News
April Staff Pick
April 4, 2022
When is the last time you picked up a children’s book to read? Was it during last night’s bedtime story with your kids or grandkids? Or when you volunteered at your local library or school for story time? Maybe you read a book during last summer’s Vacation Bible school? Was it way back when you were a child yourself?
Children’s books are great to pick up at any age! They are easy to read, chock full of imagination, and share great ideas and values. Consider checking out the staff’s recommendations. Each of these books share these stories of faith, gospel, and community. Then, look for a time to share with the children in your life or read for your own young at heart pleasure.
Go and Do Likewise
By John Hendrix
Author John Hendrix brings four familiar parables to life with his inspirational illustrations and the powerful stories of Jesus’s journey. Through the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the lost sheep and the beatitudes, Jesus taught his disciples the message of unconditional love and mercy. Hendrix does not water down gospel but shares in a simple way allowing readers to grasp the message and in turn share with others. Each page is a delight with hand-lettering and a multitude of tiny details that draw you in and open the door of imagination. The book with the amazing art and forever relevant wisdom of Jesus invites conversation with children of all ages. It’s a keeper to read over-and-over. Put this one on your Easter gift giving list.
Recommended by Deacon Sunni Richardson
Order ‘Go and Do Likewise’ today at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop
Change Sings
By Amanda Gorman; Illustrated by Loren Long
We all know the joke, “how many Lutherans does I take to change a lightbulb?” What if there was a way to look at change as a song instead of a chore?
Remember the moment when you first saw Amanda Gorman, and you wondered how someone could make words dance? Did you know that in 2021, Poet Gorman came out with a book, illustrated by Loren Long about the joy of change? She wrote a beautiful children’s book about the moment that change turns to joy and using your voice to share that joy in your community. The pictures and poem remind us all that there is hope in change, because change is what we can all come together as a community to do!
What if we all could see the joy in change? If we all could feel the rhythm of the needs of our communities and dance towards the needs, in hopeful expectation of what could be? Isn’t this the real story of Easter, it’s the hope of what could be?
Recommended by Rev. Juliet Focken
Order ‘Change Sings’ today at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop
What is God Like?
By Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner; Illustrated by Ying Hui Tan
A life of faith is full of big questions. As a young parent, perhaps none are bigger than the one I hear from my own daughters from time to time, “What is God Like?” Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner pondered that same question in this beautiful children’s book accompanied by the art of Ying Hui Tan. In this book, one gets a sense of how expansive and inclusive God is. The book ends with this advice, “whenever you aren’t sure what God is like, think about what makes you feel safe, what makes you feel brave, and what makes you feel loved. That’s what God is like.”
Recommended by Deacon Timothy Siburg
Order ‘What is God Like?’ today at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop