Children's Book Review: Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops

Don't Forget, God Bless Our Troops
Written by:  Jill Biden
Illustrated by:  Raul Colon
Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012

from goodreads.com:
Inspired by her own granddaughter Natalie, Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, tells a story through a child’s eyes of what family life is like when a parent is at war across the world. When her father leaves for a year of being at war, Natalie knows that she will miss him. Natalie is proud of her father, but there is nothing to stop her from wishing he was home. Some things do help her feel better. Natalie works with her Nana to send her dad and the other service men and women cookies and treats they have made. Natalie, her mom, and her brother can see and talk to Dad over the computer, and the kindness of friends at school and at church help her feel supported and loved. But there is nothing like the day when her Dad comes home at last.

* As Veteran's Day approaches, I asked my daughter if she knew why she had off of school on Veteran's Day.  She answered something along the lines of honoring the "army men and marines."  Before reading a book about Veteran's Day, I thought it would be nice to read a book about current troops stationed abroad.  This book was written by Vice President Joe Biden's wife, Jill.  They have personal experience, since their son was deployed to Iraq.  This book mainly focuses on 5 year old Natalie dealing with her dad's year long deployment overseas.  To a child, a year seems like forever.  She tries to be brave through it all and always remembers to "God Bless Our Troops" when she prays at night.  This book was very touching and almost had me in tears while I was reading it to the kids.  They have not had any personal experience with family in the armed forces, being deployed.  However, one of our neighbors recently went abroad for a year to Afghanistan.  He has three young children and I tried to use them as a connection to the girl in the story.  We have decided that between now and Christmas we will try to get together a box of goodies to send overseas to our neighbor to thank him for protecting our country.  If you know a child who has a parent overseas than this is a definite must-read!

This book was borrowed from the library.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.