The Hamelin Stoop Series Book 1 and Book 2 by 12 Gates Publishing Reviews

Every so often, a book is presented to a very reluctant child and that child falls absolutely in love with it. This is the case of two books from The Hamelin Stoop Series by 12 Gates Publishing. I requested both my daughters read and provide their thoughts on Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge (Book 1) and Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna (Book 2) by author Robert B. Sloan. My 11-year-old read the first book nearly non-stop and immediately started the second one after providing me with an official book review that is found further down in this post. She read both books within a two week time period and put aside any other books she had previously checked out at the library.

When I first provided them to my 11-year-old, she grumbled. However, eventually she told me she learned what "don't judge a book by its cover" means and I laughed. She was also reluctant due to the length of each book. Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge (Book 1) had 323 pages and Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna (Book 2) had 295 pages. However, as she continued to read, she couldn't put it down and it also inspired her to write more on her own as she's an avid writer. 

My Daughter's Review:

About Book 1:

The story's main character, Hamelin, is left at an orphanage when he's only a few weeks old because a bad guy named Ren'dal sent his trackers to find Hamelin and his parents. Forced to abandon him in order to survive and to protect their son, they chose to leave him behind on a stoop at a children's home. The people at the home have no idea what his name is and ends up referring to him as "Hamelin" Stoop since it was the only word they could read from a note that was left. My daughter giggled when she found out stoop was another name for a small staircase. The story continues as Hamelin grows older and struggles with finding out his identity. He decides to runaway when everyone at the home forgot his eighth birthday. From there, he met the Great Eagle and after being gone only overnight, he gives up crossing the footbridge and returns back to the home. 

Without giving up everything in the novel, I'll stop as there is still much more to read and learn about Hamelin! Throughout the novel, he is confronted with life issues such as making new friends, bullies and abandonment. Both books explore the fantasy world that Hamelin is thrust into while facing a barrage of unknowns, fears, failures, mysteries, evil and much more. The fantasy novels are clean, but there are some mild violent scenes. This was not a concern to me nor of my youngest daughter as the movies we watch with a PG rating have the equivalent type of action.

As a young adult fantasy novel filled with a variety of characters, it reminded me of the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. I liked how the book centered and followed along with each of young Hamelin's struggles thus showing children that life, even for youngsters, is not always easy. 

About Book 2:

Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna (Book 2) was equally as good and captivating. Book 2 continues Hamlin's journey across the footbridge in finding his parents but is sidetracked because the Great Eagle told him he needed to help two new friends find a kidnapped princess and recover a stolen jewel. It teaches him to be patient and how perseverance wins as illustrated in both books. Unknown to Hamelin, he's also being used to seize kingdoms on both sides of the realms. Each story is very well written and full of adventure and twists. The author does a superb job describing characters, scenes and events such as:

"An onslaught from the watery creatures started immediately. It reminded Hamelin of his previous plunge, but now the monsters lunged and flew at him more numerously and furiously than before. All the old images were there in in their strange combination of long, slithering, and slashing fishlike bodies."

The final page provides a nice summary of what might be coming forth in Book 3 and I know I will be watching out for it! My second daughter, aged 16, started the second book but wasn't able to finish it due to competing activities for her time. She thought it was well written and she enjoyed the story line. My younger one, as noted above, really enjoyed the second book as much as the first one.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, they were both entertaining fantasy novels geared towards young adults. I would think that a child maybe around the age of eight or nine could read the books to include as old as in the upper teens pending individual preferences and maturity levels. There are no illustrations which is what one would expect from a novel for this age group. The writing level is just enough that might warrant a dictionary for younger readers with words here and there, but it's not filled with a need to continue conducting dictionary searches. The characters are varied and the author provided just enough description to allow the imagination to visualize each one. My daughter was saddened to know that book 3 isn't out yet as she felt each book stopped at an exciting cliffhanger wanting her to know what was next.

"Hamelin Stoop's story will capture minds, inspire hearts, and leave its readers eagerly awaiting for the next volume." ~from 12 Gates Publishing website.

Upon reading and listening to my youngest tell me her thoughts about the books, I think this would be a great series for a young adult book discussion group. The Hamelin Stoop Series by 12 Gates Publishing is a nice series to add to any young reader's library collection.

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Cooking for the Family: A Great Chore for Kids

I was raised to help out around the house both inside and outside and although I resented a lot of it growing up, as an adult, I see the importance in it. It's not just as some kids might think as a mechanism for parents to get out of chores rather it provides many benefits. From teaching responsibility to ensuring life skills are abundant before they begin their own lives. I didn't really have to force my children to help around the house but I did provide an incentive at first with a weekly allowance. When I quit purchasing toys or like items for them, they found that they needed to earn their own money so doing chores was a bit more of a wanted task.  Within a year, they want to help now out of an obligation to help me more than anything which I just love and feel gives me a parenting award for success.

Their oldest sister, 30 years now, cooked a lot for us when she lived with us so that rubbed off on the two younger ones. Recently after battling a severe case of the flu, they opted to help and prepare dinner on their own. The thrill of preparing their own dinner provoked a desire to continue cooking and preparing food for the family.  Earlier last week, they decided to co-prepare an Italian inspired pork tenderloin recipe, mashed potatoes for them and mashed cauliflower for me, organic corn and they followed it with homemade sugar cookies with an almond flavored icing all prepared by their little hands!

 

  

She invited her pet seal all equipped with a make shift bow tie.

She even prepped the plates and we took a break from the dinner table to watch what we also coin, our family movie night to ensure we have family time together many nights of the week.  Needless to say, it was delicious!

Techie Homeschool Mom's Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol. 1) Review

I really enjoy art and have been able to get my girls interested in it too. I had to begrudgingly take Art 101 in college and I have to say, it ended up being one of my favorite courses.  This is one of the reasons why I was happy to have a chance to review Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol. 1) by Techie Homeschool Mom. This is a digital course and I know some people and children, dislike online courses but I think the set up of this is a little different. It's a one stop resource for teaching your children. As soon as I logged in, I could tell it was going to be an easy set-up. The website has such a user-friendly aesthetically pleasing look. I like clean and crisp and the opening course website is just that. The entire course is broken into sections that are easy to navigate with the following as the introduction material when starting out:

• As I noted, signing up was a breeze. There is a very nice introduction if you are new to online courses that explains all the necessary details with handy built-in links to perform the suggested actions such as liking Techie Homeschool Mom on Pinterest or creating an "Online Unit Studies Project" board. She even addresses the controversy unfounded claim that homeschool children lack socialization opportunities which I liked. 
• The next section is for any comments or to report links. I like this as often times, you might want to inquire about something or to report an error and it's not so easy to find who to contact.
• The next section is for project supplies and they aren't complicated where you have to rush out to Hobby Lobby with a bank loan to prepare. I did have to purchase some supplies but at least it wasn't a lot.
• Next is a forewarning about nudity. Let's face it, it is art and one cannot escape art, art history and nudity as that was a permissible and common attribute to many works of art in the past. I, myself, am not a fan of showing my children nudity but in the course of teaching art, I think it's a necessity. We've watched many historical shows and other period drama type movies that often display works of art that shows nudity. It was one of those things I just had to explain to them. She recommends also discussing with your children ahead of time if this would be new territory for them.

Getting Started: Creating a Virtual Art Gallery

Our next section was titled, "Unit Study Project: Virtual Art Gallery." I had a bit of problem setting Emaze up as I kept getting an unsafe site message. I ended up ignoring it and proceeded with creating an account for my daughter. My daughter thought it was pretty cool to have her own virtual art gallery based on the artists we learned about. Emaze is a website for creating presentations, websites, eCards and much more. Emaze is utilized throughout the course to see the lessons. Here is an example from the tutorial:

I will tell you that it's best to listen to the tutorial instead of trying to figure it out on your own. The tutorial explained everything you needed to know on setting up your own gallery. It can be customized and for creative kids like mine, they will have a great deal of fun working on their gallery! Here is the cover of my daughter's gallery: 

Beginning the Lessons

After creating her gallery, we started on the lessons. I'm going to jump into the lesson for Leonardo DaVinci for the review, as after we completed each of the lessons, this was my daughter's favorite artist next to Monet. All the lessons and activities are set in an order that are repeated across each artist such as:

• Introduction videos on the art movement and then the famous artist associated with that movement are found with each artist. They include:
• Renaissance: Leonardo DaVinci
• Realism: John James Audubon
• Impressionism: Claude Monet
• Post-Impressionism: Paul Cezanne
• Pointillism: Georges Seurat
• Art Nouveau: Gustav Klimt
• Fauvism: Henri Matisse
• Expressionism: Wassily Kandinsky
• Cubism: Pablo Picasso
• Surrealism: Salvador Dali

Video on Leonardo DaVinci.

In between the particular art movement introductions, there are mini-lessons to complete such as:

• Utilizing Grammarly or Google Docs, the student(s) are instructed to record information that will be utilized in their gallery that was created at the beginning of the course. Topics may include information about the movement and/or the facts about the particular artist:

She recorded facts about the movement and DaVinci in her Google Docs document.

• Some of the lessons require interaction as well. Upon proceeding with the lesson, there are tasks that require the student to respond in the comments section with their answers. Also, in the screen image below, the student can track his or her progress that is automatically updated.

• One of the other abilities of the curriculum is to be able to see famous works of art up close. For instance, the DaVinci lesson continued with viewing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre website. Since I actually viewed the Mona Lisa in person at the Louvre many years ago, it was exciting to tell my daughter that I saw the very same painting up close as she is now. She thought that was pretty cool! When we were covering Monet, as luck would have it, I reached down and pulled up my Monet print that I just removed from the wall since we are getting ready to move. 
• Throughout the various lessons are other small videos that provide additional facts and fun information about the artists.
• There are also fun art projects that the students can complete, and they have the option to pin it on Pinterest post on Instagram. The one for DaVinci interested both my girls mostly due to the examples provided in the lesson. The project was to create a parody 'work of art' using the supplied Mona Lisa template. Needless to say, both had fun with this one as when my middle one saw the younger one creating her masterpiece, she had to join in. The other nice thing about this was it required no special supplies as we had all that we needed.

No parody is complete without a Queen Amidala Lisa!

• The final exercise for the lessons includes creating an artist exhibit in the student's Emaze gallery. This lesson provides the student with research skills to be able to complete the specific artist's gallery. It does take a little time to learn Emaze but it's worth it as it's pretty cool to see what the student created with what they learned and captured about each artists and which paintings appealed to their interest.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we really enjoyed the course from Techie Homeschool Mom and thought the amount of information was just right. It covered the lives and the style of art of 10 famous artists which was not too much to teach. The recommended ages are for children mid-elementary to middle school which seemed very appropriate. I think for those not exposed to art history, even an older student could learn and benefit. The videos weren't too long and the one's selected for each of the artists weren't dry or boring. One of our favorites were the two kids telling us about Dali. 

The projects were also fun and didn't require a lot of material making it not too challenging but rather fun which learning about art should be. The need to research, write facts and learn more about the particular paintings helped to reinforce what was learned as well as increased skill sets when it came to research, searching the internet and writing. You also don't have to be a techie whiz to be able to guide your students through the lesson. It's not like any art class I have taken or taught to my children and found it be a great introduction to some of the world's most famous artists. I would recommend this course.


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CrossWired Science: Sound, and Fluid Dynamics Review

Affiliate links are utilized in this post.

CrossWired Science is a new curriculum we were fortunate to review in our homeschool. Before I started using it, I did research to make sure it would be a good fit for us. Recommended for any age, per their website, they do recommend it's primarily designed for ages 4-18 which makes it very versatile to grow with your children or to be utilized across many ages which is nice. One of the sentences that appealed to me on the CrossWired Science site was, "Our prayer is that learning about the beauty and wonder of the world God has lovingly made would be a journey whole families could go on together." I was pleased to read that knowing that this is a curriculum that helps other see the glory of the Lord. For our review, we were able to use Sound, and Fluid Dynamics. This program can currently be either as a full curriculum for three months of science or a supplement so there is versatility. Upcoming additions will expand it to a six-month full curriculum to eventually a six-year curriculum. 

Getting Started:

Getting started was easy and what I like about CrossWired Science is one e-mail can be used for every child as well as yourself which simplifies the entire process. I chose the suggested Standard Calendar feature that utilizes the curriculum for 1 1/2 months and starts out with week one, for example:

• Monday - Core Videos 1 and 2 
• Tuesday - Core Videos 3 and 4
• Wednesday - Gold Digs/Digging Deeper - extra worksheets/resources to expand knowledge and a quiz at the end
• Thursday - General Links
• Friday - Reading

We began with the Global Sound unit which contains a Direction button and an Info button. Clicking on the Direction button provides a quick pop up that explains there are eight core videos along with recommendations on how to implement the timing. There are also suggestions for adding more tasks to make the lesson more robust for different children requiring more. CrossWired Science covers different scenarios thus making it very versatile. The Info button pop-up provides a basic understanding on how the curriculum will be absorbed by a child over time.

The Sound Unit Core Video and Lessons:

The Sound unit Lesson Page First Timers contains four videos featuring Audible Vibes, Sonar and Infrasound, Bats & Moon Explosions and Elephants and Lanternfish. For the purposes of this review, I will focus this part on Audible Sounds which we started with a short video almost seven minutes long. It's very engaging, the sound is good and easy to follow and understand. The graphics really provide a great understanding of what they were teaching. We also liked how they not only covered sounds from our body relative to talking but also how it relates to musical instruments. When they did discuss the sinuses, my youngest exclaimed now she understood why her head hurts with sinus headaches now.

After the video, they completed the worksheets which we found was a great took in helping to ensure that they retained and understood what they just watched. After completing the first video, I decided that for subsequent videos, I would have them review the worksheets first, so they knew what to pay particular attention to while watching the video. This really assisted them in listening better so they could hone in on key facts that they needed to record on the worksheets. The information in the video is provided in order to what they have to write down on the worksheets so it's really helpful to have them complete as they listen or to listen to the video twice. I learned a lot as well! Here is page 1 as an example:

One part of the video had them pushing down on their larynx to feel the vibration as well as to hear how it can sound if you push down or up. The interactive functionality is also a nice feature of the video.

As you can see, she thought it was funny hearing their voices change.

At the conclusion of video 1, there was a Test Your Knowledge section that was an online 10 question quiz. There is an option to see all the questions and answers so the child understands what he or she missed. Once you complete it, you are unable to start it again. The quiz concludes that lesson and you move on to the next one.

The screen shot below shows a progress tracker that allows the user to easily return where they left off:

Sound Experiments:

Once we finished with the first four videos, we were introduced to Sound Experiments. The first one involved bird sounds which was an interesting one for them as I always point out when Cardinals are singing. There is an instructional allowing flexibility on how you want to use this with your students. I placed the page and some research paper in a binder and even though we started watching and listening, we will use this over a period of time as suggested. They even provide a Sound Journal for all the experiments and at the end of the page, is a place for the student to enter information about the experiment(s) they did online which constitutes a quiz.

After the Experiment section, the Research Topic is next. This is also very flexible and CrossWired Science provides complete instructions and guides the student along with what is needed of them. All of the information I have provided for the review thus far is accessible under the student's view. There is a separate area for teachers which I will briefly cover a little further down.

Fluid Dynamics Unit:

Fluid Dynamics is the next unit we started even though we did not finish the Sound unit as we wanted to provide our initial thoughts on this global topic. Just like the Sound unit, this unit provides great vivid videos that are engaging, thorough, easy to understand and do teach important facts and fundamental information about the topics. It was just right for my 11-year-old while not boring for my 15-year-old. It also has the worksheets and tests to further encourage material retention. This was a favorite for my eight-year-old granddaughter due to the video covering sharks and birds. They also cover historical facts about each topic such as Daniel Bernoulli who was born in 1740. He contributed to the concept of fluid dynamics. Other topics such as how birds can fly and land with reduced air flow are included.

Both units contain other links which some are still being refined while others are accessible. This is an example of one of the experiments with the Fluid Dynamic unit:

Parent/Teacher's Resources:

This area provides many options that include:

• My Account - this area provides the dashboard, orders, subscription, downloads, addresses, payment methods, account details and a log out feature.
• Manage Students: ability to manage students and group leaders.
• Student Progress is broken down by student and provides a download feature to a CSV file.
• Quiz Results
• Teacher Resources is equally comprehensive and includes:
• Super Tips for Using CrossWired Science
• Calendar suggestions that is broken down to Core Videos, Reading, Experiments, Devotions, Research and General and Unit Links and finally, Stretching Each Global Topic to 8 Weeks. There are six printable calendars
• Student Dashboard Information
• Suggested Calendar is the same as what is found under Teacher Resources
• Unit Worksheet Answers
• General Links provides videos for each of the Units 
• Unit Links provides additional videos for each Unit too

Overall Thoughts:

Overall, I think CrossWired Science is an extremely comprehensive and great online program. I am excited to try this with my students and can't wait to see all the other material as they finish the curriculum.  The 29 lessons in all are easy to understand and with the engaging videos presented in such a fun invigorating way, it kept my student's interests with the just right length of video. Each "Global Topic" is "crosswired" to many subject areas which is why I feel it's a robust and comprehensive program. I look forward to incorporating some of the other exercises available, or soon to be available, such as experiments, research, reading a book and much more! Sound, and Fluid Dynamics definitely drew the interests from my students.
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Children's Book His Mercy Endureth Forever Review

My children and grandchildren love books. As a matter of fact, going to the local library is a quite a fun event for us. We have boxes and boxes of books and I hope once we finally get settled into our forever house, we will be able to display each and every one. Recently, we were invited to review His Mercy Endureth Forever ~ Psalm 136 illustrations by Kathleen DeJong. It's a 36 page hardbound book full of colorful illustrations that match the words from Psalm 136. 

Not only is the beauty within the psalm but Ms. DeJong's illustrations are captured in the beauty in each of the drawings. The book is probably suited for a younger reader or even an age to be read to. It's a divine way to introduce this psalm in a welcoming way for the younger listener or reader. 

I had my 11 year old read it before we gave it to my eight year old grandchild to see what she thought and she said it was a good way to help her remember Psalm 136. She thought the illustrations were nice and she liked how each one correlated to the part in the Psalm.

Overall, it's a very simple book focusing on Psalm 136 with illustrations to draw more interest by children in enjoying it. The illustrations help to tell the story and would be ideal for younger children.

YWAM Publishing Christian Heroes: Then & Now Douglas MacArthur Review

History is an exciting subject that I've been interested in ever since I was a young girl. This is why I was thrilled to be able to review another book selection from YWAM Publishing and their Christian Heroes: Then & Now books. The many different people in the Heroes of History biography collection are vast, but this time, I chose Heroes of History- Douglas MacArthur. World War II is a topic I know well and since I already knew a lot about Douglas MacArthur, I wanted to make sure my daughters learned what a formidable man he was. Not only is the book full of wonderful educational information, but YWAM Publishing also provides study guides that assist in teaching the main points if you decide to utilize this as an educational resource.

Our first review from YWAM Publishing was Heroes of History- Milton Hershey which was a wonderful account of a man that many have no idea what made him special. After reviewing this biography, I knew that I would really enjoy any of the other biographies that YWAM Publishing publishes.

Preparing for the Course:

I've learned when utilizing the past curriculum from YWAM Publishing, it's best to print the study guide and alongside the book, I'll review everything first before getting started. I also printed the Douglas MacArthur Fact Sheet as it's a great way for students to journal key facts as they read the book. I'll start with the 224 page book first that is recommended for ages 10 and up. Written by Janet and Geoff Benge who are a husband and wife team. Janet is a former elementary school teacher and Geoff holds a degree in history. Combined, the book is perfectly suited for children to read and I must admit, I enjoyed it as well.

The Book:  Douglas MacArthur: What Greater Honor

The book opens up with a brief harrowing account of MacArthur having to decide whether to leave the island of Corregidor or resign to stay on to fight. I have to add that the book already caught the attention of my youngest as we also were stationed at any Army base in El Paso, Texas so that brought it a little home to her. Both my girls, ages 11 and almost 16, enjoyed reading about this great man of history and given that I'm a huge history fan, I'm constantly pushing this type of reading material on them. The book has 17 chapters that provided an in-depth look into his life.

1. He Would Return
2. The Life of a Captain's Son
3. A Determined Young Man
4. An Officer in Training
5. Lieutenant Douglas MacArthur
6. A Mexican Adventure
7. On the Western Front
8. Promotion
9. Army Chief of Staff
10. Corregidor
11. Escape from Corregidor
12. Island by Island
13. "I Have Returned"
14. Surrender
15. Supreme Commander
16. Korea
17. What Greater Honor

They learned a great deal about MacArthur to include many things I didn't know such as him being promoted to the Army Chief of Staff thus becoming the youngest Chief of Staff in American history. The book not only details the great life of MacArthur, but it provides key time points in history such as the depression and events such as Bonus March. This was in response to those that served in the Great War not receiving bonuses that were promised. With the depression, the government was low on funds, but the Veterans were suffering more. After some time, some of the protesters left but about 10,000 remained. MacArthur kept a close eye on the situation in fear that Communists infiltrated the protesters and would subsequently cause an overthrow of the government. President Hoover ordered MacArthur to assist after the D.C. police shot and killed some of the protesters. As my daughter read this part of the book, she looked at me in disbelief and said, "MacArthur used tear gas on the protesters!" That was a good opportunity to discuss the passage.

Another key part was when MacArthur received the Medal of Honor by Australian Prime Minister John Curtin. This is the highest award of valor in action against an enemy. Upon being pinned, he recalled when his own father received the Medal of Honor. Both he and his father were the only father and son to receive such honor!

There are so many moments that can be shared about the life of Douglas MacArthur from the beginning to the end. It's hard to just pick some of the best as there were so many. When he received the Sylvanus Thayer Award for distinguished service to a nation in May 1962, he gave an unscripted speech that really summed up his life's work and dedication. The final paragraph was:

"Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the corps, and the corps and the corps. I bid you farewell." 

It's a beautifully written biography that provides so much educational material that captivated me. I loved teaching from this book and the guide was so helpful in ensuring my girls understood what they read.

The Unit Study Curriculum Guide

Once the Heroes of History Unit Study Curriculum Guide was downloaded and unzipped, we were instructed to click on the START-HERE.html link that opens to a screen like this:

From here, there are many menu options: 

• The tab for Douglas MacArthur provides an overview of his life.
• The tab for Unit Study provides the guides broken down for small groups, classroom and homeshool as well as the Unit Study that is broken into Unit Study - Part 1 and Unit Study - Part 2. Part 1 is the full body of the unit study and Part 2 is facts and mapping exercises.
• The tab for meet the authors is under construction.
• The Bonus Material tab includes word puzzles and more!
• There are also tabs for reader's reviews (coming soon) and more.

The guide also contains a table of contents that first provides an introduction and a black and white sketch of MacArthur. The guide is for either a school teacher or the homeschooling parent. As I noted above in the review of the book, it does touch on more topics than just a biographical account. It covers:

• History
• Geography
• Essay writing
• Creative writing
• Reading comprehension
• Public speaking
• Drama
• Art

The guide recommends that the teacher or parent decide what works best for your child(ren) based on reviewing the various ideas provided. They also state that the guide is for a variety of learning styles, group or individual study and it can be utilized across grades with examples such as: one activity has the student making a Japanese doll. An older student might make a more complicated doll whereas a younger student might make a simpler version out of paper. All in all, the guide is comprehensive and versatile.

One of sections I utilized were Chapter Questions (photo above). They provide six questions for each chapter:

1. A vocabulary question from the text
2. A factual question arising from the text
3. Two questions to gauge the level of the student's comprehension
4. Two open-ended questions seeking their opinion or interpretation

This was a great example of how they incorporate geography into the curriculum:

We utilized one of the Creative Writing exercises to write a letter to MacArthur:

Overall, it was an exceptional introduction to General Douglas MacArthur. The girls and I enjoyed learning all that we did about such a great man in American history as well as world history given the breadth of his touch across the globe. I probably enjoyed it more than them, but I really hope their interest in history will continue to increase. YWAM Publishing does yet another great job with their Christian Heroes: Then & Now series about Douglas MacArthur.







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