Embracing a Healthy Family: who was books

I post often about topics pertaining to history which ties into this review as we are a family of readers. My father told me often how he used to read when he was a child and continued to read as an adult. I admit that I didn't read as many books as I should but I did and continue to read. I love knowledge and have instilled that into my children. I was anxious and very eager to review Library and Educational Services LLC. If you have not heard of them, they are a family company that provide services to schools, churches, libraries, and resellers. They are perfect for the homeschooling family, church groups and teachers given the breadth of books and subjects they offer.

For our review, we selected Who Were the Brothers Grimm?, Lifehouse Theater Pride and Prejudice CD, and the Primary Sources of Famous People in American History - Set of 11 from the Reinforced Hardcover Library Binding Nonfiction books.

The Details:

Who Were the Brothers Grimm?

My youngest loves the Who Was ... series to the extent that they've appeared on past Christmas wish lists. She picked Who Were the Brothers Grimm? If you aren't familiar with the book series, they aren't long in length and are filled with black and white illustrations. They provide an entertaining amount of information that covers the main facts about each person(s) they cover. Every time she reads one, I hear with such delight all the facts she learned about the person in question. She absolutely loves each one that she's read to date.

Her short review:

"I liked how it informed the reader on what it was like during their time and provided so much information on the brothers."

The words are of a good font and the books aren't too long to read. She's read many of the books in one sitting due to how captivated she becomes reading them.

Every Who Was ... Who Were .. has a timeline of the person's life compared to a world timeline of major events.

Lifehouse Theater Pride and Prejudice CD

This was one of my favorites mostly because I've read the book and watched many renditions of the movies. At 73 minutes in length, it's great for trips in the car or some time to sit around to listen and let the imagination conjure up images of how each character looks. Is Elizabeth the beautiful one or is it Jane? Is Mr. Darcy as dashing as you expect or just a prude? It's fun going through the audio and asking my girls what they think. The actors portraying each character is superbly done and makes me think I'm watching one of the actual movies.

There is a curriculum guide available too that includes a timeline of Jane's life, content and review questions as well as interesting facts, quotes by Jane Austen and a further discussion set of questions. I didn't have them write them out rather I utilized it as an open discussion session to make it more fun. One of the questions challenged them to provide some of their goals and accomplishments that they would like to achieve which was fun to hear their answers.

Primary Sources of Famous People in American History - Set of 11 from the Reinforced Hardcover Library Binding Nonfiction Books

The Primary Sources of Famous People in American History - Set of 11 from the Reinforced Hardcover Library Binding Nonfiction books included the following 11 books:

John Sutter California Pioneer
Wild Bill Hickok Legend of the Wild West
Wyatt Earp Lawmen of the American West
Cynthia Ann Parker Comanche Captive
Cochise Apache Chief
Sitting Bull Sioux War Chief
Francisca Alvarez The Angel of Goliad
John Paul Jones American Naval Hero
Abigail Adams Famous First Lady
Benjamin Franklin Early American Genius
George Washington Father of the Nation

Each book contained a Contents section broken into chapters for faster reference. They contained both color and black and white images as well as black and white illustrations to include maps and diagrams. Each one is very informative and written in a basic style to be read easily by children.

Benjamin Franklin, for example, started with when and where he was born, and continued with his life and journey to make him one of America's early geniuses. It's followed by a timeline of his life, a glossary, websites to refer to, source for photos, and an index.

Another example is from John Sutter California Pioneer. Like the other books, they are 32 pages in length and full of engaging facts about the person. Each book provides just a brief but excellent overview of the highlights of their lives. It's a great series to have for any library with children. They did enjoy reading them and were able to finish a book a day when we had days designated for reading. I often would read and either before or after them and led open discussions to reinforce the important facts of each individual.

Library and Educational Services LLC also has a nice selection of DVDs, CDs, Bibles and more too. There are gifts and crafts and much much more! As former military, they ship worldwide to include military bases which is very pleasing. Every item we reviewed I loved and they did too. Although they did not find every one of the biographies from the Primary Sources of Famous People in American History as exciting as some, they still learned a lot and I definitely want to expand our library.

For a limited time, they have the Who Was? What Was? and Where is? books on sale!

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Wholesale Books for Your Homeschool {Library and Educational Services LLC Reviews}

We are a homeschooling family that incorporates Christian based components whenever possible so when we had a chance to review Barbour Publishing two books in the Kingdom Files series, we jumped. Who Was Jonah? and Who Was Mary, Mother of Jesus? were two books in which my children enjoyed reading. My youngest is a big fan of any Who Was type of books and loves to read about people. She has a keen interest in Biblical characters as well so this series of books definitely peeked her interest.

I had both my girls, as well as myself read What Was Jonah? and What Was Mary, Mother of Jesus? At first sight, my youngest stated she really liked the set up each book. She thought it was neat that the books were set up as file folders and enjoyed the illustrations.

Kingdome Files Who Was Mary Mother of Jesus

Each book begins with an introduction to the Reading Detective allowing them a chance to understand how the book is set up:

Fact Files contains the key information on the Bible character.
Action Files laid out the events of the Bible showing that particular character.
The Power Files contained more information and memory versus to help encourage a self-provoking thought process in how God is working in their lives too.

Each book encourages the Reading Detectives to memorize versus from the Bible as well as write down questions they might have as they make their way through the books. The books are perfect length to keep them entertained and encouraged to read to completion. I particularly liked the mini timelines too. The illustrations inside are black and white and are spaced perfectly to not bog down the message behind the books. The words chosen also speak to children and are not the same words utilized directly from the Bible other than the memory versus.

My middle child, 15, who usually grumbles when having to read books she has not chosen, was very agreeable to read both books. She enjoyed that they were short and concise and stated they were not boring which was a big win to me. She liked how they were similar to other Who Was books as she enjoys learning about other people too. She's not a big Bible reader and this was a good way to get her interested in important people of the Bible.

My youngest, 11, stated she enjoyed reading the books and thought they were neat. She actually approached me a few times to tell me something she read or to show me a picture she thought was funny. She read her first book in two days and was eager to start on the second book. She said they were easy to read and even though she didn't have to read the second one, she asked to read it. She even stated she, in addition to the two she read, she wanted to read all the other books in the series which include:

Kingdom Files: Who is Jesus?
Kingdom Files: Who Was Daniel?
Kingdom Files: Who Was David?
Kingdom Files: Who was Esther?