Review: Dinosaur Devotions by Michelle Medlock Adams, Illustrated by Denise Turu

DINOSAUR DEVOTIONS

by Michelle Medlock Adams

Illustrated by Denise Turu

Thomas Nelson

Middle Grade NonFiction/Religious

160 pages

Dinosaur Devotions will help your middle grade children dig deeper into the Word while uncovering fascinating facts about dinosaurs! These 75 devotions also include segments like Dino Stats, Bible Excavation, Digging Deeper, Did You Know?, and Jurassic Journaling. Dinosaur Devotions blends fun dinosaur facts with a deeper understanding of God’s Word, making your child's faith journey an extra fun adventure!

Award-winning author Michelle Medlock Adams offers Dinosaur Devotions—a fun way to help your dinosaur-loving kids connect with God. These 75 devotions include bright, colorful illustrations and uncover facts about specific dinosaur species while providing spiritual insight and easy-to-understand takeaways that will encourage your children to take their faith to the next level! Your kids will also love segments like Dino Stats (a dinosaur's measurements), Bible Excavation (a main Bible verse), Digging Deeper (self-reflection questions), Did You Know? (fun facts), and Jurassic Journaling (creative writing opportunities) that make this devotional interactive and even more memorable.

MY TIDBITS

Bible verses are explained while including dino-facts, a mix which is sure to hold young dinosaur fans' attentions and help some of the lessons stick in their minds.

This book takes 75 dinosaurs and presents each one while explaining the message behind a certain Bible verse. It's a combination I wasn't sure would work but was happily surprised. Each two-page spread starts out with the name of a dinosaur along with the pronunciation. Directly afterwards, the 'Bible Excavation' presents one Bible verse. From here, several areas are hit upon. Most importantly, a (about) one page devotion talks not only about a couple aspects of the dinosaur by relates it's habits, or other aspects to the Bible verse. For example, the verse John 10:27 mentions the sheep hearing God's voice and following Him. The dinosaur mentioned was known for its superb hearing, and this is then built into the devotion.

There are cute illustrations of the dinosaur along with a list of dinosaur facts( family, height, weight, etc). There's a 'colored bookmark' section which asks a question to help readers think deeper into the devotion and how it relates to their lives, and a question which prompts readers to keep a journal where they write thoughts on experiences relating to the message or how they can use it actively. Last but not least, there's an extra information tidbit about the dinosaur—a strange fact.

While the dinosaur facts will draw attention and encourage dinosaur lovers (ages 8 to 11) to gaze into the pages, the devotion does a nice job of staying on track and making sure the message from the Bible stays front and center. These messages aren't deep studies but hit upon the general impressions and how God works in our lives, what we as Christians should do, and other such thoughts. Whether or not kids will want to 'journal' these moments...well, that I'm pretty doubtful about. To round off the devotion, a prayer would have been more helpful in my opinion. Also, the Bible verses are taken randomly from nine different translations, which is something which left me wondering. At the very end of the book, there is a list of the various resources used to grab the dinosaur facts.

This is a cute and wonderful way to grab young dinosaur fans up into a daily/nightly devotion. They will look forward to see what comes next, which is often half the battle (unfortunately). The Bible messages are universal and clear, and don't let the dinosaurs overpower the statements. I give it a thumbs up.

I received a complimentary copy through Booklook Bloggers.