"Our God: A Shapes Primer" (baby book review)

Book cover for "Our God: A Shapes Primer."

I got this book for my baby: "Our God: A Shapes Primer", by Danielle Hitchen. I got this because I'm interested in getting Christian books for my kids. Here's my review of it.

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Overview of the book's content

This is a board book, with durable pages for babies who try to tear or suck on everything (babies less than 18 months old, more or less).

Each 2-page spread shows a shape, an object that is that shape, and a bible verse about how God is metaphorically like that object. For example, the first page has the word "circle" inside a circle, and then has a circle-shaped rock and the bible verse "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26:4"

This book is part of a series of board books called "Baby Believer," a name which I side-eye because how can you expect your baby to be a Christian. They are just a baby. What on earth.

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I love this book

Okay, I love this book so much, because the concept is just extremely funny to me. I've got a small baby who drools constantly and just wants to put everything in her mouth, and this book's got me reading bible verses to her? It's a hilarious, surreal experience, my baby with her little grabby hands, pulling the book toward her slobbery mouth so she can bite the edge, and I'm sitting there like "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." This is so funny, I love it.

Also, many of the objects corresponding to the shapes are kind of a stretch? The triangle is a beam of light from a flashlight. The circle is a big rock- like, I guess a rock can be a circle, but... usually not really??? The semicircle is an ear. (Why are we teaching babies about semicircles? That doesn't feel like one of the standard shapes that babies learn.) I also find this extremely funny.

After I first read this book, for the next few days whenever I saw a semicircle, my brain was like, "God is like a semicircle" and I cracked myself up.

So, I don't know if my baby is learning anything at all from this, but I love the entire experience of reading it to her.

I guess when she's a little older, she'll be able to learn the shapes. As for the bible verses with metaphors about what God is like, I don't know if it makes sense to put those in a baby book. But like I said, I love this for how bizarre it is.

And I like the bible verses that have been chosen for this book, so that's cool.

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Conclusion

If you want to read a Christian book to a baby, this is a good one. But maybe you should also step back and ask yourself, "Why do I want to read a Christian book to a baby?" I mean, I'm enjoying this because I like the bible and also the hilarious juxtaposition of serious theological ideas and a baby whose main goal is to put every object into her mouth. So if you also love that, then I recommend this book.