Book Review: Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper

Katherine DeBrecht has done it again. Following up on the wildly successful Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed, she brings a hilarious sequel in Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper. Once again, DeBrecht takes aim at liberal elites and has them dead to rights in this amusing satire of celebrity worship and the cultural influnence that we allow them to have.
Jim Hummel again provides the illustrations for this book and his caricatures of the different celebrities are so good it's impossible not to guess who is being skewered.

The story involves Janie and Sam, two sisters who want to start a babysitting business to save money for a new bike. But they are also big fans of certain celebrity shows (along the lines of Entertainment Tonight or just about anything you see on E! Entertainment Network). Soon Janie and Sam start paying attention to what these celebrities have to say about fashion, manners, and other things and that's when everything goes awry.

This is a great book that parents can use with their kids to show them the dangers of celebrity worship and also to make them more aware of how the media attempts to influence culture and values. Best of all, Ms. DeBrecht presents her message with a humorous touch that makes the book easy to enjoy.

Here's hoping that there are more Help Mom! books to come to help parents equip their children to be more aware of the influences around them.

This book was provided to me by Word Ahead Publishing through Active Christian Media. No compensation was received for this review apart from the book.

Christian Carnival CXX

It's a privilege to once again host the Christian Carnival, the weekly roundup of some of the best writing in the Christian blogosphere. This week. we have posts on politics, life, church, economics, and much more. Here are this week's entries submitted for your consideration:

Do faith and politics mix? Northern 'burbs blog continues a series on this topic by examining how Christians need to be salt and light in political involvement.

Cross Blogging explores why protecting marriage is important to protecting parental rights.

Jack Yoest asks whether America is trending pro-life and what that might mean for marketers.

In Chickenhawk Christians, Laura at Pursuing Holiness ponders the war and how a Christian can support it.

Meanwhile, Imago Deo takes a Baptist Protester to task for speaking out against the war.

John Bambenek at Part-Time Pundit answers the question of how to reconcile disagreements with government policy with St. Peter's teaching on obedience to the government.

What is a blog? And how does it fit into the realms of good and evil? Shaun Nolan suggests that if blogging is to be worthwhile, it must enter into, and remain in, the sphere of that which is “true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and worthy of praise.”

Thoughts of a Gyrovague wonders whether we are losing the art of linguistics in a post entitled The Art of Persuasion.

Kneon has a sneak preview of upcoming Christian comic book special to be given away at comic book conventions.

A Penitent Blogger reflects on the need for Christ to be heard in a culture that doesn't want to listen.

Kim from Life in a Shoe has a story about the preciousness of life in a post entitled Sarah.

Can faith and science co-exist? Thinking Christian examines whether belief in miracles is compatible with science.

Parableman tackles whether Intelligent Design is compatable with the laws of nature by examining the arguments of William Dembski.

Bruce at It Seems to Me... offers God and the Astronomers, a look at faith and science, specifically, the type of faith that scientific inquiry is likely to produce.

The Doctor Is In reflects on how the onslaught of modern medicine has prompted a decision to change in The Epiphany.

What should a church look like? According to Rev Bill, it should look like a biker wedding (and I'm inclined to agree with him).

Fresh from live blogging Together for the Gospel, Light Along the Journey looks at Two Ways a Pastor Must Die.

Crossroads looks back at history to answer the question of whether Control is Good?

In "Three Persons, One Substance" - Paradox or Solution, Kenny Pearce discusses the origin of this particular formulation of the Trinity, how much information it contains, and whether Protestants ought to regard it as a dogmatic definition, since the exact phrase does not appear in Scripture. In particular it discusses the question of whether the words 'person' and 'substance' in this formulation are intended to have their ordinary meanings, and analogous meaning, or no meaning at all.

Welcome to the Fallout has a three-way conversation about what went wrong with mankind and who's to blame in Hashing Out the Problem of Evil.

My God is not capable of lying; is yours? The doctrine of inerrancy, and why it matters, is the subject of this week's submission from The No Kool-Aid Zone.

Kehaar presents Count Your Blessings posted at Life Rebooted. This post had me thinking about the many ways that I have been blessed and should be more thankful than I am.

Sun and Shield has a review of Michael Wittmer's Michael Wittmer's book, Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God.

That's all for this week's carnival. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Next week the carnival will be hosted by Something Epic.