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

My First Hands-On Bible

My First Hands-On Bible is a preschool targeted Bible story compilation using the New Living Translation.  The Bible translation is abridged but is not revised for children, so the editors recommend stopping and discussing complicated words when necessary.  Each story is about 3-5 pages long and is accompanied by illustrations that children can understand.  Additionally each story includes cues and activity suggestions that help engage children in the story with actions to perform, like saying a work or pretend playing an action.  Additionally, each story is followed by a short prayer, questions suitable for preschool and short activities.  The text does not include all of the Bible, but selected stories from both the Old and New Testament. 

Overall, this Bible is very appropriate for preschoolers.  The NLT translation does not speak down to them, but provides them a piece of text that their parents could easily be reading in their own Bibles. I used this Bible with my church’s preschool classroom and found that children stayed engaged as I read the story thanks to the brief activities interjected into the text.  Additionally afterwards they stayed on task, and had fun, as we did things seven times in celebration of Naaman’s cleansing.  And each child remembered, thanks to that activity, that Naaman washed in the Jordan seven times as they were released their parents.  I’m very impressed with the post lesson activities and am seriously considering using this Bible with preschooler’s long term.  My only complaint, which another children’s worker had to point to me, is the illustrations.  The illustrations of people are exclusively Caucasian, and I wish they showed the greater diversity of God’s people.  But despite this complaint I would easily consider adopting this text in my ministry. 

Review Copy Provided by Tyndale House Publishers

The Spirit in Football by Kathryn Nixon and Ana Boudreau

Kathryn Nixon and Ana Boudreau in The Spirit in Football presents the fruits of the spirits from Galatians 5:22-23 to children through images and word pictures related to football. For example, they present to children the idea of gentleness by not reacting badly to a penalty. Or one learns about joy through the excitement of a touchdown. Each of the nine fruits of the spirit is presented in two pages, with one page providing a supporting verse and the other page matching the specific fruit of the spirit to a concept familiar to those who enjoy football. The book also includes an introduction from National Football League player Matt Hasselbeck and a football themed prayer.

I’m a sports fan and looked forward to sharing this book with my son. He really enjoys playing with sports balls so I thought the pictures would grab his interest. He, a young three year old, sat patiently through a full reading of the book. But on a personal level he was more engaged with the author’s baseball book on the fruits of the spirit. At this time, the fruits of the spirit are over his head. But, this book does help serve to introduce concepts like kindness and self control to young children and begin the foundations of character building.

Review Copy Provided by The B&B Media Group, Inc.

The Spirit in Baseball by Kathryn Nixon and Ana Boudreau

Kathryn Nixon and Ana Boudreau in The Spirit in Baseball presents the fruits of the spirits from Galatians 5:22-23 to children through images and word pictures related to baseball. For example, they present to children the idea of patience through waiting for one’s turn at bat. Or one learns about joy through the excitement of a homerun. Each of the nine fruits of the spirit is presented in two pages, with one page providing a supporting verse and the other page matching the specific fruit of the spirit to a concept familiar to those who enjoy baseball. The book also includes an afterward from Mrs. Nixon’s husband Trot Nixon, former Major League Baseball player, and a baseball themed prayer.

I’m a big baseball fan, so this book caught my interest since I could share faith and baseball at the same time with my son. But to be honest, as a young three year old what engaged him was finding the baseball in every picture. He really likes sports balls. So the great news was he would be willing to sit through multiple reads since he could find the baseball every time. But alas the fruits of the spirit are at this time over his head. But, this book does help serve to introduce concepts like kindness and self control to young children.

Review Copy Provided by The B&B Media Group, Inc.

The Tallest of Smalls by Max Lucado

In the town of Stiltsville the community is divided into two groups. Once group places themselves above the other standing on stilts. Ollie is a boy who sees himself as not special and desires to be valued by receiving the gift of stilts. When Ollie receives his stilts, his raised position above those on the ground does not last long and Ollie learns that his value is not in stilts but in his relationship with his maker and savior.

Overall this is a very cute book with great illustrations that help engage children to the text. My daughter pointed out visuals that corresponded with the story, furthering the experience. However, despite its cuteness the book does fall a little flat in some areas. The cover advertises a tie-in to the adult Lucado book Fearless. However, readers not familiar with that book will have a hard time connecting this children’s story with the topic of fear. Also in many ways this book feels like another telling if the Punchinello You are Special story which shares a common theme with this book, but Punchinello is more subtle and effective in execution.

Review Copy provided by Thomas Nelson