Mystery at the Phoenix Festival
Jack and Nicole Spanton and Laura S. Wharton
Broad Creek Press
P.O. Box 43 Mt. Airy, NC 27030
978-0-983714-88-0
$9.99
138 pages
Sandra Heptinstall
Reviewer

This book has no age limit on it. Two of my grandson’s Zach and Elijah Hopkins as well as myself all really enjoyed this book. This maybe a small book but it tells a big and warm hearted story. Cari and Bruce Rivers had saved enough money that they were able to travel the country in a RV, along with their two children Zach and Nicole and their two service dogs Zena and Dolly. It is Bruce and Cari’s hope that their children will learn to grow spiritually, and to share love with others.

The River’s family desire is to bring joy, hope and laughter to very sick children. Their dogs were trained to behave and do tricks to entertain kids. Their first stop was in Phoenix, AZ at a Cancer Treatment Center for kids.

Right from the start Zach and Nicole made many new friends at the center. While there Nicole finds a friend whose family owns a dog shelter. Because of the cost to get help for their daughter they were in danger of having to close the shelter. People who usually donated to cover the cost could not do it anymore because of the economy. But Nicole was already thinking of ways to raise the money to keep it going.

Then one early morning at the campsite the whole family’s faith is tested.
I did not want this story to end. It is hard to find books that encourage children to believe in God and to live for Him. This book did so but in an interesting way to keep kids attention.

Rated G

A Rainbow for Christmas
Mary Montague Sikes
Oak Tree Press, 1400 East Palmer St.
Taylorville, IL 62568
978-1-61009-034-6
$11.95
117 pages
Sandra Heptinstall
Reviewer

Since this book only has 117 pages it is more like a novella. The story is set in 1869. There you find Meg Smith and her niece Eliza, in a wagon train headed toward Denver, Colo. Meg was going to Denver as her dad had arrange for her to marry a man she had never met. Basically her dad sold her for money so that the farm they live on could be saved.


The outcome of the story you pick up within a few pages, but you keep reading the book anyway, because we all need to get away from our normal lives and so we pick up a book. Then we are transported by the author to someplace else.

The history in this book is right on the mark. Meg’s mom had made her a blue dress to be married in. This was normal as only rich people could afford a white wedding gown. It just happens my own mom, was also married in a blue dress in 1949. It was her going to church dress.

I don’t think the younger generation knows about marriages being arranged in our country. Nor do I think they know how hard it was for a lot of people as our country was forming.

I wish I could give this book a five star rating, but I can’t. The book needs more substance in my opinion. Yet since it is a novella I can give it a four star.

Rated G