God Gave Us So Much (Review)

God Gave Us So Much, is a collection of three books from author Lisa Tawn Bergren and illustrator Laura J. Bryant.The book includes God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love and God Gave Us Heaven. The stories follow a family of polar bears with one inquisitive little girl polar bear whose curiosity is endless.

Storyline
Each story finds the family in a different context. In God Gave Us the World the polar bear family is visiting a museum where they learn about how other bears live around the world. This provides the opportunity for the parents to tell the children about all that God has provided for us––bamboo for the pandas and termites for the sloth bears. It also illustrates that not all bears are the same. In every story the answer to each question points back God.

Illustrations
Illustrations in this book vary from full-page to inset. It almost has the feeling of a scrapbook; each page is different from the next. The watercolor is colorful and soft in tone. The illustrations certainly add to the storyline in some areas, providing extra context and action.

Engaging, Interactive, Inspiring?
While the content of this book is good and it introduces big ideas about God in a tangible way for little ones it’s a bit long. Obviously three books together is a lot to handle and it’s not intended to be read cover-to-cover. But each individual story is rather lengthy in my opinion. The author may have over reached in trying to cover every aspect of the topic at hand. It is engaging to a degree. Once you understand the device of the polar bears answering questions to their child the reader can get into the story, but the questions seemed to never stop. This book didn’t offer much in the area of interactivity, but the topics explored do cause the reader to consider some big ideas about God, so in that regard this book does have a measure of inspiration.

Final Thoughts
With this book being a collection of stories and the list price at $19.99 God Gave Us So Much would be ideal as a gift for the child of a friend or relative. For our three-year-old it was a lot to take in, but in time some of the questions posed by the child in this book will be questions that he is exploring, so we’ll keep it close at hand for when that day comes.