Friday, November 02, 2012

Grace and Truth Books: The Children's Heritage Series ~ Girl's Collection {Schoolhouse Review}

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Grace & Truth Books is an online Christian Bookstore dedicated to providing customers with material that will glorify God and strengthen believers in their walk of faith. They cover a wide range of subjects for people of all ages -- Children, Youth, Men, Women, Family, History, Theology, Biography, and Education. They also carry a variety of Christian music CDs. This is a company that is more concerned with quality than trendy. I find that refreshingly admirable.
 
I received two books to review, First Impressions of God: The Story of Emily Tappan and Grace Raymond: The Evil and Cure of a Passionate Temper. These two books are part of an 8-volume series -- "The Children's Heritage Series -- Girl's Collection."

From the website:

Children's Heritage Series - Girls Collection (8 volumes)Our classic set of 19th-century reprinted stories for girls. These contain some of our most spiritually enriching books for girls ages 8-14, in fascinating stories that have been loved for almost two centuries now. Also very suitable to read aloud with younger children or for family reading. Includes 8 books, all originally published by the American Tract Society in the 1800's.

This set includes all the following books:

* The Little Girl's Treasury
* I Have a Soul
* The Dairyman's Daughter
* Behind Mr. Bunyan
* Patty's Curiosity
* The Young Cottager
* Grace Raymond - (71 pages, $4.75)
* First Impressions of God - (102 pages, $5.50

The entire paperback set can be purchased for $39, a 20% savings.

PhotobucketFirst Impressions of God by Ann R. Wells was originally written in 1856 -- isn't that neat? Reading old books gives me goosebumps. :) I like to imagine mothers and daughters reading these books together for the first time over 150 years ago!

Emily, the main character, is a very young girl who is introduced to God by Mary, her playmate. She's curious and surprised that her own parents haven't told her of "this Great God." Unfortunately her parents don't know God personally as her friend and others in the book do.

I chose to read this book aloud to my 7-year-old daughter. Together we followed Emily on her journey of coming to know God and learning how He speaks to us through His Word, in nature, through His providence, by our conscience, by His Spirit, and by His Son.

I found it interesting that such a young girl was truly wrestling with such weighty matters. If I hadn't witnessed this struggle in one of my own children at a very young age, I might believe it not possible!

Emily knew she really didn't love God much less understand Him. I think it's imperative that young children realize, like Emily, that they are sinners in need of a Saviour. This book beautifully illustrates this battle of the soul.

Because this book was written in the 1800s, I had to stop and explain to my daughter many words and phrases that were used back then: "She seems in a continual reverie. If I speak to her she rouses up for the moment, and then sinks back into her musings.", ". . . she sought her chamber to weep . . .", " . . . and He will one day make your real feelings manifest to an assembled universe." Just to name a few examples. :)

Grace RaymondAs language goes, it simplifies over time, so I had to use simpler, more modern words to explain the ones that sounded so prim and proper in the book. Don't get me wrong, the language in the book is beautiful, but I know my 7-year-old wouldn't have done very well reading it on her own.


Grace Raymond is the title and also the main character of the story. The website says the author is unknown, but inside the book it says by a deaf and dumb lady. Not sure what to think about that?

(I thought I was supposed to receive Behind Mr. Bunyan as the second book. Instead I was sent Grace Raymond. Anyway, I just decided to go with it.)

Grace is an ornery 13-year-old girl with a horrible temper. Though she's being brought up in a Christian family, she struggles with seeing some of her faults as sinful, in fact, she defends her ugly behavior. How many of us parents can relate to that?!!!!!

I am having my daughter read small portions of this book aloud to me everyday. I am using this book as practice for her to learn how to read aloud well -- paying attention to punctuation and pausing in the appropriate places, taking time to sound out unfamiliar words, and reading with an interesting voice not a monotone one. I introduced her to dictionary.com, and we look up all the "big" words she doesn't know from her daily reading.

Since we are taking it slow with this book, I am sure it will take my daughter a while to finally finish. So, I will leave you with a little more information from the website since we don't know how it ends:

Grace comes to realize, after causing her sister injury, that allowing anger to rule in her heart was destroying her and would only grow, leading to worse and worse sins of hate and animosity.

Through the influence of a kind teacher, Grace learns the way of salvation in Christ, and who can save her from her sin, so that she becomes an exemplary model of patience and longsuffering, to her family and all her friends.
  
 
One thing I am really appreciating about these books is the fact that children's inappropriate behavior is called out for what it is -- sin. Both of these books show children the only remedy for this "problem" -- true repentance and belief on Jesus Christ. After that comes sanctification -- denying the flesh, and acting on faith by obeying God's Word. In my opinion, that hits the nail right on the head!

I am not sure how this ties in to the review, but I wanted to mention how lovely these books from the Girl's collection would look in a Victorian or vintage style little girl's room! They'd be so perfect on an old-fashioned looking nightstand next to a feminine lamp, maybe? My daughter's room doesn't particularly boast this style, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of these books next to the lamp that my daughter's great grandma bought for her before she was born. :) (Okay, now I totally want to redecorate!)



I am so glad that I was introduced to Grace & Truth books! See what other Crew Members had to say about a variety of books from this company. Books are as follows:

* Your Child's Profession of Faith, Dennis Gundersen, for parents
*
Raising Maidens of Virtue, Stacy McDonald, for mothers & daughters ages 8-15
*
Courtship or Dating: So What's the Difference?, Dennis Gundersen, for parents or mature teens
*
Of Knights and Fair Maidens, Jeff & Danielle Myers, ages 14-19
*
With the Children on Sundays, Sylvanus Stall, all ages, especially good for ages 4-10
*
Collector's Edition: Seven Favorite 19th-Century Children's Stories, ages 8-12
*
Too Wise to be Mistaken, Too Good to be Unkind, Cathy Steere, parents - autism, special needs
* From the Children's Character Building Collection (11 vol) these two:
The Little Medicine Carrier, ages 8-12
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The Reward of Childhood Truth, ages 8-12
* From the Boys Heritage Series (9 vol)
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Gerrit and His Dog, boys ages 8-12
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The Young Christian, boys ages 10-14
* From the Girls Heritage Series (8 vol)
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First Impressions of God, girls ages 5-8
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Behind Mr. Bunyan, girls ages 8-12


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Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this product, at no cost to me, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

1 comment:

Jen said...

The book covers alone have me sold! These sounds like a great addition to any girls library.

Great review!

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