Tag: christian (page 11 of 39)

Sammy and His Shepherd, by Susan Hunt | Little Book, Big Story

February 12, 2021 / 0 Comments

Sammy & His Shepherd

The Lord is our shepherd—but what exactly does that mean to a child who lives miles from the nearest sheep?

In Sammy and His Shepherd, Susan Hunt walks families through the twenty-third psalm one verse at a time, showing readers what it means for a good shepherd to lead his flock to still waters or through dark valleys. She does this through the story of Sammy, a sheep who lives within the Good Shepherd’s fold, and of Sammy’s friend, a neglected sheep living in the neighboring pasture.

Sammy’s friend has never experienced the care that Sammy’s shepherd gives him, and as Sammy explains it to her, Sammy begins to appreciate more fully the gift it is to belong to the Good Shepherd. And when the shepherd purchases Sammy’s friend and welcomes her into his flock, Sammy walks alongside her and helps her learn to trust her new shepherd’s care even when she doesn’t fully understand it.

Part devotional, part storybook, Sammy and His Shepherd illustrates the relationship of a good shepherd to his sheep so beautifully that I find myself thinking about it still, weeks after we finished the book. And it’s clear I’m not the only one still thinking about it: our daughters have been sketching sheep and shepherds since the book’s end. By telling this as a story, rather than as a straightforward devotional, Susan Hunt has given us something to picture when we read Psalm 23. And she has helped my daughters take that psalm—and the glorious truths within it—to heart in a new way.

Sammy and His Shepherd: Seeing Jesus in Psalm 23
Susan Hunt; Cory Godbey (2008)

November 20, 2020 / 0 Comments

9 Books About Prayer for Children

Prayer is a beautiful, essential part of the Christian life. Through it, we know our God better. We see ourselves more clearly. And yet, it is confusing. And hard. And we hardly ever want to do it. Why pray about things when God already knows everything? Why talk to someone we can’t see? How do we know he’s listening?

These are questions kids (and adults) ask. So it’s helpful to have great resources on hand to help us parents as we do our best to answer our children’s questions. (It is also helpful to offer up a bumbling prayer: God, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Or what my child is hearing. But you know! Please help! I am a big fan of the bumbling prayer.)

On this list, you’ll find a few books about prayer, a few books of prayers, and a few books that help guide your family’s prayers—bumbling and otherwise.

Loved, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Sally Lloyd-Jones’s lovely paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer is a delight to read together. Loved introduces the youngest readers to the beauty of simple, open, childlike conversation with God. (Read the full review.)

Everything a Child Should Know About Prayer, by Nancy Guthrie

What Every Child Should Know About Prayer, by Nancy Guthrie | Little Book, Big Story

This is a topical book that looks at prayer from all sides. Nancy Guthrie uses short, warm readings to help guide a family discussion. (Read the full review.)

The Prayer Map for Girls: A Creative Journal

This guided journal helps children learn to pray by giving them simple prompts and lots of space to write their prayers. (We, of course, have the edition for girls, but Prayer Map journals are also available for boys and for adults.)

The Lord’s Prayer, by Tim Ladwig

Like Loved, this book looks at the Lord’s Prayer, but Tim Ladwig tells a parallel story through his illustrations that shows what it looks like to live out that prayer. (Read the full review.)

Psalms of Praise, by Danielle Hitchen

A sweet board book to start the youngest readers praying from Scripture! (Read the full review.)

A Child’s Book of Prayers, Illustrated by Michael Hague

A Children' Book of Prayers, by Michael Hague | Little Book, Big Story

A classic compilation of traditional prayers, hymns, and passages from Scripture.

Window on the World, by Molly Wall & Jason Mandryk

This prayer guide introduces readers to different countries and people groups in the world, sharing both practical stories about life in that country as well as ideas for how to pray for that country’s people. (Read the full review.)

Psalms for Young Children, by Marie-Helene Delval

Psalms for Young Children | Little Book, Big Story

This paraphrase of selected psalms introduces young readers to the range of emotions the psalmists explore and invites families to pray through passages of Scripture together. (Read the full review.)

Prayer for a Child, by Rachel Field

This classic picture book is a beautiful prayer for the littlest readers. (Read the full review.)

But grown-ups like books about prayer, too, right? Right! Here are a few of my favorites:

A Praying Life, by Paul Miller
Prayer, by Timothy Keller
Every Moment Holy, by Douglas Kaine McKelvey
The Divine Hours, by Phyllis Tickle
The Valley of Vision, ed. by Arthur Bennett

October 2, 2020 / 0 Comments

Tales of Buttercup Grove (Series)

Our six year old is learning to read. I’ve watched this process and helped it along twice before, but each time it strikes me like magic, watching as the letters become blends, then words, then sentences, then whole stories! My daughter knows just enough now to pick words out of the pages of picture books and announce proudly, “Mom! That says planting seeds.“

And for this season, I find that some of the best books to tuck into bed with her are the little ones like Beatrix Potter’s or Elsa Beskow’s—the ones that say with their very size and weight, “I am made just for you.” They look too small in my hands, but just right in hers.

Among her many favorites are the Tales of Buttercup Grove books. These books are warm and cozy, small and sweet, with a few words, some woodland animals, and wide, white margins. Wendy Dunham has written a collection of four short books, one for each season (though we only own two). These books each carry a message about God and the Christian life, but rather than feeling preachy or awkward, that message reads like a part of the story, like something that grew from the story naturally.

These are the books Phoebe tucks into her bag to look through in church, and that I find hidden in her bedsheets at night. She cannot read them all to herself yet, but she can show me which page says planting seeds, and that’s a great place to start.

Sunflower Summer: God Gives Us Friends When We Need to Wait
Wendy Dunham; Michael Sparks (2018)

A Windy Spring Day: God Gives Us Friends When We’re Afraid
Wendy Dunham; Michael Sparks (2018)

August 21, 2020 / 0 Comments

It Couldn’t Just Happen

As much as I enjoyed this book, I debated about whether or not to share it here. Though I do occasionally review books I know will be controversial, I tend to pass over titles on topics that might widen already wide schisms between Christians. I find plenty of excellent, gospel-focused books to share here without reviewing books on baptism, or educational philosophies, or particular denominations.

My own opinions on those things sometimes show through as I write, I know, and I don’t mind that—I want you to get to know me and where I’m coming from so you can factor that in as you read my reviews. But I don’t choose books because they support my stance, just books I found interesting and helpful and that I think you’ll find helpful, too.

All of which is to say: I wasn’t sure at first if I’d share this one, because I’m confident that we hold a variety of views on this subject. But you know what? I think that’s a good thing. That’s a discussion worth having. And I think Lawrence O. Richards addresses those differences of opinion well in this book by laying out multiple views on things like the old earth vs. young earth debate, or macroevolution and microevolution.

I ultimately decided to share this book because the author took such care to present the material in a respectful way (though those committed to evolution may disagree). Also, I looked so hard for one like it and was so happy when I found it that I figured at least one of you out there is going to sigh with relief and say, “Finally!” because this is the book you’ve been looking for. For that one of you, here you go.

It Couldn’t Just Happen is, essentially, an introduction to a Christian perspective on science and the theory of evolution. Lawrence O. Richards lays out both sides (or, in cases where there are more than two perspectives, all sides) of the debate, holding them up to scrutiny and showing readers how to ask good questions of the things they read. But he also spends a wonderful amount of time reveling in and discussing the wonders of our world, exploring everything from termites’ towering houses to the specialized tongue of the woodpecker. (I still think about the section on bees when I work in our garden.)

This is not a book that tells the reader what to think but how to think. By encouraging readers to look behind a headline to the assumptions a writer begins with, Richards strives to equip readers with tools that will benefit them as they study a variety of subjects, not just evolution.

It Couldn’t Just Happen: Knowing the Truth About God’s Awesome Creation
Lawrence O. Richards (Reprinted 2011)

July 31, 2020 / 0 Comments

The Faithful Spy

My seventh grade teacher collected ugly ties. On the first day of class—my very first day of junior high—he thumped a stubborn projector hard on one side. The light switched on, but the glass across the top spider-webbed with fissures.

“Well,” he said. “The library’s not going to be happy with me.“

That was the year I learned about the Holocaust. We probably read books about it; I’m sure we held discussions or listened to lectures, or something. But what I remember most—what I remember vividly to this day—was watching the film Escape From Sobibor. That was my introduction to the concentration camps, the gas chambers, the murder of babies, those images of discarded, emaciated bodies.

Was I ready for it? No. Emphatically not. But as upsetting as that movie was, I can appreciate now what my teacher was doing. He knew, I think, that we didn’t need to hear about it—we needed to see it. We needed to move the Holocaust away from the white board and into our imaginations, horrifying as that process was.

John Hendrix’s biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes a similar leap from the theoretical to the visual. In The Faithful Spy, he doesn’t simply tell us about Bonhoeffer but, through his striking illustrations and hand-lettered text, he shows us Bonhoeffer’s life during the rise of the Third Reich. Bonhoeffer is a complex figure—a Christian who risked his life for others, but who also worked as a spy for a German resistance group and was eventually martyred for his role in a plot to kill Hitler.

But The Faithful Spy also tells the story of the German Resistance. In his introduction, Hendrix writes:

“Desperate for leadership, the German people were led like rats to the edge of the cliff by a diabolical Pied Piper. But not all fell for the seduction. Dietrich was but one man among many hundreds of patriotic Germans (including prominent preachers, military generals, and politicians) who saw the Nazis for what they truly were and fought back. They fought with words at first, but eventually they fought with actions.”

Through the story of Bonhoeffer, Hendrix introduces us to a greater story of the faithful Germans who recognized the dangers of “the Nazi war machine” and, in far too many cases, gave their lives to fight it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is perhaps the best-known of them all, but I appreciated Hendrix’s reminder that Bonhoeffer was part of a network, part of a full-fledged resistance.

Though far less disturbing than Escape From Sobibor, John Hendrix’s The Faithful Spy uses words and images to move a story of the war from the whiteboard to the imagination. Through Hendrix’s art and storytelling, Bonhoeffer’s story takes on an unforgettable dimension, and we see him not as a black-and-white photograph surrounded by text, but as a living man with doubts and fears and faith in a God who slays giants.

Does John Hendrix’s name sound familiar? It should! He also wrote and illustrated one of my all-time favorite picture books, Miracle Man, as well as many other excellent books.

The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler
John Hendrix (2018)