picture book Archives | Page 36 of 40 | Little Book, Big Story

February 21, 2014 / 1 Comment

Psalms for Young Children

When it comes to the Psalms, I’ll be honest: they contain certain passages that aren’t exactly suited to small ears. And somehow, like a ship out of the fog, you never quite see those passages until they are upon you. (Not sure what I mean? Read Psalm 139. I’ll wait.)

So, an adaptation of the Psalms is nice, especially one as well-edited and beautiful as Psalms for Young Children. Delval does a lovely job of retaining the humanity of the Psalms, including some of the emotionally dark ones alongside the happy, sparkly Psalms of praise, in a way that keeps the heart of each passage beating.

Like storybook Bibles, this book is not a resting place but a springboard into relationship with the full book of Psalms, and I like that: we have a five-year-old and a three-year-old, so we deal with a lot of emotion in the course of a day. It’s helpful, then, to show our girls that, hey! People are pouty sometimes. King David was pouty sometimes. But still, he praised the Lord.

But as I said: springboard. We tend to read these at the table, where they serve as a nice segue into reading a full Psalm or two from “Papa’s Bible.” Discussion ensues. And the springboard of Psalms for Young Children has served its purpose.

Psalms for Young Children
Marie-Helene Delval, Arno (2008)

February 14, 2014 / 0 Comments

Saint Valentine

It is still winter, right? I thought it was, but my two eldest daughters are playing outside as I write, one of them in naught but a fairy dress.

We were supposed to start our home school lessons an hour ago, but they’ve been out there since breakfast, bounding around the front yard chattering like happy, fluttery birds. At present, they’re sitting side by side under the one tree in our yard—a great, overgrown Christmas tree—holding sticks in front of their knees like fishing rods, heads together, deep in confidence.

Add to that the fact that Phoebe has been sound asleep in her crib for the last hour and you have all the necessary ingredients for an important decision: school can wait.

I’ll let them continue doing whatever it is they’re harmoniously doing and instead of reading Saint Valentine to them, I’ll share it with you. In my inaugural blog post, I sang the praises of the unsung holidays, the ones that we celebrate in sheer fun but whose origins we have collectively almost forgotten. I wrote about Saint Patrick’s Day then, but Valentine’s Day also fits the bill. For those of you dissatisfied with stale candy and heart-shaped doilies, who find yourselves hungry for a bit of history with your holiday—this book is for you!

Robert Sabuda’s telling of the life of Saint Valentine is tender and compelling. It gives children a glimpse of life as a Christian under persecution without overwhelming the sensitive souls (of which I have—and am—one), while telling the beautiful story of Saint Valentine and a little blind girl who came to him for healing.

I’ll warn you: this story doesn’t end happily, but it ends with hope, the sort of stinging hope that makes your throat feel funny. And Sabuda’s illustrations are breathtaking in their complexity: each illustration is a mosaic of (what I’m guessing is) paper, but with such simple tools he conveys rich emotion and movement.

Now, I’ve timed this post perfectly! The little fairy just traipsed in, pink in the cheeks and breathless with cold. That means it’s time to herd my little troop onto the couch and start reading.

Saint Valentine
Robert Sabuda (1999)

January 31, 2014 / 0 Comments

God Gave Us You

So, you (or some folks you love) are having a baby, and you want a book that touches on the sweetness of a new baby’s birth without introducing the, ahem, biology behind it all? Look no further.

God Gave Us You follows an inquisitive polar bear’s line of questioning as she asks her mother (also, obviously, a polar bear) how it was she came to be. Mother Polar Bear then fills her child in on the joy and anticipation of pregnancy while high-lighting, again and again, the fact that little bear is an irreplaceable gift from God: “God gave us you.”

God Gave Us You | Little Book, Big Story

I understand that there is a companion book out there for those families graduating from one child to two called God Gave Us Two, but I haven’t read it yet: all I know is that this one was awfully fun for our girls (especially Sarah) as we prepared for Phoebe’s arrival. The story’s refrain served them as a sweet, insistent reminder that God gave us each of them—and we wouldn’t trade our girls for any other baby in the world.

God Gave Us You
Lisa Tawn Bergren, Laura J. Bryant (2000)

January 24, 2014 / 6 Comments

The Orange Shoes

Not so many weeks ago, Sarah and I had a morning to ourselves and we spent it browsing the shelves of our favorite library. She worked her way through a stack of Henry & Mudge books while I, being at the stage of pregnancy where sitting on the floor is a commitment (and not one to be undertaken lightly), sat on the floor and thumbed through whatever books I could reach without getting up.

And so I happened upon The Orange Shoes. It is my opinion that discovering a book without a friend’s recommendation, without any prior knowledge of author or illustrator, is a joy and one that rarely bears such fruit as this find did.

I simply couldn’t pull myself away from the story of Delly Porter and the Shoebox Social. Snobby Prudy Winfield, Adella’s resourceful mother (a woman who knows where to look) and her wonderful father (a man who knows what to value) lived as I read, and when I did finally emerge from the story, I found Sarah’s arms around my neck, her nose resting on my shoulder as she studied the watercolor illustrations with me.

We have read the book daily since then. Lydia fell in love with it; Mitch did, too. Sarah grabs it first thing in the morning and carries it to me on the couch, asking, “Can we read this one, peez?” Even at seven in the morning, it’s hard to say no, so we’ve spent many a morning curled up together, reading about Delly and the orange shoes.

I don’t know if this author is a Christian or not, but I saw elements of the Gospel throughout The Orange Shoes (I won’t tell you where, for fear of ruining the surprise). The depth of the story combined with Doris Ettinger’s striking illustrations make this a book that gracefully bears rereading—a fortunate fact, given the rate at which it’s requested at our house.

The Orange Shoes
Trina Hakes Noble, Doris Ettinger (2007)

December 13, 2013 / 0 Comments

The Stable Where Jesus was Born

In all the holiday brouhaha, it’s sometimes tempting to skip over the season’s simple, obvious joys. The Stable Where Jesus Was Born is one of those obvious joys. Beautifully illustrated by Susan Gaber, it tells the story of Jesus’s birth in rhymed couplets: “This is the stable where Jesus was born . . . “.

Each couplet zooms out from an intimate scene in the stable until finally, the heavens are involved and the whole earth, and then the arc begins to fall back to that stable, where two new parents hold the earth’s greatest joy, surrounded by humble animals.

I love the illustrations; I love the language. But more than anything, I love that shifting perspective. (And my daughters love the animals, so this is a great story of the Nativity to share with the littlest readers.)

On a Related Note

Advent, that season of expectant joy, is the perfect time to be nine months pregnant. Not because our schedule is clear or our house is clean, but because our hearts are awaiting God’s great gift to all of mankind while also awaiting that little, tangible gift given to our family in particular. We don’t know her name or her birthday, but she’s due to join us any time.

That said, I wanted to give you a peek at my plans for this blog’s future: I’m hoping to take a few weeks to a month off and then work my way back up to weekly posts over the next few months. God and the baby may disagree with me, but those, my friends, are my plans. I promise to share a post with you when the baby is born, and in the meantime, your prayers for our family are greatly appreciated. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and I look forward to sharing more books with you after the New Year!

The Stable Where Jesus Was Born
Rhonda Growler Greene, Susan Gaber (2002)

Tag: picture book (page 36 of 40)

Psalms for Young Children

Saint Valentine

God Gave Us You

The Orange Shoes

The Stable Where Jesus was Born

On a Related Note

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