Every once in a while, a book comes my way that impacts my entire family—you know the kind of book I mean. Books like The Jesus Storybook Bible or for us, Madeline and Corduroy. This summer, we’ve found a new one: The Biggest Story ABC by Kevin DeYoung, illustrated by Don Clark.
This sweet book is a board book, so I admit I wondered if it would be too baby for my 5yo and 3yo; however, we quickly discovered that the format aside, it’s actually perfect for preschoolers. Perfect! You see, my 3yo is on her way to preschool this fall and my 5yo is headed to kindergarten; my daughter is learning her letters, and my son is learning what sounds the letters make. An alphabet primer is just the thing. Each page introduces a letter of the alphabet, and then has one sentence telling a part of the gospel story with a key word using that page’s letter. For example, for the L page, the sentence is, God gave them the Law, but they disobeyed.
We’ve had the most fun with this book! First, Ann looks at the letter on the page and tells me what it is. Then we talk about what sound it makes. I read the sentence, and Von tells me what word in that sentence begins with the page’s letter! But of course, the best part is that they are learning and relearning the gospel story in 26 simple sentences that are comprehensible to their little minds. The gospel is not dumbed down at all—just stripped down to clear language that children can appreciate. They ask to read this book every single day; I think by the end of the summer, they might have it memorized, which is a whole lot more exciting to my mama’s heart than having Madeline memorized! Plus, the illustrations are stunning and captivating, keeping my children's attention each time we read the book.
I love this sweet book so much, I think it will become my new go-to birthday and baby shower gift, and I’d like to do a Mundane Faithfulness giveaway. Leave a comment with your full name and who you’d love to read this book with. I’ll leave the giveaway open until the end of August. If you don’t win, make sure you check it out when you get a chance—I’m sure you’ll fall in love with it, too.
