This is a beautiful book, it really is. It made God feel more relatable to a child's heart- and to mine. The illustrations are eye-catching and quite unique. I think the author did excellent teaching children about who God is and how much He loves them.

All the said, I have a background in special education. The target audience of this book appears to be children with special needs. As another reviewer stated, it's really too wordy for kids with special needs. And some of the images may be overstimulating for them. My 7-year-old loved it- he's a typically developing child. I love that there is a book out there for children who are often overlooked by literature. I love the heart behind this. Unfortunately, I don't see it working well for a large majority of children with special needs. But I do think it would be a beautiful addition to a home or Sunday School library.

Crossway is by far one of my favorite publishers. When I saw this book I was very excited. First: because it's for children (and I have two at home!), And then because it was written by a mom. A mom who is also an educator with international experience and has 6 children with whom to practice (my repertoire for her). Moms know what our children need (we are the ones who know them most). I really liked that he tells how he could not find a book like that in the market and embarked on the task of creating it (wow! That's being proactive in the face of a family need, I want to follow her steps and have faith in God to create tools to guide them more, in his knowledge of Him).

Julie, having an adopted daughter with special needs, needed something unique and personalized for her, but simple, concrete, and at the same time full of truth, deep. The daughter faced disadvantages in her development after having spent years in an orphanage before being adopted by them. The books that she found contained a lot of background of religious traditions that she did not know, others were well written but with a very complicated vocabulary for people who did not speak that language as maternal. She did not want to hurt her with books that made so much reference to her family of origin: "when you were in your mother's womb ... your little brothers, etc." The language she used is simple and understandable, it is a book that any dad or mom who wants their children to understand basic concepts.



This book is the first that I read with this turn, with these characteristics. Let me tell you!

The topics contained are: God, God is holy, Sin, God's holiness is important, Sin brings separation, Prayer and confession, PErdón, special God, Salvation, Consequences, Jesus, Punishment, Jesus in your place, Jesus was crucified, Jesus rose, Jesus is really the son of God, God can cleanse your sin, Jesus conquers death, Physical and spiritual body, Mystery, Eternal Life, Heaven, Grace and faith, Becoming a Christian, Following Jesus, Words to to know.

It is very simple to understand and contains very important truths and concepts for any child to understand. I consider it very good for parents, teachers and families who are interested in investing in the spiritual understanding of their children.

I ask God that during the childhood years of my children, help me explain these concepts in a simple, understandable, true and profound way, I am very grateful for this type of resources that encourage and facilitate this process.

You can buy it at: Crossway, Amazon and any virtual book store. #SpecialGod #NetGalley

"Written to make the truths of the gospel accessible to children, this book uses simple illustrations and concrete, easy-to-understand language to explain important theological ideas, such as sin, heaven, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit. Each of the 25 chapters introduces a biblical concept by asking a question and answering it with simple vocabulary and plenty of review to help the information stick. Written by a former teacher and the mother of a child with intellectual disabilities, this book meets a critical need for parents and teachers looking for a tool to teach kids about God, humanity, Jesus, salvation, and more. Ages 5-8 (read to me) Ages 8+ (read myself)"

The content of this book is so good. It shares who God is and how to believe in Him. It's written by a mom who adopted a special needs girl and wanted a book that she could developmentally understand, and that would fit her differences, and still point to a Redeemer God who is here for everyone. It's published by Crossway and due out September 30th.

It has words that are bolded and colored to stand out- and when it uses a term, it also defines it in simple language. There are sample quotes from the book throughout this post- that share examples of a sentence from each page. I like the quotes better than the actual pages with many words and paragraphs on each two page chapter. But the book is almost 60 pages with all the great content that is taught. It's designed to be read to a 5-8 year old, and a read to self for 8+. I can see that as appropriate ages.

It definitely is an excellent content resource to explain who God is, sin, separation, eternity, ...

Every page ends with a scripture verse. The illustrations are simple and just shape driven, nothing spectacular but they use color for emphasis, and an occasional person shape.

The concepts are so well explained and the teaching is so good, I can see using this book in our grades 1/2 Sunday School class, as we work to teach them biblical concepts and truths to build on from young on. It's a perfect fit.

As an educator, I love the vocabulary development of biblical terms, I love the way the pages build on the concepts of the page before, the theology is good and the child language is appropriate.

I'm not so sure about the contrast of colors on some pages, at least on the e-version I was reading it was hard to read some of the pages. I'll have to see when I order the hard copy how it looks. The quotes here are similar but maybe a bit busier than most of the book pages.

I'm also not sure about the length of the pages- there are a lot of words on many of the pages, as a read aloud or read together, with such simple images, I'm not sure how well the attention of the children would be. As a read to self, I think it's a better fit, but it's a long book with almost 60 pages. But in Sunday School, we will use one chapter at a time to teach, and might read aloud to review a few other pages. And I think it works well for that. But I'm disappointed it's a 7 by 9 inch book. So not designed for reading aloud to a group.
thankful to partner with netgalley to review.

There’s many Christian children’s books out there so what makes this one unique? In the introduction the author Julie Melilli gave some background to why she wrote the book. She mentioned about looking for a book for her adopted daughter that had developmental disabilities and physical differences. In addition she was looking for something that is biblical to read to her daughter while also looking for something with simple vocabulary that for non-native English speaker. Seeing the need for such a resource Julie Melilli decided to write this book.
The book is to be commended for being written in easy-to-understand languages. I really applaud the author’s attempt to write a book for those who have developmental disabilities and are non-native Engligh speaker. Furthermore important Christian terms are printed in bold and followed with a definition of what the term means. This is very helpful and in my reading to my daughters it was a signal for me to ask them to repeat aloud what the word means. Again this was very helpful.
The book was also helpful for young children since it was repetitive. Yet I must also say that at times it felt too repetitive as my daughters at times asked whether I am accidently repeating something that was read earlier! Still one can’t deny the importance of repetition in teaching young children. The book has twenty five chapters in total. As another constructive criticism I must say that sometimes I’m not sure why the chapters are laid out in the order that it was laid out. For example the seventh chapter is on forgiveness. Yet later on there’s a chapter titled “Punishment.” It felt it made more logical sense to have the chapter on punishment before the chapter on forgiveness (though there was a previous chapter titled “Sin Brings Separation” two chapters earlier). I think any subsequent update to this excellent book should consider reorganizing it better. Readers must also be aware that this book isn’t an illustrated book in the sense of showing Bible characters and narrative of events. This was more of a child’s “systematic theology.” The illustrations in the book for each chapters were largely different shapes and colors. Yet at times my daughters asked why was the chapter showing specific pictures and for that I don’t know. I think it can be helpful to have pictures that kind of have to do with the theme of the topic of each respective chapter.
I enjoyed this and my children enjoyed it as well. I rate this 4 out of 5!
NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Crossway and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

I don't like this book at all. In the intro it stated that the author has a special needs child and wrote it with this in mind. I have a stepson who is developmentally disabled and know a lot of other adults like that. This book would definitely not do for them. It's just too wordy and their attention would drift away quickly. It needs to be simple and to the point without a lot of repetition. If the child/adult needs the repetition, then the parent can reiterate what's written. Nor would I want to read it to a "normal" child for the same reason.

I didn't agree with some of the things the author wrote and she left out the Holy Spirit, which she possibly thought would be too difficult to explain, but i can think of several ways to explain the Spirit, an important person in the Godhead. In her bio, Julie Melilli doesn't state where she's coming from spiritually. Most authors of books about God give at least a hint of their religious background. We only know that she's a teacher.

I don't like the illustrations - very geometric. Although the colors are bright, the graphics are just plain boring and wouldn't catch attention. Something that is more familiar would be good - trees, birds, people, sun, etc.

If this works for Julie Melilli's child, that's great. I wouldn't get it for any of the DD adults I know. My main consideration for the book was to see if it would be good for my grand kids - I wouldn't pass it on to them either.

I just hate giving bad reviews, but I can't think of anything much positive about this book.

I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley.