Bless Your Heart

Bless Your Heart

Ages 3-5. Set at the seaside, this contemporary prayer book features a mother who addresses her children with a series of blessings: "Bless the chores that you will do. / Bless you when you say 'Ahh-choo!' / Bless your fingers and your toes / bless your little button nose." The illustrations depict a day at the beach for a brother and sister, and as the blessings roll on through the text, there's plenty of activity and detail for listeners to observe, from the hermit crab pinching the boy's toe to the birds, sea stars, and sand dollars along the shore. Though sometimes a bit crowded, Howard's dynamic paintings create a series of colorful backgrounds; the overly sweet tone that too often suffuses children's books of blessings is happily missing here. 
Carolyn Phelan