Book Reviews, Children’s picture books

Frog's rainy-day story and other fables

by Michael James Dowling illustrated by Sarah Buell Dowling 2023 / 76 pages WORLD magazine touted this as "one of the six best Christian picture books published this century," and I'll admit that raised my expectations maybe a bit too high. It also got me thinking what books I might put on that list. So, I'm going to go on a tangent here and list some great Christian pictures books published in the last 25 years. In no particular order here's ten: Sir Badalot and the Cranky Danky Dragon The Good Shepherd and the Stubborn Sheep Sophie and the Heidelberg Cat Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas True of 1914 Golly's Folly: the Prince Who Wanted it All Martin Luther: a Man Who Changed the World Noah Finding Narnia: the Story of C.S. Lewis and his Brother Pro-life Kids Mr. Pusskins Could Frog's Rainy-Day Story and Other Fables crack to this illustrious list? It just might, but there is some decent competition. So what's it all about? There are eight stories, all of them animal or insect-based, and every one with its own biblical moral. But the author doesn't just highlight what's right – he includes a contrast at the end of the story between what "God's Word says" and what the culture says" with quotes from famous secular figures. That's quite a bonus, to help the kids understand that the ridiculous animals in each tale is far from alone in his or her ridiculousness. While this is a recent book, when I last checked this wasn't available new on Amazon.ca (and the used copies were expensive) but it is widely available elsewhere, so just google it. You can listen to the first story being read below, and for the second, visit the authors' website here: FrogsRainyDayStory.com. And for another take on this title see Redeemed Reader's thoughts here.