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 my most favourite part was the small white smilie face on each page, which reminded me of God’s eternal presence which is always near us, so I was delighted when I got to the end of the book and that’s exactly what it represents! (It’s name is Ru, short for Ruah, meaning breathe of God which represents the Spirit of God!)
Worst bit: A couple of the rhymes felt a little forced to me, using words which wouldn’t have been used if they didn’t rhyme, but I’m really fussy about that kind of thing, you probably wouldn’t even notice!
More:
From the start, this books uses strong, bold, and sometimes humorous illustrations to draw us in. The text is written in a dyslexic-friendly font (again, you wouldn’t notice but it’s much easier on the eye), and in a font size which means children who are just starting to read things independently could read this book easily if they wanted to.
I love he different characters, and am keen to see what they do in the other books in the series, and I loved the way the story takes us from the world of a child, when birthdays and age are very important, to a big question about God. In the story, Roar then models great faith-building behaviour by asking different people his question until one of them suggests looking in the Bible. Roar discovers that,
“It says we’re like flowers
That grow for a day
We flourish and fade
Like grass turns to hay.
But God stretches out
From beginning to end
Before time began
And still after its end.”
It then goes on to say that
“God is different
He overlooks time
like an artist will draw
or a writer will rhyme.
The artist draws
but he was not drawn.
So God breathes life
But he was not born.”
I think this is a fab, age-appropriate way to describe how God is outside of time, don’t you?
I love how this book encourages questions and answers them with scripture and appropriate simile.
I doubt the answers in this book mean that a child will never return to this un-answerable question, as it’s a really big one which adults wrestle with too, but it’s a great starting place for building a life of asking questions and building faith. I hope Joanne develops a whole series of these books helping children explore their big questions about God.
Buy it directly from Joanne, and she’ll throw in a few sweet treats!