Rating: 
Summary: Sensitive story about bereavement and prayer.
Review: A boy spends time with his grandfather walking in the out of doors. As he grows, he asks his grandfather about the nature of prayer. The grandfather explains prayer in terms of the way nature reaches upward. Later he talks to his grandson about the prayer of humans, and how prayers are answered. When the boy becomes an adolescent, his grandfather dies and no amount of prayer will bring him back to life. For a time, the adolescent abandons prayer. Eventually he again experiences prayerfulness out in nature. Families of different religious and humanistic backgrounds can use this story to explain man's experience of the infinite. The book and its illustrations deal sensitively with nature, love and death. This illustrated book is appropriate for children and adolescents.
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Summary: Grandad's Prayers for the Earth
Review: Heartfelt and warm, without going overboard on the emotions. I especially liked the way this book showed the love of the Grandfather for his grandson and vice versa. It's portrays a lasting and wonderful relationship. Perfect for my teenage boys. One of the best picture books I have read. I am sure this will become an instant classic that will stand the test of time. Douglas Wood's writing is concise with perfect timing, he carries the reader immediately into a quiet walk where you can practically smell meadow flowers and hear the trees growing. P.J. Lynch's illustrations are more than beautiful, they carry the tone perfectly and add individual touches of poignant reality to the script.
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Summary: Remembering Dad
Review: I first read this beautiful book at my church. I was drawn to it and read it several times when I had a few moments to spare. Each time I read it I was reminded of my Dad and the 8,000 trees he had planted for his grandchildren to enjoy. I gave Dad this book for Christmas of 2001 and wrote inside the cover saying that he should read the book to his grandchildren. Though we always thought Dad would live to a very old age we knew that he would be gone one day. Dad died just before Christmas of 2002 at the age of 74 and my mother gave the book back to me a couple of months later. I am a stepmom of three grown children and my first natural child will arrive next month. I was able to tell Dad that he had another grandchild on the way, but she will never get to meet him on earth. I will share the book with my older children, but I will read the book to my new daughter. I know I will cry when I read the book to her, but it will be a wonderfully touching way to remember Dad and help her to understand the wonderful Grandfather that will never be able to tell the story in his own words.
Rating:
Summary: Remembering Dad
Review: I first read this beautiful book at my church. I was drawn to it and read it several times when I had a few moments to spare. Each time I read it I was reminded of my Dad and the 8,000 trees he had planted for his grandchildren to enjoy. I gave Dad this book for Christmas of 2001 and wrote inside the cover saying that he should read the book to his grandchildren. Though we always thought Dad would live to a very old age we knew that he would be gone one day. Dad died just before Christmas of 2002 at the age of 74 and my mother gave the book back to me a couple of months later. I am a stepmom of three grown children and my first natural child will arrive next month. I was able to tell Dad that he had another grandchild on the way, but she will never get to meet him on earth. I will share the book with my older children, but I will read the book to my new daughter. I know I will cry when I read the book to her, but it will be a wonderfully touching way to remember Dad and help her to understand the wonderful Grandfather that will never be able to tell the story in his own words.
Rating:
Summary: What a beautiful book!
Review: I love this book. The illustrations are gorgeous! I love how the boy starts out as a young boy and at the end of the book he is a teenager...this isn't a book for little kids, in fact I'd say it would be over the heads of most kids under age 9 or so. I did not find it to be "new agey" at all. The author has purposefully written it so that people of all faiths can enjoy it. Yes, there is a section where the Grandad suggests that prayer is not just to get what we want...but to help us change ourselves. That is the theology I've been taught...after all, God doesn't need our prayers...He already knows what we need before we ask. Prayer is as much for our benefit as for anything God gets from it. This idea is depicted in the end. After the Grandad dies, the boy is so sad that he stops praying. After awhile, he prays again, and feels a peace that he has been missing since his Grandad's death. I recommend this book highly...especially if you teach 9-12 year olds in church. It's a great supplement to a lesson about prayer.
Rating:
Summary: What a beautiful book!
Review: I love this book. The illustrations are gorgeous! I love how the boy starts out as a young boy and at the end of the book he is a teenager...this isn't a book for little kids, in fact I'd say it would be over the heads of most kids under age 9 or so. I did not find it to be "new agey" at all. The author has purposefully written it so that people of all faiths can enjoy it. Yes, there is a section where the Grandad suggests that prayer is not just to get what we want...but to help us change ourselves. That is the theology I've been taught...after all, God doesn't need our prayers...He already knows what we need before we ask. Prayer is as much for our benefit as for anything God gets from it. This idea is depicted in the end. After the Grandad dies, the boy is so sad that he stops praying. After awhile, he prays again, and feels a peace that he has been missing since his Grandad's death. I recommend this book highly...especially if you teach 9-12 year olds in church. It's a great supplement to a lesson about prayer.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved Old Turtle....
Review: Like Wood's book, Old Turtle, this story is more for adults than for the children they'll read it to - the illustrations (a different illustrator) are beautiful, using soft autumn watercolor tones to illustrate grandfather as he speaks with his grandchild about nature, spirit and the connection all people have to one another. Essentially this is a book about loss, dying and eternal life. It can be a beginning point for a discussion with older children (ages 8 - 16 or so) who have experienced a loss of any beloved friend or family member. If I had grandchildren, I'd want to have the hardcover book available for them to read. The book is written to offer room for people of nearly any faith (even agnostics) to begin a discussion the meaning of life and dying.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved Old Turtle....
Review: Like Wood's book, Old Turtle, this story is more for adults than for the children they'll read it to - the illustrations (a different illustrator) are beautiful, using soft autumn watercolor tones to illustrate grandfather as he speaks with his grandchild about nature, spirit and the connection all people have to one another. Essentially this is a book about loss, dying and eternal life. It can be a beginning point for a discussion with older children (ages 8 - 16 or so) who have experienced a loss of any beloved friend or family member. If I had grandchildren, I'd want to have the hardcover book available for them to read. The book is written to offer room for people of nearly any faith (even agnostics) to begin a discussion the meaning of life and dying.
Rating:
Summary: A story of comfort and rememberance
Review: The beautiful words and the captivating images provided in Douglas Wood and P.J. Lynch's Grandad's Prayers of the Earth is a gift to individuals of all ages. The peaceful water color images, depicted by Lynch, create a dream-like memory book of a story recalled by a grandson. Throughout the story his grandfather points out the elements of nature, which together all offer prayers and a gift of beauty to life. The child, as does the reader, strains to listen for the "prayers of the earth." As the grandfather and grandson continue to discover the beauty around them the warm hues in the pictures reflect the love, safety and peace offered by the verse-like text. When the grandfather passes on the young child struggles to find the comfort he once felt on those walks with his grandfather. It is not until the child grows older and learns how to listen, as his granfather taught him, to the prayers of the earth that he finds that peace once again.
This book imbeds many elements of prayer including how to pray and the different ways prayers are offered. However, it is not only a lesson in prayer. It is one of remembering a loved one and the internal struggle that is felt when a loved one is lost. This struggle is one a person of any age can relate to.
Douglas Wood and P.J. Lynch have captured a story of love; love between a grandfather and his grandson, between a man and the natural world, and between a greater being and oneself.
Rating:
Summary: A story of comfort and rememberance
Review: The beautiful words and the captivating images provided in Douglas Wood and P.J. Lynch's Grandad's Prayers of the Earth is a gift to individuals of all ages. The peaceful water color images, depicted by Lynch, create a dream-like memory book of a story recalled by a grandson. Throughout the story his grandfather points out the elements of nature, which together all offer prayers and a gift of beauty to life. The child, as does the reader, strains to listen for the "prayers of the earth." As the grandfather and grandson continue to discover the beauty around them the warm hues in the pictures reflect the love, safety and peace offered by the verse-like text. When the grandfather passes on the young child struggles to find the comfort he once felt on those walks with his grandfather. It is not until the child grows older and learns how to listen, as his granfather taught him, to the prayers of the earth that he finds that peace once again.
This book imbeds many elements of prayer including how to pray and the different ways prayers are offered. However, it is not only a lesson in prayer. It is one of remembering a loved one and the internal struggle that is felt when a loved one is lost. This struggle is one a person of any age can relate to.
Douglas Wood and P.J. Lynch have captured a story of love; love between a grandfather and his grandson, between a man and the natural world, and between a greater being and oneself.
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