The time is ripe to stock up on home libraries with good and wholesome reading!
By Janet Karim
The Bible is the book that gives every book its power. – Samuel James, Crossway Books
God wrote; we read. – Tony Reinke quoting Kuyper
It is getting close to that time of the year when we think, plan, and make gift purchases for our loved ones. Christmas gift-giving is an uplifting tradition that stems from the first Gift of Jesus from our Creator, and the second is the gifts that the three wise kings from the East travelled to give the babe Jesus. These were gold, frankincense, and myrrh. People around the world go through this ritual of gift-giving at Christmas time. This week, I have come to help you in making your list. The list comes complete with ages for each gift, and most important of all, where you may buy the books!
In today’s gift-giving list are four books that are written by yours truly, Janet Z. Karim/Jayzedkay, and I am certain that they will captivate bookworms around the world. These books are as follows:
1. Zinyama Village Road
When humans come to Zinyama Village with a big “monster,” to build a new road and bridge, Kalulu Rabbit and the other animals worry that the monster will eat them; but the Zinyama Village leader, Njobvu Elephant teaches them that the new road and bridge that the humans are building, will help them get around the village.
He explains that this will make it easier to cross the big river without drowning or having to cross the river, or go around their big mountain. Chief Njobvu Elephant also gives the new road a name, Zinyama Village Road. But before doing this, the Zinyama Village Chief teaches the animals on rules about crossing the ZVR: the old “look left, look right, look left again, and the cross the road!”
The animals are so happy about what the Village Chief said, their fears and cries are turned into joyful dancing.
2. A Girl Called Gaborone
The inspiration for this booklet came when I was posted to a self-contained school (all students were special education students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) At this school, I encountered many exceptional learners who although living with some form of disability, they were gifted with various and amazing talents. The learners’ range of disabilities was autism, emotional disturbance, intellectual and learning disabilities, multiple disabilities, deafness, blindness, or other impairments.
Some were great musicians, others were fabulous sports-persons, and yet more were great artistic skills. One of the learners in my 10th Grade (equivalent to Form two) English class, read book after book, many of them classics. His disability however, prevented him from leading a normal school life, like the ability to interact with his fellow students and other people outside his family.
While this student displayed the talent for reading books, his fellow students were also endowed with exceptional talents in other areas such as singing, drawing, painting, sports, reading, among many others.
In the book, A Girl Called Gaborone, the main character, Gaborone is one such gifted exceptional learner, and even though she cannot tie her shoelaces or perform other daily activities of living, she is a fast reader. She can read 1,000 words in three minutes, and she loves to read!
Her parents buy her a special gift when they find that their daughter, called Gaborone, has this special reading talent.
3. Grandma’s Garden
As parents we love to watch our children and see how they are always trying to show that they are all grown-up. In Grandma’s Garden readers will encounter New York City-based Eva Jenkins. She is 11 years old, going on 12, and almost 13, and is super eager to grow up!
On one of her weekend visits to her Grandma and Grandpa Jenkins’ house in Scarsdale, Eva stumbles upon a funny, fuzzy ball that seems to be thumping with life.
Because the fuzzball appears to have some living something, Eva hastily takes the fuzzball to her bedroom and snips it open to let the living creature out of its prison. She hopes to turn whatever living creature is in the fuzzball, into her pet. A big lesson awaits Eva when Grandma Jenkins teaches her about growing up, baking cookies, and the cocoon she found in her grandma’s garden.
4. 365 Days of Gratitude
365 Days of Gratitude created byJayZedKay (a penname for Janet Zeenat Karim) begins this life-changing project of a daily 3-year journal, with a recounting of a moment from her past: “As a child, I learned a great deal about being grateful, thankful when my parents gave us gifts. Growing up in three foreign countries before the age of 20 years, as children in the diplomatic community, my parents made sure my brothers, sisters, and me fitted in where we lived; and the parents showered us with numerous gifts according to our expressed and sometimes unexpressed wishes…”
As the book title suggests, 365 Days of Gratitude, One Day at a Time, gives the owner of this book space to write daily gratitudes. It is a 3-year journey of being thankful and grateful. At a glance. The book pays homage, reverence, tribute, worship and praise to the divine godly call found in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which states that we “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
The opening remarks conclude that “the lesson for gratitude and thankfulness is an important aspect of our faith. The more grateful and thankful we are, the more uplifted we feel. As gratitude and thankfulness are given, so too will we be lifted up in the most divinely manner possible.”
A powerful portion in the book is 20 scriptures on gratitude and thankfulness, placed at the beginning of the journal. These are followed by a three-year gratitude space for people to write in their daily journal! A 3-year personal gratitude walk!
The journal 365 Days of Gratitude, is a three-year journey ofdaily writing yourgratitude thatwill allow you after 3 years, to take a glance at how far you have traveled – in gratitude mode. From January 1 to December 31, owners of the journal, will write down, preferably at the end of the day, what you are grateful for each day. From the big things to the very small things, owners are to make sure to write something that has happened (or sometimes something that will happen) for which you are grateful.
Owners of the journal may be surprised to discover that as they journey on this gratitude journey, there are a lot of things for which they are thankful for, and that the more thankful they are, the greater things that take place or burst forth in their life or in the lives of those they love.
May owners of this journal, have a great journey of being grateful, as they show gratitude. In writing! You will be uplifted.
All four books were written by Janet Z. Karim, can be found through the Internet on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other bookstores.
Remain blessed as you give thanks with a grateful heart!
