God Gave Us the World

God Gave Us the World is a new children's book by Lisa Tawn Bergen and illustrated by Laura J. Bryant. It shares the story from the point of view of an innocent, little polar bear cub. As the story opens, Little Cub and her family are heading to the Bears Around the World Museum. Over the course of the story, Little Cub comes to learn that there are all different types of bears that look different, eat different foods and live in a number of different environments. Seeing the world through Little Cub's eyes, we share in her astonishment that "There are other kinds of places to live?" and that the other bears don't miss the snow, because they are not familiar with the snow. We follow along as she learns that "God is creative" and that He "gave us a great big, wide world" with different bears and different places to live. She wonders aloud why if God was so great, He didn't make all bears Polar Bears. Her mother guides her and she comes to realize that "Every bear has a special place in God's great big world" and that it is important to take care of the wonderful world that God gave us.

The story was very enjoyable and both of my kids liked it. There even have been a few debates on who gets to keep the book in their room. The illustrations in the book are also very well done.

I like that the story helps to explain that God created the diverse world with different varieties of bears. I also thought that the story did a nice job of stating and restating, like when Little Cub followed up her mother's comment about caring for the world with an explanation that she could relate to - that we should take care of the world, so as not to upset God - much like Little Cub gets upset when the twins mess up her stuff. The book provides a great way to share the message of diversity and responsibility of caring for the world with younger children in a format that makes sense to them.

This book is part of a series of books, such as God Gave Us You and God Gave Us Love. I think that we will try to pick some of them up at the library, as I expect that the kids would enjoy them as much as they did this book.

Some details:
Published by: Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group
Price: $10.99
You can purchase a copy of the God Gave Us the World at RandomHouse.com
You can find Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group on Facebook. The author has her own webpage here.
This book is part of series that includes:
God Gave Us You
God Gave Us Two
God Gave Us Christmas
God Gave Us Heaven
God Gave Us Love
God Gave Us So Much – a limited three book treasury

No compensation was received for this post. I was provided with a copy of the book courtesy of RandomHouse, through MamaBzz, to share with my children and to share a review on my blog. All opinions expressed are my own.