God's Very Good Idea (Timberdoodle Review)

Of all the review books Timberdoodle sent me in my last shipment, the one my 7-year old daughter has spent the most time pouring over is God’s Very Good Idea by Trillia Newbell.

She loves all the cartoonish illustrations.

She also loves the bright, bold, beautiful colors artist Catelina Echeverri used in making the charming pictures for this book.

The fun art complements the fact-based text

I agree that the illustrations are lots of fun to look at. But I have an even greater appreciation for the concepts taught in God’s Very Good Idea.

Not only does the author give a Biblically accurate account of the creation of man. She also includes other historical information, such as a dated list of some of man’s great ideas of the past. The list includes inventions on the order of roller skates, soaker guns, and chocolate chip cookies.

It’s a fun book. Yet it doesn’t shy away from the devastating effects of the Fall. Nor from what it meant for God to rescue us out of our bondage to sin.

The book is full of life and light and hope. That’s primarily because God’s Very Good Idea includes His very good plan for reconciling sinners to Himself.

Honestly, the only thing I didn’t like about this book is the fact that the author was not as careful about grammar usage as I would have liked. For instance, she often uses plural pronouns for singular antecedents.

(Sadly, the same thing can be said of many newspaper and magazine articles I’ve read, as well. I write a weekly column for a local newspaper myself. And even my own editor sometimes swaps out my proper grammar in favor of this contemporary but unfortunate trend. I can’t tell you how utterly exasperation such edits are to me!)

But, as Newbell rightly notes, God made us all different. And what drives one person crazy may not even register with somebody else. So if you don’t see anything wrong with the above passage or the following excerpts, you’ll likely not be bothered by the handful of grammar mistakes that jumped out at me.

If, on the other hand, sentences like these sound like fingernails on blackboards, then you should skip this book. Or just do as I do, and edit as you go. 🙂