Dream of Night

For me, it's sometimes hard to find books that I think are interesting and still clean. So when I was first thinking about starting this blog, I knew I wanted to write reviews. The idea was still floating around in my mind but it took me this long to read a book that I wanted to review.



"Dream of Night" by Heather Henson

Summary:

Dream of Night is a Thoroughbred born to race. But when his leg starts hurting, he starts losing, and no one wants a racehorse who doesn't win. After being sold and re-sold more than once, he gets kept chained to a stable wall without food, water or fresh hay. Even after all the abuse, he would stay strong and fight back.

Shiloh is a twelve-year-old girl taken away from her home after being abused by her mom's boyfriend. She never stayed in a foster home for long because she was "...too angry...". She still wanted to live with her mom again, so she would stay strong and fight back.

Night and Shiloh share the same story and they both end up at the foster home of Jessalyn -- she's their last chance before the state takes over. But Jessalyn is strong too. Even though she knows that Night and Shiloh will be hard to take care of, she's determined to make things work.


Thoughts:

The story is definitely a good one about love, trust, and hope. I really liked how it was told from the main characters' different perspectives since you can understand each of their feelings, thoughts, and history much better. But the plot for a girl and horse friendship has been used so many times and in the same way, it seemed a bit unoriginal.

Even though the suggested age is 8-12, I still liked it and would recomend it especially to someone who likes horse stories.

Rating:   G -- It does have some references to alcohol, tobacco, and abuse, but the language is completely clean.


Star Rating:  3 1/2

"Dream of Night."

 She says it out loud, and the black horse raises his head from the ground.

"That's your name."

The black horse blasts air out his nose. A dragon breathing fire. A monster. He definitely looks like a monster. She will scream back if he tries to scream at her.

"Dream of Night." She says it again, and then, "Not bad."

The name is perfect, really.

                                     

Guest Post Revision

To make things easier, I decided to change the guest posting just a bit.

If your entry hasn't been published, you don't have to resend anything -- your submission will always be valid! You can still enter a different post at any time, but it will replace the older submission from the same blog.

That's the only thing that's changed but if you have any suggestions be sure to let me know!

A Different Perspective

Feeling A Little Shaky?

Tuesday morning, our toy poodle, Teddy woke me up around 3:00 AM. I looked around my room -- I didn't see anything that could have scared him, but he was acting weird and trying to get my attention. I figured he just needed to go outside though.

I was able to calm him down some, so I laid back down and closed my eyes. I was only half-awake and really didn't want to go outside, I thought I could just lay there for a little bit longer. After what was probably two seconds later, my eyes shot open.

The whole house started shaking, I could hear a low rumbling noise, and Teddy was barking uncontrollably. It was an earthquake!

I jumped out of bed and into the doorway somehow picking up the panicking dog on my way. Honestly, I felt like I could start panicking too. It's a really strange feeling when the ground you're standing on isn't stable. Then I realized the shaking wasn't violent and I probably didn't have to stand in the doorway. I decided not to move anyway.

Then it just stopped. I stayed in the safety of my doorway for a while before going back to bed. When I laid back down, both Teddy and I were wide awake and a little tense. I was expecting an after-shock even though it was only a 3.9 on the Richter Scale.

I've heard how animals can sense an earthquake before anyone can feel it, but I always wondered about it. Now I don't have to wonder anymore. Teddy was telling me something was wrong even before it happened -- he's like one of those dogs on TV!

Go And Be Light!

By Paul from Christaholic: The God Addiction

Is it just me, or is it strange that when someone is having a bad day where they get mad at whatever moves, people describe it as someone waking up on the wrong side of the bed? I don't know, it's just... weird. I mean, why would you be angry if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed? It would be more like waking up on the floor. That would make me angry. I wake up on the wrong side of the bed ALL THE TIME. And yet, like the guy I am, I just get up and not care, and I'm as happy as a lark! I usually sleep on the left side of the bed and multiple times when I wake up I find myself sleeping on the right side (and on strange occasions, sideways) and I never automatically get angry and/or frustrated. I just laugh and and get over it.

There are things that do make me mad or "out of it" and those things are as follows: music and the weather. Music makes me grumpy sometimes; but it all depends on what the music is about. If it is about cars, money, and fame then I would throw it away. But if was about their opinion of girls, then I would first burn it, then throw it away (nothing against the female gender). I usually enjoy the music that focuses on eternal things, (like Jesus, God, The Bible etc.) music that I can sing to. Praise and Worship, Contemporary, and I'm big on what I call "holy hip hop". Those are just some types of music that I like to listen to. there should be a playlist on the bottom of the blog that you could tune in to and listen to some stuff that I enjoy. But I didn't come at this blog to talk about music. What I want to talk about is the weather!

You know the saying, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it." Well, to an extent, that is very true! The weather is virtually unchangeable, unstoppable and uncontrollable. In other words, it does what it wants to do and you can't stop it.

Weather controls my mood in these ways: When its sunny, I'm happy and energetic; when its cloudy or rainy, I'm "out of it" and bored; and when its stormy and dark, I am usually creeping out.
We need to be like the weather.

Like the weather, other people often affect a person's mood. There's a study out there called 'sociology' (soe-see-ahl-oh-jee) which is basically the scientific study of humanity's social behavior. It is how a group of people affect an individual person. Sociology is our main weapon for spreading the Gospel. Christians are a group of people who often hide who they need to be: cross-bearing disciples of Jesus Christ. When we love the Lord, others will love the Lord; when we go, others will go; when we do, others will do. But here's the question: Are we loving? Are we going? Are we even doing anything?

Jesus tells us that we need to be the Light of the World (Matthew 5:14). And He tells us that you're not supposed to hide the light. You're supposed to show it. Don't hide it under a a bowl (Matthew 5:15). Don't keep it to yourself. Like the weather, if we shine our light like the sun, we will be able to make the darkest night look beautiful! Are we going to let our light shine? Or are we going to blow it out like it doesn't matter? It's your choice.

People follow us. When you tell people that you are a Christian, they will test you, try you, and watch you. If you aren't a light, then you may as well not call yourself a Christian.

We are other people's peers. We are who they follow. We are to be light. Why not start acting like it? We love Christ. That is why we are Christaholics. We proclaim His Name and His only. Now, go and be light!

Colossians 1:28



A Hard Decision

When I first put up the guest post entry form, I was really afraid no one would participate. I got a lot of submissions, so there was no need to worry! Everyone sent in great posts, so it was a hard decision picking just one to publish.

But I wanted to remind everyone that if you want your post to be considered for the next month's guest post, you have to send another submission. That way, I know you still want your post to be published and then in the future, I won't be using year-old entries.

Thanks to everyone who participated! If I always get such a great number of entries, I may consider publishing guest posts more than once a month.