Friday, March 16, 2007

Hymns for a Kid's Heart


Hymns for a Kid's Heart, by Bobbie Wolgemuth & Joni Eareckson Tada
(Crossway, 2003), hb. 92 pp.

As the previous posts should attest, I love hymns and want my children to do so as well. Thus, this title appealed to me about a year ago when I saw it. However, I was disappointed with the book. It did not approach the Mr. Pipes books.

The book focuses on 12 hymns, three each in the following categories: Hymns about God, Hymns of Truth from the Bible, Hymns about Christian Living, Hymns of Prayer for Our Country. The lyrics and music of each hymn is given. For each hymn Mrs. Wolgemuth has written a brief story about the author as a child usually relating to the song. Then Mrs. Tada writes a brief reflection relating generally to the point of the song. The full text of the hymn is provided along with the music, a memory verse and a prayer. The book also includes a one page glossary. Then a CD is included with all the hymns from the book sung by a children’s choir.

Some have really liked the book. I suppose the writing would be more suited to younger children. It is difficult to describe the impression the book left me with, but the best way to say it may be that the Mr. Pipes books were much more hardy and real.

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2 Comments:

At 5:07 AM, Blogger dawn said...

My children, 2 and 1, love this book and CD (well, they love the CD anyway). Margaret, the 2yo, likes to try and sing along with the hymns. We're using the book with our morning devotions as we introduce each hymn (which is very slow ... we're still working on "Holy, Holy, Holy" which is the first hymn) Then we're using the music daily to learn what written music looks like (she can't read yet).

I wish "America the Beautiful" had not been included. It doesn't belong and jars me every time I hear it.

 
At 9:38 AM, Blogger Ray Van Neste said...

Dawn,
I am glad. I know some have really appreciated it. I think this book would work better for very young children. My boys are older.

 

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