Goodbook Partner Review: Pre-Order Any time, Any place, Any Prayer by Laura Wifler and Catalina Echeverri

The Goodbook company remains at the top of my list for finding high-quality, biblically sound, and relevant children's books.  As a reviewer, the company is kind enough to send me a copy of the books I choose to review at no cost.  But yet, I still have an account on their website, and still, end up purchasing their books.  Sometimes by the case, as gifts for those in my life and community.  

This review is for a book that will be published in September, and I've already pre-ordered a copy so that I had access to the special gifts for pre-ordering it, and because I know I can trust that it will be excellent.  Then I realized I was sent the pdf version of the book to start promoting it before my copy will even arrive.  

This book is part of the Tales that Tell the Truth series.  This book is designed for ages 3-6.  

Here are sample pages from the book.  

What I like about the book:

• the illustrations are unique, almost childlike drawings,  appealing, and expressive.  
• Sin- is not only identified "they chose not to trust and obey him, and this is called sin." 
• Separation from God because of sin is explained simply and appropriately. 
• Prayer is clearly defined, explained, and brought in with practical strategies, and feelings. 
• Who God is- one who wants to communicate with people- is a clearly presented message. 
• Biblical examples are pictured and captioned, plus the references to their events in history are listed with the image. 
• The book teaches the concept of the hypostatic union clearly (without the official term) the book presents and repeats that Jesus is both God and man.  
• The book presents the gospel message clearly: God created man, man sinned, that separated him from God, God made a way because He loves us so, he sent his Son, Jesus, to live a sinless perfect life as God and Man, died on the cross for to pay for our sins, and was raised from the dead, and when Jesus went to be with God, He gave us the Holy Spirit to live in us.  
• The book has small humorous quips that will make the kids giggle.  
• It references known people of prayer as well as biblical connections. 
• It reinforces, teaches clearly, and emphasizes how and what to pray to God, as well as the anytime, anyplace concept.  I won't spoil too much of the book, but I love it.  

What I wonder about the book:

• It is 32 pages, it covers so much doctrine and so many concepts beyond prayer.  Will it be too much for the littles it is intended for? or because of the humor, the simplicity, the illustrations, will it just be a read again, read again, again book for the littles, and they will grasp it all with repetition.  

Educational Connections:

• all the biblical references who modeled prayer. 
• the Lord's prayer. 
• Historical prayer warriors to explore. 
• think of all the fun you can have writing your own examples with the kids of any time, any place, any where stories and examples.  
• Jesus is God and Man. Hypostatic Union (this would make the book go with even older students). 
• The Gospel message.  

Thankful to partner with the goodbook company and encourage you to pre-order the book, get the bonuses, and look forward to its September arrival.  I am not an affiliate and do not make any money from the goodbook company- I just love their books and find them so helpful in my home and ministry.  

Goodbook Partner Review: God's Very Colorful Creation

 The Very Best Bible Story Series

Written by Tim Thornborough and Illustrated by Jennifer Davison

Every book in the series includes on the first page: "in this true story from the Bible."  This is a connection I made last year and I have started to try to change my vocabulary when sharing a lesson from the bible I try to say, today I have a biblical event to share with you.  And I've been trying to eliminate story from my teaching the Bible language.  It is easier for me to remember to tell children that each lesson from the Bible is true.  

What I like about the book:  

• The book opens with a discussion of how many colors are in the rainbow, and ask the reader to point out different colors on the page. 
• The illustrator uses bold colors, expressive people, and beautiful blending of colors, images, that are warm and friendly.  
• The author's use of descriptive language and alliteration. (He also introduces a lot of fun color words-puce, scarlet, papaya, cold gray light...) 
• This author has a gift for adding in a repeated phrase that reflects God- in this book it is "This is good," said God "It is so, so good."  
• The value God has in His creation- man in His image that are "beautiful and fabulous variety."
• Joy in creation!  

What I wonder: 

• When God made people, the image and text talk about ALL the diverse people He made, and I wonder how this page and the biblical text will be taught to the littles who hear the true story, will they be confused at all the people when Genesis 1 refers only to man and woman- Adam and Eve being made. 

Educational Connections:

• Colors- art, blending, primary, secondary, the color wheel
• Descriptive language
• Alliteration 
• Types of stars- giants, dwarf
• Counting as the days are clearly labeled
• Value in diversity- God made men and women with "beautiful and fabulous variety."  

Thankful to partner with the goodbook company and review this book. 

Goodbook Partner Review: Esther and the Very Brave Plan

 

The Very Best Bible Story Series

Written by Tim Thornborough and Illustrated by Jennifer Davison

Every book in the series includes on the first page: "in this true story from the Bible."  These books are geared for ages 2-6.  I love that the book starts by reminding us that this is a true event in history and mentioned in the Bible.  

What I like about the book:

• Hardback, colorful book with thick, semigloss pages, the illustrations show emotions and bring the event to life. 
• The font is fun, nice size print, and easy to read.  
• These books have fun openings, they bring meaning to the listener/reader.  Esther is about a plan- a horrible plan, but it's also about GOD's secret plan to rescue His people.  
• It's about God's plan, and the reader/listener's job is to 'spot how God is secretly at work to make his plan work, and the other plans fail.  
• More and more, I recognize the importance of seeing who God is through the lens of the Bible and I appreciate a children's book that introduces this important truth!  
• Author's word choice- dramatic kid words- horrible, wicked, special, secret plan, hated, danger, ...
• Repeating the theme of God working, working, working
• The truth taught:  God's plans always come true... God is always working, working, working

Things I wonder about the book:

• This book not only doesn't capitalize pronouns like his/him when referring to God, it does capital Word when it means the Word of the Lord which is inconsistent to me.  
• I wonder why we share a "true story from the Bible" and don't share the reference to read it in a physical or e-book Bible and check out the facts as an adult?  

Educational Connections:

• Plans- build on the theme of making plans, expand to 'secret plans.'  
• teach making lists to remember the plans
• discuss when it would be okay to make a 'secret plan.' for a celebration, to honor someone, for fun, but also discuss that secret plans from your parent could be problematic.
• Talk about who God is and how His plan always works for the good of those who love Him.  
• Pretend with a crown to be king and queen. Act out the courage Esther needed to approach the King uninvited.  

Thankful to partner with the Goodbook company and share another excellent resource for whispering the Word.  

Lessons on the Gospel- Go, Share, Missions, Witnesses

Some of the other lessons I used games and activities from the Bible App for kids website.  The website also leads to an OpenChurch website with their curriculum.  

I like the small group activities, the prop talks, and the connections to the Bible.  

I used ideas from: God's Good Gospel- Unit 19 and Journey's for Jesus Unit 9 on the Gospel and Missions.  

In Little Church and Children's Church, we did the prop talks from Journey's for Jesus- 

We looked at globes, and where we are, where Paul travelled, where Jesus lived, and where our missionaries live.   We then practiced saying, Go! Go! Go! Share Jesus! and we marched around chanting this!  

We had the traffic light and played a version of red light/green light, where when it was green- we knew we could, "Go! Go! Go! share Jesus (or share the Good News)"  As witnesses/missionaries like Paul.  

We also had a picture of a school, a home, park, and the world- and we asked, where can you share Jesus? anywhere!  or we picked a specific place and talked about sharing Jesus there!  

We then added in what we want to share as the Good News or the Gospel- which led us back to our images and tossing bean bags on all the aspects of the Good News- so that we could share that Jesus loves me, He died for me, He rose again so that I can have eternal life, He paid for my sin, He's preparing a kingdom for me, He sent the Holy Spirit (a dove symbol and we made our hands wings) to be our helper!  

We also sang our J-E-S-U-S song- because There is a name I love to sing and Jesus is His name. Yes! J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S and Jesus is His name Yes!  Because there is power in the name of Jesus- He is God and He lived as man without any sin!  

We did sing this song with the help of Youtube one or two weeks!  

We also sang, "This little light of mine!" and "The Bible" on occassion.  

We also connected throughout our Acts study that Peter and John shared the good news, and healed in the power of Jesus name!, that Philip taught the Good News to the Ethiopian Man, and we practiced sharing the Good News using head from the Ethiopian Man and Philip on popsicle sticks.  That come from another one of my favorite resources, BibleFunforKids, the author Debbie Jackson has been sharing and updating resources for years, and she does such a great job focusing on the verses that go with the event, as well as interactions that make it come alive.  I printed my teaching set full page, but for the kids I printed two pages per page, so that the heads were more reasonable size.  

Lessons on the Gospel- other resources I've incorporated into little church/children's church with pre-schoolers

 This spring, I've read the following books with our preschoolers at least once.  

This book defined words, shared the concepts, but doesn't have the same momentum-building connections as the other board books we read.  But it does present the concepts in a biblical, simple truthful way.  

This book I used at least twice. Once I read through the whole book, and another time we reviewed the gospel concepts by going through the story.  I think it's a better fit for the 5-7-year-old group as its pictures are more detailed, and a bit more intense with the artwork.  

Because I'm all about repetition but changing it up a little bit to keep the children listening, I also used this book.  It's a smaller book and the print is tiny and brief, so it was easy to work into our reading, and now it's in our bag of gospel books that are in our nursery/little church room.  

This is the last book that I shared in our unit, and probably the longest to read aloud, but the week I read the whole thing, we had a lot of our ages 4-6-year-olds present, and it's perfect for them.  

For me, it hits all the concepts I've been building in our preschool lessons:

·       God created the world, people. 

·       God loves us SO much. 

·       People sinned, separating us from God.

·       God loves us SO much- He had a plan- that plan is Jesus.

·       Jesus is God and man.  Jesus lived, died, and rose again so that we may have eternal life, be with God forever, made right. 

·       We want to be King of me!  and be in control.  But that doesn't work so well.

·       Jesus is Our King.  Jesus is working on His Kingdom, preparing it for those who believe in Him. 

·       Jesus loves you and me!  and I love Jesus!

·       I need to turn to Jesus (and to please Him I should stop sinning).

·       The Holy Spirit is God- and He is my Helper- to help me live with Jesus as King of me. 

·       This is the Good News! 

·       God's Word tells me that after I believe- I should share the Good News!  

So this was a perfect read-aloud after all the other books, and because it fit the concepts and themes we had been talking about for weeks, the littles listened better as it was familiar and review.  

Lessons on the Gospel: Teaching about turning from sin and loving King Jesus!

As we learned about the gospel, we had celebrated Easter in the months between the start of Acts and moving into the missionary journeys that Paul made.  When we discuss all the King Jesus has done, always using our hands to put a pretend crown on our head- to remember He is our King.  We talk about how sin separates us from God, and how Jesus is our Rescuer, who takes our sin on Himself, and is our sacrificial lamb.  

In our regular preschool classes, we go through the entire Bible and look for Jesus in all of the Old and New testament.  I have been writing my own curriculum using my ideas and using ideas from bloggers that have shared their lessons for use in a home, school, or church environment. One favorite blog that often has great printable visuals to bring the story alive is Faith Sprouts.  I used many of her printables, songs, and ideas to build on and repeat in our study of Acts and in helping the littles learn to share the "Good News!" 

I've created and laminated many of the printables that this blogger shares.  During the pandemic, I delivered a laminated Jesus figure and the donkey to help families celebrate Palm Sunday and actively engage their children in Easter Week.  

Older kids in Pre-K would have already learned about John the Baptist and defined the word: "Repent" which is a big message that Paul repeats in his journeys and trials- that we need to stop, turn from sin, and love Jesus.  

The follow-up props to this lesson are found in Jesus loves the children and blesses them, and I have made up popsicle sticks that one side has a heart and one side has a stop sign, and we hold the figures of Jesus, as we stand up, talk about turning from our sin, and loving King Jesus!  

Of course, we also learned about Acts 3, and since the very beginning of our Acts study, we have chosen to sing every week, the song about J-E-S-U-S Name that Ms. Susanna shared.  It took us a few months before we used the letters of Jesus' name and clapped as we skipped letters marching around and sharing the name that brings the power to heal!  

After we had read the gospel books, studied our Acts lessons, we also had to learn how to share the Good News, and we started with a few of Ms. Susanna's ideas here, and we held laminated foam globes from the dollar store, or a beach ball globe, or laminated small earth. 

I can't take credit for any of the free printables or even the wording, but I can say that through well-done materials from bloggers like Ms. Susanna and authors that write books that are well done for our littles.  I will build a series of lessons, pull together and repeat, repeat, repeat the truth of the Good News until our littles can share and repeat it back.  I wish when I was little I had been taught the gospel message this clearly.  

So after we have said "No!" to sin, and turned to King Jesus.  We build on how King Jesus saved us.  

Littles can share:

• Jesus died on the cross so that I can my sins are forgiven!   
• Jesus rose from the grave, three days later, to show that He is God and to give us eternal life!
• Jesus is my King! (and we have a larger crown image.)  And we learned in Acts 1- that He ascended to Heaven, to sit at God's side, and to prepare His Kingdom for those who believe in Him.  (and we have a castle picture).  
• Then we review that Jesus didn't leave us alone, He sent us the Holy Spirit (a Dove), as we learned in Acts 2.  To be our helper, and be God with us.  

We also read, review key verses.  

Romans 3:23- For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God!  

Romans 5:8- But God demonstrates His love for us, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! 

Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. 

Romans 10:9- If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins.  

Romans 10:13- If anyone calls on the name of the Lord, he shall be saved.  

Acts 16:31- Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and You will be saved.  

I've been so encouraged at how even our two and three-year-olds have been able to interact in class, repeat concepts, and smile while we are having our class!  I feel a little in withdrawal, as I haven't been doing a full lesson and story the past few weeks for summer.  So after our family week away, I will choose a week and have a lesson or two to make sure the little retain the content!  

Lessons on the Gospel: Active Learning to Go! Share the Good News!

These are pages that I posted and reviewed each week as we discussed sharing the Good News!  I also printed the images on half sheets of paper, laminated them, and the children loved to toss their bean bags on a picture, and then share with the group what part of the Gospel this picture reminded us about.  This became one of our weekly activities, sometimes we'd also hold our laminated Jesus. Sometimes we set up our people and cat math counters so we had a group to share the good news with, other weeks we set up the women and guards from Easter finger puppets who needed to hear the Good News of Jesus.  We made megaphones to color and to help proclaim the good news. We sang J-E-S-U-S.  But mostly we practiced being witnesses or missionaries as the book of Acts has instructed believers to do!  I'm realistic I know not all the kids will remember this now, but I also know the power of memorization, especially when the Holy Spirit supports what is in our mind, and helps us in the right moment, at the right time, to find the Hope that is within us- and that Hope is Jesus!  But this has been the focus and fun of our lessons- with crown-wearing, foam worlds, beach ball world, bean bags, laminated images, songs, movement, and of course our Jesus soft plush that joined us somewhere at the end of May.  

I learned to wear a scarf with my outfit to tuck Jesus in as we shared the Good News! 

Stop! Repent! Turn from your sin

 and love Jesus!