Jesus

by Anselm Grün

Other authorsGiuliano Ferri (Illustrator)
Hardcover, 2014

Description

I want to connect what concerns people today with what it was about Jesus that fascinated Luke, as a man of his lifetime... I want every reader to be guided by Luke to Jesus, to gain new insights into Jesus, and to discover in him the one who gives m

Publication

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (2014), 26 pages

User reviews

LibraryThing member thornton37814
The author of this volume tried to take on too large of a story to tell in a short picture book. He tries to cover Jesus' life from birth until the resurrection. There are just so many stories that he could not tell them all, and his choices of which stories to include and which to neglect seem a
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little off. There are some words that seem a little difficult for young children. We don't tell children a woman is "pregnant"; we tell them she is going to have a baby. While children who go to church may be familiar with some of the Christian "jargon," other children are not going to know some of the terms, and some of them were not explained well enough for children. I'm also not sure why the story stopped at the resurrection. Why wasn't the ascension and the promise that Jesus would return included? The illustrations are the bright place in the book. They are very appealing and well-done. If a parent or teacher practiced and came up with work-arounds for the problems with the vocabulary of the text, this book might be useful. I think most would prefer to use other books that deal with one story in the life of Jesus and treat that story well than to use this overview that has quite a few problems.
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LibraryThing member DonnaMarieMerritt
Beautiful illustrations but disappointing text. Though many sentences were appropriately short for young readers, the words were not always a good match for understanding, e.g., startled, register, satisfied, plotted, betrayed, and so on.

Some sentences were awkward, such as "What the angel had
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said came true, and Mary became pregnant." The word "had" should not be there. And why the word "pregnant"? This is being targeted to young children. Why not, "The angel was right. Mary was going to have a baby."

There are also phrases directly from the Bible, which is fine, but again, not for this audience. They will not understand things such as: "Didn't you know I would be in my Father's house?" or "fishers of men" or "your brother was lost and now he is found." Readers seem expected to understand, for instance, that "fishers of men" are now the "disciples" of Jesus—and "disciples" is not explained clearly either. No, you can't explain everything in an introductory book for children, but there is far too much confusing content here.

And why is Jesus "angry" at his disciples when they didn't let the children near Him? That, to me, would be scary for a child. The focus should be on Jesus welcoming the children, not on the word "angry" twice on one page.

At the end, Jesus has "triumphed over death." What does that mean to a young child? That's it. End of story. No explanations. No promises of Jesus always being with us. The ending will scare a child, like Jesus is a ghost. Even the illustration for the ending (and the art had been wonderful until now) is frightening.

I would not recommend this book nor would I give it as a gift. The cover will invite people to pick it up, but after reading it, they'll put it back on the shelf. Stories about Jesus for young readers should be simple, hopeful, loving. This book missed the mark.

I don't like giving negative reviews, but this is an important topic and one close to my heart. Children deserve the best we can give them.
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LibraryThing member cleoppa
A beautiful children’s biography of Jesus. I love the illustrations and muted colors. Reminds me very much of Israel. Each spread presents a different event in the life of Jesus. This book could probably be a very versatile tool for parents. They could read it straight through, or they could take
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each spread on its own. If they’re familiar with the stories, they could spend the time discussing the event with their children instead of straight out reading the text. Great for developing questions and discussions about different things in the life of Jesus. Parents could also use it as a launching pad for Bible study. See the illustrations, maybe read the text, then turn to the scripture passages to read together. I think this is an excellent resource for any Christian parent with young children.
For being a picture book, I think it does an excellent job of covering nearly all important events in the life of Jesus. Oddly enough, it does not have a crucifixion spread. Although the text mentions it, the betrayal in the garden is the actual image. Although I don’t see this as a major fault, I do think that this should have been included. I imagine as a picture book for young children, the author did not want to show this death scene. However, this is the crux of Jesus’ life and ministry and therefore, extremely important. I think the cross should have been included, if even from a distance.
The one important event in Jesus’ life that was not included, in either text or pictures, was the ascension. This, I do see as a fault. I like the fact that this is presented like a picture book should be—as primarily a visual experience. It doesn’t seek to proselytize or overstuff the book with words or pictures. However, I do think it would have been valuable to have an appendix with scriptural reference related to each spread if parents want to read the actual stories to their children.
Despite these minor complaints, I would highly recommend this book to all parents with young children.
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LibraryThing member bluehose1
The beautiful illustrations are the highlight of the book. Some of the images depict the story from a different perspective and give great insight into those moments. However, the language in the stories needs to be revised as it is not always child-friendly. Long complicated words can be confusing
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to young children and the writer should consider some revision. I admire the effort it takes to discern and compile meaningful stories but the conclusion seems to drop off suddenly with the women in the tomb. Thankfully there is more to the story and that hope is central to Jesus' life and ministry. As someone in ministry, I would tweak the way I told the stories while using the illustrations but I would not give this book to parents as a tool to use at home.
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LibraryThing member Janagram
This book has beautiful pictures. It tries to tell the entire story of the life of Jesus - his birth, some miracles, some stories he told, etc. It think it tries to do too much for a children's book. The format is like a picture book, but the text is rather long and somewhat disconnected. I also
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wondered at the choices of parts of the life of Jesus to tell. The ending was disappointing. It did end with the comment that Jesus is still alive, but it just ended at the empty tomb. I think to be a complete story of the life of Jesus, at least one of the appearances and his ascension should be included.
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LibraryThing member parelle
A children's book with lovely watercolor-like drawings and accessible story. Since this review copy came as unbound pages I'm almost tempted to frame some of the scenes. The text is quite solid, though I'm guessing 5+ on the age range, but my children are younger.
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
This life of Christ for children may have a fairly narrow audience. Its treatment of events such as the Virgin Birth is probably too ambiguous for evangelical Christians, while its treatment of Jesus' resurrection and some of his miracles is probably too affirmative for Christians on the liberal
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end of the spectrum. The illustrations by an Italian artist are reminiscent of Italy. The pictures have some characteristics of cartoons, but the muted color palette gives them enough weight to maintain a serious and respectful tone. The book might work well for a preschool audience since teachers could shape the story to fit their denomination's views where they differ from the written text.
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LibraryThing member Sullywriter
Simple, plainspoken stories from the life and ministry of Jesus with warm, appealing illustrations. An excellent introduction for younger children. Originally published in Germany.

Language

Original language

German

ISBN

0802854389 / 9780802854384

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