I'm still in a quest to teach littles and elementary kids the gospel with clarity, scripture, simplicity, and the needed concepts present, as we continue through the book of Acts at my local church. Today I stumbled on a book that I love, and I'm reviewing it, even though I don't have it in my hands yet! Thanks to Vimeo I can see and hear the entire book online, and review it while my order ships! This reader is engaging and animating as well, I'm considering showing the video in children's church this week before I have the book!
Teaching tip: when I find videos of books read aloud by the author or others, I like knowing how long they are so I can estimate how long reading the book aloud will take. This is a 6 minute book without any comments.
But this is definitely a top contender in the teach children the good news clearly search.
What I like about the book:
- this is a hardback book, a nice size, and in the two videos I saw, you can hear the quality of the thick pages as they turn, and now it will endure little hands independent use.
- Trish Mahoney is an illustrator, she illustrates many of the books I have reviewed, and her illustrations are simple, clear, warm, and engaging. The text is clear and uncluttered as well. (the older I get my vision changes and this is crucial for reading aloud with ease.)
- The illustrations express emotions appropriately and clearly- I love this as how we feel is often a concept children need help processing.
- A scripture verse and reference at the footer of EVERY page! Appropriate, sound, well-chosen verses. Helpful- speaking the truth with the authority of God's Word. Love it!
- Concepts (Doctrine) that are essential are mentioned, defined appropriately, and brought to a child's level throughout the book. One big concept that comes through is God loves us, God is good, holy, good creation,
- But the vocabulary is not dumbed down- it is for 4/5 year olds because it uses the bible terms like gospel, serpent, sin, separation, punishment, savior, believed, death, defeated, saved, good news, etc. Because it shares simple explanations with clarity, the vocabulary should be implied, rephrased enough, it will be learned by most children.
- The gospel is fully explained from the creation of man, the fall, to Jesus' life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the Holy Spirit being with us, that we need to share the Good News, and King Jesus coming back! (making this a winner in the connect to the book of Acts series and themes!)
- 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!
- This book includes tips for parents and how to lead their child to Christ (haven't seen this part yet.)
- But for all these reasons- the simplicity, the friendliness for children, the direct teaching, but in a child-friendly manner- this is a must-have book for me to continue what littles need- repetition of the Word of God to know, think, and apply to their own hearts, souls, and minds, and to be better equipped to share with others. I suspect this book will help many a grownup feel more confident in sharing their faith as well!
What I wonder about the book:
- How will three year olds do with this book? I suspect my class who have been growing in their listening skills all spring, will listen well.
- How did I not find this until now? It looks like it was first published in 2018 and reprinted last year. I'm following SheReadsTruth now, and won't miss their other products.
If you want to purchase this book, there are limited options since it's published by SheReadsTruth. You can purchase it through their shop and if you use my referral code link you can get $5 off your order. If your order is over $50 shipping is free. I earn points for every use of my referral code but have no idea how it works yet. The other options I found were amazon and christianbook. But I found a 30% off code for shereadstruth making it the best price I could find. And then I ordered the This is Christmas partner book as well which wasn't sold anywhere but shereadstruth.
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