More than ten years ago, Janet Lloyd was at an event on campus and showed me  some books that she had written.  Joy and Wonder in all God’s Works, a three volume set linking a children’s book to all of the lectionary passages each year, was amazing to me.  As my own job in the library involved purchasing books for our small children’s collection, and I frequently used children’s books in teaching church school, I found Lloyd’s book intriguing.    I also felt the volumes could be useful to preachers as well as teachers.

Although I toyed with the idea of how to update this material, publishing an updated print version was never financially feasible.  When this blog began, it appeared that we might finally have a way to share these connecting points between children’s books and the Biblical story.

I am delighted to announce that beginning Monday, August 30, the post each Monday will be about books that might help illustrate themes in the lectionary passages for the upcoming Sunday.  So, for instance, on August 30, the books will relate to the lectionary passages that will be read on September 5.  The post will include a short summary of the book and a brief paragraph about some connections that can be made between that book and the lectionary passage.  We will not include a book for the Psalms, but we will be offering a bibliography of books related to the Psalms and prayer in a future post.

Most of these books are available at a public library, even if they aren’t in print.  Alibris and Abebooks are two good sources of out of print material if you want any of these books for your own collections.

The writer for the lectionary connections is  Union Presbyterian Seminary alumna Noell Rathbun.  Noell loves children, loves children’s books and was awarded the E. T. George Award for Excellence in Homiletics, Worship and Public Speaking at the 2010 graduation exercise.  We are so fortunate to have someone of Noell’s gifts and interests serve as the writer for this portion of the blog.  Students in classes at Union Presbyterian Seminary and other graduates  may also contribute here in the future.

We hope you’ll help make this a conversation.  We’d love to hear about children and youth books you’ve used in preaching and teaching and we’d also love to know if you use any of Noell’s connections.

Ann Knox, Director of the Instructional Resource Center, William Smith Morton Library, Richmond, VA

Photograph by Brant Copeland, First Presbyterian Church, Tallahassee, FL

Connecting Children’s Books and the Lectionary by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.