BOOKS: "You Are the One and Only Ever You"

At SixSeeds, we believe in the power of a good story.  The books our children are hearing and reading will move, inspire, and sometimes even shape their lives... even young lives. This week, we take a popular kids' book and examine it. Hopefully, the next time you're browsing though a crowded bookstore, our reviews will help you sort through the thousands of titles…  and you can choose wisely!

Title:  It’s Time to Sleep, My love

Author: Eric Metaxas

Illustrator: Nancy Tillman

Publisher: Feiwel And Friends

Age: up to 3

Cost:  $16.95

Buy It: here.

Rating: 5 out of 6 seeds

Title:  On the Night You Were Born

Author and illustrator: Nancy Tillman

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Age: up to 3

Cost: $16.95 

Buy It: here.

Rating: 5 out of 6 seeds

It’s Time To Sleep My Love by Eric Metaxas and On The Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman similarly communicate both a parent’s deep love for a child and a general awe for human life. Tillman, who has been regularly praised for her art, illustrates both books.

In It’s Time To Sleep, Metaxas, who has written for VeggieTales and  thirty children’s books, focuses on that sweet time for parents of babies… bedtime. Using rhyme, different animals descend into sleep.

“So, go to sleep, my sleepy child.”

The tiger whispers in the wild.

The otter utters by the lake.

“It’s getting hard to stay

A definite order of life makes this book particularly soothing. After a frazzled day of changing diapers, temper tantrums, and frustrated parenting… this story reminds a parent that not all of life is chaotic.

Tillman’s On the Night You Were Born would make a great gift for an expectant parent. Throughout the pages, not only do the animals pay homage to the newborn baby, but all of creation actually acknowledges the precious birth. She ends in part with this proclamation:

If the moon stays up until morning one day,

Or a ladybug lands and decides to stay,

Or a little bird sits at your window awhile,

It’s because they’re all hoping to see you smile…

For never before in story or rhyme

(Not even once upon a time)

has the world ever known a you, my friend,

and it never will, not ever again…

Things to talk to your kids about:

Because these books are aimed at really young toddlers and babies, you may not have much discussion surrounding them.  However, they do address a foundational issue about communication with children during these beginning years.   Tillman’s intention is “to convey to children at an early and impressionable age, that “you are the one and only ever you.”

For parents to consider:

Critics might say it’s ridiculous to insinuate rain actually whispers a child’s name or that geese sing about a particular child.  Does this kind of exaltation not produce kids who believe the world revolves around them? Or could it give parents a chance to encourage their children in ways not solely tied to ability? After all, it’s important to affirm the child simply for being who they are. Isn’t it more honest than being stuck in an exhausting exercise of exaggerating Johnny’s abilities or making sure that that “good job” is the most spoken phrase in the home? Children just might be more equipped to handle honest feedback if they knew mom and dad’s love for them was wrapped up in who they are and not what they do.

Bottom Line:

So does the songbird really dream of the child as Metaxas says? No, but there is something inherently satisfying and truthful in the way that this metaphor exalts a child’s life.