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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
So Cute, But..., December 11, 2009
This review is from: God Gave Us Love (Hardcover)
The latest release in Lisa Tawn Bergren's God Gave Us series of picture books is the sweet and charming God Gave Us Love. Populated by a loving family of Christian polar bears, Little Cub and Grandpa Bear explore the many ways that God's love is displayed in our world, and in our relationships with each other.
There's the need to love those who we find annoying, the special love between Mamas and Papas, the love between family members, and, most of all, God's love for us as shown through the gift of His Son. There's also, of course, the love for our younger siblings when they're acting troublesome, the love we see expressed when God provides abundantly for our needs.
Not only does Grandpa Bear explain various types of love to Little Cub, but he also explains how all love is an expression of God's big love for us. Through all, he says, Grandpa shows that because God is love, we are called to love others as we strive to be like Him.
Illustrated by long-time series collaborator Laura J. Bryant, her soft, action-filled watercolors are downright adorable. The family of bears frolics in their winter-wonderland home while ice fishing, hanging laundry (in the winter!), and tumbling about in the snow. It can easily be argued that her consistent illustrations throughout God Gave Us You,God Gave Us Two, and God Gave Us Heaven have cemented the series as a mainstay for families who collect Christian picture books.
As much as parents find the series incredibly sweet, God Gave Us Love may prove somewhat wordy for the youngest read-aloud audiences. Explaining spiritual concepts like loving when you're not feeling loving, and trying to encompass the entire concept of love in a picture book is hard to do without becoming a bit wordy. My three-year-old's attention span drifts if I try to read this title to her in a single sitting, and even my six-year-old looks a little distracted while I'm reading it. I'll try them again with this title as they grow, and see if it catches on at a future date.
Loving the soft, whimsical artwork, pastel palette and gentle spiritual lessons, I'm disappointed that God Gave Us Love hasn't captured my children's imaginations the way I hoped it would. Still, I can't part with it - it's just too cute.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"God Gave Us Love" by Lisa Bergen, December 7, 2009
This review is from: God Gave Us Love (Hardcover)
Author Lisa T. Bergen has written a children's book called "God Gives Us Love" that parents should take seriously. It is an extraodinary book that shares the importance of loving others, and all of the different loves that God gives us. This book addresses the difference between liking someone and loving someone as well.
Children reading this book also see the love that is shared between husband and wife, love towards siblings and love toward and for God. With this book in hand, we can teach our children how to trust in the Lord, having faith, and how God shows us His love in every way He can whenever He can.
With God's love we are able to see the good in other people, friend or foe, when otherwise without the Lord, we would only see worldly things and not the good in people. Sharing the gospel in a children's book is a beautiful thing. This book shows children that God gives the small, large, important or simple, the same love, if we but only accept Him.
As the father of a one year old who loves books, this is certainly one my wife and I will continue to return to. Many children's books aren't worth a minute of our time and this certainly is not one of them.
This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
God Gave Us... a Great Book!, December 4, 2009
This review is from: God Gave Us Love (Hardcover)
God Gave Us Love is another new children's book in the popular series "God Gave Us..." from Lisa Tawn Bergren with art by David Hohn published by Water Brook Press. The God Gave Us series of children's books work through questions of faith and practice from the viewpoint of Little Cub and one of her adult family members. Is this story, Little Cub and Grampa discuss love in its various forms, including a great lesson on loving those who we may not want to love.
As I read this book to my three year old son I found him becoming impatient with the depth and breadth of information on each page and eager to move ahead to the next page and its colorful pictures. Some of the concepts seemed to me to be well above the heads of younger children as the author ambitiously attempts to break down three different types of love, grace and kindness into bites small enough to be swallowed by children. I'm not certain that many of the nuances, that frankly adults have trouble understanding, will in fact make sense to younger children.
Even if younger children miss some of the more in depth meanings of love, they will certainly understand that they should love everyone - even the otters who scared away the fish. This is another charming book in the series and well worth your time and money.
This book was provided free of charge by the publisher as a review copy. The publisher had no editorial rights or claims over the content or the conclusions made in this review. Visit the publisher for more information on this book.
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