Martha Bunny Loves School

This year my three-year-old and six-year-old sons both started school (pre-school and kindergarten, respectively). So the recent arrival of Clara Vulliamy’s Martha Bunny Loves School (Albert Whitman & Company, 2013) was quite timely.

Here is a book trailer from the author’s Website, which gives you a glimpse of the color, font, layout, and movement of the book:

Martha Bunny Loves School is “a happy book all about Martha,” a bunny who is starting her first day of school. She has two bunny brothers (“one huge problem”), but before she gets to them, she shares her favorite color, popsicle flavor, hobbies, and (best of all) her “yellow-and-blue-and-orange-and-pink polka-dot rain boots,” which she wears even to sleep.

Martha’s bunny brothers are going to miss her when she goes. After eating breakfast–her brother Monty will only “eat his breakfast inside his box”–and getting dressed (“I don’t know what to choose”), she has to mollify two sad brothers who don’t know what to do while she’s away. So she founds the “Happy Bunny Club,” complete with badges, a sign, and a secret den.

After trying to fit all of her belongings into her backpack, Martha can’t fit through the door, so ends up packing just her Happy Bunny Club badge that her brothers make for her. At the end of her school day, she happily reunites with her brothers in the secret den.

When I asked my own three-year-old bunny what he thought about this book, he simply replied, “Good!”

“What happened?” I asked.

Martha have too much stuff in her backpack when she go, and she says, “SQUEEEEZE!” through the door. But her favorite stuff came out of the backpack.

Not long after reading Martha Bunny Loves School, my son went off to draw his own Happy Bunny Club badge.

There’s a lot to love about this book. The story is relatable, the plot and conflict and resolution are all compelling, and the characters (especially Martha’s) are well-developed. The illustrations and layout and font are stellar. The colors are vibrant. Here’s a sample page (note the graph paper background and creative use of space and text):

A look inside the book (click to enlarge) — A look inside the book

The book aims at ages 4-7 (grades pre-school through 2nd). My 6-year-old thought he was too old for the book, but I don’t think he is. My three-year-old loved it, and older kids (especially with younger siblings) will appreciate it too.

Martha Bunny Loves School is a standout children’s book, one of the best we’ve read in a while. (And we read a lot around here.) It’s been a pleasure to read through it with our little guy, and I’m sure we’ll continue to return to it in the coming weeks and months.

Thanks to Albert Whitman & Company for the copy of the book to review. Its product page is here; at Amazon here. The author’s own site is worth checking out, too.

“The Human Heart is Always Drawn by Love” (Catherine of Siena at Sunday School)

With St. Francis of Assisi, another patron saint of Italy

“When my goodness saw that you could be drawn in no other way, I sent him to be lifted onto the wood of the cross. I made of that cross an anvil where this child of humankind could be hammered into an instrument to release humankind from death and restore it to the life of grace. In this way he drew everything to himself: for he proved his unspeakable love, and the human heart is always drawn by love.”

–Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

We are spending six weeks in our adult Sunday School with Foster and Smith’s Devotional Classics book. Here are the writers we’ve looked at each session:

Week 1: St. Augustine
Week 2: François Fénelon
Week 3: Evelyn Underhill
Week 4: Apocryphal Literature (materials to be posted soon)
Week 5: Catherine of Siena
Week 6: Kathleen Norris

Each week we do a short bio of the writer, some reading, some discussion, and some prayer.

Here are the teaching slides I used today on Catherine of Siena.

Review of Sony SRS-BTS50 Bluetooth Wireless Speaker

Sony has just released its SRS-BTS50 bluetooth wireless speaker. Here’s what it looks like in the box (with other colors available):

Here’s what’s in the box:

Setup, Appearance, and Portability (Two Thumbs Up)

Setup was easy, both with my iPad mini and a Mac laptop. Once you link a bluetooth-enabled device to the speaker, the speaker remembers it. You can link multiple devices to it without Continue reading “Review of Sony SRS-BTS50 Bluetooth Wireless Speaker” →

A Hidden Gem in BibleWorks

A hidden gem in BibleWorks is the “MacDonald Greek Transcription.”

BibleWorks comes with sentence diagrams for the Greek New Testament. They are also useful and look like this:

The MacDonald transcriptions above, however, replicate something I haven’t seen in any other Bible software (EDIT/UPDATE: Logos has a “clausal outlines” module, minus the color coding), which is the sentence flow method of representing and visualizing a sentence. He uses color coding and spacing to line up parallel ideas and repeated words, making them easier to see than in just the text or even the diagrams.

It’s a great way to get at the motifs and important words of a given passage. And I’d forgotten about it until recently, but am now using it most weeks in sermon preparation.

The full title of the resource above is Syntactic and Thematic Greek Transcription of the New Testament, by William Graham MacDonald, 2008. BibleWorks is available here. Its full contents list is here.

Was Jesus Thinking of Sirach 35 in Luke 18?

This week’s Gospel lectionary reading is Luke 18:1-8. Quite a few commentaries have noted the (possible) connection between themes in Sirach 35 and Jesus’ parable. The two texts are below (NRSV):

Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Sirach 35:17-22a

He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan,
or the widow when she pours out her complaint.

Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek
as she cries out against the one who causes them to fall?

The one whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted,
and his prayer will reach to the clouds.

The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds,
and it will not rest until it reaches its goal;
it will not desist until the Most High responds
and does justice for the righteous, and executes judgment.

The overlap of themes, of course, does not prove that either had/has impact on the other, but it is interesting to think about whether Jesus/Luke had the Sirach passage in mind when telling the parable in Luke.

Highlights in Baker Exegetical Commentary on the NT (Stein, Jobes, Köstenberger)

I’ve long benefitted from the 15-volume Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (BECNT) series. Recently I’ve been able to use it in Logos Bible Software. In this post I introduced the commentary, layout, and setup in Logos on a computer. Then I wrote again here about navigating BECNT for Logos on iPad. Finally, I interacted at length with a passage in Luke from Darrell L. Bock. That third post is here. This post is a fourth part of my BECNT series of posts, concluding my review. Here I highlight some other volumes in the series: Mark (Robert H. Stein), 1 Peter (Karen H. Jobes), and John (Andreas J. Köstenberger). Continue reading “Highlights in Baker Exegetical Commentary on the NT (Stein, Jobes, Köstenberger)” →

Accordance Training in Greater Boston

Accordance Bible Software is coming to the Greater Boston area for two trainings at the end of October.

Here are the details on the free seminars from their Website:

Boston, MA area
Saturday, October 26, 2013, 10am to 6pm
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Hamilton Campus
130 Essex Street, South Hamilton, MA 01982
Bld/Rm: AC240 (Academic Center-Rm #240)
** Special focus on Greek **
Directions
Campus Map

Boston, MA area
Sunday, October 27, 2013, 1pm to 9pm
Brandeis University
415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02453
Bldg/Room: TBD
Instructor: Dr. Roy Brown (Developer of Accordance)
** Special focus on Hebrew **
Map & Directions
Places to Stay
Places to Eat

The schedule for the Gordon-Conwell training (subject to change) is:

10:00-11:30 Accordance Introduction, Interface, Library
11:30-11:45 Break
11:45-1:15 Search Tab, Basic Greek Searches, Symbols
1:15-2:45 Lunch on your own
2:45-4:15 Using Tools, Graphics, User Notes
4:15-4:30 Break
4:30-6:00 Greek searches and Commands

Accordance recommends the use of this 46-page hard copy Training Seminar Manual (which I have and find helpful: full-color screengrabs, clear explanations, etc.).

More details and registration info are here.

Video Review of Flash Greek iOS App

And now a video review of a solid and versatile iOS app for learning Greek vocabulary. You can adjust the video setting in the bottom right part of the video below to watch in HD and full screen, if you like.

Thanks to Danny Zacharias for the app, given to me for the purposes of a review. Find out more about FlαshGrεεk here.

UPDATE: I made the video above using the handy Reflector app. Reflector mirrors your iOS device to a computer, from which you can record. (I added the audio later.)

Review of Bear Motion iPad Mini Case

“Bites on Bytes” is too trite, but Words on the Word does have a growing tech focus. I’ve reviewed software before, and have moved into iOS and its apps, and now gear. Here I’ll review a classy case for the iPad mini, with another case review to follow, some iOS app reviews on the way, and a forthcoming review of a Sony bluetooth wireless speaker. Stay tuned.

Here is the lengthily-titled 100% Genuine Brazilian Buffalo Hide Leather Dual Protection Folio Stand/Cover/Case for iPad Mini with Built-in Stand and Detachable Inner Silicon Cover (Black), by Bear Motion:

This is really two cases in one. On the right in the photo below there is the silicon stand-alone backing, which I’d recommend just for home (but not travel) use. On the left is the folio with a hard back plastic shell that is attached to the leather case that wraps around and closes over the iPad mini. It’s got a sleep/wake feature that functions perfectly.

There is actually a third casing option, since the Bear Motion Dual Protection case comes also with a protective velvet sleeve. So your iPad would be well-protected here.

Let me break it down into pros and cons:

Pros

The construction quality is high
- The stitching is careful and tight
- The holes (to access camera, earbuds, etc.) are cut out just right; you can still access everything
- The leather smells amazing (I am a notorious smeller of books… and of this case)
I can hold the iPad, while in this case, in one hand (results may vary according to hand size)
The price is currently $19.99, which is a good deal
I haven’t test-dropped the iPad while in this case, but my money is on a safe landing, were some sort of accident to happen
There are three notches for standing it up (in landscape mode only) for viewing; these are sturdier than the typical origami-style construction in other cases… as here:

Cons

It’s not the slimmest option
- It is heavier than some mini cases
- It is bulkier than some
- This cuts two ways:
  - On the one hand, it is sturdy and classy, a case you’d definitely take to your business meeting
  - On the other hand, the “package weight” Bear Motion lists is 0.7 pounds, which is just a touch more than the iPad mini itself. So you double your weight if you use this case
It is difficult to maneuver the case in order to take photo or video (it doesn’t just fold back)
There is no place to hold a stylus, which would be a nice feature in a case like this

All told, the pros significantly outweigh the cons. I’ve looked at a number of cases for the iPad mini (and have used four now, with another review to follow), and this is among the best you can get–if the weight is not a problem for you.

Thanks to Bear Motion for the review sample. They make plenty of other cases for various devices, too. The case reviewed above can be found at Amazon here.

Greek Isaiah in a Year, Weeks 45 and 46 (Isaiah 55:7-Isaiah 58:9)

We are getting close to the end of Greek Isaiah in a Year. This week and next week cover Isaiah 55:7-Isaiah 58:9.

Below is the text from R.R. Ottley’s Book of Isaiah According to the Septuagint. Ottley is also here in Logos (reviewed here) and here as a free, downloadable pdf in the public domain. The full reading plan for our group is here (pdf).

See here for more resources and links to texts for Greek Isaiah.

Continue reading “Greek Isaiah in a Year, Weeks 45 and 46 (Isaiah 55:7-Isaiah 58:9)” →

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Setup, Appearance, and Portability (Two Thumbs Up)

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Luke 18:1-8

Sirach 35:17-22a

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Pros

Cons

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