Friday, March 17, 2017

Book Review: Faith Girlz Promises for You

Detailed / adult/ mandala coloring is the latest trend in activities and hobbies that has now spread to the devotional market.  FaithGirlz has published one particularly for girls ages 8-12 (though I think teens would love this as well).  

A beautiful hardcover book with high quality, thick pages, the Promises for You: Coloring Devotional is a charming and eye catching devotional.  I have not yet seen a quality coloring devotional as nice as this one.  There are 60 verses and thoughts complete with their own coloring page and journal area. The verses point tween girls to an all knowing, powerful, loving God while leading the direction of recognizing our human weakness and need for a Savior.  The written prompts and questions lead to some great questions and options for journal response.  Because of the high quality, I could see girls using this book multiple times, finishing coloring pages over time or flipping back through to enjoy their colored pages and verses from days past.
The illustrations are varied, but all wonderful works of art.  Plenty of room to color and make it unique to their own, girls will find connection and enjoyment on every page.

This devotional is beautiful and of high quality.  It would make a fabulous gift.  If I was looking for something to nitpick it would be that many of the verses to do not have context shared within the contemplative portion.  Removing context can make the verse lack its full meaning or easily then be taken out of context.  

Overall, I highly recommend this devotional book for any older girl or even teen.  (Hey, I might even join my daughter in the fun!)

*I received a copy of the devotional in exchange for my unbiased review.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Book Review: Adult Coloring Books from Bethany House

I had the opportunity to receive and review two new adult coloring and devotional books from Bethany House Publishers.



The first is The Glory of the Messiah.  This unique coloring book is written from the Jesus following Jewish women.  The Hebrew word study and verses point the reader towards who the Messiah is.  The characteristics of Jesus and things that point us to him are all highlighted verse studies with an accompanying coloring page.  The paper is high quality so the artist can choose any coloring tool they wish without risking bleeding through the paper.  There is a variety of pages of scenes to enjoy and reflect on from abstract, animals, to people.  While the people pages are not my favorite from a worshipful coloring experience (it felt a little child Sunday school like to me), the artwork is excellent and well done. I loved the corresponding Old Testament and New Testament verses.  The coloring pages are a little large for my taste, simply from an ability to feel finished and accomplished it would simply take a busy mom like me too long to complete.  However, this allowed the artist to include lots of great details.  I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.  It would make a great gift for someone who appreciates art, coloring as meditative worship, and also the Hebrew history of our faith.



The second book is called Words of Grace.  This small devotional is set up as a daily coloring page with corresponding word of encouragement for four weeks (28 total devotions/coloring page).  The paper again is of super high quality.  These smaller pages work great for a person like me who runs out of time or desire to continue the meditation.  I love the scripture verses incorporated into the pretty artwork of each page.  There is a lot of great content jammed into the small written devotional as well.  Verses to read from the Bible, discussion questions, meditative thoughts.  This little book is jammed packed with lots of great opportunities.  A wonderful tool that would make a great gift as well!  5 out of 5 stars!


*I received these books for free in exchange for my unbiased review