God Gave Us Love

God Gave Us Love
by
Lisa Tawn Bergren and Laura J. Bryant
Children's Fiction. Bible lesson. Ages 3-7.
Books in this series are:
God Gave Us You
God Gave Us Two
God Gave Us Christmas
God Gave Us Heaven
God Gave Us Love

Some titles in this series have David Hohn instead of Laura J. Bryant as the illustrator, but the style is the same throughout.

A polar bear cub, Little Cub, and her Grampa are spending time together outside. Grampa gently explains to her that God wants us to be kind and loving in the same way that God is kind and loving to us. Even when Little Cub and her brother and sister are not behaving, God still loves them and so do Mama, Papa, and Grampa.

The pictures show some opportunities for Little Cub to be loving or NOT loving: when otters annoy her; when she is tempted to hit her little brother and sister with snowballs; and when the little siblings are getting in her hair. They also show Grampa, Mama, and Papa being nurturing throughout the story.

This would be a good book for a grandparent to read to a grandchild during a quiet time. It might be a book to buy for Valentine's day and read any day of the year to remind us all of God's love.

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

God Gave Us Christmas

God Gave Us Christmas
by
Lisa Tawn Bergren and David Hohn
Children's Fiction, Bible Lessons
ages 3-7

Books in this series are:
God Gave Us You
God Gave Us Two
God Gave Us Christmas
God Gave Us Heaven
God Gave Us Love

I see that amazon.com has the author listed as Lisa Tawn for one of these books and Lisa Tawn Bergen for the others, so if you can't find a listing, maybe this is why. I also see that some books in this series have David Hohn as the illustrator and some have Laura J. Bryant. One of them must have started the series and the other replaced the first illustrator. I noticed this because of the words on the cover, but the style and polar bear characters are the same throughout the series.

Little Cub and Mama are polar bears living way up north with Papa and the twin cubs. Little Cub wonders what Christmas is. She thinks it has something to do with presents and Santa Claus. Mama takes her cub on a long tour of the wintry landscape, showing her how all creation declares God's majesty. She explains that God sent Jesus to be the light of the world on that first Christmas day. Jesus is a present for all the world, even grumpy bears. The affection and tenderness of the mother/daughter relationship as Mama gently instructs her child comes through on each page.

I love otters, so as a special bonus I enjoyed the second-banana otters who cavorted in the background throughout the book but didn't say a word.

This book could be used at home or in church to remind children about the true meaning of Christmas.

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/
This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.