Little People Praise God, Too: Book Review

Little People Praise God, too
by Lynn Calvin
illustrated by Bea May Ybanez

Little People Praise God, Too illustrates Psalm 150:6 perfectly: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” Author, Lynn Calvin, integrates multicultural children and special needs children into her story beautifully, expressing God’s desire that all His children praise Him. She even includes an example of braille within the book.

Using humor and age-appropriate dialogue, Calvin covers the meaning of praise; where we praise God and how we can praise God.

At times the dialogue can be cumbersome with too many “he said” “she saids”, but if used as a reference text, this can be an effective teaching tool on praise and worship.

I do love how the author integrated the names of each child with a Hebrew praise word. For example: Karar = to dance, Todah = to lift up your hand, Tehillah = to sing. Calvin references the Hebrew praise definitions of each child’s name at the end of the book. While I’m happy she included this reference, it may have been more effective to write a dialogue about the meaning of their names into the story, rather than just reference it at the end of the book.

The writing style is designed for early readers and older elementary school children. However, it can be used as a biblical praise and worship reference text for teachers of younger children.