Book Review: His Grace is Enough by Melissa Kruger
Shooting the Gap
Illustrated children’s books are a tricky endeavor. There are two major boxes to check for any great book worthy of sharing with your kids. First, you want it to be chock full of ideas that spark their mind to ask questions, help make connections, and teach them something about themselves or the world they live in. Second, you want the illustrations to keep them engaged, give their little eyes plenty of detail to pick up on or ask questions about, and show them the story they’re hearing as you read.
No one cares how great the life lesson or wisdom your book contains if the pictures are so boring that they make your brain go numb. On the flip side, it doesn’t matter how great the book looks if there’s no real substance or story to explore inside. The best books check both boxes. These are the books your kids fall in love with, and grab off the shelf every night when you offer to read. They’re fun to read, a delight to look at, and bring joy to the kiddos who dig into them.
Checking All the Boxes
Melissa Kruger sets out to check all the boxes I mentioned in His Grace is Enough, her follow-up to Wherever You Go, I Want You to Know. . . from The Good Book Company. It’s a beautifully illustrated book that walks through God’s grace in a way that young kids can understand. Each page presents a vignette of how children might sin (drawing on walls, making a mess, getting angry with friends, hitting someone), or try to take care of their sin themselves before pointing kids toward God’s invitation to grace and forgiveness. These examples and responses are well thought out and track with many of the conversations we’ve had with our three kids through the years.
“It’s easy to remember, gets stuck in your head, and worms it’s way in so you can’t forget it. Like Ice Ice Baby, but crafted to help point your kids to God’s grace.”
The whole book is presented in rhyme, and the refrain pointing kids to God’s grace is repeated throughout the book. It’s like the hook to a great pop song. “His grace is enough, it’s so big and so free. His grace is enough, for you and for me.” It’s easy to remember, gets stuck in your head, and worms it’s way in so you can’t forget it. Like Ice Ice Baby, but crafted to help point your kids to God’s grace. Finally, the book wraps up with a clear and simple explanation of substitutionary atonement through Christ that is easy to walk through with young kids.
So, it’s fun to read. How’s it look? The illustrations from Isobel Lundie are remarkable. It reminds me a lot of the ‘Questioners’ series (Iggy Peck Architect, Rosie Revere Engineer, etc.) in the way it looks. Panels are bright and saturated with color, backgrounds are loaded with fun details to explore, and she shows a ton of diversity in the kids and families presented throughout. From start to finish, the book is a treat to flip through.
Putting It To Work
To conclude, you want this book in your reading rotation for young kids. It’s great at home as a fun, quick bedtime book that serves to help catechize your kids in the doctrines of sin, grace, and forgiveness. Your children will be filling in the rhyming blanks as you read in no time. I’ll be surprised if my youngest doesn’t ask to return to this often.
I could also see this book getting a lot of use for story time in Sunday School, or any type of faith-based daycare or Mothers Day Out program where you’ve got kids reading together. The rhyming of the words throughout would work great with a group. I haven’t found a ton of great books to keep on hand in kids classrooms, but this is a welcome addition to that shelf.
Melissa and Isobel are proving to be a great pair, churning out helpful, interesting, and beautiful content that points kids to Jesus. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next from them.