Also by this author: Held: 31 Biblical Reflections on God's Comfort and Care in the Sorrow of Miscarriage, What Are Hands For?, What Are Ears For? Board Book
Series: Training Young Hearts #4
Published by Good Book Company on January 30, 2024
Genres: Children's
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Fun lift-the-flap board book that motivates small children to use their eyes in a Christ-like way.
This helpful and engaging training tool will help parents to teach their kids that God didn’t make their eyes to look down on others, but for positive things like watching, blinking, squinting and winking.
Not only will children be encouraged to follow Jesus’ example, but they’ll also be reassured that he loves us no matter what we do. He can forgive us when we fail, and help us to change.
This book is part of a series called Training Young Hearts, that addresses the attitudes of the heart that underpin behavior and explains how the gospel of grace enables us to change.
Parents, teachers, and other loved ones can refer back to these resources when specific behaviors need both to be corrected and to be connected to forgiveness, grace and growth.
In this board book, Abbey Wedgeworth teaches kids about what God made our eyes for. This book feels more abstract than previous installments in the Training Young Hearts series, but she gives specific examples of things that we do with our eyes, such as looking around at nature and seeing people’s feelings on their faces. She then writes about things that we shouldn’t do with our eyes, such as glaring in anger or looking down on others. She introduces Jesus after that, saying that he was a child once, that he always used his eyes to see what God wanted him to do, and that his death and resurrection free us to receive forgiveness and hope. The remaining pages teach that when we do wrong things, we can pray for forgiveness and ask for God’s help, looking out for ways that we can serve others.
What Are Eyes For? expresses important concepts in very simple, child-friendly terms, and the illustrations from Emma Randall are colorful, expressive, and fun. The illustrations depict lots of different children with diverse skin tones and hair types, and also include two kids with glasses. Every page also includes a flap to lift, and these work very well. The flaps come up easily, and the material is thick enough to survive many repeated readings, as long as a child isn’t too rough with them. The flaps aren’t just for fun, either, since the illustrations and words under each flap are integral to the book.
What Are Eyes For? can help children appreciate God’s design for their bodies, and can help them understand the difference between positive and harmful choices. Although the books in this series can feel somewhat redundant because they follow the same structure and formula, the illustrations are all unique and the words are different. Also, even though this book involves more abstract concepts than others in the series, it can be a great introduction for talking more about feelings and relationships. Many parents will find this helpful, since the book gives them a direct, immediate way to engage their kids with important topics instead of just giving verbal instruction.