Praiseworthy Book Review: My Brother Martin

For every holiday I get a stack of books out either from the library or my own personal collection. I leave them out so my kids can grab one for a free reading or I can read it to them. It's a great way to learn more about history and important people and events. I get this book every year at this time as we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This book looks at the early life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. through the eyes of his older sister Christine King Farris. It’s a delightful glimpse of the simple life in the Sweet Auburn community of Atlanta, Georgia where the King family lived. Mrs. Farris talks about MLK from his birth sharing family stories and recreating the world of MLK’s early days. She shows us his family, a loving Christian father, mother, Grandfather and Grandmother that taught the children obedience and love. A world that formed him into the great man he would become.

This book touches on racism and is an excellent introduction to the topic of racism in America. My daughter loved it at 6 years old and at first didn’t believe that the America described was our United States of America. My Brother Martin was an excellent vehicle to start this discussion with her. The tragedy of his death is not described, but since I know the full story I found my eyes welling with tears several times during the reading.

The illustrations of the children’s early life are sentimental and sweet. The colors are brilliant and the style is realistic. When showing MLK later in life the images switch to black and white and are the familiar images seen frequently in books and on television. This is an excellent tool to help children connect MLK the iconic historical figure to a real boy that grew up to tell the world of his dream.

The first time we read this my then 4 year old son, 6 year old daughter and I loved it. The text makes you feel like you are at the knee of your own Grandmother and the illustrations are beautiful and make you want to linger over each page. It is a book we will read again and again.

One Hour Craft

That title got your attention, didn't it!!!! But, I'm not actually posting a craft, I'm posting a link to a wonderful blog called One Hour Craft. If you haven't been there before you will love this site! There are so many fun things posted there and so many are projects to do with your kids. I was especially excited today to see that the owner has posted the first in a set of three tutorials on teaching your child to sew. My daughter loves to sew and I've been looking for just the right lesson plan to show her how to use a machine. I think this might be the one!

Praiseworthy Recipe: Kelly's Orange Rolls

When I was a girl we attended a Church with a great bunch of people. On of them was an older woman whom we all loved. This is her recipe for Orange Rolls. They aren't really rolls though, they are biscuits...well, sort of. Here is the recipe just as my mother wrote it down years ago:

Kelly’s Orange Rolls
2 cans flaky biscuits (hungry jack 24)
½ stick margarine.
Add two heaping Tablespoons frozen orange concentrate to melted butter. Grate rind of two oranges into ¾ cup white sugar. Separate biscuits, roll each in butter mixture then sugar mixture. Stand on edge in greased pan. Any stuff leftover can be poured on top. Cook 275 for 40 minutes or 325 for 30 minutes. Turn upside down to serve.

Now, I did things a bit different but the results were still delicious. I made biscuits from a recipe on the back of a package of self rising flour. And I made them with cream. Cream never hurts anything! Then I followed the rest of the directions. My rolls were more like a cake as I had to slice them. They were soft, delicate and so they fell apart easily but they were delectable!!! Most praiseworthy indeed.