Lent and Easter Books (Part 3): The Miracles of Jesus by Tomie dePaola (and more)

The book I want to talk about in this post isn't exactly a Lent or Easter book, at least not properly speaking. The book is The Miracles of Jesus by Tomie dePaola (pronounced de-POW-la), and its contents are just as the title suggests: it contains adapted versions of Jesus's miracles, along with illustrations in dePaola's very distinctive style (which seems inspired by the tradition of Christian iconography).

The Wedding at Cana

So why am I highlighting this book during the season of Lent? In this part of the Christian year, we are between Christmas and Easter, between Jesus' birth and his crucifixion and resurrection. And so this is a natural time of the year to focus on the life and ministry of Jesus, particularly his teachings and miracles. To do this, you could pick up any old children's Bible (or regular Bible) and read these portions of the Gospel stories. And if you don't want to spend a dime, that's just what you can do! But I do really love dePaola's book of Jesus' miracles, especially since they are adapted for children but are nevertheless not extensively abbreviated the way that most stories in children's Bibles are. (The text for some of the miracles is a bit long for really little ones, but if I see my kids losing interest, I just stop along the way to ask questions about the illustrations, and then we go back to the story. And I read to my kids after meals, so at least little Solomon is strapped into his booster seat and can't run off until we're good and ready!)

I also recommend dePaola's The Good Samaritan and Other Parables. If used together with The Miracles of Jesus, you can cover those two key areas of Jesus's life and ministry: his teachings and his miracles. For that reason, I decided that these two books were ones worth adding to our home library!

The Catch of Fishes (illustration)

The Catch of Fishes (text)

The Daughter of Jairus