Monday, September 20, 2010

Book Review: Creation Story for Children

The Creation Story for Children by Helen and David Haidle.  What a fantastic book.

What I love:
  • detailed pictures.  Lots and lots of details.  The cover gives you an idea as to what the page on the creation of animals looks like.
  • each spread in the first part of the book contains about three verses from Genesis 1 and 2.  In total, it is all but four verses of Genesis 1, and four verses from Genesis 2.
  • The Bible is quoted in King James Version, which isn't my favorite version, but it isn't modernized or dumbed-down.
  • The commentary that follows the scripture is also not dumbed down.  On the animals page, for instance, the text talks about how animals move ("stomp, hop run, jump, crawl, walk, and swim").  And it talks about the thousands of animals and a million kinds of insects.
  • The second section of the book consists of a paragraph or two of information on twenty amazing creatures.  Packed with facts, even my big kids (up to age 13) enjoyed these few pages.
  • The final section of the book takes you through Psalm 139.
What my 4 year old loves:
  • detailed pictures.  Lots and lots of details.  Lots of stuff to tell me about.  Lots of things to ask about.
  • The commentary that follows the scripture often asks questions that give her a new way to interact with the pictures.
What my 6 year old loves:
  • detailed pictures.  But you had guessed that already.
  • The scripture doesn't sound like it is for babies.  He's a big boy, and doesn't want to be talked down to.
  • The commentary following the scripture doesn't insult his intelligence either.  Very important.
  • The twenty amazing creatures, oh, yeah.  He can't say enough good things about that section.
What my big guys love (ages 9, 11, and 13):
  • They don't get bored reading a page or two aloud to their younger siblings.
  • The twenty amazing creatures have so many awesome trivia type facts.  Yeah.  They like that.
What don't we like?  Hmmm.  Not coming up with anything, other than not quite being sure how the Psalm section at the end is supposed to tie in to the rest of the book. It was lovely, but it just wasn't what we expected in those final pages.

Disclaimer:   I received this book for free from New Leaf Publishing Group.  No other compensation was received.  The fact that I received a complimentary product does not guarantee a favorable review.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good evening

Definitely gonna recommend this post to a few friends

Anonymous said...

Hi - I am definitely happy to discover this. cool job!