picture book Archives | Page 10 of 40 | Little Book, Big Story

December 4, 2020 / 0 Comments

There’s a Lion in My Nativity!

When a young girl is picked to play Mary in her class’s Christmas play, she believes her big break has come! She is the star of the show. But as she tries to act out her iconic, Christmas-pageant scenes, things seem to go wrong: there’s a boat on stage. One shepherd carries a mop! And who cast a lion in the nativity play?

But she is only one of the book’s two narrators. The other is Sam, a classmate who explains, as the show goes on, that each of these unlikely additions has something to say about the true star of the Christmas story (hint: it’s not Mary).

There’s a Lion in my Nativity is a delightful Christmas book for young readers. It rhymes, it’s funny, there’s a bit of that chaos that always makes my daughters laugh—and yet it points toward a deeper truth, one that we need to hear around Christmas, sure, but also throughout the rest of the year. We are not the star of the show—Jesus is. Sometimes it takes a lion in a manger to help us see that.

There’s a Lion in my Nativity!
Lizzie Laferton; Kim Barnes (2020)

Disclosure: I did receive a copy of this book for review, but I was not obligated to review this book or compensated for my review in any way. I share this book with you because I love it, not because I was paid to do so.

November 6, 2020 / 0 Comments

Finding Narnia

When I began this blog, one of the things that mattered most to me was consistency: I committed (seven years ago! Goodness gracious) to writing weekly posts, because the blogs I liked best were consistent, reliable. I knew I could check every Tuesday for a new post, and, by gum, every Tuesday there’d be a new post to read. I looked forward to those posts. I have occasionally varied my schedule here to account for new babies or homeschool schedules, but for the most part I’ve kept my Weekly Post Commitment.

But every now and then a writing deadline or family illness comes along and sinks my well-intentioned ship. So, to that handful of you that might look forward to my Friday morning posts the way I look forward to my favorite blogs’ updates and who noticed my absence over the past two weeks: my apologies! I hope to compensate you for the missed posts by talking about C. S. Lewis. I find that C. S. Lewis typically makes everything better.

Caroline McAlister (author of John Ronald’s Dragons) has written a lovely picture book biography of C. S. Lewis—but! Her book is not only about C. S. Lewis. Finding Narnia is the story of Lewis and his brother, Warnie, and the way that they, together, brought the books into being.

From the brothers’ childhood games and stories, to the years when they were apart, to the moment when Lewis found himself thinking again, “What if . . . ?”, McAlister shows the way the seed of Narnia was planted, took root, and eventually flowered. She shows the work behind it, the patience, the love. When I was a kid, books seemed like mystical things to me—I thought ideas were something you waited for, not something you tended. So I love the way that Finding Narnia refutes that and shows readers another, far more common, way of writing a story.

And then, of course, there are the illustrations. Jessica Lanan’s watercolors are striking—so much so that three of my daughters commented on how pretty they are. She shows the imagined worlds of the brothers alongside their physical world in a way that feels organic and just right. That is as it should be, for this is not a story of how Narnia, in a bolt of inspiration, found Jack and Warnie, but how they, as children and then as grown men, found Narnia.

Finding Narnia: The Story of C. S. Lewis and His Brother
Caroline McAlister; Jessica Lanan (2019)

October 9, 2020 / 0 Comments

Home in the Woods

“A few months into quarantine, I started keeping a list. This is nothing new—I keep dozens of lists. Hundreds! But this particular list didn’t contain a single task or idea. I wasn’t planning for or brainstorming about anything, but simply making a note each time I noticed something our family gained because of the quarantine.

Things we already did but could now do more often? Didn’t count. Things we’d have done anyway, but now did differently? Disqualified. This list was only for things we’d never done before and had discovered only because we were home together all the time, because of the way quarantine stretched us and challenged us and made us rely on the Lord and one another differently. For example: jigsaw puzzles. . .”

This week, Story Warren shared my review of Home in the Woods, a delightful picture book by Eliza Wheeler (John Ronald’s Dragons), and I heartily urge you to check it out—the book, that is, if not the review.

Onward to the full review!

Home in the Woods
Eliza Wheeler (2019)

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)

The Prisoners, the Earthquake, and the Midnight Song (Bob Hartman) | Little Book, Big Story

August 28, 2020 / 0 Comments

The Prisoners, the Earthquake, & the Midnight Song

The other night as we finished reading about Ananias and Sapphira in For Such a Time as This, one of our daughters sighed happily. “I love when they tell stories I’ve never heard before,” she said.

And I know what she means. The Bible is full of so many stories—some of them whole worlds tucked into two or three verses—that I often come across passages and feel certain I’ve never read them before. “How does that happen?” my husband wondered the other day as he read the story of King Joash for what felt like the first time. “It’s like I’ve never read this story at all.”

Maybe we’re just indifferent readers, or maybe it’s a curious work of the Spirit, to mute certain stories for us until just the right time, and then bring them blazing forth in full choral glory. Scripture being what it is, with the properties it has, I think it’s the last one.

And so, I have a certain fondness for children’s books that veer off the beaten Noah/Daniel/David path and tell stories like this one, the story of Paul and Silas in prison. This story is striking and powerful, but because Scripture is filled with striking and powerful stories, it is sometimes easy to overlook this one, short as it is.

Bob Hartman draws readers into it through sound—the sound of singing, of an earthquake, of the jailer drawing his sword—which makes this book fun to read aloud but also invites young readers into the scene. Hartman doesn’t just tell the story but creates an experience around it, vivid and animate and accessible, and filled with memorable characters.

Like all the Tales That Tell the Truth books, this one is illustrated by Catalina Echeverri, who continues to be one of my favorite illustrators. The way she captures the energy and expression of the figures, the way she uses symbols to show complex things (like the sounds of singing, or an earthquake, or a soldier drawing his sword) makes even a Philippian jail hospitable for young readers.

These books continue to be among my favorite picture books for our family, and, as always, I’m eager to see which story they plan to tell next.

The Prisoners, The Earthquake, and the Midnight Song: A True Story About How God Uses People to Save People
Bob Hartman; Catalina Echeverri (2020)

Tag: picture book (page 10 of 40)

There’s a Lion in My Nativity!

Finding Narnia

Home in the Woods

Tales of Buttercup Grove (Series)

The Prisoners, the Earthquake, & the Midnight Song

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