The Spiritual Lives of Elephant & Piggie

 

A Sampling of Picture Book in This Series and Possible Godly Themes: 

A Big Guy Took My Ball! - Justice & Fear

Are You Ready to Play Outside? - Disappointment & Compassion

I Broke My Trunk! - Compassionate Listening

Can I Play Too? - Hospitality

Waiting Is Not Easy! - Advent Waiting

Should I Share My Ice Cream? - Generosity

My Friend Is Sad - Compassion

Author/Illustrator: Mo Willems 

Hanna’s Comments: Few series delight children and adults as much as Willems' books about Elephant & Piggie's friendship. Their love and devotion to each other are truly inspiring. What Willems can do with a  simple line for facial expressions astounds me. These books are both wise, funny, and heartrending. Often times, their problem-solving is very clever. It is always inspired by their love, particularly for each other, but sometimes for another character. There are usually many pages, but page texts are brief and the illustrations will even keep most toddlers engaged!

My favorite is such a pure example of creative and compassionate hospitality that it would benefit any church community, including adults! That book is above and featured in this PBT post. Below I have given you links to all Mo Willems books here at PBT and mentioned some others I have used in my PBT work. 

I also recommend his Pigeon (& Duckling) series for similar reasons. They are less about friendship and more about appropriate & inappropriate behavior. I believe religious settings are a perfect place for such lessons to be explored. There's a great deal in our scriptures about how to behave. You'll see scriptural connections to a couple of  books in this series below. 

Age Appropriateness: 3 and up

Formats other than Book: There will be many read-alouds on YouTube for Willems' books. Review before you use. Sometimes the quality is surprisingly bad! You may also find a video of the book in your library system or on-line.

Scripture Connections: I have connected these scriptural themes to Willems' books: (those with PBT Posts links listed first) Keep in mind that most of them connect to the Great Commandment.

Hospitality    Can I Play Too?

Waiting         Waiting Is Not Easy!

Feelings & Godly Compassion (2 Willems bks)  

        The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too    My Friend is Sad

Faith Questioning     Edwina 

Loss/Grief (The Pascal Mystery)    Knuffle Bunny 

Love    Leonardo the Terrible Monster

In my Trinity Treasures preschool lectionary-based curriculum, I've recommended the books above AND these:

I Love My New Toy!  

    I connected this to forgiving many times (Matt. 18)  

The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?

     This is listed in 3 lessons:

            10 Rules ( Exodus 20 - the Commandments)

            Mine! Mine! Mine! (James 3 & 4 about coveting)

            Zacchaeus' (Luke 19:1-10 about his greed)

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! 

    This is recommended in 2 lessons:

            Good & Bad Choices (Genesis 3)

            10 Rules (Exodus 20 - the Commandments)

If you are interested in participating in a pilot study of Trinity Treasures, contact me. You will receive the lessons for free as long as you give me feedback.

PBT Series: Theme Lists - Books about Light

Light is one of the themes of Epiphany, the liturgical season after Christmas and before Lent. Here I explain how to use the helpful PBT search engine. There are 2 easy methods to access the large PBT archive with over 800 books tied to scripture.

1.      The easiest is to use the small search box in the upper right corner. Type in your key word i.e., Light.

2.     You’ll find a large list of search words at the bottom of your screen if viewing PBT on a large computer. If you’re on a phone, you must click on “view web version.” Then click on a word or phrase found under the comments of a post or at the bottom of the list of recent posts.

Below is a sampling of books found when I searched the word "light." For each entry, I give you the title and postdate. Click on the date. You’ll go to that book’s post. In at least 1 of the posts, I’ve updated it recently, adding a comparable book in the Hanna’s Comments section. The images you see in today's post are of a book recently added to an old PBT post. I'm sure you know, there are numerous scriptures about light in the Bible so I have not delineated them here!

I’d love a comment about any of these books that you’ve experienced. Perhaps you have ideas on how they can be used. Ask me a question, if you see a book that interests you but you aren’t sure how to use it at your home, a classroom, a spiritual direction session, or with your family of faith.

This Little Light of Mine by Lewis  8/29/16

When God Made Light 7/27/18

Lightship 12/21/14

Let There Be Light 8/21/17

You Are My Sunshine 3/19/15

God is Like ... (2 books) 3/24/17

The Very Lonely Firefly 6/8/14

One Light, One Sun 8/17/18

Where the Sunrise Begins 10/14/16

What Makes a Rainbow? 3/22/15

Let It Shine 12/7/14

Star Stuff 2/9/15

A Beautiful Moon 1/18/15

Stars 12/6/14

Owl Moon 6/15/14

The Picture Book Legacy of Archbishop Tutu

I waited a few days after Archbishop Tutu's death to offer this post because I saw there was a children's book by Bishop Tutu that I did not know. When it came in yesterday, I realized I had been tricked. I had hoped for new stories! The book photographed above is simply some (18) of the New Testament stories in the fabulous Bible below. 

The words and images are the same, though they are slightly bigger in the book above. The Bible below is out of print! Get your hands on a copy if you can! 

Below you'll also find links to other PBT posts about Archbishop Tutu books! And check out the ABC book by Tutu at the end of this post. 

I don't usually post about children's Bibles, but this one (and its author of course!) are exceptional. I highly recommend this Bible for its diversity of images and the pure godly love within its pages. I'm sorry there will not be another from this great man of God. 

I recently heard again the interview Krista Tippett did with Archbishop Tutu in 2010. Her On Being radio show/podcast played that wonderful conversation again. Here is the link if you don't have the On Being app. My favorite quote from that interview is when he said this about African missionaries: If these white people had intended keeping us under, they shouldn't have given us the Bible.   

Picture Book Bible: Children of God Storybook Bible

Author: Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Illustrators: There are photos in the back of the 20 illustrators whose works grace these stories. The first page has these words from Tutu: In the spirt of celebrating children all over the world, the artists in this book have been invited to draw on their own unique and rich cultural heritage in illustrating these biblical stories. Their art is truly a marvelous reflection of how we are all made in God's image. 

Summary: You'll find 24 Old Testament stories & 32 New Testament stories. Images are diverse in style, as you would expect from so many renown illustrators, but there is also diversity in human figures, including many children in unexpected places. This Bible's promo says that it is truly a global Bible. 

Hanna’s Comments: Both this book and the book above begin with a letter from Archbishop Tutu in which his joyful love for all children shines. It begins: Dear Child of God, Do you know that God loves you?

Besides the beauty and diversity of these pages, I like it because it is not too much text. Often that is the case for children's Bibles. This book can be easily read aloud to a group (it's not too heavy) and snuggled with at bedtime. 

Encourage your children to talk about the images. On familiar stories, you might ask them how the images are different from what they had imagined before seeing this book. If it's a first reading, be sure to read the letter.  

Original Publisher: Zonderkidz, 2010

Age Appropriateness: Preschool and up

Formats other than Book: When I bought the book a decade ago, there was a sticker that said free downloads were available. The website mentioned on the sticker no longer exists. Amazon does have Audible and CD versions. 

Scripture Connections: A few surprising stories are here, surprising because they are not usually included in Bibles of this length. You can read about Naboth's Vineyard from 1 Kings 21 and A Woman's Love for Jesus from John 12.  

3 PBT posts about more picture books from Tutu:

Desmond and the Very Mean Word

God's Dream

Let There Be Light  This book about creation is featured with several others.

Here's another book by Archbishop Tutu! It is an ABC book, another category of books that I don't usually post about here at PBT. 

Picture Book: My Siblings & I: Easy as ABS's

Author: Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Illustrator: Widya Arumba R. L. 

Summary: This ABC book has such positive words for children to learn! When I look at an ABC  book, I'll often look to the back to see what the author did with X,Y, & Z. For this book, X is for Xenial. Archbishop Tutu has taught me a new word! It means hospitable. 

Hanna’s Comments: This is a secular book. God is not mentioned. If I read this book to preschoolers at church or in a church-based school, I would encourage them to wonder what God or Jesus would think of the words and images. Love is repeatedly captured here so there would be a lot to consider!

Original Publisher: Akwaaba Publishing, 2021

Age Appropriateness: Toddler and up