Topsy-Turvy Tracy: The Upside-Downer Day

Topsy-Turvy Tracy: The Upside-Downer Day was written by Susie Taylor, a kindergarten teacher with a background in development psychology.

Told through rhyming verse, the story follows Tracy, a young girl who loves to explore God's world. On morning she tumbles out of bed upside down. Lying on the floor she sees that things look quite different with her head down low. She decides to have an upside-downer day. She walks on her hands and eats breakfast with her feet in the air. Then she goes to the playground to see what she can see hanging upside down from the monkey-bars. Everything looks different! It's not long before she gets dizzy. Then she realizes there's not much she can do upside down. She can't ride her bike or jump rope. Tracy concludes that God designed us to be rightside-up and His way is best.

Illustrated by Tammie Lyon, the pages are filled with simple drawings, friendly characters and plenty of bright colors. Several pages encourage readers to "Flip and see what Tracy saw!"

What I Like: The illustrations are sweet, and the character of Tracy is adorable, reminiscent of Punky Brewster. My daughter loves flipping the book upside down to see things the way Tracy does. It's a cute, simple novelty.

What I Dislike: It's very simplistic and very short. I like kids concluding that God's way is best, but to think He made us rightside-up just so we could play hopscotch is pretty weak.

Overall Rating: Good.

Age Appeal: 4-8, though my 3-year-old loves it, too.

Publisher Info: ZonderKidz, 2004; ISBN: 0310704421; Hardback; $12.99

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Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers: The Scripture

The Scripture, part of the Big Thoughts for Little Thinkers series, attempts to explain to young children what the Bible is and why it's important in our everyday lives.

Author and illustrator Joey Allen begins the book by having Gabe, a lively and friendly little boy, introduce himself. "The Bible is the most important book in the whole world!" Gabe says.

Gabe asks readers to consider what life would be like if our parents never spoke to us, or never taught us to tie our shoes or say our ABCs. Then he asks us to consider what it would be like if the one who created us never spoke to us and never told us how best to live. "But God has spoken!" Gabe exclaims. First, he points out that creation can tell us some things about God. Then he says we can learn even more about God by reading the Bible.

Gabe explains that the Holy Spirit directed specific people to write the Bible. He describes the tone of the Old Testament and says the "entire Old Testament points to" a Savior, who would come in the future.

"When Jesus came to earth, He showed us what God is like. Jesus acted like God and talked like God because He is God! When we learn about Jesus in the Bible, we are learning about God."

Gabe explains that "people who believed in Jesus gathered together all the books that come from God" and put them in one book, called the Bible. He tells us about 40 people wrote the books of the Bible, including a fisherman, a doctor, and a farmer. He explains that the Bible wasn't written in English originally, but that God protects the message of the Bible, no matter how many languages it's been copied into.

Gabe explains that God always tells the truth and always keeps his promises. Therefore, "every morning when you wake up, you can be happy because the Bible says God is with you, and one day you will be with Him in heaven." The Bible, Gabe says, teaches us how to live as God wants us to: loving God and other people. The Bible also helps us grow and protects us from sin and other things that can hurt us. If something in the Bible is tough to understand, Gabe urges us to find someone who's been a Christian for a long time, and ask them if they can help us understand it better.

What I Like: This book speaks truth with such clarity; what an ideal introduction to the Bible! All the assertions are backed up by biblical verses, and the cartoonish (but not crude) illustrations are inviting. I also like the child-friendly size of this book (about 6 inches by 6 inches).

What I Dislike: The term "Holy Spirit" is never explained, so parents should be prepared for questions on that. Also, there is paragraph in this 32 page book that offers so weak an argument, it doesn't belong in this otherwise fine volume. Gabe says the Bible is like no other book because "you can tell that it comes from God because it does not sound like something a human would make up."

Overall Rating: Excellent!

Age Appeal: 4 - 7.

Publishing Info: New Leaf Press, 2005; ISBN: 0892216158; hard back, $5.99.

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Special Info: Read our review for another book in this series.

What About Heaven?

What About Heaven?, written by Kathleen Long Bostrom and illustrated by Elena Kucharik, attempts to answer the many, many questions young children have about Heaven: Is Heaven a place that’s near or that’s far? Does Heaven have nighttime? What food will I eat? Does Heaven have mountains and trees I can climb?

The text is all in rhyme. A section in the back of the book, called “Bible References,” answers each question from the text. The answers are given in rhyme, also, but the biblical references are not.

Adorable watercolor pictures of boys and girls illustrate the pages, with coordinating borders on each double-page spread.

What I Like: I like the fact that the text includes a good selection of the many questions young children have about Heaven. I also like the fact that the book includes a section at the back with answers to the questions and gives Biblical references for each. The author did not just make the answers up; they were taken straight from the Scriptures.

What I Dislike: Young children like books with rhyming texts, and most of the rhythms and rhymes in this one are good. But, a few of them seemed forced. This takes a bit away from the text, although not much.

Overall Rating: Very good.

Age Appeal: 2-6 years.

Publisher Info: Tyndale House Publishers, 2000; ISBN: 1260953391; Hardcover: $7.90.

Buy now at Amazon $7.90.

Special Info: What About Heaven? is just one book in a long and popular series of books by Tyndale House Publishing known as the “Little Blessings” line. Some of the other titles in the series are: Are Angels Real?; Blessings Come in Shapes; God Created Me; God Loves You; Is God Always With Me?; Lullabies For Little Hearts; Prayers For Little Hearts; Thank You, God; What Is Prayer?; and Who Is Jesus?

Read our reviews for other books in the series.

You can visit the author’s website.

Daniel and the Lions (The Beginner's Bible)

Daniel and the Lions, another book in The Beginner's Bible series, retells the famous Bible story for young children. First we learn that Daniel is

"the king's favorite helper. But the other helpers did not like Daniel.

'Let's get Daniel into trouble,' the helpers said. They came up with a naughty plan."

The helpers persuade the king to pass a law making it illegal to pray to anyone but him, but Daniel's faith in the Lord doesn't waver. He prays to the real God, anyway. The helpers catch Daniel praying to the Lord and rapidly inform the king.

The king "did not want to hurt Daniel, but he had to go through with his law." He apologizes to Daniel as the illustrations (by Kelly Pulley) show him being lead to a cave where a lion's head is peeking out. God sends an angel to be with Daniel and the illustrations show the big cats cuddling up to him as if they were pets. The next morning, the king hurries to see how Daniel is faring. "Did God save you?" he asks. He sees that Daniel is unharmed and declares "Your God is great!"

What I Like: I appreciate the highly colorful illustrations. I also like much of the text, which boils the story down into simple terms that its target audience can follow fairly easily.

What I Dislike: Some important things are left for parents to explain. In particular, it might be hard for young children to understand that putting Daniel in a den of lions was punishment, and that his life was in jeopardy.

Overall Rating: Very Good.

Age Appeal: Infant to preschool.

Publishing Info: Zonderkidz, 2005; ISBN: 0310711142; board book, $5.99.

Buy Now at Christianbook.com for $2.99.

Special Info: Read all our reviews of The Beginner's Bible series by clicking here.