Two Great New Kids Books! – Summer 2025
By Lindsey Cornett
Englewood Press Managing Editor
What is the Bible?
Rachel Held Evans & Matthew Paul Turner and Ying Hui Tan (illustrator)
Hardback: Convergent Children’s, 2025
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Since Rachel Held Evans’s untimely passing in 2019, Matthew Paul Turner has given us the gift of completing the children’s books she left in-progress. This is the second such book, after 2021’s What is God Like? As the title suggests, this new release helps explain both the purpose and content of the Bible in ways that are truthful and meaningful to children. The illustrations are unique and captivating; they don’t simply recreate the Bible stories, as would be easy and even expected. Rather, we see a group of diverse children travelling through what appears to be the most magical library, and their imaginations interact less with the feelings evoked by scripture as much as its events. What is the Bible? asks the reader to consider Scripture as a piece of literature–as a diverse collection of all kinds of stories. In so doing, it also reminds the adult reader that the Bible is not meant to be a how-to manual, almanac, or self-help book. Rather, as the final pages say, “The Bible can help us heal. It can make us think. It can bring us together. It can remind us why we’re here.” In our current societal climate, it feels so rare that we use scripture in these ways, and my own heart was healed and soothed to be reminded of the power of this ancient book.
If God Were a Great Big Bear
Paul Harbridge and Marta Dorado (illustrator)
Hardback: Beaming Books, 2025
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Families who embrace a more progressive theology will absolutely want to add this book to your bookshelf. Harbridge’s rhythmic language sweetly moves across creation, imagining God’s presence and intentional design in each natural wonder. The story takes us from a bear to an earthworm, a lilac bush to a goose, from a squirrel to a whale, from stars to planets. As the title suggests, the verses imaginatively consider what might happen if God were to take on the form of these natural wonders. What other choices might God make about creation, and which elements of creation would bring God most joy? “If God were a mighty whale,/And She very well may be,/She’d make vast, mysterious oceans/To delight Her, wouldn’t She?/She’d fill the seas with amazing friends/Of every shape and size:/Coral, turtles, walruses,/And even a fish that flies,” (emphasis in the original). And what you no-doubt noticed from that excerpt is the other thing I love about this text: Harbridge uses a variety of pronouns for God, alternating between He/Him, She/Her, and They/Them. That will mean this is not a book for every reader, but I, for one, am thrilled to add it to my family’s shelves.
Lindsey Cornett
Lindsey Cornett is a loud talker, obsessive coffee drinker, and lover of the written word who lives in downtown Indianapolis with her scientist husband, 3 kids, and crazy Bernedoodle. Most days, you’ll find her wrangling the dog, managing snacks, reheating her coffee, and trying to savor as much joy and gratitude as she can in the middle of these very full days. Lindsey writes a monthly-ish email newsletter about the intersections of faith, community, and curiosity at lindseycornett.substack.com.
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