Book Review: Max Gives Thanks to God

Board book: Max Gives Thanks To God. Todd and Jackie Courtney. 2017. 22 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: I give thanks to God one hundred times a day; it makes me feel better in every single way.

Premise/plot: This board book is one in the Inspirational Nursery Rhymes series. The book embraces  the verse: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4). It is ALL about showing (and telling) young ones what giving praise, what giving thanks looks like. It does so mainly through rhyme.

I like when the days are sunny, but I always give thanks for the rain.
Rain gives us water to drink, so we should never complain.

My thoughts: I like the premise of this one. I think we all need reminders--no matter our age, no matter our stage in life--that we should give thanks to God always, always, always. I think gratitude and praise are things to teach little ones--primarily through example, in my opinion, and not necessarily through books. (That being said, it is much, much, easier to "demonstrate" gratitude by reading a book than it is to live out your doctrine day by day by day in front of your children.)

I liked the illustrations especially. My favorites were Molly and Rosie and Papa.

Part of me hesitates to say the text works well because of the rhyming. I think rhyme--or rather rhythm as the case may be--is one of the trickiest things to get right. It just is. If it doesn't sound right, it just sounds unnatural and forced. I've seen it done really well--like in the Rhyme Bible Storybook by L.J. Sattgast.  

The message of the book is good and strong. 

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible