Barbour Publishing

The story of Florence Nightingale is beautifully inspiring. This particular biography is written for middle grade children. I recommend it for boys and girls alike. I love that Barbour Publishing has started publishing biographies for children with a faith connection. This book, like the one I shared on Sojourner Truth, is loaded with stories of courage and faith as these women traversed the obstacles of their particular place in history and how they still made a difference despite attitudes toward women during their lifetimes.

This book takes us from Florence’s childhood through to her death. She lived a long life beginning before the Victorian era in 1820 and died in 1910. We see the early influences in her life and how they shaped her for a greater purpose later in her life. She had a heart for people from all walks of society and her mission was to help others every opportunity she got. We see the hardships she faced and the challenges of her time that taught her to trust God more and more.

I would highly recommend this book for school libraries or classroom use, homeschool and private school groups or just anyone wanting to know more about historical figures that lived for Christ. The world needs to hear these stories. I am excited to find out about more courageous women from this series in the months to come.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review.… (more)

I bought this thinking that with all the famous quotes the bible is renowned for, this would be a handy place to read them for pleasure. That proved not to be the case. When taken out of context, a lot of these quotes don't have a lot of sense. And though I love the poetry of the best parts of the King James bible, when isolated, the language in many of these quotes is difficult even for an educated person to parse. Organized thematically, the quotes in each section also seem a bit arbitrary, and the compiler has stretched a bit too far in some cases and pulled in passages that may have the proper keyword but that clearly don't relate to the topic. I can at least say that the person who compiled this book did not do it in a spirit of meanness. For example, there is a topic called "Sexual Sins", but it doesn't quote the bible's condemnations of homosexuality and homosexuals. It also leaves out any mention of witches. I guess this is the kinder, gentler book of bible quotations, but it isn't a pleasure to read, and I'm not sure that even a religious person could get that much comfort out of it. There may be 20 or 30 quotations you could highlight in the 173 pages here, but you would do better with some other sort of book of religious inspiration. Not recommended. It was a struggle to read through, even a couple of pages at a time.… (more)