Do you remember the Golden Records that came with Little Golden books? I remember having dozens of Little Golden Books that came with a cassette tapes, ranging from fairy tales to Sesame Street. I even recall listening to a few vinyl records that belonged to my grandma.

Golden Records is the most successful children record label in America. It was created by Arthur Shimkin in 1948. Each record contained an amazing orchestration and popular voice talents. Now, Golden Records is releasing their classic songs and stories onto CDs for a whole new generation, combining some old favorites tunes with new celebrity vocals.

I was recently sent a CD of Volume 1consisting of the amazing celebrity voices of Ed Asner, Alicia Silverstone, Susan Sarandon; Constance Marie, Didi Conn, Cheryl Hines, and Busy Phillips, courtesy of Golden Records in exchange for an honest review.

R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series: Volume One
Director: Neil Feranley
Starring: Bailee Madison, Neil Fearnley
Studio: Shout! Factory
ASIN: B0089BSODC
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Running Time: 140 minutes
Rated: NR 
Bonus: A Look Behind the Screams and Original Promos

Do you remember the Goosebumps books and TV series from the 1990s from horror mastermind R.L. Stine? Well, his new series The Haunting Hour debuted in 2010 on The Hub cable channel based upon his The Haunting Hour book, a collection of short stories.

I've been a die-hard R.L. Stine fan since I was a kid, but I don't get The Hub channel, so I patiently waited for the DVDs to be released! The Haunting Hour follows the typical 22 minutes length per episode, but unlike the Goosebumps series, this series has a bigger budget and better acting. The special effects are much better this time around and the stories are much darker.

In the two-part premiere Really You, Lilly (played by Bailee Madison) is a spoiled girl, always getting what she wants from her parents, especially from her dear old dad. What she wants now is the Really You life-size doll, in which her parents give in and get it for her. Strange things begin happening and Lilly suspects her doll is responsible. Her mother starts acting strange and becomes obsessed with the doll. Lilly realizes that this doll may want to actually become her.

We sometimes think of sacred ground as a very grand or unusual place, marked by ornate gates and much symbolism. But sacred ground can be quite unassuming and ordinary.

Katie, the heroine of THE HALLOWED ONES, has always lived on sacred ground. She’s grown up in a peaceful Amish settlement, living with her parents and sister in the house where she was born. She knows every other person in the settlement. Crime is unheard-of. Though she has many responsibilities, Katie has always been free to wander about the rural settlement, to feel the cool grass under her fingers and the warm sun on her face. She feels safe here, though she yearns to test her boundaries and taste the world outside her fence.

The Amish church is the key to the sacredness of her community. Church services in her world take place at each house on a rotating basis – there is no physical church building. Pews are unloaded into each backyard every other Sunday, and worship is wound into everyday lives and places.

The Breakthrough
A Precinct 11 Novel
By: Jerry B. Jenkins
Publisher: Tyndale
ISBN: 978-1414335841
Pub Date: August 17, 2012
Pages: 400

I have read the other two books in the Precinct 11 series and I eagerly signed up to review the third installment The Breakthrough through Tyndale's blog program.

The Breakthrough continues the story of Boone Drake, the youngest bureau chief in the Chicago Police Department history. He has been through many heartbreaking challenges that have tested his faith in God. Boone is now married to a beautiful woman and he has adopted his wife's young son. Just when everything seems perfect, life and death situations occur that will once again challenge his faith in others and in God.

Unending Devotion
Written by: Jody Dedlund
Publisher: Bethany House
ISBN: 978-0764208348
Pub Date: September 1, 2012
Pages: 374
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/dihgn
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/JHedlund

The year is 1883 and Lily Young spends her days as a photographer's assistant traveling to logging camps and small towns, but Lily has another agenda up her sleeve. She is actually searching for her missing younger sister.

While in Harrison, Michigan, Lily crosses path with Connell McCormick, an Irishman and knife thrower. Connell is helping his father increase the fortune by running three of their logging operations. He wants to expand their operations and hopefully show his father that he is responsible. He has moral values, but he also has eyes for the saloon girls.

Lily's goal of finding her sister may be in jeopardy as she starts to fall for the handsome Connell, and his goal of expanding his father's business may be in trouble as he also has feelings for Lily.

The Reason
Written by: William Sirls
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 978-1401687366
Pub Date: September 4th, 2012
Pages: 416

Late one stormy night, a small Michigan town is shaken to it's core when lighting strikes a church's fifteen foot wooden cross, splintering it in two and the upper section falls to the ground.

The congregation is small, and the blind minister, James Lindy, doesn't know how they are going to afford to repair the cross and keep their faith at the same time.

A young boy, Alex, who attends the church with his mother, Brooke, has been diagnosed with leukemia. A young oncologist, Macey Lewis, wants to help him with modern medicine, while Brooke puts her hope in faith.

Dead Men Kill
By: L. Ron Hubbard
Voice Cast: John Mariano, Jennifer Aspen, R.F. Daley, Lori Jablons, Jim Meskimen and Matt Scott
Publisher: Galaxy Press
ISBN: 978-1592123506
Pub Date: January 1, 2010
Approx: 2 hours 5 minutes

Stories from the Golden Age from Galaxy Press are a line of audiobooks and paperbacks, in which all titles are by the short stories written L. Ron Hubbard in the 1930s and 1940s. The stories appeared in Pulp Magazines. Galaxy Press was nice enough to send me several free audiobooks in exchange for an honest review. Yes, I'm aware that L. Ron Hubbard is the founder of Scientology. People tend to ignore his writings because of his religion. I'm a Christian and it doesn't bother what religion L. Ron Hubbard believed in as he was a talented author, writing in many genres.

All 150 short stories written by the author are being released in both audio and paperback from Stories from the Golden Age. For each story they use a variety of talented voice actors, such as John Mariano, Jennifer Aspen, R.F. Daley, Lori Jablons, Jim Meskimen and Matt Scott. 

Okay, well I have to start out by saying I grew up in the 80s. So, I have a lot of favorites that kids today have no idea about. You know what I mean. Well, in a backlash to the terrible kids fiction series of today (no names mentioned *cough* Twilight *cough*) I give you my favorite book series as a child. I leaned towards the scary, the adventures, and the creative, as you can see. If your child wants to read a really great book, then why not start them out with one of these three?

1. Aliens Ate My Homework by Bruce Coville – When tiny aliens land in your room and start eating your homework, what do you do? Join them of course! This book series by well-known author Bruce Coville had me alternating between hysterical laughter and thoughtful repose. More than just a sci-fi fluff piece, this series delves into what it means to be alien, father-son relationships, and what true friendship is. Whether defeating alien bullies at school or traveling the universe with a four-legged karate master, Rod Albright learns a lot about how things work.

I’m tired of gray morals and anti-heroes.

It took me long enough. As a kid who grew up reading comic books, I would run away from do-gooders like Spider-Man and Captain America. Spider-Man was impossible for any artist to treat seriously, what with every available inch of negative space being filled word balloons of light-hearted stream-of-consciousness “jokes”, and Captain America’s square jaw and “do the right thing” philosophy just smacked of simpleton virtues and an unwavering devotion to the status quo. No, I wanted to see the Punisher hunt down criminals and gun them down in endless succession. The guy was basically a serial killer with a heart of gold, and I loved it.

It took a while for the anti-hero ideal to spread, but now, in some watered-down sense, it’s everywhere. A lot of writers these days are making their heroes more “human” by showing their weakness, their indecision, and their keen sense of their own failings. Sure, literature’s bygone heroes might have been cardboard cutouts of perfection, but when did we decide that humanity was the most limp-wristed animal on the block?

Are we really looking to blood-sucking vampires when we look for an ideal to live by? Moral shades of gray? What does that even mean?