October Kid-Lit

October brought two more Christian picture books from publishers to review, both gems in their own right. Colorful illustrations and child-friendly narration were found in each book.

Jesus Calling: A Christmas Story by Sarah Young

From the best-selling author of Jesus Calling devotionals (which are made in formats from toddlers to adults) comes a wonderful Advent resource for children to focus on Jesus amidst the busy Christmas season. Starting with the creation story and ending with an invitation to be a best friend of Jesus, the twelve devotions all include a short Bible verse, two or three paragraph devotional, and a Jesus Calling phrase that summarizes how it all links back to Jesus. This sweet Christmas picture book goes beyond the nativity story and looks at the Big Picture: that God always had a plan to bring Jesus to save us and bring us into His family. I did not expect to see some of the Bible stories, including God's promise to Abraham to bless all nations through him and Isaiah's prophesies about a Savior to be born in Bethlehem, but I absolutely loved it. What a great way to discuss with children that though we celebrate Jesus' birth into our world at Christmas, the Bible was already whispering His name for ages past as the Father God's way for His Son to bring redemption. The illustrations are absolutely darling and the devotional format looks like it would be easily engaging for parents and children to read together.

Target audience: Pre-K to grade-school

Disclaimer: I received this book at no charge to me from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for an honest review, which I have included here.

Seek-and-Circle Bible Battles by Alyssa Jones

I must admit, the battles fought by the Israelites in the Old Testament are not my favorite parts to read in the Bible and definitely not the parts I would think would be found in a children's picture book. Details about fighting and death is just not appealing to me. But that does not mean it is to be skipped or discounted since these are passages that were purposefully left in the Bible. This picture book focuses on six battles, some well known (The Battle of Jericho, David and Goliath), while others more obscure (Judah taken captive, Israel vs the Five Kings, Canaan vs Deborah/Barak/Jael, Gideon vs Midianites). A short, one-paragraph blurb summarizes the battle, and then a busy two-page spread of the battle scene coupled with the list of items to find take up the majority of the page space. But my favorite part of the page is the Christ Connection in the corner of each battle scene, where another short blurb explains how each of the battles tells us something about God's plan for His people through Jesus. The book starts with a page discussing the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-19) and each of the battles focuses on one piece of the armor. There is also a helpful Parent Connection at the beginning of the book with questions to discuss with children and further Scriptures from Romans to discuss the spiritual battles that we each face every day. Parents can be assured that there is no super violent scenes depicted. Though there are swords shown and people looking scared, there is no picture of anyone being actively injured and no blood whatsoever. For a book on battles, it is appropriately clean since it is a children's book. 

Target audience: Kindergarten to grade-school. I can see this book being more appealing to boys since they are typically interested in battles, but it can definitely be read to girls as well.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from B&H/Lifeway in exchange for an honest review, which I have provided here.