Give your Child the World- through the pages of some well picked books!

 I have three rough and tumble, non stop boys who take so much after their father, but thankfully there's a few things they share in common with their mama as well- including a deep love and large appetite for books. I have some of the fondest memories (and the cutest pictures!) of my boys, starting with my oldest as a baby, totally enthralled in a good book. I am proud and happy to see them be daring and physically active boys, playing every "fighting" game imaginable and never being very far away from mischief; but I also see the benefit in balancing their active play with spending the quiet, still time to fill their minds with good, imaginatively rich stories. I can see those stories bringing context and deeper meaning to their play by infusing it with characters they can "be" and "evil" they can face off and fight. I have smiled to myself as I hear multiple references to "Lord on the Rings" come out in their adventures (ok, and Star Wars too..). So, I have made it a point to introduce them to many "epic" adventure tales to stock their moral imagination, but I will admit, I have never been very aware or intentional about bringing globally minded books their way. I suppose it's because (to my detriment) I have not been a very global reader. I love to see new places and the idea of travel but the reality of traveling to foreign countries just doesn't seem like it will factor into my life on a very large scale. I guess due to the fact that I have not been nor have any concrete plans to be in these far off lands, they seem to stay "out of sight, out of mind."  That is a disservice on my part, since I know that the world wide we are more alike than different and all God is doing amazing things around the world, not just in North America and it's a loss to not get a glimpse into those lives and cultures. How fortunate we really are to have such a effective and enjoyable method to travel around the world (and through time and space) through the pages of a book!

This summer I am hoping to broaden my children's (and mine!) perspective and knowledge when it comes to this globe and all who call it home with the help of an amazing new resource of a book, Give Your Child the World: Raising globally minded kids one book at a time by Jamie Martin! I have heard stirrings about this book during the months it was in the making and new that I wanted to have it on my shelf when it was released. I love (and have marked up with abandon!) so many other well thought out book lists volumes- Honey for the Child's Heart and Read for the Heart- and loved the idea of this very modern and uniquely targeted edition being added to the ranks on my resources shelf. The book starts out with a engaging introduction to Jamie and her (in her own words) " Mini United Nations" of a family :) I loved reading of how Jamie fell in love with the world thru travel and ended up with a houseful of loved ones from all corners of the planet! The book list it's self is laid out by continent and then organized by age group. I thought it was very easy to follow and appreciated the short synopsis of each book recommended. I quickly jumped on to my local library's website and made short work of putting holds on a whole cart load of fun, new books! :) 

  Jamie's encouragement and ideas for implementing a "globally minded" mindset in our households is contagious and to make getting started even more enticed Jamie and Sarah Mackenzie of the The Read Aloud Revival have teamed up to offer a super fun summer reading program using Give Your Child the World as a guide! This is the first week of the program and it correlates with the first chapter of Jamie's book list- Multicultural. You can find more information and some fun printables and videos at the link above. We already have a towering stack of books waiting for us for Africa week next. I am so glad that they put together this "reading challenge" to go along with the book launch of this awesome new title; it was really the push I needed to just jump in, track down some titles and start reading to my kids. I have distinctive memories of my dad reading aloud in the evenings from the Christian Heros-then and now missionary series- traveling to China with Hudson Taylor and India with Amy Carmicheal. Some day, I am sure I will pull those titles out to read with "older" kids; for now I am excited to curl up on a couch with a big pile of picture books and take my kids on a journey around the world. 

I received this book from Book Look in exchange for an honest review.