The Moon Is Always Round
The Moon Is Always Round
Even young children want answers to the hard questions about God and suffering. In The Moon Is Always Round, seminary professor and author Jonathan Gibson uses the vivid imagery of the moon to explain to children how God's goodness is always present, even when it might appear to be obscured by upsetting or difficult circumstances. In this beautiful, full-color illustrated book, he allows readers to eavesdrop on the conversations he had with his young son in response to his sister's death. Father and son share a simple liturgy together that reminds them that, just as the moon is always round despite its different phases, so also the goodness of God is always present throughout the different phases of life. A section in the back of the book offers further biblical help for parents and caregivers in explaining God's goodness to children. Jonathan Gibson reminds children of all ages that God's goodness is present in the most difficult of times, even if we can't always see it.
I was really drawn to the concept of this book and find the analogy of the moon very helpful. And to be fair, the book is excellent for what it actually is, 5 stars really. Great illustrations, sound theology, well written. But it’s not what I expected for a kids book.
More description needs to be provided for those buying this book online. I went and looked at google previews to check it and read what I could but was surprised to find upon receiving the book that about 50% of the book is specifically addressing a failed pregnancy and the death of an unborn sister. The previews and the descriptions made it seem like it’s about how God is always present and always good in lots of different seasons of life, and that the book will give varied examples of that to help prepare a child for bigger and harder things. But this book ends up being largely the retelling of what happened for the author’s family. There’s only two mixed situations given about the weather and then the rest of the book is about the specific situation of the death of the sister and the few different events that happened in the grieving process.
Sorry to write a strong review, it feels very harsh, but I think people should know the content of the book gets pretty strong before they purchase it online.
I’ll come back to the fact that I think there’s a lot of good content in this book that is helpful for parents but for me it seems like this is a book for families specifically dealing with the tragedy of losing a child during pregnancy and seeking some way to help explain it to their children.
