Bedtime Blessings by Bonnie Rickner Jensen, Illustrated by Julie Sawyer Phillips

Bedtime Blessings is a familiar board book for children with bible verses, rhyming couplets laid out in quatrains, and Really Woolly animals. Each spread has a title, followed by a verse (not clearly connected to the rhyming stanzas), two quatrains and a small image on the left-hand side, with a rhyming couplet and nearly full-sized illustration on the right. Certain keywords are bold-faced and colored, such as in "Heavenly Blessings," where attention is drawn to smiling, brave, love, dreams, and happy.

Julie Sawyer Phillips uses the classic Really Woolly animals, with each spread featuring the sheep, bunny, and duck. The colors are muted, pastel, almost watercolor-looking. They contain a lot of great details that will hold up to many re-viewings. For example, in "Sunny Blessings," the animals ride bikes through a park where a play set in the background has a miniature rock wall, cyclone climbing pole, and tire swings, while off to the side two squirrels climb a tree.

The illustrations are the highlight of this bedtime book because of the attention to each detail that gives the eyes many places to look while the story is being read. I found the text just okay. The sentiments were nice ("Your Shepherd loves to watch you play / and bless your sleep at the end of your day"), butt the rhymes and rhythms didn't stand out. The Bible verses were mostly generically about sleeping, with some other comforting protection, love, etc. verses as well, but it was disappointing that they didn't have a more direct relationship to the rest of the text or illustrations.

This is the second Really Woolly book I've read, and it seems that the great illustrations are a feature of this series, which also seems to put less emphasis on the text. Though I wasn't a fan of the poems in the Really Woolly books, I did really enjoy Bonnie Rickner Jensen's writing in God, I Know You're There.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, but was not required to post a positive review.

I Love You, Little One by Bonnie Rickner Jensen, illustrated by Donna Chapman

I Love You, Little One by Bonnie Rickner Jensen, illustrated by Donna Chapman is a padded board book in the Really Woolly brand.

It features 19 spreads each with a title that begins with “I Love You” and then roughly describes a theme, such as “I Love You to Love Others” and “I Love You When You’re Playing.”  A short Bible verse is followed by a two-stanza (four lines each) poem and a small illustration. The facing page has a short two-line prayer and a large illustration.

I found the themes to not be very distinct—you couldn’t really match them to specific situations. Instead, you’d probably pick one at random to read to a child. The poems are just okay.

The illustrations are the highlight of this book. They are colorful pastels featuring the Really Woolly animals. My favorites show a little duck with a newspaper folded into a sailor hat and two mice wheeling a wagon of marshmellows to toast over a fire.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher but was not required to post a positive review.