Title: The Prisoners, the earthquake and the midnight song Author: Bob Hartman Illustrator: Catalina Echeverri Published by: The Good Book Company Price: RRP £8.99 Only £5.85 at Eden at the time of writing Good for: Children aged 2-8 years Best bit: It’s a hard call between Bob’s excellent storytelling and Catalina’s awesome pictures! Both are wonderful. Worst bit: … Read more
I love using the seasons in our faith at home. This is fairly easy in the run up to Christmas and Easter, and in the Autumn we celebrate the Biblical feasts. However, between Pentecost and October, there’s a dearth of significant markers. However, the natural ‘calendar’ is often useful, and in the summer our days … Read more
Title: Make Room: a child’s guide to Lent and Easter Author: Laura Alary Illustrator: Ann Boyajian Published by: Paraclete Press Price: £8.99 (Amazon) Good for: Families with children aged 3–10 years old who want to introduce them to the Easter story focusing on the transforming nature of the story Best bit: The book is written … Read more
Title: The Way of the Cross Author and Illustrator: Andrew McDonough Published by: Malcolm Down Price: £5.99 Useful for: children age 3-8 wanting to know the story of Easter Best bit: This full-colour picture book has incredibly well written, age-appropriate re-telling of the 14 traditional Easter readings from the gospels. It also includes really helpful notes … Read more
Maybe it was because I grew up in a protestant, evangelical tradition that I always thought anything to do with the saints was kind of catholic and probably a bit wrong. A few years ago, I went on a Godly Play retreat in which we explored twelve saint’s stories. To be honest, I wasn’t keen … Read more
Title: Who made God? Author: Joanne Gilchrist Illustrator: David Kuiavskii Published by: Sarah Grace Publishing Price: £5.99 Useful for: children age 4-7 with big questions about God Best bit: I like the bright, bold illustrations, the rhyming text, the way we’re introduced to the different characters and the use of child-appropriate similes to describe God, but … Read more
Build a story set for a Bible story using a construction toy e.g. Duplo, Lego, Jenga blocks). Plan the route the characters will take through the set. We built a set for the story of Ehud using Duplo and Lego combined. We then created characters for Ehud and the king, and played out the story … Read more
Title: The Visitors Author: Clare Thompson Price: £8 Published by and available from: Get Naturally Creative Good for: parents or people working with children age 1-100 Best bit: Stunning artwork created from natural loose parts Worst bit: no hardback version available More thoughts: It’s rare that I have a review for a book which isn’t specifically … Read more
Title: The incredible power of God’s word Created by: Joyce Meyer Published by: Hodder Price: £12.99 Useful for: children age 5-10 years old Best bit: Simple, fun design with a great selection of Bible verses on useful topics Worst bit: It has lovely full colour pictures, but more would have been fab. I might also … Read more
Title: The God Files Created by: Andy Robb Published by: Hodder Bibles Price: £19.99 Useful for: children age 7+ years old Best bit: Loads of useful notes and fun stuff all written in the style of spy notes. For example, Moses is Agent Moses, Genesis is The Genesis File. Worst bit: As always, as a … Read more
Title: The Good News Bible Family Edition Created by: YFC and The Bible Society Published by: The Bible Society Price: £27.99 here Useful for: families with children aged 5+ years old Best bit: It’s BIG! Seriously, a large book with TONNES of stuff inside, large text plus space to write and draw in it, extra … Read more
Title: All about Christmas Author: Alison Mitchell Designer: Andre Parker Published by: The Good Book Company Price: RRP £10.99 reduced to £9.34 here Good for: Children age 5-11 who’d enjoy a detailed non-fiction book about the Christmas story Best bit: Loads of info and pictures Worst bit: Text a bit small for the age group, and often quite a lot of text on … Read more