One of my favorite Christian authors for children is Max Lucado. His books for children are so honest, heartwarming, and teach life lessons in a way that both children and adults alike kling to.

YOU ARE SPECIAL is one of my favorites. The story about the Wemmicks is fictional of course because it is about small wooden people created by a woodcarver named Eli.But oh what we can learn from the story.

The beauty in each of his stories about these characters is that the themes are so like our lives…. searching for meaning, searching for belonging, searching for unconditional love from parents, friends, and our creator.  Like Eli, our God loves us, welcomes us, and unconditionally cares for us no matter if we have flaws. Lucado demonstrates that with his wooden characters who have noses of all shapes and sizes, feelings that are not very becoming at times, and actions that are not always pure.

The warm illustrations and the tight writing engage children from the first page of each adventure. In YOU ARE SPECIAL children learn that it doesn’t matter what others think or how popular you are, God loves you for your heart and you can always come home to the one who created you. In the story it is Eli but the parallel in life is that we can always come home to the arms of our Creator no matter what we have done, what we have earned, or what others think of us.

Other books by Lucado that teach life lessons for children include YOU ARE MINE and BECAUSE I LOVE YOU.