Member Reviews
Thank you to NetGalley and Lion Hudson LTD children's books for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was such an interesting yet educational read about children's growth, I think it's really important for this book to be available for all children at schools. I enjoyed reading this with my young nephews.
Amazingly written book, great illustrations. It would make a great gift for any child. I highly recommend it to everyone.
Originally went for this book as I thought it would be a good way for the kids to know how they got here, a good sort of way to instigate talking about this topic and I thought it looked scientific as well.
The book is scientific yet explained in a Christian way which I liked, however, it then went onto say that God made DNA and that God made dinosaurs, evolution (though he never actually uses this word just saying that each generation changes as they develop over time) and the big bang etc etc.
God did not make DNA. Though we learn he created humans which not eveyrone agrees with for starters (and I'm willing to overlook that for the purpose of the book as it's of a Christian nature) however I understand that the author may believe this but this is an opinion and not an actual fact and it gets a bit confusing for children as "God made it like that" is not the answer for little minds that want answers about the world, families and more, so I found that was a little disappointing and inaccurate. The book seems to basically be designed to basically talk about science and encorporate it with the bible.
I would have loved a lot more in depth exploration of the things the author brings to the book scientifically but they're sort of sketched over but the message for God's love will be a hit with the audience it is tailored for and any Christian readers, for me it needed to be either one or the other. I was hoping for it to be more for the science side with explanation for the questions that I get from the kids.
The other issue I had with this in the repetitive language, such as AMAZING, and MAGNIFICENT which is fine, but after a while, I found myself losing enthusiasm and the kids got a bit bored, though the pictures were very colourful which was a bonus and there was some labels in the book for the dinosaurs, which the kids loved too!
I received this ARC from Netgalley and Publishers in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Lion Hudson LTD children's books for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was such an interesting and educational read about children's growth, I think it's really important for this book to be available for all children.
There were many things I liked about this book, including the diversity of the family tree. There aren't too many children's books available that merge the idea of God as creator and the Big Bang Theory, so I'm sure there is an audience for Where Do I Come From? Ultimately, I would have loved more information included in the back of the book, as I know it would bring up more questions than answers with my kids.
I got this on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
Overall I liked this book. I liked that it is scientific as well as Christian, since I feel like often it gets very either or with certain scientific fields. Especially so when dealing with the universe, DNA, evolution etc. The pictures were also pretty nice!
What I did not like about this was the VERY hyperbolic language. Words like magnificent, incredible and amazing are repeated so often that it's just annoying and feels redundant, and sadly this pulls the overall rating of the book down for me.
This was a surprise. I thought this book would be about sex education, explaining to kids how babies are made. Instead, it's a Christian picture book that basically says that God made DNA, evolution, dinosaurs, galaxies and even the big bang. It seems to be designed to merge these topics with the bible, and end notes say that even though the bible doesn't mention these things, that's only because God called on the authors to instead write about his "power, love, and authority."
I appreciate that the author tells kids a little bit about DNA, how organisms change over time, and scientific topics like this, but he doesn't really give enough information to explain any of it. He never uses the word evolution at all, even though he mentions again and again that each person/creature changes a little bit with every generation (he does not go into natural selection or that evolution ends up selecting for survival of the fittest, just sort of leaves it that every creature just changes a bit with each generation). Instead the focus of every page is how God planned it all and how much God loves us -- a fine message, but a little incomplete in terms of answering the "how" questions that kids might have on this subject. Also, there's lots of text in all caps and it's sometimes jarringly enthusiastic. AMAZING! MAGNIFICENT! is said again and again, on just about every page.
That said, I do appreciate several things about this book. The child in the book comes from a mixed race family and the illustrations of some of the past life forms are well done. I wish that all of them had been labeled, as some of the dinosaurs are labeled on their page but on other pages like the underwater one, none of the creatures are. That would have certainly added to the educational factor. There's certainly a message of God's love for everyone, which Christian families will appreciate. It seems designed to answer scientific questions with basically "because God made it that way" and to merge scientific knowledge of things like dinosaurs and the Big Bang with Christianity. Some Christian parents may not agree with this view (especially those who ascribe to the New Earth belief), but others may appreciate having something to attempts to show kids that both the bible and their science books can be true.
Goodreads says two stars stands for "it was okay" and that's pretty squarely where I felt with this book. I really wish the science was explained a little bit more, instead of just the basic message of "because God made it that way" and "because God made that too." It will be a good resource for its particular audience, though it wasn't a resource that worked well for me.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
I liked how this was creation based with science mixed in but there were a few things within this book that Im not would recommend taking caution with when reading to your littles as they do mention The Big Bang Theory & there was one statement that just stood out to be that made me come to that conclusion and that was that "The bible wasn't written to answer all of our questions & doesn't discuss every part of creation" and I just can't agree with that since The bible is the Word of God & filled with every truth we need & answers we need. So again with that said I would possibly take caution and be prepared to answer questions from littles. On a lighter note the illustrations are beautiful & the books reads very easily.
I liked this book in that it looked at scientific as well as biblical references but I found it a little confusing.
I liked the illustrations and they helped bring the book to life but the theories needed to be one, or the other for me. It is 3 stars from me for this one.
I didn't love the illustration style, but I did love the content of this book's message. God made each of us through the tools of science (specifically DNA) to be the unique and special people we are. Everyone might not like the theology of creation in this book, but I appreciate how it teaches children that science doesn't disprove God, it was part of his plan all along.