by Lee An Mancini
Illustrated by Dan Sharp
In Forever With Jesus, a group of fish children learn through spending time with their grandparents that Jesus loves them so much He died for their sins and has prepared a place for them in Heaven some day. While visiting, they celebrate Grandma's birthday and have a family sleep over with cousins. They learn during the visit that an older neighbor has passed away during the night, so they gather flowers and bring comfort to the family. They talk about how there are no enemies or sadness in heaven, that it will be a happy place where they will forever be together with Jesus.
Illustrations are bright and cheery, the characters are inviting and friendly. Through the use of familiar house items, the reader finds themselves in a fish house, doing regular things a family of people might do. Hidden in the pictures are crosses that offer readers an opportunity to not only read the book but also search pages for hidden items.
I began reading this book not realizing that it introduced the death of a neighbor into the discussion about heaven and living with Jesus forever. I should have screened the book before reading it to my children to be aware of that topic coming out. We have discussed heaven and living forever with Jesus in our home with our children but having recently experienced the death of a friend who left children behind, our kids werent quite ready for that part of the book. While it is important and part of life, I just wish I had been prepared for it, but that was on me, not the book. Beyond that, it is a nice book to talk about heaven and living forever with Jesus, but I felt distracted by all of the other stuff going on in the book. It was like there were a couple of different stories happening within the same story. Probably not a book I will add to my shelves, it wasn't a hit with my crowd.
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* I received this book for free in exchange for my honest and un-biased review as part of the Book Crash program.
