Do you have a young daughter that you are looking for a great girls devotion for her to work through? We recently had the opportunity to review Girl Talk: 52 Daily Devotions, by Lois Walfrid Johnson. A Faithgirlz Guide to Life, this devotional is an excellent self-study for your middle school aged child.

My 11 year old dove right in and has really enjoyed it. She loves to spend some time reading before bed and likes to keep a devotion going for this time of her day. I encourage this and am always looking for age-appropriate, easy to use, self-guided devotions for her. This definitely fit the bill!

The one-year devotional is a collection of stories for each day of the week. Here is some of the weekly titles in the Girl Talk devotional:

-Are you a Quitter?
-It isn't Fair
-Are Boys Really Better?
-I'm Different
-Something to Offer
-Gift from Grandma

Each weekly devotion begins with a short story to read that addresses something that is likely real and on the hearts and minds of today's tweens and teens. The weekly devotion begins with a scripture and then goes into the story, which, of course, relates to the scripture message. Then each day there is an activity or reading to do that corresponds with the topic of the story and the scripture. On the last day, there is a prayer to pray about what is being discussed. The Let's Pray About It section is brief but real and written in a manner that seems genuine for the age group that would be reading the devotion.

There are activities to journal, allowing your daughter to journal through her thoughts about the topic, which is nice. My daughter doesn't like to journal, but she reads through them and talks about them or contemplates them to herself. There are four days of journal entries that go with each weekly devotion and plenty of room to write or doodle thoughts and ideas corresponding to the topic. The journal entries are short like "If we ask God for help to learn to play an instrument, does that mean we do not have to practice? Why or why not?" or "There's an old saying that says 'If at first you don't succeed, try try again. How do you think Rosa would have felt about herself if she had given up when she found it hard to practice? Give reasons why."

The questions are typical for the intended age group of the devotion and my daughter felt the topics that are covered are very current for her. She is enjoying the devotional and looks forward to continuing her study with it.

One of the nice parts of Girl Talk is the opening letter "To the Girl Who Reads This Book." I thought this was a nice opening, and my daughter liked it also. It opens with "This books is about making choices." Then describes the types of choices that your tween or teen may be facing currently in her life. "Learning to make wise choices will help you the rest of your life." She says "But most of all, this book will ask you to reach up, to put your hand within the hand of Jesus and become a Faithgirl." To encourage my daughter to be strong in her faith, to make wise choices, and learn from those that have made wise choices and those that haven't, is an excellent read for her in my opinion.

The book is not elaborate or colorful or full or pictures, it is full of stories and choices and wisdom and scripture and life. It is full of God and this is what I want my daughter to spend time with as she heads to sleep each night. I couldn't be happier with this devotional and I look forward to her continuing to work through it and the discussions that will continue to spawn from her time spent in scripture and in this devotional and our time together discussing it.

-Product review by Tawnee Hinton, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October, 2016