Another Dodd book for Christmas!

A while back, I enthusiastically told you about 9 of Emma Dodd’s books. Find that post HERE . She’s an author/illustrator of simple but profound books for young children. These larger than usual board books have a particular look. They are grounded in loving relationships. In fact, these books are in her series called “Love You Books.” This year she’s come out with a book about Christmas. Like the others, it is about animal families and secular - not about Jesus’ birth but about the season. It’s a snowy landscape so it’s for the northern hemisphere. Below you’ll see in which of my preschool lessons I recommend it.

Interested in learning more about Trinity Treasures, my scripture-based preschool Sunday school curriculum. It features picture books & children’s Bibles. Free lessons are emailed if you fill out the monthly feedback form. Contact me at hannaschock@bellsouth.net. 

Picture Book: Christmas is Joy

Author/Illustrator: Emma Dodd

Summary: A family of reindeer are celebrating Christmas in a snowy woods. The primary relationship is between a fawn and father,

but eventually you see the whole herd. Christmas gifting here may be more about snuggling and quality time than wrapped packages. Still humanlike seasonal responses abound. The book ends with an emphasis on the unity the family feels among the peaceful beauty that they share. It acknowledges that their unity and the beauty that surrounds them lasts well beyond Christmas.

Hanna’s Comments: This gorgeous book's celebratory tone has you almost hearing the giggly joy and feeling the crisp cool air! Joy abounds because of loving familial relationships. There is profound beauty in the snowy scenes and beauty in the strong connections among the reindeer. Be sure to linger there with your audience and claim the love that abounds in their own Christmas rituals with family, both biological and faith-based. Talk specifically about what love and joy look like this time of year in various places. Extend that conversation to concepts of peace, which you'll see mentioned in the last pages. See last photo below. 

Original Publisher: Candlewick Press, 2022

Age Appropriateness: Toddler and up

Formats other than Book: None at present

Scripture Connections: The Christmas scriptures are full of joy and love! To expand your focus, tie this story of wilderness living to scriptures about God's loving care when we find ourselves in chaotic stress and noise (aka the holiday season).

Connections to The Revised Common Lectionary: I listed this book in 3 of my Trinity Treasures preschool lessons for Advent (themes: Mary Sees & Sings, Jesus Teaches Love, Prepare the Way), 1 per year in the 3-year lectionary cycle.

PBT Applications: Before reading this book to a group of young elementary children, list for them the 5 Languages of Love (see Gary Chapman's adult books or  THIS BOOK  for children). Find what love languages you can among these pages. End by anticipating how your audience would be inclined to love more joyfully this Christmas season.

Holding On to Grandparents

With gratitude practices as favored health regimens, Thanksgiving plans upon some (sorry I'm too late for countries who had Thanksgiving already), and legacies of our saints remembered in early November, this book seems perfect to feature. Meaningful rituals, issues of memory, a grateful orientation, profound joy, and loving grandparent legacies (think Lois mentioned in 2nd Timothy 1:2) are obvious scripture connections!

Picture Book: Holding On

Author: Sophia N. Lee

Illustrator: Isabel Roxas

Summary: This book begins: There is always singing in Lola’s house. From the point of view of a granddaughter with her grandmother only in summer, this book celebrates the pure love that skips a generation. 

Within sentences describing grandmother fun are profound statements of deeply meaningful love held with ritual. Lola tells her granddaughter: 

If you want to hold on, you gotta sing your songs.

The granddaughter explains how her grandmother holds on. Tokens from her childhood are treasured. Outgrown clothing is transformed into quilts. Photographs and framed childish drawings are dusted. 

The narrator holds on to all that her grandmother has taught her and “carries it in her heart.” Their loving rituals include singing, listening to music, dancing, cooking special recipes, even playing the lotto. Stories of her grandfather Lolo and the narrator’s infant ways are ritually shared too. 

When Lola no longer remembers some things, the granddaughter sings for her. She explains: 

It is my way of letting her know that’s it's okay if she doesn’t remember sometimes. I’ll remember for her.

Hanna’s Comments: Oh, how I wish I had grandmother memories like these! My sister is such a grandmother to my children. She tells me, “There is no love like grandmother love!” These lessons ground children with love of course, but also identity and meaning. They can be soothing in childhood and offer inner strength in adulthood. Encourage children who don’t have grandmothers in their lives to think about people who are invested in them unconditionally. Hopefully, they will think of people in their church family.

Original Publisher: Antheum, 2022

Age Appropriateness: 4 and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet

Scripture Connections: Any scripture about generational rituals or beliefs such as 2^nd Timothy 1:5 where Paul affirms the legacy of sincere faith from Timothy’s grandmother Lois. And there is Proverbs 22:6 which instructs us to train a child in ways that will not be lost when they are old.

More generally, this story connects to scriptures about gratitude, joy, and grandparents. Because so many Psalms were initially sung with sincere faith and with great joy, they too connect with this book and could lead to a powerful conversation about music and other worship rituals that are reminders of grandparents’ faith.

Connections to The Revised Common Lectionary: This book is listed in my Trinity Treasures preschool curriculum in Year C (theme: Faith from Family) on a week which lists the 2^nd Timothy scripture mentioned above.

PBT Applications: Read this book to a group of parents of young children. Help them identify the gifts and values their parents are passing or would want to pass on to future generations. Consider asking participants to bring a treasured item from an ancestor that symbolizes a particular legacy of faith from family.  

OR

Read it to a group of young children and ask them to draw or dramatize the ways their grandparents (or others in your church) show love.

If you are interested in learning more about Trinity Treasures, a scripture based preschool Sunday school curriculum that features picture books & children’s Bibles, contact me at hannaschock@bellsouth.net. Right now, free lessons are emailed if you agree to fill out the monthly feedback form.

PBT Series: For Our Youngest Children #3 Emma Dodd's "Love You" books

Picture Book Series: “Love You”

Author & Illustrator: Emma Dodd

Age Appropriateness: infant to age 5

Over the past few years, I’ve discovered a fabulous picture book series by an author/illustrator. The illustrations are beautiful in their simplicity and charm. The central focus in every book is the rich and profound love between a parent and child. At PBT, I hope you're learning to understand this: Parental love is particularly meaningful to children so it is the best comprehension connection to God’s love for us. Most children learn about loving ways from parents. These books present the daily treasures of such love by showing how God’s love for us is embodied, shared, and treasured. 

Before I give applications for ministry, let me emphasize that ALL these books would be wonderful gifts for a newborn or adopted child. The PBT bonus is parents & grandparents can simply read the book and then at the end of the reading say something like:

“God’s love is like that too.”   OR

“God loves you as much as I do.”    OR    

"All our love comes from God."        OR

“God gave us  all this love!”

The first 2 books I would not recommend for ministry, but they can be presented as explained above with a simple comment to a child in your family. One is for bedtime, so ministry applications don’t work. The 2^nd is all about intimate cuddling, which is not applicable for ministry.

 Counting Our Blessings 

Everything

All of the books below I have recommended in Trinity Treasures, my scripture-based preschool Sunday school curriculum that features picture books & children’s Bibles. If you are interested in learning about Trinity Treasures, contact me at hannaschock@bellsouth.net. For now, free lessons are emailed if you fill out a monthly feedback form. 

What Matters Most

PBT Applications: This book sees love as most important! Talk about how God is love, is the source of all love, and has given us life for loving God and loving the whole world! 

OR 

Emphasize God’s love as the same for all of God’s children. There are obvious connections to 1 Corinthians 13. Be sure to apply to other kinds of relationships besides parent/child.  

Love: I Love You All the Time

PBT Applications: This book celebrates loving moments in our interactions with nature and between a parent & child. As the creator of everything and everyone, God is the source of all these loving moments. Love is what we are created to do and be. Connect with scriptures showing loving acts of early church members such as those we see in Tabitha/Dorcas. 

Happy: I Love When You’re Happy

PBT Applications: This book celebrates the joy a parent feels when a child is happy. Note the peace at the end of the book. Peace also comes from God’s love. Any scripture about joy or peace will connect. I think of the children surrounding Jesus when he welcomed them! How happy and contented they must have been!

Together: I Love Spending Time Together!

PBT Applications: This book celebrates the loving moments of a day spent together. Emphasize that God wants us to enjoy being together, loving, hospitable, and even kind to those we don't know. Be specific when talking about behaviors. What does love look like? Jesus’ actions and parables are great connections. His disciples (I often call these his “friends”) loved spending time with Jesus! 

Forever

PBT Applications: This book is about empathy, compassion, presence, trust, unconditional love, and resilient love. These are the components of a parent/child relationship that closely relate to God’s love. Jesus’ actions make this clear. His stories of love in action, his passion for the least, lost, and poor, and even hissacrifice offer connections to this book.

The books below have multiple titles! 

Just Like You      OR    When I Grow Up

PBT Applications: This book celebrates change and growing up. Attribute these wonderful changes to God. I’ve connected it to scriptures that call for good works. Such good work is meaningful for young children in their home and classrooms now and later as they anticipate growing, changing, and learning what kind of person to become. Talk about how God’s dreams for us are about growing how we love in ways and in words. Help your children apply these ideas to their specific contexts.

                         

No Matter What      OR    Always: I Love You Always

PBT Applications: This book celebrates unconditional love, the kind of love God has for us. Every scripture that highlights an imperfect hero, demonstrates a mistake, redeems a hurtful act, or exposes a need for change connects here. Those scriptures and this book remind us all that no one is beyond God’s forever, unconditional love.

It's Love! - a Little Late

Sorry I got sick and couldn’t feature these books earlier in February, the month of love. I have 2 new publications that are rich with meaning but very different visually and in tone. Both offer profound ideas about God’s nature and God's greatest gift. I also give you links to other “love-ly” books here at PBT.

Picture Book: Love

Author: Stacy McAnulty

Illustrator: Joanne Lew-Vriethoff

Summary: The profound question “What is love?” is the "heart" of this book. Sorry for that very bad pun! Everyday moments, sometimes unexpected, are highlighted. There's lots of fun and diversity in character and deed, but the context is consistent - families and friends loving on each other!  

Loving spiritual practices and loving situations abound such as gifts of hospitality, generosity, and that most precious gift - presence. 

Hanna’s Comments: If your country celebrates St. Valentine's Day, this is a perfect book for that occasion, but it's applicable all year long! I adore the illustrator’s choices here! Check out the cover. Within these pages you have lots of examples of how we communicate love including the American Sign Language sign and other simple signals with our body. I used all these gestures for a preschool lesson about 1 Corinthians 13. This author’s fun book Excellent Ed was featured at PBT [here]. And [here's] another favorite book all about how our bodies (hands this time) show love. 

Original Publisher & Date: Running Press Kids, 2018

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet 

Scripture Connections: God is love. (1 John 4:8b); The Love Chapter (1 Corinthians 13); Let all you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14); Above all these, put on love… (Colossians 3:14)

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of young children, and practice all the ways in these pages love can be communicated with your body. Then create some new ways.  

Picture Book: My Heart

Author & Illustrator: Corinna Luyken

Summary: This author/illustrator urges us to let our hearts be our guides and listen to the loving voice within us. Sounds like The Holy Spirit to me! There’s a lot of abstract metaphorical language, but don’t let that keep you from sharing this with younger audiences. Sometimes they get such messages when we adults are stuck in the concrete.

Hanna’s Comments: You’ll want to play with these metaphors yourself before you read this book to an audience. What does it mean to say “My heart is a slide, a fence, or a stain? 

I used to collect hearts. There's no red in these pages! What Luyken does with that simple design and the colors yellow and black is amazing! Be sure to have your folks find the hidden hearts in these pages. Spend time with each image’s meaning. Does it remind them of a personal experience or a possibility or hope? Can they make up or dramatize a simple story inspired by an illustration? So much potential here! Keep connecting to scripture and you have a fabulous Sunday school or Bible Study experience. [Here's] another book about loving the world, but it's so very different looking. Kids might like experiencing both and then using all the images to compare, contrast, and create. If you're a preacher, this book could serve as rich visual stimuli for a profound sermon on what it means to love. 

Original Publisher & Date: Dial, 2019

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet

Scripture Connections: Create in me a clean heart O God… (Psalm 51:10); Keep your heart with all vigilance… (Proverbs 4:23); I will give you a new heart and a new spirit…I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh (Ezekiel 36:26); Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of children or adults who need some reminders about how to love one another better. This book would also be a beautiful reading for spiritual direction or other bibliotherapy contexts, particularly if someone is struggling with important relationships. For more on that, check out [this post]. 

4 Snow Books

It’s a tricky matter to feature books about snow, but such stories are often fun and illustrations are usually striking. Thus is the case for the 4 books featured below. You may not be experiencing snow or even the winter season right now, but it was time for me to spend a little time connecting the joys of snow to faith. Have these books in your wheelhouse for when the flakes fall or when it’s hot outside and thoughts of snow would be particularly refreshing to your faith family. The first book is the story of a child's prayer. The next two books share the title Snow, with one being about patience and the other about snow's variety, beauty, and fun. The last book is about perseverance. All are full of sacred themes. But first, [here's] a PBT post about a "snowy" book that you all know already. 

Picture Book: Before Morning

Author: Joyce Sidman

Illustrator: Beth Krommes

Summary: Upon arriving home, a young girl realizes her airline pilot mom will be leaving soon. She is not happy about this. As she prepares for sleep, she offers an invocation, a prayer of sorts, for a snow day to keep her family together. She gets her wish and love abounds! The joys of a snow day are abundant.

Hanna’s Comments: The text in this book doesn’t occur for several pages so this is a quiet book that demands attention to the illustrations. Be sure to offer it in small groups and explain the illustrations when they are hard to follow. The time and effort are worth it for this gorgeous book is all about familial love and a desire to be present. This would be a great choice for a conversation in your faith family about prayers of petition that are purely selfish. Does God mind them when they are motivated purely by love? Then spend some time talking about the joy of snow days and how they are blessings for some and hardships for others.

Original Publisher & Date: HMH, 2016

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet

Scripture Connections: The psalms are full of petitionary prayers. Some are less selfish than others. 

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of children or adults and embark on a discussion about the appropriateness of prayers founded on selfish desires. 

Picture Book: Snow

Author & Illustrator: Sam Usher

Summary: Sam awakes to a blanket of snow, but he must wait for his grandfather to step outside. Eager to be the first to make footprints, he's stands at the door calling for Granddad, but Granddad is slow. Then Sam watches as another child has that privilege. He keeps waiting and waiting, watching more folks and creatures (some ridiculous - the result of Sam’s imagination) walk about having glorious fun. After an agonizing wait, the two step out and join the fun. 

Hanna’s Comments: This book is part of a series called Seasons with Granddad. Other titles are Sun, Rain, and Storm. This would be a perfect book to share with children in a church family that wants to increase and improve  multi-generational interaction. Let it be a catalyst for a discussion about The Fruits of the Spirit (particularly patience, joy, and love) and how these might be needed on both sides of the age spectrum. Recognizing and exploring differences are the best way to eventually celebrate them and reap the benefits of all being respected and affirmed for their part of The Body of Christ.

Original Publisher & Date: Templar, 2015

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 3 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet

Scripture Connections: The Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of children and talk realistically about how patience is required when interacting with people who are elderly. Then spend time talking about the gifts the older generations have given your church. Have some important stories to share about individuals your children know.

Picture Book: Snow

Author: Cynthia Rylant

Illustrator: Lauren Stringer

Summary: In this beautiful book of rhythmic prose, this prize-winning writer evokes all sorts of feelings from a variety of snow experiences thanks to a young girl who greets snow like a friend. She tells us that snow is best enjoyed WITH a friend too. Snow gives us permission to be happy! Delicate snow is lightly described, but sometimes snow is a heavy burden. This entire book is a child’s wisdom (they do experience snow better than us adults!) to savor snow and the experiences it offers for “nothing lasts forever except memories.”

Hanna’s Comments: Anytime you earnestly consider the beauty and treasure of one of God’s gifts in nature, you are engaged in contemplative prayer. This is certainly something children do already so label it as a spiritual practice and encourage more of it. Because this book is full of gratitude, you could read it in a lesson on the spiritual practice of gratitude. Share some scientific findings about how this orientation inclines us toward health and joy. Then encourage a gratitude journal. [Here] at PBT, I featured Cynthia Rylant and mentioned a few of her many books. She is a treasure that I am grateful for!

Original Publisher & Date: Harcourt, 2008

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet

Scripture Connections: In the perfection of beauty, God shines forth (Psalm 50:2); To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1); God has made everything beautiful in its time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11); How great is God’s goodness and how great is God’s beauty! (Zachariah 9:17)

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of children who are learning about how to pray contemplatively or who are writing gratitude journals.  

Picture Book: Blizzard

Author & Illustrator: John Rocco

Summary: The author shares a story from his Rhode Island childhood about the blizzard of 1978. From the first flakes to the first snowplow many days later, Rocco’s family rises to the challenges of the deep snow. On day 6, their food has run out. Hot cocoa made from water has its limits. John is the lightest (and he’s the only one who has read a survival guide), so he sets out on top of the deep snow trudging toward the neighborhood store. Comically, he meets and helps neighbors along the way while taking their requests from the store. Finally, he arrives at the store and piles the supplies onto his sled. Racing against the sun, he delivers the requests to his grateful neighbors and returns home with groceries – a hero to all.

Hanna’s Comments: The themes of this fun story are hard work, kindness, perseverance, and being oriented to the needs of the community as a whole. Kids become heroes with such biblical values and such stories help them see the connections between real life and scripture, faith and action, love and work, service and joy.

Original Publisher & Date: Hyperion, 2014

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 5 and up, K and up

Formats other than Book: None at present

Scripture Connections: Scriptures about heroes such as Young David in 1 Samuel 17 and the boy who shares his lunch in John 6.

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of children and talk about attributes of heroes and what motivates them to do good.

Fruit of the Spirit: Love

Picture Book: Love

Author: Matt de la Pena

Illustrator: Loren Long

Summary: This beautiful new book begins with the birth of a child, but the story is about several children. The word "you" refers to each of them. This allows the images and ideas to more easily apply to the reader as well. In your case, your audience.

Sounds, smells and other sensory experiences of these children's lives are celebrated as evidence of love, as in this urban scene and...

 

the sky above a trailer home. 

The delight of an urban summer day and playing with the big kids is one of many examples of love here! But these moments are not all joyful. Love comes at hard times too.

When fire alarms interrupt your sleep, a neighbor reassures you that stars shine with love long after the flames die out. 

Sometimes love is harder to find such as when there's violence in your home 

or when there's violence on the TV and no one will explain. 

You might go to bed and face bad dreams, but then 

awake to find loving arms to hold you. Then you hear, "It's okay. It's okay." That's love. 

Some love gets unappreciated like the love of a parent who is at work in the morning but leaves breakfast to share. 

Love is in each deep crevice of the face of a granddad who will fish with a grandchild. 

Love is in a young girl's daydreams 

your uncle's stories, 

and the love songs of the man who sings on the street. 

Most importantly, love is in the face you see in the bathroom mirror. 

And then one day, you'll be off on your own, surrounded by family wishing you good luck, 

but it won't be luck you'll have.  Instead you'll have the love they've given you all along. Love. Love. Love.

Hanna’s Comments: This book is a celebration of the universal bonds of love, across cultures, diverse family situations, and various milestones. This is not a straightforward book. I suggest you read each double-page spread and then discuss that situation. Begin by simply asking, "Where's the love?"  You might have to start with, "What are the feelings being experienced?" Help your audience expand the sources of love from human to divine. Consider talking about God's hope or Jesus' examples and how those might apply. Ask: "Where's The Holy Spirit?" in each situation. "What are people being called to do? Why?" Try to encourage many connections to the book and across your audience. This will build meaning and perhaps lead to transformation. 

This author's last publication was so impressive that it won the prestigious Newbery Award for 2016. This is unusual for a picture book. Like today's feature book, Last Stop on Market Street is all about a loving relationships but via a soup kitchen and a child's first exposure to poverty. [Here's] my post featuring that book.

Original Publisher & Date: Putnam’s Sons, 2018

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet

Scripture Connections: In addition to The Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23: ... love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18); A new commandment I give you that you love one another (John 13:34); The Love Chapter (1 Corinthians 13); Let all you do be done in love. (1 Corinthians 16:14); Above all these, put on love which binds everything together (Colossians 3:14); Above all, keep loving one another earnestly (1 Peter 4:8)

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to a group of new parents or those who are anticipating parenthood. OR Read this book during a lesson series for elementary children on The Fruit of the Spirit.