Here are some of our favorites for our time with the Good Shepherd story.
Stories Jesus Told by Nick Inkpen and Mick Butterworth: This book is a must have for any toddler (and I don't say that lightly). It is a collection of simply told parables that are great to read aloud. The tale of the lost sheep is perfect for a wee one and is fun to read over and over (and you will be reading it over-and-over if my boys are any indication).
Beautiful Sheep: Having grown up on a sheep farm I have a special afinity for our wooly friends and all things wool. I want my boys to understand that sheep aren't just sheep. Heavens no, spunky, hard-hooved, ugly cheviots (sorry I have a grudge) aren't anything like stalky, dense, and oh-so-cute southdowns (I had my own flock of southdowns growing up.) Jim's aunt sent me this book and it is a treasure. This collection of portraits of various sheep breeds is just fun to flip through.
Little Baa by Kim Lewis: I love Kim Lewis' books. The rolling hills, sheep and simple stories are lovely for little ones and remind me of my childhood. Little Baa is my all time favorite; the story of a little lamb who gets lost from his mother and the shepherd helps him find her.
Days on the Farm by Kim Lewis: This is a collection of Kim Lewis' stories and a couple are very applicable to the good shepherd story. In one a little girl looses the bottle-baby lamb she is to look after and searches everywhere. In another a little boy becomes a shepherd like his daddy. Kim Lewis oblates the experiences of a small child on a farm simply and beautifully. (And there are tractors, which makes these books a winner for Rowan!)
Dogger: Okay, so there is nothing about sheep in this book, but it is a treasure of a book about a precious animal lost and found. The story is beautiful and helps a child enter into what it means to lose something that means so much.
Psalm 23 by Barry Moser: I've looked at several Psalm 23 books and I think that this one is my favorite (at least for right now). The shepherd is a small boy and the watercolors are soothing and clear.
Psalm Twenty-Three by Tim Ladwig: The words of the 23rd Psalm are placed over illustrations of small children in a city, showing God's care in a modern setting.
The Lord is My Shepherd by Tasha Tudor: I read lots of Tasha Tudor as a girl and while I don't feel the illustrations have the depth that the two listed above have, it is such a pretty little book! I have this in a tiny book - just right for on our godly play shelves right beside Tasha Tudor's Lord's Prayer and the Prayer Book.
Tig and Tag books by Benedict Blathwayt : These books are fun and I love the English countryside in Blathewaits work. I have picked up a couple at charity shops and would recommend picking them up used if you come by them.
Any other shepherd/sheep/lost-and-found books you would recommend?
6 comments:
My kids love Dogger! We really like "Floss" too, though I can't remember the author off hand. It is really about a sheep dog and less about the sheep. The illustrations are nice.
Floss is great. It is by Amy Lewis and in the "Days On the Farm Above" It has about 5 of her books in it. Floss is a great story!
I always adore Gennady Spirin's books because of his amazing, awe-inspiring illustrations that add so much majesty and holyness and depth to the text so we have a bunch of his books including his 23rd Psalm book which is also beautifully illustrated: The Lord is My Shepherd by Gennady Spirin. Also, love the bright yet contemplative artwork and beautiful child-friendly wording in Psalms for Young Children by Marie-Hélène Delval (I'm pretty sure one of the full page spreads is on the 23rd Psalm and can't check at the moment since everything I own is packed for our move). And all sheep books are so wonderful! I totally agree with all things sheep and I can't help wishing Dad still had sheep...great memories. Have you seen a lot of those amazing Scottish Blackface during your time in Scotland? I adored them when I was there and tried to talk Dad into raising Scottish Blackface when I'd come home! The sheep books I can think of off the top of my head are Tomie's Baa Baa Black Sheep by Tomie dePaola, The Little Lamb by Judy Dunn, and a tiny little board book we have: The First Easter by Jesslyn Deboer.
Oh yes, we love Tomie's Baa Baa Black Sheep too. I'll have to try to find a copy of the others you mention too to have a look at - hooray for fun books!
And I keep wishing dad still had some sheep around too. I'd love to try to raise some with the boys if we have enough room and permanence one of these days.
I love Little Parables: The Lost Sheep by Alan & Linda Parry. It's a tiny little book with flaps (to look under to see if the sheep is hiding). My children loved to have me read it aloud to them when they were FAR too old for the book. The ISBN # is 0849910897.
I've just started a list of children's books we've really enjoyed. I'm new to the Godly Play ideas (and living liturgically in general) so my list is very small right now :) I'd love to know what other books you really enjoy too. Especially baby/toddler books, because good ones of those seem very hard to come by.
http://aberfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/favorite-childrens-books.html
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