A Picture Book a Day for a Year: Day 154

Terrific Trio: Book 3

Picture Book: God’s Dream

Authors: Archbishop Desmond Tutu & Douglas Carlton Abrams

Illustrator: LeUyen Pham

Summary: Along with his co-author, Archbishop Tutu’s offers young children his vision of God’s dream for all people. Sharing, caring, and reaching out to hold hands are a part of God’s dream for us but so is saying sorry and forgiving when we hurt each other or are hurt by someone. The authors explain that we all carry within us a piece of God’s heart so that when we love each other, God’s heart becomes whole. God wishes everyone would see themselves as family members across the globe even when they are different in their looks, languages, and ways of speaking to God.  How do you make God’s dream come true? By simply knowing we are all one family of God’s children and loving each other accordingly.

Hanna’s Comments: This 3^rd book in PBT’s Terrific Trio is a book for young children co-written by the man who is the focus of this and the previous 2 blog posts. This picture book offers Archbishop Tutu’s vision of young children living out and leading the way towards God’s dream for humanity, a dream of empathy, tenderness, respect, forgiveness, reconciliation, and joy. Grabbing this book for a lesson for children would be a no-brainer. Reading it to your child or grandchild would be a privilege. Teaching it to the children in your private school classroom would be a treasure passed on to the next generation. 

Publisher & Date of Publication: Candlewick, 2008

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 5 and up, K and up

# of Pages: 40

Available in Spanish? Not at present

Formats other than Book: None at present

PBT Category: God Book

PBT Topics this Book Connects with: affection, affirmation, aspirations/dreams, body of Christ, bonds/connections, caring/tending, community, differences, diversity, family, forgiveness/justifying grace/mercy/redemption, friends/friendship, God’s nature, God’s will, golden rule/great commandment, goodness, hope, humanity, image of God, joy, kindness, kingdom of God/reign of God, love, openness, pacifism/peace/peacemakers, pleasing God/the Shema, rainbows, relationships,  religious differences, respect, sharing, unity, variety, vision

Scripture Connections: Made in God's image (Genesis 1:27); Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18 & Matthew 7:12); God’s plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11)

Idea(s) for Application: This would be a great book to use with children who are learning about these concepts: God's hope for God's kingdom, our being made in God's image, or The Great Commandment.