Children's Corner: The Christian Alphabet Book

Today in the Children's Corner I am reviewing the book The Christian Alphabet. This book, as the title suggests, is not any specific "denomination." It's not Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. The author, Tracy Sands, uses various pictures to compose and make up all twenty-six letters of the alphabet. She then associates a Christian word  for each letter, i.e., G is for God and J is for Jesus. Lastly, each letter/Christian word comes with an definition, Scripture verses, activities you can do to reinforce the word, and an explanation of all the symbols associated with each letter.

I have mixed feelings when it comes to some of the word choices for each letter. The two examples I gave above are some of the words I think are appropriate for their respective letters. However, I feel there are some clunky choices for words. My three biggest gripes are A is for Always; M is for Miracles; and Y is for Yes. A could have been for Apostles. M could have been for Mary. And Y could have been for Yahweh. I know Protestants have some kind of aversion to Mary, but she's Jesus' mom no matter what "denomination" you are, so I felt like the author tried not to scare off a potentially large audience segment. Maybe, I am wrong.

This is a pretty book though and the workmanship is high quality. The reader should use this book appropriately though. If you expect to teach your child the basic ABCs using this book, it will frustrate both you and them. This book would best be used with kids who have mastered their alphabet and now need a clever and catchy way to learn about basic Christian beliefs. There is also a CD, which you can buy separately, that includes a few songs including the Christian Alphabet song. Perhaps in the future, they will just give an option to download the songs from their website as four songs for $4.95 is a little high. Overall, I would give this book a 4 out of 5. It was a good and clever idea, but some parts of it could have been better.