Book Review: Heaven

 

Title: Heaven

Subtitle: What's it like? How do we get there?

Author: Stephen Elkins

Genre: Children's Non-fiction/Devotional

With three children (ages 2, 3 and 8, I always take the opportunity to review children's books when I am given it by the publishers.  The latest is "Heaven: What's it Like? How do We get There?" 

This is the description of the book as it is written on Amazon:

 “Heaven is exciting! Heaven is big! Heaven is safe! Heaven is forever!” Heaven: What’s It Like? How Do We Get There? is the first in a brand new children’s series titled First Steps. This series explains the foundations of the Christian faith in sensitive and simple child-friendly terms. In this first book kids will understand, through 60 rhyming stories and colorful illustrations, what heaven is all about. Children will be inspired and uplifted by the hope and promise of Heaven and their heavenly Father. This is a comforting book for children who have lost grandparents or other loved ones. In addition to learning about heaven, children will be inspired to live their earthly lives in a way that is glorifying and honoring to God.

My two little ones (ages 2 and 3) love to be read to at night before they go to bed.  I would say that my 3 year old, Lucas,  listens to the stories but my 2 year old, Ella,  looks more at the pictures.   Ella really liked the pictures.  They are vibrant and exciting and immediately caught her eye.  Lucas enjoyed the rhyming layout of each page. 

As a parent I loved the content of the book.  The first section is entitled "What is Heaven Like?" and tells that heaven is perfect, beautiful, with no sadness, etc.  The second section is called "How Do We Get There?" and tells about sin, why we need a Savior, and that Jesus died for us and that we need Him to go to heaven. The last section is called "How Do We Live Like Jesus Until Then?" which tells children how to behave while they are here on earth.

I would recommend this book to parents of all small children.  My only recommendation to the author would be to spend more pages on how a child can get to heaven.  The author deals with it but I think children need to have that spelled out on more than one page.  Overall, the book would make a wonderful gift to any small child or new parent.

 Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the Tyndale House Publishing Company in exchange for an honest review.