Barbour Publishing, Diary of a Real Payne Book 1: True Story, A Review

Diary of a Real Payne Book 1: True Story by Annie Tipton from Barbour Publishing was offered to the TOS Schoolhouse Review Crew this fall.

I was excited to see a new paperback book, the first in a series, aimed for kids with values that we enjoy. After looking at the book on the Barbour Publishing Website I thought my twelve year son might like it.

The story of a 10 year old girl, living in the small town of Spooner, Wisconsin visiting small town tourist attractions, stores and a small town school yet wanting to do big things like racing cars, participating in the Payne-fully Spectacular Circus, and opening the Super Stylz Salon.

The book is written partly graphically like other “Diary” books, part epistolary, part narrative juvenile fiction with pages of hand printed fonts on diary pages. My son enjoyed the different fonts and drawings.

I will give the disclaimer that, unlike all of the other homeschool kids you read about, mine still refuse to read for the fun of it. No need to comment below, we’ve tried it all. Including no electronics, cable, or gaming devices. Right now he is pulling mushrooms out of the forest and drawing waves on them. Sigh.

He liked this book. I would give him time limits and he’d steal away to a quiet spot in the house and read past the time limit. He said he liked the girl E.J. She has a wild imagination and wants to do bigger things. She has a little brother, Isaac, The Space Invader who annoys her. I asked if the Pain, Payne was for her brother or her parents or herself. He said it was her last name, and that being 10 in a small town is a pain. He speaks from the experience of living in a small coastal tourist town.

Her mother is a school teacher and father is a pastor. They work through their family issues while working on character training, learning that about love and service from a biblical view point. E.J. learns that big things do happen in small towns.

Diary of a Real Payne is a 192 page paperback recommended for ages 8-12 for $5.99 from Barbour Publishing. Diary of a Real Payne: True Story is the first in the series. Book 2, Church Camp Chaos releases in March 2014.

A friend from Kathy’s Cluttered Mind shared:

Barbour Publishing is an Ohio based company that has been distributing and publishing Christian books since 1981. Each year they release over 150 new books. Barbour has shipped over one hundred million books to families and retailers around the globe.

From the Barbour website – When the company’s unit sales reached fourteen million in a fiscal year, Martins commented, “I’m really excited about that figure. That’s fourteen million Christian books – not fourteen million hamburgers, or fourteen million cars, or fourteen million computers. It’s fourteen million books sharing the message of Christ!”