Passover: Celebrating Now, Remembering Then

Passover: Celebrating Now, Remembering Then Harriet Ziefert and Karla Gudeon Blue Apple Books, 2010 I feel like I should start this review with a disclaimer: I may not be the best person to write about today’s book!  It’s written from a Jewish perspective and includes many details about the traditional Passover Seder… and I’m neither [...]

The Jesus Storybook Bible

The Jesus Storybook Bible Sally Lloyd-Jones and Jago Zonderkidz, 2007 I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to write this review. We’ve had a copy of The Jesus Storybook Bible since my (now 5-year-old) daughter was two, and she and I have read it from cover to cover at least twice. I guess I’m [...]

In Your Own Words

A couple of weeks ago I had a wonderful conversation with a friend about what kinds of theological books work well with 2 1/2 year olds.  I mentioned that we weren’t having luck yet with The Big Picture Story Bible and I was wondering if she had any suggestions for Bible story books that resonated with [...]

Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden

Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden Jane Ray Eerdmans, 2005 Hooray for the California Library Link+ system! We arrived home from 3 weeks in Minnesota last Monday, and waiting for me on our library’s hold shelf was a wonderful stack of books from within the San Francisco public library system and around the [...]

Noah’s Ark

Noah’s Ark Jerry Pinkney Chronicle Books, 2002 As we’ve mentioned before, “the Noah problem” has become shorthand around Aslan’s Library for an all-too-common pitfall in Christian kidlit: Bible story books that completely miss the point. It’s pretty difficult to find a flood-story picture book that echoes the gravity of the biblical narrative. (After all: this is [...]

Joseph

Joseph Brian Wildsmith Eerdmans, 1997 Some of you may remember that I love Brian Wildsmith’s work. My first encounter with it, actually, was last summer at our lake home – Haley’s niece asked me to read her Joseph one lazy, hot early evening. Together we admired the pictures, and then got into an involved discussion about [...]

To Everything There Is a Season

To Everything There Is a Season Jude Daly Eerdmans, 2006 Less than a month ago I told Sarah that I was giving up on picture books about Ecclesiastes.  I had read several and was, to be frank, astonished at how some illustrators chose to depict certain verses.  But here I am a few weeks later [...]

Exodus

Exodus Brian Wildsmith Eerdmans, 1998 I think the story of the Exodus is, hands down, one of the most exciting in the Bible. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most familiar – so much so, that we often lose sight of the drama when we come back to it. But there’s a reason it is [...]

Peter’s First Easter

Peter’s First Easter Walter Wangerin, Jr. & Timothy Ladwig Zondervan, 2000 One of the reasons I’m glad that Easter is around the corner is that I finally get to tell you about Peter’s First Easter! It’s long been one of my favorites and, in fact, it was one of a handful of books that inspired [...]

The Book of Jonah

The Book of Jonah Peter Spier Doubleday, 1985 I love the book of Jonah. I love how richly Christological it is. I love how funny it is. I love Jonah’s grouchy honesty; and I love God’s gracious, hard humor in dealing with him. It’s such an odd book, in so many ways – God is [...]