Book Giveaway: Cooper Kids Adventure Series (part 2)

Last week I posted a giveaway for the first four books in The Cooper Kids Adventure Series. The winner of that giveaway is…

Lindsay!

Lindsay was a newcomer to Leah’s Bookshelf during this giveaway, but hopefully it won’t be the last time she joins us! 🙂 For those of you who didn’t win, don’t despair. You get a second change this week, because I’m giving away books 5-8 of the same series. Let me emphasize that you DO NOT need to read these books in order. They’re all stand alone adventures that work well together or apart. What’s more, this set includes two of my favorite books of the series, Flying Blind (titled Mayday at Two Thousand Five Hundred Feet in newer editions) and The Legend of Annie Murphy.

The Legend of Annie Murphy: The weird front cover of this book was enough to make me wonder if I would like it. None of the other Cooper Kids books had disappointed in the past, though, so I opened it up and started reading. For those of you looking at the cover still, yes, there are some “ghostly” elements, but Annie isn’t actually a ghost. She’s a woman who got stuck in a time warp and is unable to escape. This book has less of a faith-based message than the others, but I loved it because of how funny it is when Jay and Lila get stuck between the past and present. I think any of you wibbley-wobbly, timey-wimey fans would love this book.

Flying Blind: The lesson of faith in this book is quite strong. Young Jay Cooper gets a terrifying lesson in faith when a flying accident leaves him blind and in charge of flying his uncles Cessna. Fighting to stay conscious, running out of fuel, and flying straight towards a mountain range, Jay’s life balances on a razor edge.

I didn’t read this book till long after I finished the other books (we didn’t own it until later). I cried through the entire thing. Jay’s vulnerability, his conversations with his Dad, and his determination to trust God with his fate really touched my heart. Some people don’t like this one as much because it’s not the same thriller-style story as the other books, but I loved the change of pace.

The rules for this week’s giveaway remain the same. The books can only be mailed within the continental United States. To enter, leave a comment listing five of your favorite books. The giveaway will run for one week. Thanks for joining us!

August 4, 2014August 4, 2014

Counted Worthy on Kickstarter!

Good morning, everyone! Lord willing the weekly Guess a Quote will go up tomorrow. Today I want to share the launch of a Kickstarter campaign designed to raise the money needed to prepare Counted Worthy for publication. It’s also your first opportunity to reserve a copy of the book. If you’re following this blog, you probably enjoy reading. I’d really appreciate your support of this particular book!

Visit the Campaign!

How to Support Counted Worthy

Visit the Kickstarter campaign and pledge your support. Kickstarter uses an all-or-nothing model for fundraising. If the campaign does not reach the $1,000 pledge goal, no money will exchange hands. Consequently, it’s really important to reach that goal. It’s especially important to act quickly because the campaign is only 10 days long. Any and all support will be greatly appreciated.
Tell other people about the campaign! Please tell your friends. Share on Facebook, tweet on Twitter, and pin on Pinterest. You could also just talk to your friends about it. You know. Good old fashioned face-to-face social networking. 😉 If you do any of the above, please let me know. I’ll be awarding Story Shop points quite liberally for help with promotion.
BONUS! If any blog followers pledge to the Kickstarter campaign, you’ll get a free sneak peak of the Counted Worthy cover image. Just make sure you tell me you pledged. This also counts if someone follows the blog after pledging to the campaign.

Tweeting Made Easy

Counted Worthy equals fiction with a mission. Support this book by pledging to the Kickstarter campaign. Click to Tweet

Love fiction with a Christian worldview? Show your support by funding #CountedWorthy. Click to Tweet

I’m really excited about this project, and I hope you are to. Thanks for supporting it! I can’t wait to share the final product with you.

August 1, 2014

Book Review and Giveaway: The Cooper Kids Adventure Series

This is our third week of celebrating 200 followers on Leah’s Bookshelf. Last week I reviewed Radialloy, by J. Grace Pennington and gave away a two week kindle loan of the book. Before I launch into this week’s fun, I’d like to announce last week’s winner. (Cue drumroll.)

OnionTea!

Congratulations, OnionTea! I hope you enjoy the book. I’ll be sending you an email asking for the email address associated with your kindle. After I have that I can send you the loan invitation. You’ll have to accept the invitation within 7 days. After you accept it, you’ll have 14 days to read Radialloy.

This week I’m giving away not one but four books! The winner of this week’s giveaway will receive the first four paperbacks in The Cooper Kids Adventure Series. These books are great fun. The back covers of the books say they’re for 10-14 year old readers, and I think that pegs it perfectly. They’re interesting enough to be really fun quick reads for older teens as well.

~*~

Gozan, this is no task for children! It will take an army, not just for men and two … children!” Al-Dallam only shook his perplexed head. “They will all be killed the first day. The Dragon’s Throat has no mercy!” —The Door in the Dragon’s Throat

“At any rate, we still encounter these forces from time to time, and one such manifestation is a terrible madness, an inescapable curse that sometimes besets people here. The native word is Moro-Kunda; it means the Madness Before Death. It has no known cause, no known cure, and is always fatal. The curse fell upon Tommy. He went mad, and though we tried to stop him, he fabricated that crude raft and fled from the island.” The man paused dramatically and then added,” But he couldn’t escape Moro-Kunda.” —Escape from the Island of Aquarius

Doctor Cooper shook his head with disgust. “Jay, it’s a perfect example of man’s sinful nature without God. That’s why the Lord commanded Joshua to drive out all the ungodly inhabitants of the land. He didn’t want his people coming into contact with this kind of moral and spiritual pollution.” —The Tombs of Anak

Lila floated in the pd for a while, weeping, resting her head against the cold metal wall. How long would her oxygen bottle last? Did anyone even know where she was? —Trapped at the Bottom of the Sea

~*~

Adventure, archaeological mysteries, and spiritual warfare intermingle in these edge-of-your-seat stories. These books are great for kids who like the weird and unusual, and they’re equally interesting for readers who enjoy non-stop action. I enjoy them as one-sitting reads that pull me into the story and don’t let me go until I turn the last page.

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment explaining how you first found Leah’s Bookshelf. Due to the cost of shipping, the books can only be mailed to addresses in the continental United States. The giveaway will remain open for entries through August 7th.

Announcements

Don’t forget that a new prize is available in the Story Shop. You can also find a new list of ways to earn Story Shop points. Check it out!
In preparation for the release of Counted Worthy, I just started a professional Facebook page. Liking the page would be a very nice thing to do, and it will also earn you a point to spend in the Story Shop if you submit your Facebook name using the contact form. Be sure to let me know that you’re looking for Story Shop points in exchange for liking me on Facebook. The same goes for my Twitter account.
Wild Thing, book one in the Winnie the Horse Gentler series, is currently free for kindle on Amazon. I don’t know if the deal is for today only or for the week.

July 11, 2014June 26, 2014

Guest Book Review: Pilgrim’s Progress

A few weeks ago when I mentioned my mom’s upcoming surgery and suggested that some guest book reviews would be nice, Spencer R. kindly submitted several for use here on Leah’s Bookshelf. Because this review has been posted previously on his blog, I’m just going to post a teaser here and give you the link to his posts. (The reason for this is that Google assumes identical content on two websites indicates plagiarism, and both sites are less likely to get a good rank in a Goggle search.) Enjoy Spencer’s review and be sure to leave a comment for him here or on his site.

I recently read John Bunyan’s classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress as part of my ‘Great Books’ curriculum for school. Bunyan wrote it while he was imprisoned for not conforming to the state church’s practices in the early 1670’s. It was one of the first times I had read a book that was from that time period so the old English was somewhat of a stretch for me, but I was still able to appreciate his message in the book. One of my favorite parts of the book was the way Bunyan represents death.

How many of you have read Pilgrim’s Progress? What was your favorite part of the story? Have you read any of Bunyan’s other works?

July 4, 2014June 5, 2020

Witnessing on the 4th

Happy Independence Day, everyone! In place of our normal Friday book review, I wanted to share this video with you. Grace Mally is a young lady with a real heart for evangelism. Through her encouragement, my brother, friends, and I have been challenged to stretch ourselves by handing out the Price of Liberty tracts before fireworks the past few years. It’s definitely a little scary, but often favorite memories are made when we step outside our comfort zones. I encourage you to give it a try!

Our normal Friday book review will be posted on Monday. If you can’t wait till then for a book review, check out this review of Grace Mally’s book.

Are we as Christians truly being the bright lights, the strong voices of truth, that we should be? The solution for this world’s confusion is not to fix all the surface problems, however devastating and shocking they may be. Neither is the answer found in political or social improvements. The answer is for individual people to be brought to Jesus Christ and discipled. This means that individual Christians–each of us–need to be faithfully sharing the gospel, teaching others what God has taught us, and encouraging our friends to do the same.

Visit Book Review: Will Our Generation Speak to read more.

June 20, 2014

3 Books on Godly Masculinity: A List for Guys

I’ve been mentioning for the past few weeks that I hoped to get my brother to do a review for the guys. Well, that hasn’t quite happened. But he did give me the titles of his favorite books in between projects. So I thought I’d share those with you today. The first two books are the ones he gave me and the bottom one I tacked on for good measure. If any of you girls have brothers who don’t follow this blog, you might want to pass the list on to them. These books teach guys how to be gentlemen, and who doesn’t want a gentlemanly brother?

~*~

God’s Gift to Women: Discovering the Lost Greatness of Masculinity:
My brother laughed just reading the author’s note at the front of this book. Mr. Ludy kicks everything off by saying,

I wonder how many people will pick up this book, turn it over and look at my face, and mutter, “If that is God’s gift to women, then I feel sorry for femininity.”

But he goes on to also explain the true purpose of this book,

We live in a generation of burpin’-and-scratchin’ male mediocrity. Most modern-day examples of manhood are self-serving, perverted, and depraved. And we are accepting this second-rate version of masculinity into our marriages, our families, and our lives. I believe we need a new standard of masculinity–a standard that is not shaped by our culture, but by the very person of Jesus Christ. That standard is the core of this book’s message.

Stepping Up: A Call to Courageous Manhood:
This book was lent to my brother by a friend. Apparently it was a good recommendation. According to the Goodreads blurb,

In Dennis Rainey’s newest book, Stepping Up, he tackles head-on the call to living, breathing manhood, offering a simple yet powerful vision for what it means to be a man who truly conquers and wins.Insights include: Six nonnegotiables for training teenage young men; the temptation men face to step down; three qualities of men who finish well.

The Mark of a Man:
Amazon blurb,

In a world where men and women are encouraged to reject traditional gender roles, Elisabeth Elliot candidly reminds men why the genders are not equal and interchangeable. Written as personal advice to her nephew, The Mark of a Man reveals the glory and purpose of true masculinity. With Christ as the example of the ultimate man, this classic take on understanding a man’s role in life and relationships, romantic or otherwise, helps men define their own masculinity in a positive way.

June 7, 2014

Book Review: Set-Apart Femininity

Just as lasting and fulfilling romance is not found in the place that most of us search for it, neither is feminine beauty found in the place that most of us seek it.

Set-Apart Femininity could just as easily be titled “Counter-cultural Femininity”. As Mrs. Ludy mentions in this book, today’s culture tends to mock “all things pure, innocent, and uncorrupted.” Some girls, like me, haven’t had to face the full force of this moral decay yet, but someday we will. And many, many more already have. I’ll never forget the day I struggled to define modesty to a girl on my swim team because she honestly didn’t know what I was talking about. Yet even while our culture scorns and degrades purity, God continues to value it. And we, as Christians, should too. This book is a call to honor and pursue God’s standards rather than allowing ourselves to be dragged down by the world’s.

Because this book written to encourage young women caught in the middle of negative pressures, the writing is occasionally more graphic than I needed it to be. For this reason, I don’t recommend this book for younger girls to automatically pick up and read. For younger readers (tweens and young teens), have mom read it first. If you’re looking for something that doesn’t bring up all the junk in order to help you dig your way out of it, I’d highly recommend Before You Meet Prince Charming.) For older readers, this book definitely contributed to shaping the way I think of femininity. The concepts presented have helped me feel confident in my position when people have questioned my beliefs on the subject. I wish more girls would take this message to heart.

Have you faced challenges or mocking as a young woman seeking to live in purity before God? In what ways do you think Christians, especially Christian girls, should be different from cultural standards?

May 16, 2014

Book Review: The Door in the Dragon’s Throat

Join Jay and Lyla, twins with an archaeologist father who brings them with him on all his adventures. In The Door in the Dragon’s Throat, book one of the Cooper Kid Adventures, the Coopers land in Napur, a country with an ancient legend. Natives give a cavern in the desert a wide berth. According to ancient legend, anyone who tries to open the door in “The Dragon’s Throat” will die. The Coopers are curious, and they know their God is stronger than anything in the cavern. What truth lies behind the legend?

I have a soft spot for middle grade books that remain interesting as I get older. The Cooper Kid Adventures hold a secure position in that soft spot. They no longer infuse me with the same heart palpitating suspense as they did when I first read them, but they still offer exciting adventures that doesn’t take to long to read. Because they are written for a younger audience, the spiritual warfare aspect in The Door in the Dragon’s Throat is not as central or intense as it is in Peretti’s adult books.