Netgalley Partner: Special God a children's book by Julie Melilli, illustrated by Matt Stevens

The content of this book is so good.  It shares who God is and how to believe in Him.  It's written by a mom who adopted a special needs girl and wanted a book that she could developmentally understand, and that would fit her differences, and still point to a Redeemer God who is here for everyone.  It's published by Crossway and due out September 30th.  Retails for $16.99 at Crossway.

It has words that are bolded and colored to stand out- and when it uses a term, it also defines it in simple language.  There are sample quotes from the book throughout this post- that share examples of a sentence from each page.  I like the quotes better than the actual pages with many words and paragraphs on each two page chapter.  But the book is almost 60 pages with all the great content that is taught.  It's designed to be read to a 5-8 year old, and a read to self for 8+.    I can see that as appropriate ages.

It definitely is an excellent content resource to explain who God is, sin, separation, eternity, ...

Every page ends with a scripture verse. The illustrations are simple and just shape driven, nothing spectacular but they use color for emphasis, and an occasional person shape.



The concepts are so well explained and the teaching is so good, I can see using this book in our grades 1/2 Sunday School class, as we work to teach them biblical concepts and truths to build on from young on. It's a perfect fit.

As an educator, I love the vocabulary development of biblical terms, I love the way the pages build on the concepts of the page before,  the theology is good and the child language is appropriate.  

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I'm not so sure about the contrast of colors on some pages, at least on the e-version I was reading it was hard to read some of the pages.  I'll have to see when I order the hard copy how it looks.   The quotes here are similar but maybe a bit busier than most of the book pages.
















I'm also not sure about the length of the pages- there are a lot of words on many of the pages, as a read aloud or read together, with such simple images, I'm not sure how well the attention of the children would be.  As a read to self, I think it's a better fit, but it's a long book with almost 60 pages.   But in Sunday School, we will use one chapter at a time to teach, and might read aloud to review a few other pages.  And I think it works well for that. But I'm disappointed it's a 7 by 9 inch book.  So not designed for reading aloud to a group.



Here is the table of contents that shares all the topics covered. 

Table of Contents:

Introduction
God
God Is Holy
Sin
God’s Holiness Is Important
Sin Brings Separation
Prayer and Confession
Forgiveness
Special God
Salvation
Consequences
Jesus
Punishments
Jesus Instead of You
Jesus Was Crucified
Jesus Was Resurrected
Jesus Is Really God’s Son
God Can Really Forgive Sin
Jesus Defeated Death
Physical and Spiritual Body
Mystery
Eternal Life
Heaven
Grace and Faith
Becoming a Christian
Following Jesus
Words to Know