Operation Kindness

You may remember how much Cameron liked the first book in the Precious Girls Club series, A Little Bit of Faith.  Thanks to the Precious Girls Club and MomSelect she just received the second book, Operation Kindness, and it was just as much a hit as the first one – maybe more so.

In case you have not heard of this series, it’s a book series and virtual world website for young girls from the makers of Precious Moments.  Just as the figurines are inspirational, so are the books.  The protagonist in the book is Kate Bennett and she struggles just as the young girls in our lives do to “fit in” and at deciding just who they really are.  Through the help of her guardian angel and family, Kate does find her own group of friends in the first book, A Little Bit of Faith.

In this book, Operation Kindness, Kate and her group of friends (The Precious Girls Club) have decided that they want to volunteer at the local community hospital to cheer up sick children.  They run into some problems and through the use of joining together, they are able to overcome these obstacles and develop a puppet show.

Once again, Kate and her friends present real problems with solutions based on values and morals.

If you have a young reader in your home, I think that the Precious Girls Club series, may be the books I recommend over any other that Cameron has read.

And in a fashion, I love – you can introduce this series to your favorite reader for FREE thanks to A Novel Mind, Mom Select, and the Precious Girls Club.  I have a hardback copy of Operation Kindness for one lucky reader.  BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!  I also have a stuffed puppy from the series, and special codes for the online world of the Precious Girls Club, some bracelets and stickers.  There will be LOTS of winners for this contest.  I also have two copies of the first book, A Little Bit of Faith.

This is how we’ll break up the winners:

• 1 Grand Prize Winner will receive Operation Kindness, the stuffed puppy, as well as bracelets and stickers.  If the Grand Prize Winner does not own the first book, A Little Bit of Faith, they’ll also receive a copy of this book.
• 1 or 2 Runner Up Winners (depending on Grand Prize winner prize) will win the first book, A Little Bit of Faith, bracelets, and stickers.
• The First 60 Entrants will be selected to receive the online code for their little one to have special privileges on the online world of the Precious Girls Club. (will be sent via email)

How to Enter:

Required Entry:
Tell me the little girl in your life’s (that would receive this package) favorite books – or the books you wish she would read!

Bonus Entries:

**To earn these entries you must first complete the REQUIRED ENTRY**
**For each extra entry, you must leave an additional comment**

1. Place my button in your sidebar (Grab it on the right sidebar) or add a text link
2. Subscribe to my feed.  You can still enter if you already subscribe.
3. Follow me on Twitter and tweet this contest out! (you must leave a link to the tweet – already a follower, just tweet and let me know)
4. Add me to your Technorati favorites (leave your username)
5. Blog about this contest (WORTH 3 ENTRIES – LEAVE 3 COMMENTS) linking to this post.
6. Enter any other contest here or at Southern Girl Reviews through the duration of this contest.  You may have an entry for every contest that you enter between now and then.

The Fine Print

• Must be a US Citizen
• Contest ends Sunday, August 9 at Midnight CST.
• You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address.
• All entries will be verified before naming the winner.
• Winner has 72 hours to claim prize and then a new winner will be selected.

Don’t want to wait until the contest ends? You can buy it now for $9.95 at Amazon.

CONTEST ENDED! COMMENTS CLOSED! WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!

Cam’s Review: A Little Bit of Faith

After finishing reading A Little Bit of Faith, I’ve asked Cameron to answer a few questions for me. I’m typing her responses up word for word.

1. Did you enjoy this book?

Yes. I didn’t know if I would, but it was really good. I thought I would read one chapter each day, but sometimes I read 3 or 4.

2. Would you like to read future books in the Precious Girls Club series?

There’s going to be more? Where? (I respond, I don’t know, but I’m sure we can find them on the Internet) Can we look now?

3. Why do you think you liked this book?

I felt like the little girl in the book last year when I was a new student. It was hard to do my work because I felt so alone. And I liked all the pictures. They were really pretty and helped me know what was going on sometimes.

4. What was your favorite part of the book?

When all the kids came to the club meeting.

5. Did anything surprise you about the book?

I thought everyone would come to the very first meeting, and I was sad when they didn’t. I thought books should have a happy ending, but it did after the second meeting.

6. If you had to tell your friends what this book was about what would you say?

It’s about a little girl who moves and she is sad because she can’t do her math homework and she has no friends. Her guardian angel Faith keeps her cheered up the best she can. And her mom and aunt give her a bracelet. Then she tries to start a club but the kids don’t come because they don’t know her. Then when she starts to talk to the other kids, they like her and come to her club. Now they are all friends.

7. What did you learn after reading this book?

That you have to not be shy and go ahead and talk to the kids if you want to make friends with them.

8. What did you learn about God?

I didn’t know He made the rainbow to tell us He wouldn’t ever flood it here again. I’m going to tell my Sunday School teacher about that next week.

There you go – Cameron’s first blog review. She really did enjoy this book. I was surprised at how much she remembered each day. Before we started reading, I would ask her what had happened last, and she could tell me almost everything all the way back to the beginning. It stuck with her. We will be investigating to see about continuing to buy these as the new ones come out.

A Mom’s Review – A Little Bit of Faith

As promised, I want to provide you with my review for you the book, “,” from this mom’s perspective. As mentioned previously, I thought it was a great book, and we’ll be purchasing future books in the series for sure.

One of the first things I really liked about it is that it is a chapter book so it will in fact push my 8 year old daughter as it’s not something she will sit down and read in one sitting. So she’ll have to retain the story until our next reading session to be able to follow the story.

Another thing I liked is that while it is on her reading level (and in fact I was surprised that she knew some of the words as she was reading it to me), it does push and occasionally throw in words that are not common to her so we get to chat about them and I can see if she can tell meaning by context clues (which thanks to the great writing of Cindy Kenney) she was. Some of the words that threw her right off the bat were the names of some of the states. She had not heard of Kansas or Nebraska so she didn’t quite get them right. (Later after reading that night, we discussed that Mommy actually lived in Kansas for a little while when she was little). Another word? Sternly. She pronounced it fine, but something about the way she said it, I knew she didn’t know what it meant.

Third – the inclusion of God and guardian angels in the storyline. I loved that not only was it mentioned as part of everyday use but also that it was used on such a great age appropriate level – that we are all special in our own ways. When I first realized that there would be some mention of God in this book, I admit to being worried. I didn’t really want this to turn into the focus of the book as I knew that would probably not keep my daughter’s attention for long. I was so relieved to see how it was just used here and there and in very appropriate, non-religion specific ways.

Fourth – short chapters. With a young daughter who wants to love to read but is still trying to decide if she actually is, I was thankful for the shorter chapters. We frequently define our reading by chapters. I stop her at each chapter to quiz her about her understanding. Sometimes we take turn reading chapters so that she doesn’t get too worked up in the reading and missing parts of the story. And with chapters that are only 7 pages of actual writing, that was a very reasonable task.

And finally, the pictures. While personally I wouldn’t want to read a book with this many pictures, I suspected Cameron would like them, and I was right. I immediately noticed that when we flipped a page, when there was a picture (which is very frequently) she would pause to look at it and take it in. For a reader who is just moving into chapter books, this is a great resource as it helps them with their comprehension and it keeps their interest. The artwork in this book is amazing too (see the few pictures I posted).

I really do think this is one of the best children’s books I’ve seen come out in a long time. I am hoping that enough are released soon that we can in fact read several of them before Cameron moves up in her reading level to the point that these are not interesting anymore.