God's Gift by Lee Ann Mancini & illustrated by Dan Sharp [Review & Giveaway]

ISBN-13: 978-0986360497

About the book: In God's Gift, Christian and his sister Mary believe they get more presents at Christmas. However, Jacob and Jeremiah believe they get more presents on Hanukkah. The children learn that Christmas and Hanukkah are about celebrating the gift God has given to His children. It's not about how many presents are under the tree at Christmas or the eight days of presents for Hanukkah. It's about God's provision for those He loves. God gives the gift of the Messiah to the Christians and the gift of Light to the Jews. The true gift from God is learned in this colorful holiday story!

Beautifully illustrated hardcover book designed for children ages 3 – 8.

My thoughts: While this is a seasonal book featuring the Christmas season, it is more aptly a holiday book in which children are anticipating upcoming Christmas and Hanukkah holidays. The children (sea creatures) and their families are busily decorating for whichever of the two holidays their family celebrates. Both families celebrate with gift giving and hence an argument ensues between the sea creature children about the number of gifts they are going to receive.

Obviously, the lesson to be learned is that Christmas is not about getting lots of gifts and neither is Hanukkah. The bigger lesson opportunity is an opportunity to teach young children that families in different cultures celebrate in various ways and sometimes in similar methods.

While this is a really cute book, it does cause me some concern when they use phrases such as.... "but they knew in their hearts the best gift was the gift of God loving them and always taking care of them." This statement is not truly controversial, but as a Christian my belief is that God's greatest, best gift was His Son, Jesus as the Saviour of the world and our Redemer. So while God's love is the source of the birth of a saviour and of the oil that didn't run out for the Jews, the love of provision can not be compared to the wonderous love of redemption.

I still think the book is cute and has value as an entertaining teaching tool about the different celebrations of holidays in the Christian and Jewish communities.

A super little feature is the hidden cross and star on the pages. Gotta find them all!

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Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy from BookCrash to facilitate a review of my personal opinions. I received no compnesation. The giveaway copy is provided by the author and will be mailed directly to the winner.