Book Review: "Night Night Farm" by Amy Parker

Every night we read to our kids and have since they were old enough to have an established nightly routine. We put on pajamas, we brush our teeth, we go potty and change diapers, we read a story, we pray, and then we read one or two more stories before we ultimately tuck-in. Whenever an opportunity arises to add a book to our bedtime collection, we are usually quick to jump at the chance. So when FlyBy Promotions offered up a chance to review Amy Parker's "Night Night Farm" - I quickly volunteered.

We were already familiar with Amy Parker because we own her book "Thank You, God, For Daddy" which is a super adorable tribute to a child's dad. It's one of my favorite books to read with our kiddos (because, well, they have an awesome dad). As such I had a feeling I wouldn't be disappointed with "Night Night Farm"; I was right.

This is my favorite picture.
I can't get enough of this baby horse!

The book is a wonderful way to help your child wind down and get ready to go to sleep for the night. Parker takes her reader through a farm and says good night to all the animals before ultimately saying good night to God. The book is written in such a way that it makes it easy to involve your children in the story; as you meet each animal to say good night, page ends with the sound of the animal ("Oink Oink, piggies! "Moo Moo Cows!" etc.). I don't know about you, but my kids love to make animal sounds and they love to get involved with the stories that we read. The language is beautifully simple and it is written in a classic rhythm that makes it easy to read and keep your tired little ones focused.

From an artistic standpoint, the illustrations done by Virginia Allyn are wonderful. The colors are bright, the expressions on the animals are adorable, and the details are incredible. You can follow a pair of mice on each set of pages as they make sure all the other animals are in bed before they come out to play while everyone's asleep - and the things they are doing on each page are just cute fun and another way to get your kids involved in the story. You can have them look for the mice and tell you what they're doing as you read the book together. While Parker's writing is certainly wonderful, engaging, simple, and perfect for small kiddos - it's the illustrations that are a real winner for me. There's always something new to find or look at every time I open the book.

Sheep counting sheep!

My favorite part of this book, though, is how easily you can make it a part of the nightly routine. If your routine, like ours, includes praying with your children - this is the perfect book to read right before you pray. In the final pages of the book, Parker talks about how God has made all the animals - and us - and say "night night" to Him. I have found that this provides a great segue into our family bedtime prayers - "A great way that we can say good night to God is to pray". Because I have found that anything that aids in making the bedtime routine smoother seems to get my kids to settle down and go to sleep easier - this is a huge win for me with this book.

If you are interested in getting a copy of this book, it is available on Amazon for - get this - ONLY $6.01 (at the time of this post). To get your own copy you can click here OR... OR...

Yep, I'm giving one away. 

Thanks to the fine folks at FlyBy Promotions, one lucky winner can get a copy of "Night Night Farm" delivered right to their door FREE of charge. To enter, you can do one or all of the following:

1. Comment below with your favorite story to read with your kiddo(s).
2. Comment below in a separate comment below with your favorite story that you read as a kid.
3. Share this post on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest and comment in a separate comment below that you did. 

The giveaway will end Wednesday, September 7 2016 at noon and the winner will be announced on Thursday September 8 2016.

You will not be sorry if you either purchase or win this book - it's well written, it's engaging to kids, the illustrations are wonderful, and it's a great addition to your bedtime routine. I definitely recommend this book to you if you have kids and are looking for an easy way to incorporate relating to and learning about God into your day-to-day routines.

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"Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post. Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway.  If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win.  Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”