When God Made Light
By Matthew Paul Turner, illustrated by David Catrow (WaterBrook)
Best-selling author Matthew Paul Turner and award-winning illustrator David Catrow have fashioned a beautiful, bright retelling of the creation story in When God Made Light. Catrow’s whimsical images reflect light chasing away darkness, while Turner’s rhyming text affirms the importance of light in word pictures that children understand. Although the main character is a girl, the book also appeals to boys with activities loved by both.
The tale starts with a child cutting out a sun and stars surrounded by her cat, dog and baby sister or brother. Four words travel across three double-page spreads—“Let there be Light!” Ten colorful pages follow filled with poetry revealing how God created light. Next, Turner and Catrow cleverly take the girl through familiar daylight adventures like climbing trees, building sandcastles and picking strawberries as they encourage thanking God for the sun.
More exploits await under stars and the moon in a night sky sometimes illuminated by fireflies or lightning bolts. Children “Sing songs round campfires. Make marshmallow s’mores. Let Grandpa tell stories. Wage flashlight wars.” The book ends with a sleepy child peeking out of a tent with couplets encouraging the reader to reflect God’s light and “beam like the sun; glimmer like a star … Shimmer and shine, be a beacon so bright.”
Sawyer and Chandler Hillman, ages 10 and 5, with their grandmother
Kathy Robinson Hillman, former president
Baptist General Convention of Texas
Waco
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