Publishers Weekly
11/19/2018
A mother with wide, emerald eyes cradles her blanketed infant: “from the moment I saw you,/ I started to pray./ Big prayers and small ones/ I have sent God’s way.” As the child grows from a baby to a girl, the mother is encouraging yet watchful: “I pray you grow strong, have passion and fight./ And stand up for what’s good with all of your might.” Barnes’s ebullient artwork shows the child at a pool party, reading to her peers in a book nook, and playing in a band. A final spread shows that the child has not yet grown up; instead, the mother holds her baby on a hilltop under a gentle sky, projecting a life to come. New moms will welcome the wistful tone and scenes of a child’s joyful discoveries. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
ECPA bestseller
A mother with wide, emerald eyes cradles her blanketed infant: “from the moment I saw you,/ I started to pray./ Big prayers and small ones/ I have sent God’s way.” As the child grows from a baby to a girl, the mother is encouraging yet watchful: “I pray you grow strong, have passion and fight./ And stand up for what’s good with all of your might.” Barnes’s ebullient artwork shows the child at a pool party, reading to her peers in a book nook, and playing in a band. A final spread shows that the child has not yet grown up; instead, the mother holds her baby on a hilltop under a gentle sky, projecting a life to come. New moms will welcome the wistful tone and scenes of a child’s joyful discoveries. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)
-Publishers Weekly
In this cheerful, reflective rhyming children’s picture book, author Matthew Paul Turner shares a parent’s prayer for a child to grow up in the love and light of God: “I pray you love well.\ That the light in you swells.\ That the story God writes is the one that you tell.” The parent prays for the child’s joys, achievements, fears, and dreams, reminding the child, “When I pray for you, I imagine God’s view\ And pray all that God sees comes alive inside you.” Turner’s hopeful, encouraging poetry is complemented by illustrator Kimberley Barnes’s pictures of vivacious, ethnically diverse characters and bright, buoyant settings of home, playground, nature, and more. When I Pray for You would make an excellent gift to parents of newborns and to children at the time of their baptism. (WaterBrook, 2019)
-The Banner
Kirkus Reviews
2018-12-05
Turner adds another title to his picture-book series that highlights the miracles in the mundane (When God Made Light, 2018, etc.).
In the vein of children's-bookshelf stalwart Oh, the Places You'll Go, Turner's rhyming text includes both prayers and life advice for a growing child, beginning with infancy and moving on to adolescence. At times the rhyme and meter are strained, muddling meaning and making the tempo feel occasionally awkward when read aloud. Overall, though, the book executes its mission, presenting Christian theological truths within the rhythmic inspirational text. For this third series installment Turner's text is paired with a new illustrator, whose bright illustrations of wide-eyed children have great shelf appeal. While David Catrow's previous illustrations in the series featured effervescent black protagonists, the child in Barnes' illustrations appears white, though she occupies an otherwise diverse world. While illustrated as a prayer from a mother for her daughter, the text itself is gender neutral.
Though it will never usurp Dr. Seuss, it will still find a home where Christian families of faith seek inspirational picture books. (Picture book/religion. 3-6)
