“Broad Focus on Redemptive History - Too Advanced for Some Young Kids”
3.5 stars, rounded up for the right audience.
This family devotional by Katy Morgan is inspired by the “Any Time, Any Place, Any Prayer” storybook by Laura Wifler, and the readings go through fifteen different Bible passages about prayer. Each devotion features an opening prayer, a discussion prompt, a Bible passage and discussion questions about it, and a prompt for a closing prayer. There are also optional, more complex questions for older children. The book includes illustrations from Catalina Echeverri and occasional activities in her art style, such as coloring pages, a maze, and a wordsearch.
This devotional covers a significant amount of biblical teaching about prayer. Different days cover different types of prayer, such as calling out to God for help or in repentance, and the book also covers the story of Jesus and the Lord's Prayer. I appreciate the book's breadth, and I think it's great that Morgan covered the whole arc of redemptive history, from creation to the new creation. However, the downside of this is that the book presumes a lot of prior knowledge and exposure to Bible stories. The very basic writing and simple concepts in the devotional readings feel mismatched with some of the more complex Bible passages. This feels too young for older kids who could better engage with the Scriptural content, and is too advanced for many younger kids who would connect with the devotional readings.
I would recommend this devotional to families with young kids who are very well-versed in Bible stories and have already learned a lot about God. The focus on teaching kids about prayer is helpful, but this will be most successful if children are already very well-informed about biblical history. To be more successful for more audiences, this book would need to share more context for several of the passages, or would need to age-up the devotional material for older children.
Note: I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
