Read, Wonder, Listen

GOLD MEDAL WINNER of the 2019 Illumination Awards for Children's Picture Book. “Every person who tells these stories does it in a slightly different way. And every person who reads these stories hears something a bit different. So even though these stories are very old, they are also always new.” Laura Alary combines her gift for telling the biblical stories with historical research, contemporary concerns about language, and a compassionate and inclusive theology making Read, Wonder, Listen, a perfect children’s Bible for progressive Christians. Read, Wonder, Listen will help children, and the adults who love them, ask the big questions of life – the same questions asked by the people in the Bible: Who are we? Where do we belong? What are we supposed to do and who are we supposed to be? Where is God? How does God want us to live? “The reason these stories have lasted so long,” writes Alary, “the reason they were collected and saved so carefully, is because people have always found in them something precious. Something that speaks to people of all times and places. All of these stories are about the great Mystery we call God. They tell of people who met God, wondered about God, waited for God, and were surprised by God.” That sense of wonder and surprise is strikingly and evocatively captured in the full-colour illustrations by Ann Sheng.