My Favorite Children’s Books: Part 6

My Favorite Children’s Books: Part 6

This post is part of the Favorite Children’s Books series. See all the posts in the series here.

 

I can’t believe it’s been over two years since the last post on my favorite children’s books! Do people still hang out on blogs? 

To make up for the long hiatus, this is a longer list than usual. Hopefully there’s something here for the special little humans in your life!

Giraffe Problems is a hilarious book about a giraffe who’s insecure about his neck. Jory John writes in a way that’s super fun to read, if you like doing voices and intonations when you read to your little ones. I have to say I crack myself up every time I read this one (and if I’m lucky, the kids will laugh too).

Amazon | Bookshop

A fun retelling of the story of Jesus calming the storm, this book is a favorite with my kids. They really enjoy the silly illustrations, and I have to say, I love when illustrators have fun with Bible stories. They don’t always have to be so serious, you know what I mean?

Amazon

This is the newest addition to the wonderful series by Andrea Beaty that has been part of my favorites since my first favorite children’s books post. It’s a sweet story of Aaron who finds his language in artistry.

Amazon | Bookshop

Do boys come pre-programmed to love trucks and trains? The Construction Site series is well-loved in our household and we have all the books in the series. The Merry and Bright one is a cute flap-book that will make a lovely gift for the truck-loving nugget in your life. We also love the recent Road Crew, Coming Through! Another cute Christmas-themed one is Construction Night on Christmas Night (although come to think of it, can be cynically interpreted as the capitalistic drive to work until the last minute before Christmas!).

Amazon | Bookshop

Singer and song-writer Ellie Holcomb writes another lovely book with nature-themed illustrations. The first one was featured in the fourth post of this favorite children’s books series.

Amazon | Bookshop

I found this little gem at an indie bookstore in Colorado, featuring local writer Nicole Magistro. It’s a whimsical story about the adventurous imagination of a girl that’s sure to give warm feelings to all book lovers.

Amazon | Bookshop

Who doesn’t love the Little Blue Truck series? The most recent additions to our library are the cute Christmas edition and the school edition.

Amazon | Bookshop

Now the next two books are for the nature lovers. I love this reflective book, which is a meditation of how enclosed indoors our modern lives are. This book is an invitation to go outside.

Amazon | Bookshop

Reading this book is like going on a nature tour through an ecosystem. Kate Messner brings us to discover the interconnectedness of plants and animals that call a mountain pond their home. I plan to get the other books in the series too.

Amazon | Bookshop

Last but certainly not least, Jacqueline Woodson writes another poetic children’s book that holds space for the pandemic experience that the world just went through (and still going through). For your loved ones who struggled with being at home during lockdown, this book will resonate deeply and provide a soothing balm to that episode of our lives. I love the idea of having literature in our family library that marks the historic and human experience of COVID-19. My kids are still young, so they may not remember what the world went through. But in future years, this book will serve as a vehicle for us to talk about and reflect upon what happened, and how it impacted us.

Amazon | Bookshop

To support independent bookstores, shop these books from my Bookshop.org list.

*Amazon Product links on this blog are Amazon Affiliate links, which means that each time you purchase something through those links, I get a small commission without you paying any extra. Of course you don’t have to use them, but if you want to chip-in towards content creation for this blog, I’d really appreciate it!

*Bookshop.org links on this page are also affiliate links, which means that I get a small commission if you purchase from these links, which also help independent bookstores across the country.

ICYMI: Introducing Some Adventist Women

ICYMI: Introducing Some Adventist Women

Over the past year, I’ve had the joy of working on a fun project with some of my favorite women friends! We’ve titled it Some Adventist Women. And right now, it exists on Instagram with the handle @someadventistwomen.

So, what is Some Adventist Women exactly? Below is an excerpt from an article I wrote to introduce the project. Also below are the recordings of my personal top 3 conversations that we’ve had on @someadventistwomen, in reverse chronological order.

  1. Biblical Masculinity vs. Toxic Masculinity with Israel Ramos and Sebastien Braxton.
  2. Domestic Violence and the Church with Steven and Tamara Conway.
  3. Mental Health and Race with John Lee and Tenesha Patrick Brooks.

 

We’re about to start a whole conversation series on race, racism and the church. Don’t miss it! Head over to IG and follow the account!

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
View this profile on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Some Adventist Women (@someadventistwomen) • Instagram photos and videos


 

@SomeAdventistWomen Just Want to Talk

 

Growing up into adulthood in the Adventist Church, I have been blessed with a group of brilliant, godly, and wise women as peers. With this cohort of women, I spent my younger years dreaming about changing the world, thinking through social and theological issues, and navigating school, ministry, singlehood, career, and relationships together.

 

While I am not unique in this experience, I also know there are others in the church, especially women, who may not have similar camaraderie or support system as they journey through life. This aloneness (and have we not known aloneness in a much deeper level during the pandemic?) can be such a heavy spiritual and mental burden.

 

The desire for a deeper connection, perhaps triggered by pandemic isolation, sparked an idea between the aforementioned group of women in the spring of 2021. Professionally, we are a lawyer, a public health officer, a historian, an engineer, and an editorial assistant. Yet as different as our professions are, we are bound together by a deep desire to live as faithful Seventh-day Adventists and to expand the breadth and depth of women’s conversations in the church. Concurrently, we also want to invite other women into our conversations and friendship, and hopefully let them know that they are not alone.

 

This was the origin of Some Adventist Women.

 

What is Some Adventist Women?

Some Adventist Women is an Instagram-based project that provides space for Adventist women to engage with the most pressing issues in society today, inside and outside of church.

 

In our regular church life, at least in my experience, there are numerous topics relevant to women’s experiences that do not get enough airspace. Topics like mental health, career, work/life balance, being Adventists in secular spaces, singlehood, race, current events, and many others, intersect and collide profoundly in our lives. But it’s hard to talk about them in depth when we’re rushing to feed hungry children after church or when we’re socially distanced.

 

For many, this is a felt gap. Some Adventist Women is an attempt to fill this gap. We want to platform conversations—to create a space where women can talk and wrestle through things with both gravitas and humor. It is a community where we can center women’s narratives and see things through women’s perspectives, as numerous and varied as those could be.

 

“Part of this is going to be thinking out loud,” as Sikhu Daco, one of Some Adventist Women leaders, says. “We’re processing along with you as we go through the topics. I think maybe that’s even more valuable than the conclusion. It’s allowing a process to happen, allowing ourselves to think through things, giving ourselves permission to not know and to try to figure stuff out as we go along.”

Read more here. 


 

My Personal Top 3 Conversations So Far

1. Biblical Masculinity vs. Toxic Masculinity with Israel Ramos and Sebastien Braxton

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by Some Adventist Women (@someadventistwomen)

2. Domestic Violence and the Church with Steven and Tamara Conway

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by Some Adventist Women (@someadventistwomen)

3. Mental Health and Race with John Lee and Tenesha Patrick Brooks

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by Some Adventist Women (@someadventistwomen)

Some Adventist Women is the brainchild of Amy Ratsara, Michel Lee, Josephine Elia Loi, Sikhu Daco, and Thando Amankwah. The opinions expressed in this platform are our own and do not represent our respective employers.

*Amazon Product links on this blog are Amazon Affiliate links, which means that each time you purchase something through those links, I get a small commission without you paying any extra. Of course you don’t have to use them, but if you want to chip-in towards content creation for this blog, I’d really appreciate it!