The Lord's Prayer [Hardcover]

Tim Ladwig (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2000 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

The beloved words of The Lords Prayer serve as the text for this remarkable book, in which Tim Ladwig illustrates how the words of this ancient prayer can have real meaning in our lives today. In Tims paintings, a young girl and her father spend a day together helping an elderly neighbor. The love and guidance the child experiences in her relationship with her dad reflect the heart and will of our Heavenly Father in concrete ways children of all ages will understand.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 1-3-This version of the Lord's Prayer (not King James) is also about an African-American family in the city, depicted in strong, realistic watercolor-and-acrylic pictures. By the sign on his truck, Ted Davis's occupation is known: "Exterior Repair, Lawn Care, Painting." On this day, Ted drives with his daughter to the lumber store, the deli, and the flower shop, and finally to an elderly woman's home. He and his daughter do all of the work for her that his truck advertises, and he refuses pay. The lines of the prayer are supposed to be illustrated by the events of the story: for instance, as the girl finds a shiny medallion in the yard and holds it thoughtfully, the accompanying lines are, "And lead us not into temptation,/but deliver us from the evil one." The pictures themselves are expressive, but such literal interpretation is moralistic, jarring, and sometimes obscure.-Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland,

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 4-9. Full-page watercolor, pastel, and acrylic paintings, burnished to a bronze glow, illustrate this slightly simplified version of The Lord's Prayer. They tell the story of an African American father and daughter who go to help an elderly neighbor. The words "On earth as it is in heaven" find the parent and child patching and painting the fence, mowing and raking the lawn. The pair stop to have lunch on the porch stoop ("Give us today our daily bread"), and they feed the leftovers to the pigeons. The father refuses payment ("Forgive us our debts"), and the daughter returns a gold medallion she's found in the grass ("and lead us not into temptation") to the neighbor who lost it. The neighbor, in turn, clasps a necklace with the medallion around the girl's neck. The paintings use light, shading, and detail brilliantly. We see the broken pickets, the overgrown grass, and the opened clasp on the medallion; we see the father's muscled, brown arms and the girl's tight braids with their cheery, candy-colored ties. Rendered with clarity, simplicity, and not a trace of saccharine preaching, this illumination of an old Christian prayer will have a wide audience. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (September 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802851800
• ISBN-13: 978-0802851802
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 10.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner from Tim Ladwig, November 7, 2000

By 

Terry Cornett (Wichita, KS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord's Prayer (Hardcover)

As with his previous books, Tim Ladwig has again shown a unique ability to make religious ideas accessible to children through combining them with a story line from the modern world. This book functions like a visual parable which makes the meanings contained in "The Lord's Prayer" immediately accessible to children. Having purchased Mr. Ladwig's previous books for my young nephews, I know that they respond instinctively to the marvelous drawings and ask for these books to be read over and over again. "The Lord's Prayer" is highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely gorgeous illustraions, but not the best choice for everyone., October 13, 2008

By 

Tanya Dennis "www.TanyaDennisBooks.com" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lord's Prayer (Paperback)

This book's text is The Lord's Prayer, no more, no less. But the illustrations by Tim Ladwig offer much more, a story behind the words, as told through the eyes of a little girl.

She watches carefully as her earthly father exemplifies our heavenly Father. Together they work hard to fix an elderly lady's fence and maintain her yard. During the process, the young girl finds a gold treasure, something like a coin. Later when the woman tries to pay, the father forgives her debts and refuses to accept the money. Seeing this, the young girl decides to resist temptation and confesses to finding the coin. The elderly woman rewards the girl with the coin and a necklace from which to hang it. Readers then see that it's actually a circle pendant engraved with The Lord's Prayer.

What I Like: The illustrations are amazing! Both vivid and thoroughly detailed, they tell a story all their own. I also appreciate the urban setting. Most picture books are set in the suburbs or country. This definitely fills a void for kids growing up in a city.

What I Dislike: The pictures often seem unrelated to the text. This book took a LOT of explanation from me and even then I don't think my children understood the correlation. Also, the book relys heavily on the example of an earthly father to understand our heavenly Father. For broken families, this may raise more questions than it answers. Finally, this book seemed racially exclusive. Even though our family is interracial, I felt like an outsider. I would have liked a bit more diversity, even if only in background characters.

Overall Rating: Good

Age Appeal: The publisher says "all ages", but I recommend 5 and above.

Tanya -- Christian Children's Book Review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous, February 24, 2006

By 

K. Root (Saint Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Lord's Prayer (Hardcover)

Beautifully illustrated, this rendition of the Lord's Prayer gives concrete and thoughtful modern interpretative images to a timeless prayer. The theme is one of loving, caring and giving as the prayer unfolds through a father and daughter's day of helping a lonely woman. I have given this book, and Ladwig's Psalm 23, as gifts many times. They are both absolutely breathtaking and help children and adults enter into the scripture passage from a fresh perspective.