This is a collection of prayers from the Christian tradition, some well known, such as the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ and ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, others less familiar.

 Lois Rock’s choice is sensitive and comforting - nothing included feels out of place. It was pleasing to see the very spiritual Irish blessing ‘May the road rise to meet you’ and the Gaelic ‘Deep peace of the running waves to you’ as well as child friendly adaptations from the Psalms and other Judeo-Christian sources. John Milton’s ‘Let us with a gladsome mind/Praise the Lord for he is kind’,  took me back to my primary school days and morning hymns.

The prayers are split into double page themes, such as Blessings, Sadness, Love and Night Prayers, which shapes the collection well. They are accompanied by very idyllic pictures by Sophie Allsopp. We see children spottng a baby deer and its mother on a country walk, which links with the theme of Praise. Love depicts a family birthday picnic. For Thanks, a little girl pulls up carrots in a garden, watched by her father. Jesus is also depicted with the children shown in the book, reaching out to them cheerily.

The book, with its padded cover and attractive layout, will immediately appeal to children. It is a book that will be returned to, because of the spirituality and depth of the content. My only slight concern was that it was a shame that some pages did not include more urban scenes. The images show such beautiful countryside, with hills, dales, waterfalls and lakes. It is easy to reflect the theme of Praise by images of nature, but would have been more of a challenge to show it in an inner-city setting. If the book is aiming to help shape a Christian child’s prayers, then maybe it should have reflected how prayer can be for everyone, whatever your background. Perhaps that’s something to consider for another compilation.

2010-02-07