answers her prayers.  Throughout the book we see the faith of a little child grow steadily into the faith of a pre-teen in such a natural way, guided by the deep love of her family.  Dotted with good manners, moral situations and a sweet old-fashioned simpleness, we were delighted to be able to read this together.  Some of the chapters are quite short, making reading several at one time completely do-able.  That and the fact that the boys often wanted to know what would happen next!

Because this book is centered around the world of adoption, it is now dear to our hearts.   It is hard for us to finds books about adoption that are done well.  Often incorrect terms are used, families seem to be "saving" a child, or they are just downright hurtful. The one time I did have a concern was with the use of the term "real" parents in reference to biological parents.  This may just be a case of us being sensitive to politically correct wording because we are an adoptive family, but we encourage the use of "birth" parents as opposed to "real".  Real implies to me that I am fake.  Otherwise, the loving way that Rachael approached adoption as a gift warmed my heart and I think really pulled in our 5 year old adopted son.  More than once he said "just like me" with such excitement.

After each reading time we spent a few minutes talking about the characters and what they said or did that really stood out in our minds.  Some of my favorites were the kids noticing how naturally the family prayed together, that the parents were kind to their children and the children were well mannered, without seeming fake.  Because two families are highlighted, one Christian one not, it was an opportunity for us to discuss how each handled situations that arose and what our family would have done in a similar situation.  Our favorite line was, "Julie, you need Jesus in your heart!" (page 19)  We giggled at that response and had fun imagining how someone would react if that was our response to one who offended us. 

The other discussions we had were about the meaning of words.  Some were from public school references, so the usage was lost on my youngest especially.  Other times, we had to discuss meanings of some of the vocabulary used, therefore I would say that this book is written for slightly older elementary children and up if it is going to be read solely by the child.  For us, it provided a good opportunity to discuss some new words and ideas.

Good read alouds equal good conversations!  And The Reunion was  a book that sparked many conversations among our family.  I pray it will do the same for you!

As a bonus for Family, Faith and Friday readers, the publisher has offered a special code for $2.00 off your purchase of The Reunion through the end of February.  After that the code will be good for $1.00 off.  Please type in REVIEW-FRIDAYS when ordering to take advantage of this gift.

We were also given an extra copy of The Reunion to giveaway to one lucky reader.  Use the rafflecopter below for your chance to win.  This will close next Thursday!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

THANK YOU McINTIRE FAMILY for the privilege of reviewing your book!