When this book first arrived I found a quiet spot in a café in Katoomba and read it cover to cover. I like everything about this book! Clare Heath-Whyte introduces younger readers to over 50 Christians from church history. In just a short page for each person, Clare paints delightful snapshots of their lives. Jenny Brake’s illustrations are perfect; from Corrie ten Boom hiding in a cupboard to Brother Andrew driving his little Volkswagon full of bibles – though one young reader in our house thought he might be delivering pizzas!
Each biography begins with short ice-breaker questions to help kids relate to the story and inspire some dinner-table discussion. Children learn that being a friend of Jesus can be both ordinary and extraordinary. You might be a musician, a painter, a writer, a poet, a preacher, a missionary, an evangelist or even a Bible smuggler. You may travel across the world like Amy Carmichael and Gladys Aylward, or you might serve God in your home-town like William and Catherine Booth. As Marty Machowski writes: “Everyone a Child Should Know introduces our youngest children to the men and women of history whose lives exemplified 1 Corinthians 10:31, “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
