God With Us ~ A Journey Home (Review and Giveaway)

Hello all~ 

I have another Children's Bible Storybook review and giveaway for you. 

From the publisher: Author Jeremy Pierre and illustrator Cassandra Clark want to awaken children to a brave journey — a journey home. This world is not our home. We live east of Eden and short of Heaven. The earlier children understand this, the more sense they can make out of this sad, wonderful place. This storybook aims to share their vision of the world as a place in-between, to awaken them to the brave journey they must take toward their true home — their home with God.

This book is written with a narrative perspective from the point of view of two angels.

My quick take on it is that it may be a good addition to a selection of Bible Story Books, but with a few caveats. I will give you my impressions, both the Beautiful and the Caveat. 

The Good and the Beautiful: 

• Scripture references are given before each story-chapter, as well as a verse that may not come from the passage, but is related. 
• There are many solid nuggets that offer a new perspective, or tie together thoughts that are less common but very true: "Then it dawned on us watching angels- Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed, all of their children disobeyed too. But God didn't wait for them to obey to invite them back home. First He invited them to believe His promise that home with Him is better than any home down here." 
• The illustrations are interesting and colorful. 
• I always appreciate a fresh "voice" retelling the Old, Old Story. 
• The entire East of Eden, short of Heaven emphasis will resonate with those who enjoy the Pilgrim's Progress type of allegory. 

The Caveats, bits for pause and consideration: 

• A few of the details don't quite fall into line with Scripture if read literally~ "The misery only got worse. Adam and Eve ate some fruit, then their children killed each other. Their grandchildren did too. Soon the world was full of hatred. Those evening walks with God were long forgotten."  This gave me pause, because the only child of Adam and Eve's that we know committed murder was Cain, so "their children" definitely hit me wrong. I understand the intent was to show that mankind slipped from walking with God to even the depths of murder and hatred in a single generation, but I tend to be a purist, even in a narrative retelling, and want these details to be correct. There were a couple of others that jumped out at me, all together illuminating an unintended point~ that there will be no "perfect" retelling of the Scripture story, because we are all human and imperfect ourselves~ which can be something useful to address with your littles as you read this.  
  
• 
  
  A little nit-picky illustration point~ the "angels" narrating the story are depicted as a boy and a girl angel... again, I understand the intent (to give boys and girls both a "connection," but honestly~ angels are not gendered as we know it, and all that are named are given masculine names. Again~ nit-picky, not a deal-breaker, but worth knowing. 
• Another nit-picky "grammar/editor" type of note: it seems that in some sections the author got a little careless in the crafting of the text. The stories of Moses' birth and encounter with the burning bush are filled with a number of "this happened. So..." and "that happened. So..." (In fact, out of 24 consecutive sentences, "so" is used in 6 of them. This is surprising, because much of the text is given to imagery, which incidentally lead to 
• My last nit-picky comment... For a retelling intended for children, there are sometimes phrases that hit as abstract imagery, which isn't what I would consider age appropriate/useful for the target audience. Those who love Ann Voskamp will identify with some of the prose of this book, but In my experience/understanding it doesn't often translate as well to those with younger ears. Beautiful, thought-provoking, but impacting the older reader more than the younger audience(?). 

Please note that while my Caveat list is longer, it *is* somewhat nit-picky in places, but information I would want to know before making a purchasing decision. Some may even be a factor in someone deciding it is a book they are very interested in, like the Ann Voskamp comparison... ;) 

The Good and the Beautiful is a lovely hardcover (268 pages) with full-color illustrations, suitable for gift-giving, and available for purchase from Shepherd Press ($29.99). 
If you want to hear a little more about the intent and concept behind "God With Us" you can listen to author Jeremy Pierre talk about it in five 3-5 minute videos on the Shepherd Press YouTube Channel. 

And if you would like to enter to win a free hardcover copy, no strings attached (You don't even have to pay shipping! ;) ), check out my rafflecopter below: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Blessings~

Disclosure: Many thanks to Shepherd Press for providing this product/product information for review.  Opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation.  I did receive the product in exchange for this review and post.

 #GodWithUsMIN #MomentumInfluencerNetwork