This book, written at a roughly first- to second-grade level, deals with a sister who gets frustrated dealing with her brother Jesse, who is disabled. Below is a video of how Rosaleen, a five-year-old member of Living Hope Fellowship, felt about the book after having it read to her—she is still an early reader and not able to read it by herself. She does, however, enjoy flipping through and looking at the bright watercolor illustrations.
Since Rosaleen is still learning to read and cannot truly "write" a review, I recorded a video where she answered my questions about the book.
One additional note: Rosaleen’s friend Hunter is not mentally disabled, as Jesse is in this book. He does have Aspberger’s Syndrome (“highly functional” on the Autism Spectrum), and Rosaleen has learned to understand that he sees the world differently, and the two enjoy spending time together often.
I personally love this book. Beautifully illustrated, it also is well-written, articulate but easy to understand, and shows a definite familiarity and appreciation for disabled children. The story deals with a “normal” child’s frustrations in a way that is simple, but realistic, and overall was an enjoyable read for myself as well as Rosaleen. I would definitely recommend that parents purchase it for their children, grandparents for their grandchildren, and teachers for their classrooms.
Melissa McGinnis is the Children's Ministry Director for LHF. This book was received from Bethany House for review. The opinions expressed, however, are those of the reviewer and person posting.
Working in Children’s Ministry, I am always looking for curriculum to engage my audience, which consists of mixed-age children ranging at any point in time from 2- to 10-year-olds. Often I design my own curriculum and “aim for the middle,” where my older kids act as mentors to my younger ones, learning in an applicable way. This works well, but sometimes it would be nice to use something that requires less direct preparation and more spiritual legwork.
Enter Johnny Rogers. Designed for 6-12 years, there are multiple series available. The site where I (or rather, my husband, who loves looking for stuff on the Internet) found it (www.kidmo.com) offers several courses, but allows you to request samples to preview and “try out” with the kids. Forms were filled out and discs were shipped. What I received was Lesson 2 of the ZuCamp series, which teaches about putting God’s Love into action. Lesson 2, “The church cares for people,” focused on teaching kids that God’s Church isn’t in four walls, but within us, and by caring for people, we take the church to them (which lines up directly with our church’s Core Beliefs, Values, and Mission Statement).
I tried it with the kids, and it was a HUGE success! The video lesson DVDs include their own worship songs, which were an especially big hit with the twirling dancer in the class, but also upbeat and engaging enough to encourage our “too big for bouncing” brooding worshipper. The video lesson was quirky, humorous, campy, and cheesy in the very best sense. It was also Scripturally grounded and had a sound point made continuously through the lesson. The characters were over-the-top in a fun way, and the class got a particularly large giggle at the ZuCamp leader trying to resuscitate a rubber chicken. I found it enjoyable to watch and the kids were enthralled. After the lesson, the kids enthusiastically let me know they wanted more like it, and were able to tell me in their own words what they learned, including the youngest class members. To say I am impressed is an understatement, and we will be buying the entire ZuCamp series, and I am looking forward to trying other series as well (a complete listing is available at www.kidmo.com).
In addition to the great lesson and worship music, the DVD contains “opener” music to be played while kids are coming in, a trivia section, and other reinforcement sections. It is designed to be popped into the DVD player and let run with minimal interference from the teacher. It does have a section menu so that relevant sections can be used, while those that are less applicable can be skipped. There are also resource CD-ROMS that come with the lessons with extra materials, such as worksheets, which are handy, but weren’t directly applicable in my Children’s Church setting because we have such a broad scale of reading levels in our group I generally avoid worksheets in favor of simple hands-on crafts that every child can do with little or no assistance. At $149.00 for the entire series, this is not likely to break most church budgets and can of course be used more than once (it could also be used for a four-day Vacation Bible School with a “camp” theme).
Thank you, Johnny Rogers, for making the lives of Children’s Church and Sunday School teachers just a bit easier!
www.kidmo.com also offers Phil Vischer’s What’s In the Bible? Elementary Program for Churches, and Lil’ K Preschool Program lessons (ages 2-5). I also previewed a Lil’ K video, and while it is not applicable to my Children’s Church situation, it is cute, reminiscent of “Blue’s Clues,” and has a strong Scriptural foundation as well. I have not at this time reviewed the What’s In the Bible? sample disc I received.
Melissa McGinnis is the Children’s Ministry Director for LHF. Her opinions are her own and she was not compensated for this review in any way.
