Book Review: God Went to Beauty School
Rate This Article
What Parents Should Know
Whether you'll find this amusing and thought-provoking or
blasphemous and offensive depends entirely on you, your
beliefs, and your approach to religious material. Either way it
will prompt lots of religious discussion with your kid.
Common Sense Media Review
Recipient of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, this is a
good example of what's wrong with children's literature awards
in this country -- children are not considered. Certainly it's
well written, amusing, thought-provoking, and (depending on
your own beliefs) worth sharing, a poem at a time, with your
kids. It might even get them looking at the world through this
unusual lens, and wondering how God would experience other
aspects of their own lives.
But is this a book that kids will pick up, read, and enjoy? Oh, a few might, children with a real taste for religious speculation, or those looking for a really short, easy-to-read book to fulfill an assignment. But in general this is not a book written to appeal to kids, it's written to appeal to those who make the buying decisions --librarians, and the award committees that influence them. And because it won an award, it will sell, and more books like it will be written and fill up our libraries -- then we'll wonder why kids don't like to read.
From the Book:
God Went to the Doctor
And the doctor said,
"You don't need me,'
you're God."
And God said,
"Well, you're pretty good
at playing me,
I figured you'd
know what the
problem was."
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
