While the message that God is all around, especially in nature, is clear, other books have made that point much more clearly...
A young girl learns to find God in the smallest of things.
At first the unnamed, first-person narrator cannot find God anywhere she looks: in the dresser in her room, in the bathtub, in the garden amid the flowers and dragonflies. “Why can’t I find you, God? I sit down under a tree, wishing I could see God. Then the wind blows a leaf down onto me. // There you are! I’ve found you!” And suddenly she sees God in the wind, the flowers, the dragonflies, the smallest drops of water in the bathtub. And in the mirror in her dresser, she sees God in herself (and readers can, too; there’s foil on the page): “You are here, and you are always inside me.” The narrator is a round-headed, rosy-cheeked white girl with long brown hair who wears a white-on-white patterned dress. Her eyes are perpetually closed in the illustrations, which may be perplexing to young readers, given the emphasis on looking and seeing. Her surroundings are filled with flowing and rounded forms, especially the trees, leaves, and vines, even her dresser and curtains echoing theses sinuous shapes.
While the message that God is all around, especially in nature, is clear, other books have made that point much more clearly and beautifully; Kathy-jo Wargin’s series of seasonal alphabet books comes to mind. (Picture book/religion. 2-6)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-664-26352-2
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
A sweet, colorful start for a Christian spiritual journey.
A cheery child gives thanks to God.
“When I see a rainbow / High up in the sky / I say a little prayer of thanks, / And here’s the reason why: // Because God loves me!” This board book’s focus is the comforting notion that God loves all his children, and no matter what, he will always look out for them. The text follows an ABCB rhyme scheme, breaking after every stanza to repeat the phrase “Because God loves me!” The small, light-skinned child has spiky brown hair and wears a dress; both the child and a chubby accompanying dog are appealingly illustrated with a bright, simple color palette and scratchy lines that appear to have been made with colored pencil. God is the only name given for the deity, implying a primarily Christian audience. The book’s message is clear, and its construction is sturdy, suiting this well to parents who are beginning to have conversations with their little readers regarding their beliefs.
A sweet, colorful start for a Christian spiritual journey. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-58925-237-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
A simplistic, outdated take on Diwali for young children.
It’s Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, and Binny can’t wait to tell her class about her favorite holiday.
On their way through their North American suburb to school, Binny’s mother wishes her luck and reminds her to tell her class about the oil lamps that are a central part of their family’s Diwali tradition. But when Binny’s teacher, Mr. Boomer, invites her to share, Binny freezes, overcome with shyness. Taking a deep breath, she remembers her mother’s advice. The thought of the world filled with light—symbolizing the triumph of good over evil—gives Binny the strength she needs to tell her family’s Diwali story. While the book is thorough in its description of traditions like wearing new clothes, eating sweets, lighting lamps, and decorating floors and sidewalks with colored powder, the prose is clunky and clumsy, and Binny’s conflict is resolved so quickly that the story arc feels limp and uninteresting. Other elements of the text are troubling as well. Calling Binny’s new clothes an “Indian outfit,” for example, erases the fact that the kurta she wears is typical of the entire South Asian subcontinent. The use of most fireworks, which the author treats as an essential part of the holiday, is now banned in India due to concerns about pollution and child labor. Most problematically of all, the author continually treats Diwali as a Hindu holiday celebrated by “everyone,” which is untrue in India or in diaspora and which dangerously equates Hindu and Indian identity. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads reviewed at 49% of actual size.)
A simplistic, outdated take on Diwali for young children. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-36448-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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