Review - Good News! God Made Me!

Good News! God Made Me!
by Glenys Nellist
illustrated by Lizzie Walkley
Date: 2019
Publisher: Discovery House
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 18
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Good News! God Made Me! is a whimsical introduction to God as our Creator. Written by Glenys Nellist, the best-selling and award-winning author of Love Letters from God, the simple, skilled rhythm of the text makes it an ideal read-aloud experience for both parent and child. With back-and-forth questions and answers of a curious child, this book helps you to show your children how they are fearfully and wonderfully made.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is the second book I've read by this duo, the first being Good News! It's Easter! While Christian books aren't really my thing, I wanted to see what this one was like (particularly because I liked the illustrations in the Easter book).

This is fine for very young children who'll accept the answer "God did it" for pretty much every question they throw at you, but I'm afraid it wouldn't really go far enough for older children (unless they've already accepted that God is the answer to everything). In this sense, it's pretty much a "preaching to the choir" book; it's not going to offer much to non-Christians, especially those past the age of 4 or 5.

The illustrations are adorable, though. They're highly appealing and show a nice amount of diversity. (I'm not sure they really have much to do with God, however. They're basically just scenes of a family doing everyday things; the text could easily be swapped out for something else and the pictures would still work.)

So this is a nice book for very young Christian children. I just have to say, though, that I really don't like the part of the synopsis that talks about being "fearfully and wonderfully made". I realize that's a Bible quote, but I don't like the idea that people are teaching children to be afraid of a God that supposedly loves them. (Talk about confusing!) Thankfully, that quote isn't actually used in the book. (The book uses the New Living Translation of Psalm 139:14, which leaves out the part about fear.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Discovery House for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.71 out of 5