Also by this author: Jesus and the Lions' Den: A True Story about How Daniel Points Us to Jesus, The Storm That Stopped, The One O'Clock Miracle, The Christmas Promise, All about Christmas: Over 100 Amazing Facts behind the Christmas Story, Queen Elizabeth II: The Queen Who Choose To Serve (Do Great Things For God), Jesus Moments: David: Finding Jesus in the Story of David, Jesus Moments: David, Esther: Finding Jesus in the Story of Esther
Series: Jesus Moments #4
Published by Good Book Company on May 1, 2025
Genres: Children's, Bible Stories
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Help 4-7s learn how Jonah points to Jesus with this illustrated Old Testament Bible story.
This fun, interactive resource will give children skills to read the Bible as they connect the stories and learn that the whole Bible is about Jesus.
Moments in Jonah's story when someone or something in the story is a little bit like Jesus are signposted with symbols that children need to spot, helping them to understand the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.
Written by Alison Mitchell, the award-winning author of Jesus and the Lions’ Den and The One O’Clock Miracle, and beautifully illustrated. This book makes a great gift for children 4-7 years old. Can also be used for children’s ministry in church.
This new installment in the Jesus Moments series covers the story of Jonah. Alison Mitchell’s writing is engaging and conversational, and at the beginning, she explains to kids that if you look closely, you can see parallels to Jesus in different Old Testament stories. She encourages kids to look for anchors in the illustrations, because these each signal a “Jesus moment.” The target audience of early-elementary-aged kids will enjoy this seek-and-find element.
Mitchell retells this familiar story in an engaging way. Instead of starting at the beginning, she picks up in the middle with an action scene, showing Jonah on the ship in the middle of the storm. Then, after Jonah is in the sea, she explains how all of this started. This storytelling choice got my attention. By changing the standard order of events, Mitchell starts the story off with a bang, and she also has more page count to focus on later events, since she summarized the set-up instead of dramatizing all of it.
The illustrations from Noah Warnes are dramatic and vivid, and they work with the text to tell the story, highlighting the intensity of the events and showing Jonah’s resentful attitude and anger about God showing mercy to Nineveh. The story highlights God’s compassion and mercy in contrast to Jonah’s behavior, and multiple pages at the end explain the parallels between the story of Jonah and the story of Jesus. This section contrasts Jesus’s faithfulness, goodness, and mercy to Jonah’s failings, and clearly explains what it means to receive salvation in Jesus.
Jesus Moments: Jonah: Finding Jesus in the Story of Jonah is a great book for families and church leaders who want to introduce this story to kids, or who want to help them arrive at a deeper understanding. This book stands out among other retellings of Jonah because of its thematic focus and unique storytelling style, and it is another great addition to this series.