Editors’ note:
This series surveys some of the best picture books for children, Christian and non-Christian alike. We pray these roundups would offer opportunities for conversations with children, stir faith in Christ, and point to the things that are good, true, and beautiful.
I used to have a quote from G. K. Chesterton hanging on my bedroom wall: “Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” I wanted to remind myself to be grateful, but it really got me thinking about wonder. Wonder starts with humility and openness, which create space for ideas of amazement and revelation. Wonder is also inherent in Christianity. We know there’s more than we can know, and we’re prepared to be surprised by the invisible God whose thoughts are beyond our thoughts (Isa. 55:8–9).
Christmas is filled with wonder as God takes on human flesh and works in mysterious ways to save us. As the holidays approach, I want to celebrate books that feature an aspect of wonder, an unexpected adventure or joy in surprising places or something astonishingly beautiful or brave or good we might look at every day but sometimes forget to see. Here are five wonderful new picture books to share with the children in your life.
Arlo and the Keep-Out Club
Betsy Howard
Arlo and the Keep-Out Club
Betsy Howard
TGC Kids / Crossway. 40 pp.
Arlo has been longing to play with the big boys on the playground. But when he’s given the opportunity to join their club, he is faced with a tough decision. Will he gain the acceptance of his new friends by doing what he knows is wrong, or will he do the right thing even though it may lead to rejection? Going against the social grain can often leave us feeling lonely, but in his grace, Jesus enables us to do what is right and stays by our side when we feel left out.
TGC Kids / Crossway. 40 pp.
1. Arlo and the Keep-Out Club by Betsy Childs Howard, illustrated by Samara Hardy (TGC/Crossway)
In the newest release from TGC Kids, Arlo is back, a little older now and stepping up to help others. He has an opportunity to join a group of older boys playing at a playground, but they’ll only let him hang out with them if he agrees to do something unkind to a younger girl playing nearby.
The story describes events that could happen in the normal life of elementary-aged children, but it’s told with an excitement that helps reveal its significance as a moral and spiritual battle, just one fought with pinecones, a stuffed owl, and a moderately distracted dad. There’s a scene where Arlo’s dad closes the book he was reading to focus on his son and says, “Following Jesus is a great adventure.” That reminded me of another Chesterton quote, from his essay “On Running After One’s Hat”: “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.” It made me appreciate, once again, the adventure of faith in action, even when it’s lived on playgrounds.
2. Fritz and the Midnight Meetup: A True Story About Kids Who Prayed by Megan Hill, illustrated by Chiara Fedele (B&H)
The first night, seven orphans sit by a fireplace to pray together after dark. By the third night, the group more than doubles, with 15 children bringing their blankets downstairs after bedtime to ask God to bring more people to love him. This picture book tells the true story of a revival in Germany in the 1800s sparked in part by orphans who prayed together after dark, overcoming tiredness and a bully who threatened to disrupt their gatherings.
My kids’ primary takeaway was that even children can honor Christ as King and point others to him right where they are. As the author says in a note at the end, “It may seem fantastical to imagine young children who seek revival, organize prayer meetings, pray for their enemies, and witness the conversion of their peers, but these things really happened. And, by God’s grace, they can happen again.”
3. The King of All Things by Shay and Catherine Gregorie, illustrated by Breezy Brookshire (Wolfbane)
The back cover of this enchanting little board book summarizes it as “A blessing over little ones to awaken worship and wonder.” It’s a rhyming prayer of praise to God for being the king of clouds and birds, mountains and plains, that ends with a petition for
Eyes to see how your wondrous works surround us,Ears to hear creation’s joyful noise,Words to spread your light to all around us,And a heart to serve you with deep abiding joy.
The pictures are lovely, gentle watercolor illustrations of laughing dolphins, running horses, and dancing children. It’s an ideal bedtime read for little ones—both comforting and true—and a reminder to see the wonder of both God’s creation and his presence.
4. Joni Eareckson Tada by Kristyn Getty, illustrated by Hsulynn Pang (The Good Book Company)
I came into this book already familiar with Joni’s story, but I was amazed by and grateful to be reminded again of the details. Joni gave her life to Christ when she was 15, and two years later a swimming accident left her paralyzed. The book tackles some of her struggles, describing how she couldn’t walk or use her hands, and the hard questions she asked God in her anger and sadness. With physical and spiritual disciplines, help from others, and grace, Joni learns to walk with God not despite her disability but through it.
Getty describes some of Joni’s many acts of creating beauty (singing and painting), her service to others (charity work, legal advocacy, and teaching), and especially the ways Joni points those around her to the hope of heaven. Joni reminds readers to love others, including those with disabilities, and to love God amid the stories he is writing for them.
5. Strong by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrated by Jago (Zonderkidz)
Sally Lloyd-Jones’s Found, a retelling of Psalm 23, was possibly my daughter’s all-time favorite book when she was a toddler. She’s in upper elementary school now, but she still keeps her tattered copy close to her bed (just to look at the pictures on nights when she can’t sleep, she tells me).
Strong is a new book in the same series, and it’s a brief exploration of the tree metaphor in Psalm 1. The pictures beautifully depict trees around the world—baobabs and redwoods and aspens, trees hung with coconuts, fruit, and Christmas decorations. The text describes aspects of the tree in the psalm, planted by water, bearing fruit, never withering, and Strong concludes that simply being close to God is a good place to be, “like a little tree by a stream.”
