It’s happened again.

Only this time its even better!

I’m talking about the second Girls Who Choose God  book by McArthur Krishna and Bethany Spalding. I shared the first book last year. It features eleven women from the Bible. This year’s release is all about the strong women in the Book of Mormon. Yes!

Here, I’ll let McArthur tell you how it all came about.

After twelve times, I quit counting the number of times I have read the Book of Mormon.  I only say that not as bragging rights (because, duh, bragging is dumb and really dumb about spiritual stuff)– but just to point out how egregious my own mistake was.

When Bethany and I were in a meeting with Deseret Book about the first Girls Who Choose God book, I was one of the people who nodded and agreed, “Yup– there aren’t enough women in the Book of Mormon to do its own volume”–  and so we decided to focus on the Bible.

And, isn’t that what we all think?  After all, there ARE only six named women in the Book of Mormon.

Fast forward a year later– we were researching and reading and actually paying attention and we found an amazing thing– there are LOTS of times women are mentioned in the Book of Mormon.  Over 155 times, in fact. Frankly, we got all excited wondering if there were actually enough substance to write a Girls Who Choose God book with these women?

Turns out, with a lot of prayerful wrangling, there is.

Drumroll…. Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Strong Women from the Book of Mormon is now available.

Why do I think it is so important to write this book?  Well, because I was so wrong. Despite the fact I had read the Book of Mormon so much, I had completely missed what the scriptures taught me about women. I didn’t know about the astounding faith of the Lamanite Queen, the powerful prayers of Nephi’s wife, the courage of the teenage girls of the people of Zeniff. These are bold, strong women who served with their might… and their contribution changed the outcome of battles, families, whole civilizations. Wow.

I co-authored this book because I want a new generation of girls and boys to NOT miss the contribution of women in the scriptures… and women who are all around them now. I want them to know women’s contribution to God’s work MATTERS.

Hope you enjoy it too!

McArthur
P.S. for a LOT more information about what we can gather from the women in the Book of Mormon, read this article.

Now that you’ve heard HOW it came to be let me tell you why I love Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Strong Women from the Book of Mormon.

1. The stories are told in a wonderful way for little kids but with enough detail that older children, teens, and adults can also learn from them.
2. Each story presents a dilemma, a choice that each woman had to make. You find out what path they took and the consequences of those actions after you turn the page.
3. At the end of each story you are asked to answer a question: When have you been brave for your beliefs? When have you chosen to have faith? When have you chosen to speak up against something that was wrong?
4. Discussion questions at the end of the book help to expand the conversation between parents and children.
5. Character traits like faith, love, bravery, and even integrity are taught using the lives of these women as examples.
6. THE ARTWORK done by Kathleen Peterson is phenomenal! Before the stories begin Kathleen explains a bit about the illustrations and why a painting of a tree plays prominently at the beginning of each story.

Another reason why I love the illustrations is because these women look like me and my daughters making them more personal to us. In fact, as I was reading the book to my children, Jason (age 2) pointed to the picture below and exclaimed, “Mom, its you!” Yeah, I can see myself as a righteous Lamanite Queen! No problem. He also said the photo above of the woman clapping for joy looked like me too. I’m hoping that’s a sign he sees me as a happy mom. 😀

What do kids learn from this book?

Choose God.

Strong women in the Book of Mormon show us many ways to boldly choose God. Learning from their examples, we can gain strength for our own lives. We can love those who are different than us, speak out against wrongs, defend those in trouble, break from false traditions, and choose God in all things. (from the end of the book)

I love this book and think you will love it too!

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book by Deseret Book to review. All opinions are my own.