prayer for a child Archives | Little Book, Big Story

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

September 8, 2017 / 2 Comments

10 Books About God for Toddlers

This summer, we planted flowers—rows and rows of them. In the bed typically dedicated to trailing squash, we sprinkled seeds that grew into cosmos, zinnias, poppies (four kinds), larkspur, dainty dwarf zinnias, snapdragons. Walking barefoot among those rows, watching the flowers wake, became one of our favorite morning routines.

But inside our home, another kind of flower unfurled as Josie took her first steps, said her first words, and learned how to make us laugh. She shed her babyhood, in which she watched the world happen around her, and stepped into the thick of things, poking at and exploring the world and expecting it to respond.

I had watched this transition three times before, but, like watching flowers shed those green things that encapsulate crumpled petals, it is amazing every time—I think because, with each child, I see more clearly how little I did to bring about that unfolding personality and how much of it was already there, sown into each daughter before I had ever seen her face.

So, in honor of Josie’s summer of unfurling, I made a list for you of my favorite books for toddlers. We love Sandra Boynton and BabyLit books, of course, but this list is for the little ones demanding answers from the world: If I poke the cat, what does he do? If I make this face, will Mama laugh? Let’s give them big answers in small books and see what happens:

Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise, by Tomie dePaola

Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise | Little Book, Big Story

This exuberant book considers every aspect of creation and urges it all to praise God. Beautiful, simple, and vibrantly illustrated. (Read the full review.)

Found, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Sally Lloyd-Jones’ newest book leads readers through Psalm 23, drawing out the tenderness and warmth of our Good Shepherd as she paraphrases the familiar psalm into a poem that moves readers big and small. Jago’s illustrations here are stunning. (Read the full review.)

Read-Aloud Bible Stories, by Ella K. Lindvall

Each volume of these Bible stories is full of familiar stories, written in language that looks simple but does justice to the biggest truths of our faith. (Read the full review.)

Love is Patient, Love is Kind, by Naoko Stoop

Naoko Stoop’s sweet board book departs from the usual Noah’s Ark/Joseph’s Coat/Moses’ Moment at the Red Sea picture books and gently unwraps 1 Corinthians 13 for readers. (Read the full review.)

Hug-a-Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Fuzzy on the outside, rich and vibrant on the inside. Lloyd-Jones introduces small readers to the idea that the Bible is not just a collection of epic stories, but an invitation from God to know him, by condensing the truths of a handful of Bible stories into short, beautiful poems.

Look and Be Grateful, by Tomie dePaola

Tomie dePaola’s book of gratitude is one that pokes at parents as we read it to our kids. The text and illustrations are simple but weighty, and they urge us to look around and savor the God who made all things big and small. (Read the full review.)

Prayer for a Child, by Rachel Field

Prayer for a Child is a sweet but not too sweet look at prayer from a child’s perspective. My copy doesn’t show it, but this one won the Caldecott in 1945—at a time when the children reading it were living through a world war. (Read the full review.)

Lift the Flap Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

What toddler doesn’t love lifting flaps? Sally Lloyd-Jones again distills favorite Bible stories down to their gospel essence, while Tracey Moroney’s bright illustrations give little hands plenty to do while they listen. (Read the full review.)

The Biggest Story ABCs, by Kevin DeYoung

Using the alphabet as a guide, Kevin DeYoung lays out the big story of Scripture from beginning to end in a way that points back to Jesus over and over. (Read the full review.)

Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

The Jesus Storybook Bible | Little Book, Big Story

No booklist on this blog would be complete without The Jesus Storybook Bible. The truths in here are huge, but the format is small: perfect for introducing toddlers to Jesus through the beautiful stories of Scripture. This book is a standard second birthday gift in our home. (Read the full review.)

May 22, 2015 / 2 Comments

Prayer for a Child

Sometimes, you go out looking for books. You pillage the shelves of the used bookstore or library, book list in hand, or you find in the free boxes outside either place books you didn’t know you were looking for, books whose covers call to you or whose titles ring some bell in your memory and so you bring them home for closer scrutiny.

Sometimes you find books at library book sales, where the room is too small and the patrons surprisingly aggressive (these are books and they are dirt cheap and people really, really want them), but you have found so many diamonds in the rough this way that you stand outside the library at 9:58 on the first day of each sale with two dozen or so other dedicated hopefuls. When the doors open, you try to be civilized.

Sometimes, you go out looking for books. And sometimes, books find you. You receive them as a gift, or they show up in a box of odds and ends from your mother-in-law who is cleaning out shelves and closets and found a few things she thought you might like. If you had not just heard the book read on Read-Aloud Revival, you might have overlooked it, but you did just hear it read and so you recognize it for the treasure it is when you open the box.

That is the origin story of our copy of Prayer for a Child. This is a short book, perfect for a small child, and it walks through a simple prayer line by line, illustration by illustration, touching on the different parts of a child’s life that are worth thanking the Lord for but that are so easily overlooked: parents, shoes, a favorite chair. The author’s emphasis on gratitude and the lilting cadence of the prayer make this a lovely read aloud.

I will be honest, though: Elizabeth Orton Jones’s illustrations didn’t appeal to me at first (even though she won a Caldecott medal for them). It wasn’t until I looked closely at the illustrations and realized that they encapsulate an aspect of childhood in the 1940s that I came to appreciate the historical depth that they add to the book. The dated look of them underscores the fact that this prayer is timeless, as applicable for children of our era as it was for the children of World War II.

And that is a beautiful truth: when it comes to gratitude, our kids need to hear it from children of other times and places, where things weren’t (or aren’t) as plentiful as they are here and now. They need us to show them what it looks like, to lead them along gently into those moments of reverence, when we see a good thing and tilt our chins upward in delight over the God who made such a thing—a bumblebee fumbling with a long-legged poppy, or the sun through a little sister’s golden hair.

Our children need prayers like this one—we need them—to help us notice and name the good gifts our Father has set out before us.

Amen.

Prayer for a Child
Rachel Field, Elizabeth Orton Jones (1944)

Tag: prayer for a child (page 1 of 1)

9 Books About Prayer for Children

Loved, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Everything a Child Should Know About Prayer, by Nancy Guthrie

The Prayer Map for Girls: A Creative Journal

The Lord’s Prayer, by Tim Ladwig

Psalms of Praise, by Danielle Hitchen

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

Window on the World, by Molly Wall & Jason Mandryk

Psalms for Young Children, by Marie-Helene Delval

Prayer for a Child, by Rachel Field

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

10 Books About God for Toddlers

Let the Whole Earth Sing Praise, by Tomie dePaola

Found, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Read-Aloud Bible Stories, by Ella K. Lindvall

Love is Patient, Love is Kind, by Naoko Stoop

Hug-a-Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Look and Be Grateful, by Tomie dePaola

Prayer for a Child, by Rachel Field

Lift the Flap Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

The Biggest Story ABCs, by Kevin DeYoung

Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Prayer for a Child

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