God's Greatest Gift by Deborah Burch

About the book: God's Greatest Gift, written and illustrated by acclaimed artist, Deborah Burch, is a lively, rhythmic and heartfelt story about a child discovering that he/she is a blessing from God. It demonstrates that every child living in our wonderous world is a unique and miraculous creation. Hardcover with dust jacket, 32 brilliantly illustrated heavy duty pages.

My thoughts:  I was highly anticipating reviewing God's Greatest Gift picture book. As Chat With Vera readers must know, I am an avid fan of children's picture books. I think they are beautiful and wonderful learning/teaching tools. The real beauty, though, lies in the beauty and glow of a child's rapt attention as they absorb the book like a feast for their eyes. And as this eye-feast is devoured, their minds are absorbing the message the text is conveying. That is why I am so profoundly disappointed in this particular book.

Frankly, I see where the author/illustrator is coming from and the idea is superb. However, I believe she would have been better served giving it a title such as "God's Special Gift" or "God's Wondrous Gift" and leave the title alliteration for something else.

To teach a child that he or she is God's greatest gift is doing them a great wrong. Jesus Christ is God's greatest gift to mankind and to each and every child. A child is, however, a very special and wondrous gift from God to parents and to the World. That is where the error in the author's theology is. Children begin to absorb theology in little bits of truth very early in life and it is the parent's responsibility to ensure that the theology is correct.

I don't think the author has meant to present an error in theology. I think the presentation is from her heart where she loves her own children and wants them to know just how special they are to her and to God. But the possible cost to a misconstrued theology is too great for me.

I give the author/illustrator an A+ for her illustrations. The books is very nicely bound and made of durable pages that will hold up to much use. The extra of looking for items of 7 on each illustration is a nice extra touch though the items are a bit difficult to discover on some of the pages. They do present an extra focus and opportunity for discovery which is always nice. And the concept of the number 7 being the number for God's perfection can be presented to children this way.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy in exchange for a review from the BookCrash Book Review Program. Opinions expressed are solely my own. I received no compensation for this review.