A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Kristin Stiles
Kristen Wetherell is bringing theology to kids as young as 0-4 years old. You read that correctly. In her new series, For the Bible Tells Me So, Wetherell presents truths about God and His Word to the youngest audience in a way that is understandable, interesting, and really cute!
There are currently three titles in this series: God Speaks to Me; God Cares for Me; and God Hears Me. They deal with the topics of scripture, creation and providence, and prayer, respectively. In God Speaks to Me, Wetherell presents how God communicates to us through both general and special revelation. We can learn about Him through nature and our senses, but we can learn so much more through the words that He has made available to us in the Bible. In God Cares for Me, we see His concern for nature, and specifically for humans, in how He created all things and then how He provides for all things. God is not a distant, unknowable entity; He is a loving God who providentially oversees all things. In God Hears Me, children are instructed as to when, where, and how we can talk to God. Wetherell gives various scenarios and how they are all suited for talking to God through prayer.
These board books contain everything you could want in a book to share with your little ones. The text is written in fun rhyming verse with repeated phrases that your children will soon be reciting along with you. The pictures are bright and colorful and provide lots of opportunities to interact with your children as they count items, name animals, and repeat the written sounds and phrases that accompany the pictures. Each book contains at least some of the gospel message and the role Jesus has in our salvation. There are illustrations that include depictions of Jesus. At the end of the story, where there is one “me” omitted at the end of the repeated title phrase, there is a flap to lift up revealing a mirror, so your little one can look at himself and finish the line: “God speaks to/cares for/hears. . .” ME! And finally, Wetherell provides a note to the parents at the end of each book with scriptural support for the text as well as suggestions for further discussion and activity. She even provides a suggested song for you to sing with your children after reading: “The B-I-B-L-E” for God Speaks; “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” for God Cares; and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” for God Hears.
This is a delightful series, and I would highly recommend it to your little budding theologians.
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.
Buy the books
FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO (SERIES), by Kristen Wetherell