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Monday, April 12, 2010

If I Could Ask God Anything, A Review for BookSneeze

If I Could Ask God Anything, awesome Bible answers for curious kids was compiled by Kathryn Slattery. It is a book of questions that children have been known to ask about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Church and the Christian life.

As books of this nature go, this was honestly, just like the others. Each page addresses a typical question that a child may or has asked, followed by the answer. Such as, "How can I know for sure God loves me?" The book explained that God does love everyone, even those who refuse to believe in Him and then references 1 John 3:1. Stuff like that for 203 pages in a strange blue ink. The last page has a discussion on saying the "sinners prayer" (not going to go into that one right now) and then going to tell an adult you did it so they can help you on your Christian walk. Which makes me wonder how many adults would just hand this book to a child to let them read it on their own instead of discussing these things with them. Before I got to that page, I was like, ok, this could be a good springboard for parents to discuss these things with their children. However, after getting to the last few pages, and it discussed that maybe you don't know if "Jesus lives inside your heart", and being urged to pray this prayer, I question if this wasn't possibly meant for a kid to read on their own. I know that as a child, I wouldn't have liked the format so much, and how broad the answers seemed to be (in an effort not to step on anyone's doctrinal beliefs, this book is extremely middle of the road and vague on a few issues such as baptism and communion. I understand that in order to appeal to a wider demographic that can be necessary, however, it just raises more questions as to, why some churches believe differently and do different things).

I will say that this book did have a good table of contents and it was easy to navigate to the specific topic and question. However, the odd shade of blue used in the ink was extremely distracting to read.

I honestly can't say this is the best book on questions children may have about God. It may be a good starting point, but if you are looking for a book in this genre, please check your library first to see some of the other options that may be available. I know that I wouldn't just hand this book to my child and tell her to read it when she comes to me with questions. I pray you also will take the time to discuss your child's questions and if you don't know the answer, to seek it out together.

I was given a copy of If I Could Ask God Anything by Kathryn Slattery by Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for my review and post about it as a part of their Book Sneeze program for bloggers. All opinions are mine and mine alone.