When I take my children to the library, they gravitate toward the junk-food version of children’s literature (the sort of thing that British educator Charlotte Mason called “twaddle”). I don’t mind reading a few Paw Patrol board books, but I try to fill our take-home bag with books of greater substance.
I look for Caldecott winners. I rely on great book lists and websites like Read-Aloud Revival to find classic picture books my children will love and that I won’t mind reading over and over again. I’m never sorry when I put a little effort into checking out books of enduring value.
However, it’s not so easy to find classic Christian books to read to my kids. Perhaps it’s because we look to story Bibles as our primary discipleship reading. Perhaps it’s because fiction is hard to write from a Christian perspective—it easily becomes too didactic. It’s also possible that for much of the 20th century, children’s books were expensive to produce, and publishers didn’t realize how much Christian parents like to buy books.
For the past year, I’ve been on a quest to identify classic Christian children’s picture books. To be included on my list, a book must meet these three criteria:
1. Be faithful: The book must include some element of the Christian faith or story, whether explicitly or allegorically. I’ve included books by Catholic and Jewish authors if they consistently reflect evangelical theological convictions.
2. Be enduring: I only considered books still in print that were published before the year 2000. There have been scores of wonderful books from Christian publishers in the past 24 years, but only time will tell which ones are classics.
3. Be a picture book: There are many excellent Christian chapter books, but for this exercise, I excluded books that are mainly text with the occasional picture. I also excluded children’s Bibles, which I consider a different genre.
I’ll admit these criteria narrow the field, and my list is short (I’d love to know which books I’ve missed!). Based on the first two decades, I have great hope that the 21st century will produce a much longer list of classic Christian picture books.
Noah’s Ark by Peter Spier (Doubleday, 1977)
I pored over this book as a child. Its richly detailed, earthy illustrations bring to life the immensity of the task God gave to Noah. Have you ever pondered how you bring two tigers into an ark full of their prey? Have you thought about how much food one would need for an ark full of animals? Have you considered that, though only two rabbits went into the ark, quite a few may have come out? Peter Spier’s illustrations earned him a well-deserved Caldecott Medal. They’re the best commentary on the flood story I’ve found.
You Are Special by Max Lucado, illustrated by Sergio Martinez (Crossway, 1997)
This book’s title sounds like it could be just another promotion of expressive individualism, but it’s actually a powerful story about learning to find our identities in the love of our Maker, not in what others think of us. Punchinello is a little wooden creature, and he and his fellow Wemmicks spend their days making judgments about each other. They stick stars on Wemmicks who are beautiful and talented, and they put dots on Wemmicks who don’t measure up. But then Punchinello meets the wood carver. To his surprise, he finds that when he begins to care more about what his maker thinks and less about other Wemmicks, the dots and stars start to fall away.
Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim’s Progress by Oliver Hunkin (Eerdmans, 1985)
This abridged version of John Bunyan’s allegory uses his original words accompanied by compelling—and at times gruesome—illustrations. The pictures may be too scary for some children, but the memorable images bring Christian’s perils to life and are the book’s great strength.
The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt, illustrated by Tim Jonke (David C. Cook, 1989)
This book is a folk tale. While I’m usually leery of books that interact with biblical narratives in a fictional way, this one is clearly meant to be allegorical. Three trees talk about their aspirations for greatness—one wants to hold treasure, one wants to be a strong ship, and one wants to be the tallest tree in the world. None of them literally fulfills its aspiration, but each plays a key role in Jesus’s life. There’s enough tension in the story that it doesn’t feel preachy to children, even as it teaches us the need to redirect our aspirations from our own glory to Jesus’s.
Psalm 23 illustrated by Tim Ladwig (Eerdmans, 1997)
The text of this book is simply the 23rd psalm, but the gorgeous pictures tell the story of two children living their day in inner-city America. It illustrates how these familiar words of Scripture are relevant and true today. Although different dangers lurk in our valleys and shadows, our Good Shepherd is still faithful to guide us in paths of righteousness.
Prayer for a Child by Rachel Field, illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones (Macmillan, 1944)
Rachel Field wrote this prayer for her daughter, and the illustrations Elizabeth Orton Jones drew to accompany them earned the 1945 Caldecott Medal. The book is clearly a product of its era, but the inclusion of a prayer for children “far and near” (with a depiction of many different races) was bold when it was published. This prayer isn’t theologically advanced, but it’s just right for small concrete thinkers learning how to pray.
The Gospel Coalition