the little hedgehog: -CLOSED- Gifts From The Heart

"The finest gifts in all the world God put inside you..."

-excerpt from Gifts from the Heart

Recently I received the book, Gifts from the Heart by Victoria Osteen. Gifts from the Heart is a sweet and meaningful story about a little girl named Sue and her brother, Jon. They dive into their dress-up box and use their imaginations to become Princess Sue and the knight, Sir Jon. There is to be a royal celebration in honor of the kings birthday, but the children of the village have no money to buy a gift worthy of the king. Princess Sue and Sir Jon help the other children of the village to discover the talents they each possess and they use those gifts to put on a grand performance that delights the king!

Right now, my little man is a bit young to sit through a reading of this entire book, but he does enjoy flipping through the pages and looking at the illustrations! I love that this will be a book that can grow with him. As he gets older, I will be able to talk about the deeper meaning of the book and eventually, I can even go over some of the "Royal Q & A" with him! The "Royal Q & A" asks questions like, "What gifts do you have to share with the world? How can you share them?" and "Have you ever worked together on something big? Why is teamwork so important?" I really like how this story uses childrens imagination to tell a story of gifts that are meaningful while discovering the talents that God has placed inside each of us.

I think that this is a wonderful book for any "prince" or "princess" in your life! I think the message of the book is such an important lesson for all children- the best gifts come from the heart. This is especially an appropriate message with Christmas right around the corner!

A little bit about About Victoria:

Victoria Osteen serves with her husband, Joel, as co-pastor of Lakewood Church—America’s largest church. Today, as a nationally recognized Christian leader and the mother of two children, she is an inspiration and mentor to women everywhere. She is committed to helping women, children and families discover their purpose and reach their highest potential. This summer, she founded the Victoria Osteen Literacy Program, with the hopes of promoting summer reading and encouraging kids to pick up a book and read with their families on hazy, lazy summer days—and throughout the rest of the year. You can find out more about her at VictoriaOsteen.com

“Reading brings families together. I’ve always loved reading to my children because

it’s such as a precious time of interaction and closeness.

We should savor every moment with our children and reading is a wonderful way to do that.”

-- Victoria Osteen

Make reading an important tradition for your family this Christmas and throughout the year by taking some quality time together as a family to just read together. I know that sitting down to read a book with our little man is not only fun as we get to read to our son while he turns the pages for us, but it a great opportunity to have some snuggle time!

You can buy Gifts from the Heart from Simon & Schuster, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble or wherever books are sold

-Or-

You can enter to WIN a copy of Gifts from the Heart from Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing! Simon & Schuster is giving away a copy of Gifts from the Heart to FIVE lucky readers!

Here's how to enter:
Mandatory Entry:

*This mandatory entry must be completed for the rest of your entries to be valid. I will be checking/verifying your comments, if you say you signed up for something or did something, you do need to actually do it for it to count as an entry*

You must my publicly follow my blog via Google Friend Connect AND tell me who this book would be for if you won!

Extra Entries:

Add my *NEW* button to your blog and leave me a link (2 entries)

Follow me on Twitter: @lttlehedgehog then, comment here with your Twitter ID to get your entry. (1 entry)

Tweet about this giveaway. Comment with a direct link to your tweet so I can see it to get your entry! You may use this tweet or make up your own: #Win the book Gifts from the Heart on the @lttlehedgehog blog! FIVE winners! http://bit.ly/91rS4k {Ends 11/23} #giveaway (1 entry per day)

Blog about this review/giveaway. Be sure to include a link to this review/giveaway. Comment with a link to your blog post to get your entry! (2 entries)

Don't forget to put your email address in each comment so I can get a hold of you if you are the lucky winner! If I cannot get a hold of you, I will have to draw another winner! Also, I will check to make sure that the winner filled out the mandatory entry.

Open to U.S. residents only.

I'll accept entries until Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at Midnight PST. I'll select a winner using random.org's random number generator, then email the winner. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email and if I don't get a response, I will have to choose another winner. Again, make sure you leave your email address in your comment!

*Simon & Schuster will be mailing the winner’s book to them directly.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing me with the opportunity to host this review & giveaway at no cost to myself. The item sent to me for review has not influenced my opinion of the product. I have sought to give my honest opinions and experiences on this product. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Thank you again to Simon & Schuster for sponsoring this review and giveaway!