![Jonathan & Martha' By Petr Horacek"Two lonely worms, Jonathan and Martha live their lives apart, until they meet in the center of a pear. It is not love at first sight. Despite their loneliness, they fight themselves into a knot -- literally. Their forced togetherness eventually leads to a happy ending -- wedding cake and all.Jonathan and Martha are two very lonely and very grumpy worms who end up teaching a very valuable lesson about friendship and sharing after their fighting lands them in a bind."](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/hash/b9/9a/b99ab027e49216a2480cd21b276c3dba.jpg?itok=r69JNqht "Jonathan & Martha' By Petr Horacek"Two lonely worms, Jonathan and Martha live their lives apart, until they meet in the center of a pear. It is not love at first sight. Despite their loneliness, they fight themselves into a knot -- literally. Their forced togetherness eventually leads to a happy ending -- wedding cake and all.Jonathan and Martha are two very lonely and very grumpy worms who end up teaching a very valuable lesson about friendship and sharing after their fighting lands them in a bind."")
!['Love, Splat' By Rob Scotton"Once again, Splat takes on a big scary part of school -- the Valentine’s Day card exchange. This book captures the “pit in your stomach” feeling I used to get when I had to pick just the right card for that special someone, but also gives Splat the perfect Valentine’s day ending." ](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/hash/38/da/38da831e88911f0ca2319a41c382f90f.jpg?itok=hg_Atr4J "'Love, Splat' By Rob Scotton"Once again, Splat takes on a big scary part of school -- the Valentine’s Day card exchange. This book captures the “pit in your stomach” feeling I used to get when I had to pick just the right card for that special someone, but also gives Splat the perfect Valentine’s day ending." ")
!['Bear in Love' By Daniel Pinkwater Bear has a secret admirer and the recipe for love includes carrots and honey!"When Bear starts finding carrots outside his cave, he sets out on a search to find out who is leaving him such delicious treats. When he can’t, he leaves his unknown gift giver some honey in return. Thus starts an exchange of heartfelt gifts between Bear and his secret admirer. Will they ever meet? You’ll have to read to find out!" ](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/hash/f6/7c/f67cd1eede924dcc392f477741317105.jpg?itok=gYsFmR9b "'Bear in Love' By Daniel Pinkwater Bear has a secret admirer and the recipe for love includes carrots and honey!"When Bear starts finding carrots outside his cave, he sets out on a search to find out who is leaving him such delicious treats. When he can’t, he leaves his unknown gift giver some honey in return. Thus starts an exchange of heartfelt gifts between Bear and his secret admirer. Will they ever meet? You’ll have to read to find out!" ")
Dear Daughter, you and I have the same Valentine.
First, please let me say that... I have loved you SO MUCH as you’ve grown. I couldn't be prouder. I know I have not always made you proud. But I have wished most that I could make you proud regarding just one thing... my Spirituality.
I have been unable to explain how it is that my love of Jesus exists independently of going to church. Recently I have begun to wonder if the innate love for Jesus that some people have apart from any religion may be related to Carl Jung's theory of Collective Conscious and his idea that humans share memories handed down to us from our ancestors.
You are my Darling, Amazing, and Beautiful Daughter. Since preschool I have had scores of people take the time to tell me that you have brought joy to their life. They’ve told me my daughter is A Ray of Light and A Gem. Often I was challenged by people sure you were older because of the maturity you brought to the play-dough table. The rest is history still in the making and you make so many people happy. I’m so happy to lean back and smile seeing your love for life and the Lord. I love you, Daughter. I want you to accept my Spirituality.
Forgive me for my Religious Shortcomings because I know this is what you wanted to change. You needed your parent to go to church with you. But there is something different about my "faith of a child;” and my personal Faith is not something that should have to be invisible. I want to celebrate my Faith. I want to be known in my entirety; and my personal Faith should not represent ways in which I do not measure up. I’m praying that we can work together on this because we are in love with the same man. I met him at church but I have never stopped seeing him. He is in my heart; and he knows I have not read the Bible. He communicates to me every day how joyful it is that my daughter does read the Bible; and I agree.
Akiane has never read the Bible either. Her parents did not believe in Jesus when Akiane was born. I’ve seen her interviewed on television and she has the Lord in her Heart. I know what it is like to have the Lord in your Heart because I asked the Lord to come into my Heart riding in the Fifth-Wheel from Nebraska to California at age 10. I know I had the Lord in my Heart because when we got back home people noticed. I felt it. It showed. They commented on it. I recognized it in Akiane's eyes. Of course the greatest place I see it is in the eyes of my oldest son and my oldest daughter. I expect to see it in the eyes of my younger two based on the words I hear from their mouths (I’m not counting the observation my five-year-old made about the fact that Jesus died and came back to life being a fact, “that makes Jesus a ZOMBEE)!”
Akiane is a child prodigy who has been painting pictures of Heaven and writing poems about things that Jesus shows her since she was four. She knows about different religions and of their value. She follows none. Akiane helps me feel less shame doubting my Spirituality. I share Akiane often in hopes that she will help persuade my daughter to accept my relationship with Jesus; because I need her to believe my love for him is real.
The following is Akiane’s poem about Jesus written at age 7
.
From Akiane's Conversation With God (age 7)
As I am waiting for you I get covered in dust
But why are Your gates always higher than us
Would you tear the tears from my salty fists
When questions question the questions
I see your hands without the wrinkles, bones or veins
Just the maps, just events, just the worlds, just the time
I see the waterfalls full of songs under stairs by Your feet
The poems whisper by the millions from your mouth in rhyme
Above the time love wraps infinity
Inside the time love brings the man
Alone with pain everyone get humbled
Out of the hurricane the rainbow reaches like a hand
You can see Akiane’s paintings by clicking HERE
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Don't forget to check out the children's book list for Valentine's Day!
!['Bear in Love' By Daniel Pinkwater Bear has a secret admirer and the recipe for love includes carrots and honey!"When Bear starts finding carrots outside his cave, he sets out on a search to find out who is leaving him such delicious treats. When he can’t, he leaves his unknown gift giver some honey in return. Thus starts an exchange of heartfelt gifts between Bear and his secret admirer. Will they ever meet? You’ll have to read to find out!" ](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/profile_large/hash/d3/39/d339c0d66190693c5e54026f60cbb1f1.jpg?itok=iTiFUMdr "'Bear in Love' By Daniel Pinkwater Bear has a secret admirer and the recipe for love includes carrots and honey!"When Bear starts finding carrots outside his cave, he sets out on a search to find out who is leaving him such delicious treats. When he can’t, he leaves his unknown gift giver some honey in return. Thus starts an exchange of heartfelt gifts between Bear and his secret admirer. Will they ever meet? You’ll have to read to find out!" ")
!['Love, Splat' By Rob Scotton"Once again, Splat takes on a big scary part of school -- the Valentine’s Day card exchange. This book captures the “pit in your stomach” feeling I used to get when I had to pick just the right card for that special someone, but also gives Splat the perfect Valentine’s day ending." ](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/profile_large/hash/46/e1/46e141f165ae9b39b48beb52e4354a13.jpg?itok=wKgerQup "'Love, Splat' By Rob Scotton"Once again, Splat takes on a big scary part of school -- the Valentine’s Day card exchange. This book captures the “pit in your stomach” feeling I used to get when I had to pick just the right card for that special someone, but also gives Splat the perfect Valentine’s day ending." ")
![Jonathan & Martha' By Petr Horacek"Two lonely worms, Jonathan and Martha live their lives apart, until they meet in the center of a pear. It is not love at first sight. Despite their loneliness, they fight themselves into a knot -- literally. Their forced togetherness eventually leads to a happy ending -- wedding cake and all.Jonathan and Martha are two very lonely and very grumpy worms who end up teaching a very valuable lesson about friendship and sharing after their fighting lands them in a bind."](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/profile_large/hash/84/24/8424835467be0c98e0dec03446095523.jpg?itok=QnCDE6Jf "Jonathan & Martha' By Petr Horacek"Two lonely worms, Jonathan and Martha live their lives apart, until they meet in the center of a pear. It is not love at first sight. Despite their loneliness, they fight themselves into a knot -- literally. Their forced togetherness eventually leads to a happy ending -- wedding cake and all.Jonathan and Martha are two very lonely and very grumpy worms who end up teaching a very valuable lesson about friendship and sharing after their fighting lands them in a bind."")
!['Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love' By Julie Paschkis"Much to Alfonso’s dismay, he cannot get the beautiful and brilliant Ida to pay attention to him. She’d much rather read. So Alfonso decides to bake her a cake -- gathering three perfect apples, butter from the sun, sugar from the clouds, salt from the ocean and an egg from the highest tree. He bakes his masterpiece with a dragon’s fire. It is a cake designed to win a woman’s heart -- and it."](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/profile_large/hash/ff/a3/ffa32c8e11e61c9f5982aedaa1362a75.jpg?itok=5GCxzZG0 "'Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love' By Julie Paschkis"Much to Alfonso’s dismay, he cannot get the beautiful and brilliant Ida to pay attention to him. She’d much rather read. So Alfonso decides to bake her a cake -- gathering three perfect apples, butter from the sun, sugar from the clouds, salt from the ocean and an egg from the highest tree. He bakes his masterpiece with a dragon’s fire. It is a cake designed to win a woman’s heart -- and it."")
!['Otter and Odder: A Love Story' By James Howe"If you read only one book about love this year, let it be this one. When Otter goes looking for dinner, a most unexpected thing happens – he falls in love with a fish. Lucky for Otter, Myrtle the fish felt the same. Upon seeing Otter’s eyes, “the stirrings of her own heart -- her own tremulous fish-not-wishing-to-be-dinner heart -- awakened to something new and surprising: not only love but a future she could never have imagined.” Overcoming a nearly insurmountable obstacle, that it is the natural way of otters to eat fish, Otter and Myrtle show us all that you can live happily ever after."](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/profile_large/hash/48/36/483652265a2f9fe4f3690329d062a54e.jpg?itok=daR9oOE9 "'Otter and Odder: A Love Story' By James Howe"If you read only one book about love this year, let it be this one. When Otter goes looking for dinner, a most unexpected thing happens – he falls in love with a fish. Lucky for Otter, Myrtle the fish felt the same. Upon seeing Otter’s eyes, “the stirrings of her own heart -- her own tremulous fish-not-wishing-to-be-dinner heart -- awakened to something new and surprising: not only love but a future she could never have imagined.” Overcoming a nearly insurmountable obstacle, that it is the natural way of otters to eat fish, Otter and Myrtle show us all that you can live happily ever after."")
![Olive and the Big Secret' By Tor Freeman "Remember when you had a crush on someone and you told your best friend and swore her to secrecy? And then she told someone who told someone who told someone? That’s exactly what happens to Molly the rabbit when she shares a secret with her friend Olive. This story will pull you back to the days of schoolyard crushes but also help teach your kids the importance of keeping a friend’s confidence."](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/profile_large/hash/1b/5e/1b5ecb884a94b886e28004972e022776.jpg?itok=IeO8Ezii "Olive and the Big Secret' By Tor Freeman "Remember when you had a crush on someone and you told your best friend and swore her to secrecy? And then she told someone who told someone who told someone? That’s exactly what happens to Molly the rabbit when she shares a secret with her friend Olive. This story will pull you back to the days of schoolyard crushes but also help teach your kids the importance of keeping a friend’s confidence."")
!["Akiane Kramarik was born in Mount Morris, Illinois to a Lithuanian mother and an American father. She is homeschooled. She is primarily a self-taught painter. However, she states that God has given her the visions and abilities to create her artwork, which is unusual for her family, considering both her parents were atheist at the time (they later converted to Christianity on account of Kramarik's paintings and visions). Kramarik started drawing at the age of four, advancing to painting at six, and writing poetry at seven. Her first completed self-portrait sold for US$10,000. A portion of the money generated from sales is donated by Kramarik to charities. According to Kramarik, her art is inspired by her visions of heaven, and her personal connection with God. Kramarik's art depicts life, landscape, and people."](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/profile_large/hash/c6/2f/c62f2af0dc618072a47dd283aa82e70d.jpg?itok=dGigh-bt ""Akiane Kramarik was born in Mount Morris, Illinois to a Lithuanian mother and an American father. She is homeschooled. She is primarily a self-taught painter. However, she states that God has given her the visions and abilities to create her artwork, which is unusual for her family, considering both her parents were atheist at the time (they later converted to Christianity on account of Kramarik's paintings and visions). Kramarik started drawing at the age of four, advancing to painting at six, and writing poetry at seven. Her first completed self-portrait sold for US$10,000. A portion of the money generated from sales is donated by Kramarik to charities. According to Kramarik, her art is inspired by her visions of heaven, and her personal connection with God. Kramarik's art depicts life, landscape, and people."")
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