Ray and Tina Houser
Warner Press
softcover, 152 pages, $12.99
9781593177393
July 1
With Egermeier’s Fun Family Devotions: 52 Interactive Devotions From the New Testament, families can read and enjoy the Bible in a fun atmosphere. The step-by-step approach to each lesson makes the family devotion process simple. The guide includes 52 lessons from the New Testament that correlate with Egermeier’s Bible Story Book, and each lesson includes Scripture references, background information and questions. Following each lesson are creative, engaging activities for preschoolers and older children that reinforce the story and can be done with simple objects.
Orders: Call 800-741-7721 or fax 800-347-6411.

Joy, laughter and friendship are celebrated in a new whimsical collection by renowned author and artist Mary Engelbreit, known for her New York Times best-seller The Night Before Christmas. Releasing July 29, The Blessings of Friendship Treasury (9780310745099, $17.99, hardcover, Zonderkidz) is filled with poems, sayings and Scripture verses that teach the true meaning of friendship and show the blessings of a life surrounded by love.

Orders: 800-727-1309.

Girls of all ages want to feel like Cinderella at the ball, but some feel more like Cinderella before the ball—overlooked, inadequate, hurting or maybe even used and abused. Best-selling author Serita Ann Jakes knows how past failures and present hurts can prevent believers from realizing their true identity in Jesus, and has helped hundreds of girls work through personal struggles such as poor self-esteem, difficult friendships, family problems and secret shame. In The Princess Within for Teens (9780764212048, $14.99, softcover, Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group), Jakes, wife of T.D. Jakes, sets out to help young women to walk in confidence, knowing her true beauty comes from a Christ-honoring life.

Adult editions of The Princess Within have sold nearly a quarter-million copies. The teen edition includes insights from her debutante program for young women.

Orders: 800-877-2665.

Written by New York Times best-selling Robyn Spizman—who frequently appears on NBC's Today show and specializes in gift-giving and women's issues—and David Ries, Hooray for Girls (978-1-932-31719-0) is a story and activity book designed to help girls build self-esteem.

The second, Peach Tree (-03-9), offers a lesson in time and patience as a boy waits for warm weather. Written by Right Stuff Kids President Steve Tiller, the book combines a message about reaching for the things in life with the wisdom of a green fruit ripening in its own time.

Both illustrated by Robert Cremeans—known for using bright colors and a wide range of art styles for children's books—the 36-page titles for 4- to 9-year-olds are available in hardcover ($16) and softcover ($8) editions, released simultaneously.

Both books are related to a cause, and Right Stuff Kids will donate a portion of the sales to charity. Money from Hooray for Girls will be given to Girls Incorporated of Greater Atlanta, a nonprofit organization that helps provide after-school activities and educational opportunities to at-risk girls in the Atlanta area. Right Stuff Kids is looking to partner with charitable organization for a portion of sales from Peach Tree.

To order, call Right Stuff Kids at 404-316-8309, or go to www.RightStuffKids.com.

Barbour Publishing is releasing a new book series for girls aged 8-12 featuring characters who come from different parts of the country and various backgrounds—but all with an inclination for intrigue.

The 24-title "Camp Club Girls" series is written by Renae Brumbaugh, Shari Barr, Linda Carlblom, Jean Fischer, Janice Hanna and Erica Rodgers.

"Using the backdrop of fun adventure mysteries set across the United States, our girls face things the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew never would have dreamed of," Barbour Series Editor Jeanette Littleton said. "Each book brings home a specific spiritual lesson for the reader. These books are fun reading voyages that also teach young girls that no matter what their interests or skills, God can use them."

Starting next month, two books will release every other month through November 2011. Each 160-page paperback in the series will retail for $5.97. The first two books in the series—Camp Club Girls & the Mystery at Discovery Lake (978-1-602-60267-0) and Sydney's D.C. Discovery (-68-7)—are scheduled to be followed by McKenzie's Montana Mystery (-69-4) and Alexis and the Sacramento Surprise (-70-0) in March 2010, and Kate's Philadelphia Frenzy (-71-7) and Bailey's Peoria Problem (-72-4) in May 2010.

To kick off the series, Barbour is holding contests both for readers and stores. Readers will be offered a chance to win the "Kate's Gadget Girl" grand-prize gift basket worth more than $2,000. Named after one of the Camp Club Girls characters who loves gadgets, the grand prize includes a MacBook computer, Nintendo Wii, iPod Nano, Canon digital camera and video journal. Running from January to August 2010, the contest also offers a Camp Club Girls backpack full of goodies to 25 monthly winners.

Retailers can win prizes by entering the Camp Club Girls retail contest. The grand-prize winner will receive $1,000 store credit for the book series and a $100 Pizza Hut gift card for a staff party. Three runner-up winners will receive $500 store credit and a $100 Pizza Hut card. Store contestants will be judged on creativity, sales and overall promotional support of the series.

For more information on the "Camp Club Girls" series and contest details, visit www.campclubgirls.com. To order, contact Barbour Publishing at 800-852-8010.

Angie Brillhart is publicist for Barbour Publishing.

Barbour Publishing is adding to its "Super Bible Activities" series for kids ages 6 to 10 this month, with four new titles intended to offer learning and fun for young readers.

Super Bible Crosswords for Kids (978-1-602-60474-2), Super Bible Word Games for Kids (-392-9), Super Bible Activities for Kids 2 (-473-5) and Super Clean Jokes for Kids (-391-2) each retail for $5.97.

"Barbour has produced a lot of kids' activity books over the years, and these new collections draw upon some of our most popular topics," said Paul Muckley, senior editor for nonfiction at Barbour Publishing. "These books are perfect for rainy days at home, trips in the car and giveaways at church."

Super Bible Crosswords for Kids features more than 160 age-appropriate puzzles, each enhanced by fun, line-art illustrations. The crosswords focus on the Bible's book of John and the topic of prayer. In Super Bible Word Games for Kids, more than 150 crosswords, word search puzzles and fill-in-the-blank activities center on the issue of faith, while Super Bible Activities for Kids 2 includes a variety of paper-and-pencil activities on the book of Romans and the topic of grace.

All three activity books were written and illustrated by husband-and-wife team Ken and Vickie Save. Printed in black and white on quality crème paper, each title is brightly covered with kid-friendly illustrations.

Super Clean Jokes for Kids is a collection of several hundred jokes, riddles and one-liners, organized into 80 categories.

To order, call Barbour at 800-852-8010 or go to www.barbourbooks.com.

Though the account of Noah's Ark has been presented time and again in numerous styles and formats, Master Books believes it has a fresh perspective on the familiar subject in Noah's Floating Animal Park (978-0-890-51576-1, $9.99), released last month.

Author Janine Suter teamed with illustrator Richard Gunther to present a more realistic ark than often depicted and to highlight scriptural points many times overlooked. Using vivid colors and illustrations, the book combines humor and rhyme to help kids understand the Flood and the global impact we still see today.

Suter, who refers to her writing as "Dr. Seuss meets Henry Morris," said she was pleased to be able to share foundational truths in a new way. "I really wrote these books to show that it could be done. … God's truth can be presented in a popular 'storybook' style without being untrue to the text," she said.

The book is one of three in an apologetics series by Suter with Master Books—an imprint of New Leaf Publishing Group—this fall. Its companion titles are The Not-So Super Skyscraper and The Day the World Went Wacky, which tell of the Tower of Babel and the Garden of Eden.

New Leaf President Tim Dudley said that in considering new titles, one of the first questions for a publisher must be, "Can we find a market for this material, especially if it is a topic that has been dealt with before?"

With New Leaf having produced many other books on Noah, there was also the issue of: "What makes this product stand out from the others that have been done previously? If you can't answer that question, then maybe the market doesn't need it. If you see something special in the content or unusual in the presentation, then the project is definitely one to consider."

For Dudley, the standouts of Suter's new book were "illustrations that all ages can enjoy, as well as making the biblical truth easy to relate to and very creatively presented, including a great explanation of animal kinds that every child can understand."

To order Noah's Floating Animal Park, call New Leaf at 800-999-3777 or go to www.masterbooks.net.

Stacey Drake is publicist for New Leaf Publishing Group.