Wonderful new picture book to help kids understand their feelings: “God, I Feel Sad”

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Emotions. They’re hard enough sometimes for us as adults to deal with. But what about children? I thought yesterday what a huge, big world children are born into; and they have a LOT to learn, from language, to walking, to smiling, and more. Michelle Nietert, LPC-S and Tama Fortner realized this very thing; and they’ve created a fantastic picture book designed to help children understand and move through their emotions, particularly here, the sad ones: God, I Feel Sad: Bringing Big Emotions to a Bigger God.

I’ve had the pleasure to receive a copy of this marvelous book from the authors and BlogAbout Blogger Network, plus I have an additional copy of God, I Feel Sad to give away to one reader! Keep reading for more about this lovely book plus your opportunity to enter to win.

About God, I Feel Sad and its authors

Here’s what the publishers have to say about this lovely book:

“Help young children process their sad feelings.

Sad is a feeling that can be hard, but if we listen to it, we can learn things about ourselves. 

In God, I Feel Sad: Bringing Big Emotions to a Bigger God  (Zonderkidz, April, 2023) by licensed counselor Michelle Nietert and Tama Fortner, kids will discover that it’s okay to feel sad. Being sad is an emotion that doesn’t need to be avoided. Instead, it is something kids can use to grow closer to God. Because God is in all things, including sadness.

God I Feel Sad teaches kids ages 4 to 8 how to:

• Identify the feeling of sadness
• See signs of sadness in others
• Recognize things that can make them feel sad
• Embrace sadness without letting it overwhelm them
• Talk to God about their feelings

God, I Feel Sad is perfect for:

• Helping young kids develop positive ways to manage and name their feelings
• Children dealing with changing emotions, new experiences, or loss
• Family read-aloud time
• Supporting good communication and mental health habits at an early age

The book features a page with encouragement for parents/caregivers, and a simple exercise to help a child work through a heavy season of sadness. By helping kids process their emotions, parents and caregivers are encouraging them to develop skills for their entire lives.”

And a little about the authors of God, I Feel Sad

Michelle Nietert has been a licensed professional counselor for over 25 years. She is an energetic and passionate speaker, coach, and author with extensive interview experience on national TV and podcasts. Michelle is the coauthor of the award-winning book Loved and Cherished: 100 Devotions for Girls, Make Up Your Mind: Unlock Your ThoughtsTransform Your Life, and the upcoming books are Managing Your Emojis: 100 Devotions for Managing Your Emotions, and God, I Feel Scared. You can connect with Michelle on Instagram.

Tama Fortner is an ECPA award-winning author and ghost writer with more than fifty books written and 25 years of publishing experience. She has partnered with some of the biggest names in Christian publishing to create inspirational books for children, teens, and adults reaching over a million readers. Jesus Calling for Kids, Simply Christmas: A Busy Mom’s Guide to Reclaiming the Peace of the Holidays, Indescribable: 100 Devotions About God and Science are some of these books. She and Michelle Nietert have authored the upcoming book, God, I Feel Scared. You can connect with Tama on Instagram.

Tama and Michelle help readers gain mental health skills they can carry as they grow up. Readers will learn to to recognize the things that can make them sad, embrace sadness without it overwhelming them, and know that talking to God about their feelings is good, such as this sample:

“Sad isn’t the most fun emotion to feel, but there’s a reason you’re sad sometimes. It’s God’s way of helping you know that you’ve been hurt – in your body or in your heart. And it lets you know something isn’t quite right with your world.”

My thoughts about God, I Feel Sad

Do you feel that you learned how to process big emotions when you were growing up? I don’t know about you, but emotional management has been a skill I’ve been working on during my adulthood in a big way. My previous personal emotional management style was a) deny the hard ones and b) put that happy face back on again! (I know. Brilliant!) That didn’t actually turn out to be a great coping skill, as its outcome was just the postponement of realizing and dealing with the actual “negative” emotions.

My entire family is on a sort of a journey (a quest!) to acknowledge, speak about, and walk out our emotions. Honestly, Michelle’s and Tama’s book is an incredibly meaningful guidebook for just that; for teaching our precious ones what their emotions are and how they can move through them. God, I Feel Sad teaches children (and parents too, for that matter!) to:

• learn to identify their emotions
• be able to name them
• begin to build the process and habits of working through them

I absolutely love the way that God, I Feel Sad not only walks children through this process but helps them to understand that there is *no shame* in feeling any emotion. Rather, that emotions are the way we understand that there’s something going on inside us that we need to pay attention to!

God really is the giver of so many good gifts. I believe that emotions definitely fall into that category. But, we still need to come to understand them; and, when they’re painful ones, as sadness can sometimes be, to learn to navigate that emotional world. This beautifully-illustrated and gently-worded book will bless you and your children; and help them to begin to learn to journey through their emotions. I wholeheartedly recommend this to you!

Where you can purchase God, I Feel Sad

You can purchase a copy of God, I Feel Sad on Amazon! Just click the highlighted link to go directly to the purchase page.

How you can enter to win a copy of this book

To enter to win a copy of God, I Feel Sad, just click on the link below that says, “Enter here!” That will take you to a Giveaway Tools entry form, where you’ll be able to enter to win in a variety of ways. US entries only, must be 18 and older to win. One entrant will be selected to win the book at the end of the giveaway. Giveaway closes on April 21, 2023. Best wishes!

Enter here!

Enjoy! –Wren

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the authors. All opinions are my own honest ones.

Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible for kids: a review

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Have you ever had a book that combined all the best assets of a print publication with the excitement of video? I didn’t think it could happen, either–but with Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible, it has! FrontGate Media provided a copy of this amazing story Bible for kids and families for me, and I’m delighted to share its features (and coolness!) with you as well. Plus, you can enter to win this neat Bible too!

About the Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible

ABOUT THE BIBLE, from the publisher

With a proven track record of over 6 million copies sold, Egermeier’s Bible Storybook has been a favorite for generations.

The Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible now brings the Bible to life with new colorful illustrations and an entire series of quick-sketching videos that tell the stories as they magically appear on the screen.

Readers now have the choice to read the stories or to watch them being drawn before their very eyes!

Children of all ages may read the stories or watch them being drawn before their very eyes!   312 stories feature animation-style illustrations, scannable QR codes, Scripture references, and discussions questions – all designed to help kids understand how God’s word fits together and how the stories point to a relationship with Jesus!

Suitable for kids ages 8 and up! This hardcover, easy-to-read format is 660 pages and is makes the perfect gift!

My thoughts about this Bible

What a wonderful, engaging story Bible for little ones and families! The Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible is arranged chronologically, so that children can learn via story the big picture of God’s interactions with humans, and the ways He spoke about the coming Messiah, Jesus, all throughout the Old Testament and all the way through the New, when He arrives on earth as a baby, and grows into the adult Jesus; with His ministry, death on the cross, and resurrection. This Bible then continues through Acts and the Epistles, through Revelation. At the end, there’s an exceptional reference section which includes:

• How We Got Our Bible
• Explanation of the books of the Bible, what they contain, and their literature categories
• Interesting Facts About the Bible (fun factoids)
• Great Prayers of the Bible
• Our Lord’s Parables
• Wonderfully-drawn maps with Old Testament-time Israel, the Temple at Jerusalem, Jerusalem itself during Jesus’s days, the Holy Land in New Testament Times (current-day as well), and Paul’s missionary journeys

Although this Bible is designed for children ages 8 and older, I think it would also be a wonderful one for parents or grandparents to use with smaller children for reading aloud–and for using the QR codes! When parents scan the QR codes with their cell phones, a voice narrates the written story on the page with the QR code. Then, line drawings appear first in black and cream. Then, the drawings are colored in as the story is told. It’s as if the viewer is in an artist’s studio, watching the drawings be created and then colored in, all as they illustrate the Bible stories. (There are additional illustrations included in the QRs that aren’t in the print book, but that further illustrate the Bible stories. Not every Bible story has a QR code, but many do.) Each story also includes the Scripture references (addresses) that it comes from, with questions for parents to ask their children after reading.

The language is simple and clear, yet still reverent; easy for children to follow and understand.

And my impressions? I love this! I think often of the Bibles that were available to me when I was a child, at the time of my own salvation when I began to try to read the Bible on my own. I had a copy of the King James Bible, and one of the Living Bible. What a wonderful friend this Bible would have been to me! The story format is wonderful and engaging. I love that each Bible story has its originating Scripture references, and that the Bible stories are laid out in chronological order. How amazing and equipping this will be for each child that reads it (or who’s read to)!

The QR codes will also allow this Bible to engage children in this world that we all live in; where the Bible becomes to children the Living Book that it is, with animation, audio, and video proclaiming the Word. It’s rich, beautiful, captivating, and enjoyable. It will provide even more ways for God’s Word to be taken into little hearts; and enjoyed by the whole family. It is marvelous!

A fun short video about the Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible

You can watch a fun short video about the Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible at this link, to see all the amazing features I’ve told you about, and more!

Where you can purchase the Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible–plus a code!

You can purchase the Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible from Warner Press at the buy link below. Also, if you use the discount code BLOG30 during the months of November 2022 and December 2022, you’ll receive 30% off the purchase price!

Buy link for Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible

And! Enter this giveaway to win the Egermeier’s Interactive Story Bible

You can enter a giveaway to win your own copy of this cool Bible from Blessed Freebies! Just click on the link below that says, “Enter here!” That will take you to the Blessed Freebies website. Just follow the directions there to enter the giveaway. Giveaway closes on 12/27/22. Winner will be selected and notified on 12/28/22. US entrants only; must be 18 or older.

Enter here!

Enjoy! –Wren

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions shared here are my own.

“Room 1010” ~ a review & giveaway of an incredible story of a little girl & answered prayer (ends 11/26/22)

*this is a sponsored post*

Here’s a wonderful book that will encourage you and remind you of the miracles of prayer, as mom Billye Survis and cowriter Brenda E. Cortez tell the story of Billye’s daughter Elynn’s accident. It’s a remarkable story told with honesty (and all the mom feelings you’d imagine) by the pair. I received a copy of this sweet book from the author and FrontGate Media. Here’s more about the book, plus a giveaway you can enter to win Room 1010 for yourself!

About the book

When Elynn Survis was ten years old, she and her brother Ethan were riding their bikes in their neighborhood when a freak accident occurred. She was brought home, but her symptoms worsened and Elynn was taken to a children’s hospital and admitted–during the height of Covid-19, when only one family member could accompany her inside. It became clear that surgery was necessary to repair the traumatic injury–surgery which could leave her with lifelong health issues and complications. Or is there another way?

Room 1010 is the story of how people around the world were rallied to pray for this little girl–in a remarkable and miraculous true story. Coauthored by Elynn’s mother, Billye Survis and Brenda E. Cortez, Elynn’s journey will remind you that God answers prayers; and often, in ways we’d never expect.

And about its author, Billye Survis

Billye Survis was born and raised in rural Wisconsin. After spending a few years working and traveling, she settled back in Wisconsin where she met her husband Dan. Billye has spent the last twenty years helping to build, grow, and lead talent acquisition teams, where she is able to share her passion of helping others. Billye and Dan still reside in Wisconsin with their two children, Ethan and Elynn.

You can read more about the Survis family’s story at their website.

My thoughts

Do you ever read a book, and the experience of the believers in it transports you to a time when you saw amazing faith and answered prayers happen? That is exactly what I felt as I read Room 1010. The Survis family’s experience took them out of what we’d consider regular life, into a frightening experience when their precious ten-year-old daughter was terribly injured (on the inside, where it wasn’t visible, other than externally with a bruise on the skin). Emergency care. Surgeries. Some potentially awful life-long prognoses. Potential months in the hospital.

And yet, God.

As I read Elynn’s story, penned by her loving mama, I was reminded of, and encouraged by, so many Bible verses. Here are two of them:

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:14, The Holy Bible

and,

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Matthew 18:19-20, The Holy Bible

Life is hard sometimes, isn’t it? Especially when it’s our own children who are suffering. We would do *anything* to be the ones who are going through the hard things instead of our little ones! I so often forget that God must certainly feel that way about us when we are going through suffering. He made all of us–and how His heart must grieve when we suffer!

We don’t always know what we should be doing when we’re suffering, much less what we need to be doing when our kids suffer. We try to love them, and support them. To help them to make (or make ourselves, depending on their ages) decisions that will be good ones. And yes, we pray. Constantly. We ask our friends to pray. We turn to the One who sees everything and ask Him to help our babies.

This is what Billye did. And in Room 1010, we get an intimate viewpoint of the suffering both Elynn (and her mama, as she watched and held her daughter) endured. But oh, the faith. And the prayers.

Room 1010 reminded me that we can all come to God as we pray with the faith of a child. Even if our faith is as tiny as a mustard seed! And that God still does miracles today.

Where you can purchase Room 1010

You can purchase a copy of Room 1010 from Amazon, via the purchase link below.

Purchase Room 1010 here

Enter to win your own copy of this inspiring book!

You can enter to win a copy of Room 1010! Blessed Freebies is giving a copy away to one entrant. Just click on the link below that says “Enter to win!” Giveaway closes 11/26/22.

Enter to win!

Again, I believe that this lovely book will encourage and bless you! Enter to win your own copy or go purchase your own at the links above!

Enjoy! –Wren

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the author. All opinions expressed here are my own.

A new children’s book filled with love: “Mama, Sing My Song” by Amanda Seibert (a review)

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I received the most precious new picture book from Tommy Nelson Publishers: Mama, Sing My Song, by Amanda Seibert. I enjoyed it so much–it’s full of creative touches that made this book a delight for both reading and reading aloud. Here’s more about what you’ll find in Mama, Sing My Song, plus my thoughts on the book!

About Mama, Sing My Song

Mama, Sing My Song is a sweet, faith- and love-filled song to children: about how precious and special they are to both God and their parents. Bunnies, sloths, giraffes, foxes, bears, and cats (both baby animals and their moms) are shown together in play, snuggles, and quiet activity as the gentle rhyme of the printed prose (which is also a song) meanders along the pages. The animals and their varied habitats are colorfully illustrated in ways that will draw little eyes to explore and enjoy.

Endpapers include spaces for personalization, where parents can write verses, prayers, and special thoughts about their children, to their children.

Although the book is written for ages 4-8, I believe that children both younger and older than that will be both delighted and encouraged by Mama, Sing My Song.

My thoughts about Mama, Sing My Song

What if you had a book AND a song which tells your children how enormously valued they are in God’s eyes–and in your eyes as well?

Mama, Sing My Song is that book. And, that song! (There is a QR code inside the book’s cover which will provide a free download for you of the musical version of the words of the book.) I love this thought from the author of Mama, Sing My Song:

“There are three things I have become quite sure of:” says Seibert, “every child is uniquely made in the image of God; the words we speak have great power, and song is one of the most memorable, meaningful ways to touch a life. When you combine those three things, something truly magical happens.”

Amanda Seibert

From my own very first moments of motherhood, I wanted to speak life over and into the heart of my child. I loved having music, books, and Scripture to help me accomplish this goal. What a wonderful gift Mama, Sing My Song is for both parents and children–and what a way to begin to teach children that they are precious in both their parents’ AND God’s eyes!

The world actively tells us that we are not enough. That we are judged for whatever. That we’re always being compared to others who are more (fill in the blank). How vital it is for us to communicate the opposite to our children: that they are created carefully and lovingly in God’s image. That His presence is always with them. That they are unique and dearly loved. That they are enough.

I was absolutely captivated by the beautiful words of Mama, Sing My Song. I loved the darling animals and the wonderful use of color, which is just as expressive as the prose, and perfectly calibrated to the different habitats and activities of the animals. For example, the wild and vivid fuchsia, blues, and greens in the sloths’ rain forest . Or deep blues and purples, along with a bright yellow moon in the dogs’ field at night. Or, the daytime’s yellow and green daisy field for the mom cat and kitten. Each illustration expresses the peace and love between the parent animals and their babies. So perfect alongside the song’s words!

If you have little ones in your family, this is just the book I’d recommend. It is both lovely and lyrical, even as it’s filled with powerful truths. Mama, Sing My Song will speak those truths into their lives, and lovingly define for little ones that they really are precious and dearly loved.

About the author, Amanda Seibert

Amanda Seibert is the founder and “original mama” of Mama Sing My Song, a company that has created personalized songs and lullabies for thousands of kids all over the world. She believes that every child is uniquely created and loved by God, that words hold great power, and that song is one of the most beautiful,memorable ways to touch a life. She attended Moody Bible Institute, spent three years serving at a children’s home in India, and now lives in Indianapolis with her husband and three children, where they try to fill their home with songs, dance, and laughter each day.

About the illustrator, Sally Garland

Sally Garland grew up in a small town in the Highlands of Scotland and studied illustration at Edinburgh College of Art before moving to Glasgow. Sally has loved drawing since she was young and grew up with an assortment of pets, including goldfish, budgies, hamsters, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, a pony, and, of course, rabbits. Each of these little personalities still influences her illustrations today.

Where you can purchase Mama, Sing My Song…and more

Amanda Seibert has some wonderful things available to parents and to purchasers on the book’s website! There, you’ll find:

• a free downloadable activity packet
• Purchase links for Mama, Sing My Song from booksellers like Amazon, Books-a-Million, Barnes & Noble, Target, Book Shop, Christian Book, and Walmart
• 10 wonderful (and sometimes humorous) tips on how you can help foster families in your community (just check under “Foster” in the website’s header)
• You also have an option to order a Book & Stuffy Bundle, which gives you Mama, Sing My Song plus an adorable stuffed animal from the book: a bunny, fox, polar bear, brown bear, cat, sloth, or giraffe. (I freely admit I’m always a sucker for a stuffy. These all look so huggable!)

Here’s a direct link to the book’s site:

Mama, Sing My Song

Enjoy! –Wren

Disclosure: I received a copy of Mama, Sing My Song from Tommy Nelson Publishers. All opinions expressed here are my own honest ones.