lloyd-jones Archives | Little Book, Big Story

December 12, 2014 / 1 Comment

Song of the Stars

We take cake pretty seriously around here. And we take any excuse to bake cakes, especially when we find an excuse that looks like this:

This weekend, we’ll celebrate Phoebe’s first birthday with pancakes and snuggles and a gift bag full of tissue paper (what more could a baby ask for?). We’ll celebrate St. Lucia’s Day, too, and our twelfth anniversary. So you see, we could make as many as three cakes if we wanted to. But I think we’ll stick with just one:

And we’ll keep rolling along with Advent, and I will keep pulling books down from the attic every so often so we can read them anew. This week, I’ll unveil one of my very favorites: Song of the Stars, by Sally Lloyd-Jones (a regularly featured author here at Little Book, Big Story).

Song of the Stars | Little Book, Big Story

I bought this book based on Lloyd-Jones’s name alone, and if I’m perfectly honest, I’ll admit that my first response went a little like this:

Opening pages: Is that snow? (Aren’t we in Israel?) Do I see deciduous trees?

Mid-book: Are those . . . whales? And stallions? (Where are the camels?)

Closing pages: Tears. Sniffles.

At first, I didn’t get it. In her illustrations, Alison Jay departs from the standard Christmas-book livestock of ox and ass and camel and takes readers around the world, showing how Christ’s coming wasn’t only a local event for Israelite animals but something that the whole world—every nook and cranny of creation—was preparing for. Somehow that wide-ranging perspective made for a striking contrast to the fact that all of this deep anticipation, felt by birds and beasts alike, was met in the coming of a baby—a seemingly ordinary baby who was overlooked by most of the people he had come to redeem.

Hence the tears and sniffles. The beauty of this book runs deep, so it will appeal—I’d hazard a guess—to all members of your family, regardless of age (and possible predisposition to cry over picture books). And if you’re anything like me, it will be one that you look forward to each season with, perhaps, an enthusiasm much like the one you feel for cake.

Song of the Stars
Sally Lloyd-Jones, Allison Jay (2011)

November 28, 2014 / 2 Comments

Beautiful Books for Advent

I like to get an early start on reviewing Christmas books around here, because I figure that at least some of you are, like me, whatever we call the opposite of a procrastinator. We were the ones who read through most of the course material weeks before our college professor presented it in class (but only in courses that we were excited about). If we have anything resembling a deadline in our near future, it’s a safe bet that we started working on the item due weeks, if not months, beforehand. And we start thinking about Christmas some time in late summer.

So it’s nice to know which books we’d like to add to the family library well before the need for them arises. Here, for you opposite-of-procrastinators, is a list of our family’s favorite books for Advent (and yes, this post was written three weeks before publication):

The Stable Where Jesus Was Born, by Rhonda Growler Greene

The Stable Where Jesus Was Born | Little Book, Big Story

A gorgeous rhymed poem paired with rich yet cozy illustrations tell the story of Christ’s birth with beauty and grace. Also, there are kittens. A great book for toddlers and preschoolers. (Read the full review.)

The Advent Jesse Tree, by Dean Lambert Smith

If you’d like to try celebrating Advent with a Jesse Tree this year, I highly recommend this little book. It’s filled with daily family devotions that will take you from Genesis to Revelation during the month of December, and it will help you lay a great biblical foundation for your kids as they prepare for Christmas. (Read the full review.)

The Friendly Beasts, by Tomie dePaola

The Friendly Beasts | Little Book, Big Story

Tomie dePaola’s charming rendition of an old Christmas carol will appeal to readers big and little (but especially little). (Read the full review.)

Song of the Stars, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Lloyd-Jones, author of the much-beloved, Jesus Storybook Bible, tells a beautiful story of the whole world preparing for the coming birth of Christ. She branches out from the usual fare of camels and barnyard animals and includes wild horses, whales and bears in the litany of wildlife preparing to worship the Lord—but she doesn’t stop there. This book is great for toddlers, preschoolers, and early school-aged kids. (Read the full review.)

Saint Nicholas, by Julie Stiegemeyer

Whether you’d like to add a biographical note to family’s celebration of Santa or prefer not to celebrate Santa at all but want to share a bit of history with your kids, this book is a great resource for you. (Read the full review.)

Who is Coming to Our House?, by Joseph Slate

Who is Coming to Our House? | Little Book, Big Story

The animals in the manger prepare for special guests in a story that is simple and sweet and, for some reason, moves me to tears every time we read it. This one is perfectly suited to the smallest of readers.

An Early American Christmas, by Tomie dePaola

An Early American Christmas | Little Book, Big Story

Tomie dePaola tells the story of an immigrant family who brings their Christmas celebration with them to America. He tells us this Little House-style, and includes details about how they prepared each piece of their celebration—candles, sweets, ornaments, and more—that proved positively enchanting to our pioneer-loving daughters. Those details don’t overwhelm the point of the story, though, and the book closes on a gorgeous note. (Read the full review.)

One Wintry Night, by Ruth Bell Graham

As a new believer, I was seventeen, wore combat boots to church, and approached the Bible as I would any other book: I opened it, flipped past the table of contents, and started to read. I treated the Bible as a single story, at times confusing and downright unlikable, because I didn't know any better. . . (from Little Book, Big Story)

Ruth Bell Graham tells the Christmas story by placing it in its context: this is a full-size, beautifully illustrated book, but it’s told in chapters, so she can start the story at the very beginning and see it through to the Resurrection. This is a great book to read as a family during Advent. (Read the full review.)

January 10, 2014 / 0 Comments

Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing

At our house, we joke about “turning over a new leaf.” It’s not a very funny joke, just one we fall back on when we feel the need to make a change, big or small. “It’ll be a whole new leaf!” we cry, determined to keep our bedroom tidy or to fold and put away the clean laundry before it engulfs our purple couch. But a few weeks later, cat hair drifts across the bedroom floor like tumbleweeds and we find ourselves asking, “Where is that new leaf anyway?”

Well, my friends, ’tis the season of new leaves. I know that some of you are renewing your gym membership while others scrutinize the very fine margins of your budget. You’re scouring your child’s toy box and donating half the toys to a good cause, or vowing to cut back on coffee/booze/sweets/Facebook, and so on.

Meanwhile, a handful of you are determined to be more intentional about reading to your children. You don’t want to read just anything to them, either: you’re thinking in words like “discipleship” and “training,” if you’re that sort, or you just want to fold something about God into your daily routine. You haven’t the nerve to tackle full-on Scripture and yet, you want to feed your children something substantial.

If you’re one of those folks, then I’d like to introduce you to Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing. Written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago, the team behind The Jesus Storybook Bible, this book is a devotional book for kids that is simple but not simplified, so it lends itself to a variety of uses. Older children can benefit richly from reading through it on their own, while families can read it together before bed or around the table. We like to read passages from it over breakfast, an association that has been cemented by our three-year-old, who calls it our “breakfast book.”

As always, Lloyd-Jones brings a depth and honesty to her writing that resonates with readers big and small: she doesn’t write down to anyone, which means that the whole family can enjoy the brief devotions (and stunning artwork). And from the verses cited after each entry, you can springboard into a deeper discussion of Scripture, if you feel so inclined.

Whatever your new leaf is this year: good luck! My goals are small this year, thanks to Phoebe, and consist of things like “brush teeth occasionally” and “start cooking again (eventually).” “Cuddle the baby as much as possible” tops my list, and I’m happy to report that I’ve got that one down pat.

Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing
Sally Lloyd-Jones, Jago (2012)

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Song of the Stars

Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing

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