What Happens When I Talk to God: The Power of Prayer for Boys and Girls
Author: Stormi Omartian
Illustrator: Shari Warren
Published: 2007
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
ISBN: 978-0-7369-1676-9
Pages: 32
Illustrations: One fully illustrated page per page spread
Text density: 2 paragraphs per page spread
Age: 4 and older
Summary: What Happens When I Talk to God?
- What is prayer? (p.5)
- Praying helps us know God (p. 6).
- Thanking God for my family (p. 9)
- Thanking God for his good gifts to us (p. 10)
- Thanking God for his creation (p. 13)
- Talking to God as a friend in prayer (p. 14)
- God listens no matter what I pray about (p. 17).
- God listens no matter where I talk to him (p. 18).
- God listens no matter when I talk to him (p. 21).
- God listens no matter how loudly or quietly I talk to him (p. 22).
- God listens no matter how long or short my prayer is. I should pray with and for others (p. 25).
- When I do wrong, I can ask God to forgive me. He will always forgive (p. 26).
- When I pray, I pray in Jesus’ name (p. 29).
- When I pray, I have faith that God will answer, and I patiently wait for his answer (p. 30).
“I may be just a child, but my prayers have power because I am valuable to God. Even though children are small, their prayers are big in God’s eyes. . . . I say, ‘Thank You, God, that You are close to me right now, and You love to hear me pray.”
Illustrations: What Happens When I Talk to God?
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| WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I TALK TO GOD?: THE POWER OF PRAYER FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. Text copyright © 2012 by Stormie Omartian. Artwork copyright © 2012 by Shari Warren. Licensed by Bentley Licensing Group. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Harvest House Publishers. (Please do not pin, copy, or reproduce!) |
Shari Warren is a talented illustrator. I really enjoyed looking at her bright and joyful artwork on her website and would be interested in other books that she has illustrated. In my opinion though, some of the pages in What Happens When I Talk to God? were too kiddy-cute for a serious book on prayer, and the highlighted curly font distracted from the flow of the book.
Comments: What Happens When I Talk to God?
What I disliked:
- Omartian’s writing was too simplistic and sounded choppy.
- The length combined with the didactic nature of the book made the book difficult to read aloud. (Note: What Happens When I Talk to God? is a children’s version of Omartian’s books for adults on prayer which perhaps explains these two criticisms.)
- Too many hearts, curly things, and highlighted words for my taste
What I liked:
- The wonderful emphasis on children and prayer.
- The breadth of topics about prayer covered.
- Omartian’s passion for prayer flows out of her book.
Rather than reading the book as a whole, I would recommend reading a page at a time (perhaps at bedtime prayers) and discussing it. Splitting up the book into parts would help engage a child’s attention and keep the breadth of content from being overwhelming. If used in this way, I think that What Happens When I Talk to God? would make an excellent guide for parents wanting to teach their children to pray.
Related:
Armchair Book Reviews
Christian Children Book Reviews
Stormie Omartian has also written the following related books:
The Power of a Praying® Kid
Prayers and Promises for My Little Boy
Prayers and Promises for My Little Girl
I Talk to God About How I Feel: Learning to Pray, Knowing He Cares
The Prayer That Makes God Smile
I have not read any of these other books, but I am especially interested in the Prayers and Promises for My Little Boy and Girl series, since judging from the covers these two books look like they have beautiful classic style illustrations.
Does your family have a favorite children’s book on prayer?
“Too many hearts, curly things, and highlighted words for my taste”… Bethany, lol!! That is so hilarious to me. I just had to comment on it.
On another note, I wish I had a whole day to read all of your book reviews!!!
Thanks, Stacey! Maybe I can sneak this piece of snark into the comment section without offending anyone, but I felt like I was having flashbacks from middle school while looking at the text to this book. The highlighted curly words reminded me off the hours I spent trying to “change” my handwriting to make it more “cute”. This involved curly letters, hearts to dot the i’s, and the staple multicolored gel pens. Perhaps those who love this sort of thing didn’t have such a traumatic middle grade experience . . .