God Gave Us Love

God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn Bergern with art by Laura J. Bryant introduces kids to God’s amazing love.  In this short board book Little Cub discusses with his Grandpa the nature of love; including love for family and others, like otters who can be tough to love.  Grandpa teaches Little Cub about the great depth of God’s love and how we in response should love those that are just not loveable, like our family, but also unlovable otters.  The lesson is told accompanying by charming illustrations of Little Cub and his family, and even otters.

This is a review of a board book edition of this title which have previously been printed in other formats.  It is packaged and targeted for children 0 to 3.  And honestly it does not work well.  For a board book, there are too many words on a page and too much content.  I’m pretty sure that the book has more words than this review, which is a bad recipe in my opinion for a board book.  And that content is well above the head of most of that age group.  Personally, I feel that this title would work much better with children closer to 5 than 3.  Personally, I would recommend buying a non-board version of this story and give it to children older than 3. 

Review Copy Provided by Waterbrook Press

Great Day Every Day by Max Lucado

Max Lucado in Great Day Every Day: Navigating Life’s Challenges with Promise and Purpose inspires his reader to make the most out of day the Lord has made.  The book is broken into three key sections, “Saturate Your Day in His Grace”, “Entrust Your Day to His Oversight”, and “Accept His Direction”.  In general the book focuses on reorientating one’s view of a day, not seeing it as either ordinary or a challenge to overcome.  Instead Lucado challenges the reader to see God’s hand in the day, and be able to make the most of every single day in completing the purposes that God has built them for.  He shows his readers how to overcome crisis, depression and fear in order to achieve these purposes by entrusting one’s self to the Lord.  By entrusting everyday to God, Lucado shows that one can overcome the challenges of the day to have purpose and direction.  The core chapters are all followed by a one page “Daily Compass” that helps the reader reflect on the content of the chapter.  There is also an extensive discussion guide for small groups.  Additionally, the text is followed by a 30 day devotional, which though not written by Lucado, follows the three themes of the book. 

Great Day Every Day is a reprint of Lucado’s earlier Every Day Deserves a Chance.  The main differences between the two versions is the “Daily Compass” was previously labeled “Daylifter”, the 30 day devotional is not present in the earlier version, and the packaging and art of Great Day Every Day has a more serious tone.  Lucado, as always, is a very good writer with chapters that are easy to read and comprehend.  I think this would be a decent resource for a daily devotional due to the shortness of the chapters, usually 5 to 9 pages, and the “Daylifter” wrap up.  Anyone who has read a Lucado book in the past will be familiar with this type of Lucado book and content.  This does appear to provide more for the customer dollar than the original printing with the addition of the 30 day devotional.  Overall Great Day Every Day is a typical Lucado offering which fans will enjoy. 

Review Copy Provided for Purposes of Review