Kids Book Review: God Bless My Family

I thought I might try to do a short review of a kids book once a month. Even though our collection of kids books is pretty small, we read lots of books with Little Pumpkin. And she likes to look at books on her own, too.

God Bless My Family

Author: Hannah C. Hall

Illustrator: Steve Whitlow

This book seems to be one of Pumpkins favorite books right now and was given to her by her "adopted grandma," Sheryl. It is a larger sized, cardboard book which makes it easier for her to turn the pages. The illustrator uses dogs to portray the various family settings, and activities, which may also appeal to Pumpkin. I personally appreciate that the dogs, and the each of the scenes, are well-drawn, in my opinion, and also nicely depicted with varying colors that are fairly true to life.

Another illustration aspect I appreciate, and maybe just because I kind of like dogs, is that each page/family activity in the book is depicted with

a different breed of dog.

For the storyline, the author uses various family activities to highlight the title, and position, of different members of the typical family. And, she doesn't just use the nuclear family members, but expands into the members of extended family. One of my favorite pages out of the books is the one about cousins, simply because I feel like it depicts Little Pumpkin's massive cousin situation. (Ok, maybe 16 cousins isn't massive, but for a little kid, it probably feels like it!) There are specific pages that Pumpkin seems to favor, too, whether it's because of the picture, the words, or maybe the actions I kind of do along with the story.

Although this book gives the impression of being a Christian based book, it only has brief references to God. There are no Scriptures used, alluded too, depicted, etc. This book is part of a set of "God Bless...." books, but I have not seen, or read, any of the other books in the set.

I would recommend this book as a fun, somewhat educational, short and easy "read to me" book that is easy for small toddlers to enjoy on their own, or with someone. It appears that you can purchase this book on multiple websites including: www.christianbook.com, www.amazon.com, www.lifeway.com www.jet.com, and it was in-stock at our local Barnes & Noble store.