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Annie has a passion. She loves to cook. Annie's ingredients come from God's green earth and her kitchen is her own back yard. She has a tremendous talent to turn fresh dirt, twigs, leaves, grasses, and berries into mud-pie casseroles, dark mud pudding, and double mud surprise supreme. Like any good artist, Annie throws herself into her work, caring little about her garb and physical appearance. She takes her work seriously because she knows it's a gift from God, but Annie's parents see it differently. They think a bath and disinfectant will rid her of her mud pie appetite. When Annie, known as "Mud Pie," is faced with adversity, she remembers a verse she learned in Sunday school: "Work at everything you do with all your heart" (Col. 3:32). The surprise ending is four tear-out desert recipe cards that look truly scrumptious.

—Jennifer

I didn't know that the song "Rock Steady," sung by Sting, was about Noah's Ark until I picked up the book with the same name. "Volunteers wanted for a very special trip, To commune with Mother Nature on a big wooden ship." Sting, a musician, actor, and activist, takes the parable of Noah's Ark and tweaks it with the dialogue and concerns of the millennium. Illustrator Hugh Whyte uses bright, bold color to design the animals and the ark in playful geometric shapes and patterns. If you remember the tune, instead of reading the book, why not sing it!

—Jennifer

For those who want to scare their kids into cutting back on their time playing video games, Focus on the Family's new Adventures in Odyssey episodeis for you. It seems Dylan and Sal are spending too much time playing Insectoids on their computers, and so computer whiz Eugene and a friend devise a virtual game for the boys to play. With virtual reality helmets, they seem to go inside the computer to battle Insectoids, only to discover an even more dangerous plot: a sinister man called "the Brain" is literally sucking the life out of kids as they don the helmets for the virtual play. Suffice it to say, Dylan and Sal narrowly escape and learn their painful lesson: Time is a gift God does not want us to waste. But be warned: my sensitive 6-year-old ran out of the room at several points, yelling: "Dad, this is not for kids!" Well, at least it's not for all kids. If your child is easily scared, you may want to wait a few years. But if you've got a child who can handle a scary story, there's a solid message here.

—Mickey

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian Parenting Today Magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Christian Parenting Today.

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