H is for Holy and A Gift for Matthew (Ancient Faith Publishing)

One of the greatest joys about being a book reviewer is the children's books that I receive to review. For one, it is nice to have a short book to read amidst all the long ones, but more importantly it is nice to share something I love with my son. If you want your children to love reading, you have to start with them early and place an emphasis on it is important. You not only have to read to them, but they should see you reading as well. So this week, I am going to be reviewing only children's books. Today. I am going to share two selections from my favorite Orthodox publisher, Ancient Faith Publishing.

H is for Holy is a hardcover book that teaches children their alphabet by relating letters to facets of Orthodox Christianity. It isn't a new concept, as I have reviewed a Catholic/Christian one before, but I was intrigued to read through it and see how it compared. The book starts out familiar enough with A for Altar, B for Bread, and C for Cross, but the true test of books like this is what they do with the tough letters. Rightfully so, I is Icon and O is Oil. Catholics don't really think about those two things much, as they receive greater attention in the East, so I liked that! Q is Quiet; X is ICXC; and Z is good ole Zacchaeus (as if there was any doubt). On each page is a further description of each letter's representation, and at the end is the numbers one through ten with Orthodox ways to learn your numbers. The illustrations were done in a watercolor format and helped drive home the alphabet concept. Solid book.

A Gift for Matthew tells the story of a boy who goes to visit Brother Justin in a monastery. Brother Justin had a special gift. He was an iconographer. Brother Justin is going to teach Matthew how icons are made. They begin with a prayer before starting. Then, he showed him how a sketch on paper gets transferred to an icon board. The board was slowly engraved with Brother Justin praying the Jesus Prayer continuously. In addition to learning this, Matthew learned where the colors (pigment) came from and what egg tempera is used for. At the end of the book is a the complete text of the Iconographer's Prayer, which I found very beautiful to read. I found this book a joy to read and I feel like adults can learn as much as children when reading this book. The book did a nice job emphasizing that iconography is more than just art. It is prayer. If you are looking for an approachable way to teach your children about icons and how they are made, I highly recommend this book!

These books were provided to me for free by Ancient Faith Publishing in exchange for honest reviews. If you found these reviews helpful, please click here and/or here and hit Yes!

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.