Sorry
Juliet David
Mike Byrne, illustrator
Candle Books, £4.99
(978-1-85985-308-5)
Church Times Bookshop £4.50 (Use
code CT273)
Please
Juliet David
Mike Byrne, illustrator
Candle Books, £4.99
(978-1-85985-338-2)
Church Times Bookshop £4.50 (Use code
CT273)
Thank you
Juliet David
Mike Byrne, illustrator
Candle Books, £4.99
(978-1-85985-309-2)
Church Times Bookshop £4.50 (Use code
CT273)
My Little Prayers
Karen Williamson
Amanda Enright, illustrator
Candle Books, £4.99
(978-1-85985-869-1)
Church Times Bookshop £4.50 (Use code
CT273)
A Treasury of Prayers for Now and Always
Mary Joslin
Karen Forrester, illustrator
Lion £9.99
(978-0-7459-6347-1)
Church Times Bookshop £9 (Use code
CT273)
SORRY,
Please, and Thank
You are small, very sturdy board books for younger
children aged about two to four (although a four-year-old might get
bored more quickly, as they have only one sentence per page). They
help children to understand the importance of saying "Please,"
"Sorry," and "Thank you" to God. My daughter April (aged three)
liked the fact that they were small enough to hold in her hand, and
the colours were bright enough to hold her interest.
Sorry was her particular favourite, and she enjoyed
discussing the pictures. When I asked why the boys looked sad on
one page, April said that it was because they weren't sharing, and
confirmed that she gives things to everyone and doesn't find it
hard to share.
She read one story differently from me, because she said that
the girl should say sorry to the little boy because she didn't
share her ball rather than the boy having to say sorry for sticking
his tongue out, which I thought was interesting. It led to a
discussion on why we should say sorry.
In Please, April recognised the little girl as having
"prayer hands" on one page; and in one picture that depicted a
family she linked each person in the picture to her own family
(Mummy, Daddy, her, and her big brother, Raphy).
With the story that depicts a doctor, April remembered having
chicken pox, and said that she felt sad until her spots had gone;
she recognised the doctor in the story because of his
stethoscope.
We had been to the shops on the day that we read the book, and
she had helped me to find things; so she enjoyed looking at the
picture of the little girl helping her mummy to put things in the
trolley.
April loved seeing the pet in the family picture in Thank
You, and wondered where the pooper-scooper bags were, in the
picture of the little boy taking the dog for a walk in the
park.
One picture showed puddles on a rainy day. April loves splashing
in puddles and wearing her wellies, whatever the weather; so she
really enjoyed looking at this picture.
In My Little Prayers, all the prayers
are written in child-friendly language, and deal with things that
young children are familiar with. Raphy (aged five) related to many
of these prayers. The illustrations prompted a number of talking
points, from the dog and little boy in the park to the safari
animals - this was one of his favourites because he loves
animals.
Raphy enjoyed reading the prayer about the way we look - he has
just been painting a self-portrait in school, and they have been
using mirrors to have a close look at their eye and hair colour; so
he liked seeing the little girl in the illustration doing the same
thing.
April recognised Noah's ark, because she has a similar toy, and
she remembered that we tried to look for a rainbow last time it was
raining, but we had no luck. She could relate to the simple
pictures.
I really enjoyed reading the beautiful prayers in A
Treasury of Prayers for Now and Always, but the
language was a little too grown-up for Raphy and April. We were
awake early enough to hear the birds singing the other morning,
however; so I read the "Heaven's Music" prayer, and Raphy asked if
the birds' tweeting really was heaven's music.