The Flowering Cross, by Beth Ryan

I recently teamed up with Book Sneeze to review the occasional book.  Today, we received The Flowering Cross, by Beth Ryan.  It's a sweet story geared to young children about a little girl named Katie, and her neighbor "Mean Old Jack."  His gruff exterior has many other neighbors make assumptions to his character and avoid him.  Not Katie and her family, they get to know him and begin to care for him, as good neighbors do.  Katie begins to call him "Papa Jack," and visits him often.  He is a wonderful gardener and Easter morning Katie goes over to pick some flowers for the church service.  Papa Jack surprises her and says he will be going with her family to their church service.  It is a great experience for them and leads to him beginning to understand their faith.

I found this book to be very sweet.  It is beautifully written and illustrated.  It is well made and would make a wonderful addition to a child's book shelf.  I read this book to my daughters who are two and three years old, and it held their attention and they enjoyed the characters and the pictures, even if some of the story was too advanced for them.  I really enjoyed that this book has "Faith Imprints," that suggest things to talk about with your child as you are reading (along with a small passages from The Bible).  I emphasised to my own children the points of being kind to your neighbors, and getting to know people because they might not be what they seem and maybe all they need is a little kindness to help them feel better (keep in mind the ages of my girls).    I think over all this is a book that they will ask me to read to them again, and I will happily do so.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”