Awakening Consciousness: A Girl's Guide & A Boy's Guide by Robin Marvel

Stars: ***1/2

This review is for both books at once as they have only minor differences.

Summary: These are workbooks designed to encourage spiritual growth, inner strength and self awareness. The exercises are a bit different in each book as outlined below.

Girl's Guide: Your chakras, keep a healthy aura, learn the pendulum, aromatherapy crafts, crystals, explore inner self, create your own future.

Boy's Guide: Make a drum, find your totem, discover spirit guide, Native-American lore, chakras, crystals, Pendulum, strong aura, self-esteem.

All though I do think it's a good idea to have separate guides for boys and girls I think it would have made more sense to make them different in the text and specific activities perhaps, not necessarily different activities. I would make the drum and find the totem with my girls and I would teach aromatherapy to my boy.

In general the idea of the books is awesome, however I do think the books have some problems.

Girl's Guide:

• Mainly it wasn't edited enough, or at all. There were grammatical errors, missing words and repeated words. There's a section on ESP that says to pick 5 designs and then right after says you have 3 designs. The instructions are bit messed up although I'm sure most people can figure it out themselves.
• The word bestie is used which I didn't know meant best friend. I work with Girl Guides and have heard all kinds of slang and short forms, never heard Bestie. I don't think it's a good idea to use slang in a book anyway because as the book gets older, the term would be not in use anymore.

In Both:

• We are given a section to write down tarot readings but it's not like tarot cards come with the book or we are taught much about them. I'm not sure the purpose of that section. The boy's guide is only a little better in that it suggests a book to explain tarot and doesn't sound as if you must have cards already.
• The dream section says to look up your dreams in a dream dictionary to keep track of what your subconscious may be telling you. The boy's guide is even more adamant that you MUST look up your dreams in a book to know what they mean. Dreambooks aren't definite meanings though, they are just ideas and they even say in small print in them that it's mostly just for fun. 

Despite all this the book has it's merits and I can use what I want out of it which would be most of it. Also the chakracize (chakra exercises) is the best part of the book with photos to go along with it. I just think they need to be reprinted with proper editing and more thought.

Links of Interest: Marvelous Empowerment on Facebook, Marvelous Empowerment,

Other Reviews: NONE YET

Buy Awakening Consciousness: A Girl's Guide at amazon.com and support SMS Book Reviews

Buy Awakening Consciousness: A Boy's Guide at amazon.com and support SMS Book Reviews

*These books were received in exchange for a review if I finished the book. All opinions are honest and are my own.

How the Moon Regained Her Shape by Janet Ruth Heller

Stars: *****

Summary: Influenced by Native American folktales, this fascinating story deals with bullying, self-confidence, and understanding the phases of the moon. After the sun insults and bullies her, the moon gets very upset and disappears - much to the chagrin of rabbits who miss their moonlight romps. With the help of her friends, the moon gains more self-confidence each day until she is back to her full size. The "Creative Minds" section explains the phases of the moon and helps to answer those pesky questions like "why is the moon up during the day?", or "why does the shape of the moon change? Moon crafts and games supplement the understanding.

Illustrator: Ben Hodson
Sylvan Dell Publishing 2006
32 pages Ages 6-10
978-0-9764943-4-8 (Hardcover)
$15.95

As I've mentioned before (Animals are Sleeping), Sylvan Dell Publishing's motto is Science and Math Through Literature. After every story is quite a few pages of something called For Creative Minds which contains all sorts of fun and educational info and activities for further learning.

In the Creative Minds section for this book you'll find general moon observations which defines words such as phases, lunar, waxes, crescent, gibbous, full moon etc... as well as the Native American names for the moons (Wolf Moon, Grass Moon, Fruit Moon etc....) There are activities to do such as charting the moon for a month, making edible moon cookies and making a phases of the moon wheel. There is also info on how the moons orbit around the earth. There is a quick paragraph about bullies too as the sun bullies the moon in the story.

The Creative Minds section is great for kids who just love to learn and for homeschooling families who are looking for activities to do with their kids on certain subjects.

The story itself is very well done, here's an excerpt:

"The moon tried to start dancing again, but the sun's words tormented her. Her arms and legs seemed to heavy to twirl. She felt very alone in the heavens. She slowly walked along her skypath, hanging her head. Her body began to shrink until she was jus a sliver of her former self."

The book has won some awards and honours which you can see on the Sylvan Dell page for the book as well as view and print out the creative minds activities and see other helpful items such as reviews, quizzes, author interview and related websites.

Thanks to Elaine from PR By the Book for a copy of this great book.

Watchers by W. Lyon Martin

This review was first published at The Well-Read Child.

Stars: ****

Watchers is based on a poem by Kelley 'Duckee' Magee. It's the story of a little boy who is being watched while he sleeps. He can see figures moving but he's not sure what they are. He thinks they must be monsters and he vows to catch them one night. He sets up a trap and waits and sure enough he catches something. What he caught isn't what he was expecting at all. They aren't monsters but fairies and they are there to help him, to watch over him while he sleeps.

This is a cute little story for believers in fairies. The writing is lyrical as it was originally a poem, and it rhymes:

"At night they surround me when I sleep.
So I plan to catch them where they creep.
I'm always falling asleep too fast,
But tonight I'll stay awake at last."

The illustrations are sweet, with lots of purples and dark blues and bright eyes for the fairies. The shadows of unknown creatures on the wall are shown very well and it reminded me of when I was a child and saw scary shapes in the shadows.

My only reservation with the book is the depictions of what the boy thinks the "monster" might look like. I'm afraid that this talk of monsters would frighten a child. If your child hasn't experience the "monsters under the bed" phase, then don't read this book or it might plant the idea in his or her head. If your child is already in that phase, then this would be a good book to alleviate those fears.

Call of the Witches: Book 3 of the Witchery Series by Laura Stamps

Stars: ****

First a little about the series (from the author's blog):

THE WITCHERY SERIES Trilogy (published by Trytium Publishing)

A sexy paranormal romance novel series in paperback. In this series you'll meet five wonderful Witches: Savannah, Maylene, Mirabella, Noelle, and Ravena. There's something for everyone in this trilogy. The novels range from empowering to romantic to erotic. You'll also find real spells, chants, and rituals in each one. Big fun!

1.) The Witches of Dixie (an empowering novel)

http://www.thewitchesofdixie.blogspot.com/

2.) What Witches Want (a sweet, sexy romance novel)

http://www.whatwitcheswant.blogspot.com/

3.) Call of the Witches (an erotic romance novel)

http://www.callofthewitches.blogspot.com/

So if you like Paranormal Romance, this is for you. If you happen to be Pagan, all for the better, but you don't have to be Pagan to enjoy it. If you're uncomfortable with sex talk, don't read the rest of this review.

I was lucky enough to be able to review the third book in the series, Call of the Witches. The blog link above will give you an excerpt.

Summary: Maylene Whitmire is a Wiccan Witch plagued with bad-news boyfriends. They flock to her like bees to honey. Each one seems different in the beginning, but they all end up the same. Bad news. And she's fed up. When Artemis, her Patron Goddess, suggests a two-year vow of celibacy, Maylene jumps at the chance. Three months before her celibacy vow ends she runs into Blaine Rutledge, a Wiccan Green Witch and the sweetest, sexiest man she's ever met. Sparks fly, and her libido sizzles. My, oh my! The last few months of her celibacy vow are about to become not only an erotic adventure but also the greatest challenge of her life.

First of all if you don't already know, I've never read a Paranormal book and I've never read Romance. So this book was my introduction to both genres. I wouldn't have tried it if it weren't about Wiccans. I enjoyed this book but don't expect to see many if any more Paranormal or Romance reviews on this website.

I don't know how much sex is usually in a romance novel (feel free to tell me romance enthusiasts) but I was forewarned that this book was just a hair away from being classified as Erotica. This was fine with me. (sly grin) It had just about the right amount of sex for me, but then I'm quite open minded when it comes to reading and talking about that subject matter.

As a Pagan, I enjoyed the spells, chants and rituals and could see myself using them if the need came to be. The only thing out of the whole book that I didn't like was the use of the word sex:

"Another ripple of desire zips through her sex, and her thoughts wander to his
sensuous lips and how good they must taste. " - Chapter 3

It started to bug me after the third time. I'd rather something like sexual organs or genitals or even privates if a less direct term was desired.

Since I've never read Paranormal or Romance books I can't properly compare this book to others in the genre so if anyone else has read this and especially if you've read other Paranormal or Romance novels, please leave your thoughts!

More Links:

Laura Stamp's Blog (find out about her other novels)

Her "Erotica and Paranormal Romance" Blog (talks about Erotica and other naughty things)