A Book Review from Books At a Glance
By Kristin Stiles
There are a variety of ways to instill in our children what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is replete with instructions on how we should live in light of the glorious work of salvation that Jesus accomplished. Sometimes, though, a good biography of a faithful Christian can really speak to a child. Everyone a Child Should Know presents 52 such biographies. Each one will teach and challenge and encourage the reader that God can, does, has, and will use ordinary people to carry out His grand plan.
Spanning the gamut from missionaries to artists to preachers to composers to inventors, Heath-Whyte introduces young children to a veritable Who’s Who of church history. There is a nice balance of male and female, familiar and unfamiliar, historical and more recent. Each biography begins with a series of questions directed to the child. For example, the introduction to Hudson Taylor begins with, “Do you like dressing up? What is your favorite costume – a princess, or a super hero, or a cowboy?” These questions immediately draw the child in and make the story more relatable. Then follows a single page of text describing the life of the person. The stories are simple and yet very interesting and informative. The facing page has a scripture reference and a delightful illustration. Jenny Brake does just a marvelous job with her drawings of these historical figures, and she really captures the essence of their contributions to the kingdom.
I love this book as a starting point for introducing children to real life people who lived out their faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. I see this as a resource that could whet children’s appetites to learn more about these people and to go on to read more in-depth biographies as they get older. This book demonstrates that God uses the ordinary to do the extraordinary and can plant the seed in small minds that they may too one day be used by God to do great things for His kingdom.
Kristin Stiles is a home-school mom, a Sunday School teacher, and helps lead the “Young, Reading, & Reformed” children’s ministry at Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia, PA.
Editor’s Note: Be sure to visit our friends at 10Publishing for more of their excellent books!
Buy the books
EVERYONE A CHILD SHOULD KNOW, by Clare Heath-Whyte