Three Adorable Tales for Children of All Ages!
Through the eyes of a curious little polar bear, young readers are invited into engaging journeys through the Arctic North Pole to explore some of their most tender-hearted and important questions.
Mama, Papa, and Grampa Bear, the ever-loving and wise guides for Little Cub’s adventures, share with her the incredible miracles of God’s creation and the depths of His love for her.
This limited edition treasury of the best-selling God Gave Us series includes three complete charming tales. With heart and humor, the stories reveal the beauty of diversity throughout the world, the incredible gift of love, and the wonderment of our Heavenly home to come.
All three books are available in this exclusive treasury for the price of two!
God Gave Us the World
God Gave Us Love
God Gave Us Heaven
God Gave Us So Much is a three book treasury by Lisa Tawn Bergren that includes God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love and God Gave Us Heaven. God Gave us the World is a new addition to this series. In this new book, Mama Bear takes Little Cub to the museum to learn about the different bears around the world. Little Cub learns that all bears are not alike, but that all bears are created by God. This story focuses on God as the creator of the world and everything in it. The second story in this treasury is God Gave Us Love. It is a wonderful story about love for each other. Throughout the story Grampa Bear teaches Little Cub about love. It highlights the many ways God shows His love for each of us including the most important way, "he sent his Son to save us, to show us the way." The third story is a dialogue between Papa and Little Cub about heaven. Little Cub has many questions and Papa answers them all. Here is a sampling of some of the questions Little Cub asks Papa: "What's heavn'n? Can we take our stuff to heaven? What will God look like? How do we get there?" This book provides thoughtful answers to many questions that children often ask about heaven. I requested this book to share with my three little girls. I am so glad I did. My girls enjoy many types of books and this one did not disappoint. I enjoyed the dialogue that Little Cub has with special people in her life. The illustrations are well done and add untold elements to the story. I would definitely recommend this book to friends and family. I also think it would make a great birthday gift or baby shower gift and a great addition to a church library or nursery. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.SomedayIllLearn
Posted March 23, 2011
God Gave Us So Much is three books in one: God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love and God Gave Us Heaven.
God Gave Us the World helps explain why every creature is different and explores the vast, varying world that God created. These concepts are explained through a mama bear telling her cubs why there are so many types of bears and how they all live. This story is a great way to help children develop a concept of a world larger than their immediate surroundings, and will help children appreciate the diversity of the universe and the vast capabilities of God.
God Gave Us Love focuses on a grandpa bear explaining to a cub that while God meant for us to love all creatures, there are different types of love: the love between parents, the love between friends and family, and the love of God. This story helps children understand the concept of God's love by bringing it down to a level they can easily relate to.
God Gave Us Heaven explains what seems to me to be the most difficult concept of the series: the idea of a place better than anything we can ever experience on earth. Papa bear explains the idea of death in a gentle manner, reassuring the cubs that while sometimes bad things do happen on earth, they shouldn't worry because nothing bad ever happens in heaven. He briefly attempts to explain that we don't get to be angels in heaven and that Jesus is a "bridge" to heaven. To me, this seems a bit obscure and I would anticipate that curious children will need further explanation of these concepts. However, this section is a good conversation starter for parents who are prepared to explore the idea of heaven with their children.
I really enjoyed the dialogue throughout this beautiful book, and the illustrations are adorable! I would highly recommend the treasury to anyone looking to explore faith and God with their children. I think it would be most appropriate for children ages 4-8.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. All opinions are my own.
cheekymonkey
Posted March 22, 2011
I absolutely adore the little characters of this book and overall would buy this book again. I think it is a great collection of stories that will get a child asking questions.
The only problem is getting a child to sit through the entire book. The main young bear character asks question after question and there is a some jumping around in subject matter. It would be great if these stories would have been kept broader and not so wordy. The ideal age would be 4 and up. An age where a child can begin to grasp heaven, love, even death in simple terms.
the last section of this book, "God gave us Heaven" talks about heaven and death so I'm not sure that is something you want to read to your child on a regular basis. Would be great to use as a tool to discuss the passing of a loved one.
in the first section, "God Gave Us the World" was great in showing how we are all uniquely created by talking about the different types of bears and their habitats.
Again, overall cute stories and illustrations. it's nice to find beautifully created books that are christian based.
TisSewSweet
Posted March 5, 2011
This book was more than I expected from a children's book. It is a book that not only captivates young children but touches the heart of adults as well.
This book truthfully, and beautifully explains Creation, Unconditional love, and Heaven. The explanations are told in a sweet story form. The Grandpa bear spends the day enjoying and answering life's questions from his grandson cub. The illustrations draw the children into the story and the allow them to think about deeper issues in a light hearted but truthful way. This book is a great book for parents who do not know how to, or do not feel confident answering the questions of race,life, death,and heaven with young children. This book was very well written and is the perfect addition to any child's library.
nickelb
Posted March 3, 2011
I have been given the chance to review the book God Gave Us So Much. I have reviewed a variety of the books in the "God Gave Us" Series and must say that I love them each. They are a great reminder of what God has done and broken down into a simple version that even a 2 year old can understand.
God Gave Us So Much is a Limited Edition Treasurery that consists of three of the books from the series: God Gave us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven. It also includes an attached ribbon to mark your place if reading to little ones.
The stories are all wrote from the perspective of little cub. She mainly asks a variety of questions in which the adult in the story always answers and explains how God has given us the things.
The illustrations are bright and cheery and the children enjoy looking at them. The 4 year old I read the story to took the book immediately after and re-told each story.
I really enjoyed the story God Gave Us Heaven. I feel that children do not always grasp the idea of heaven and what happens when a person dies. This story however explains it in a very simple manner that still keeps the gloriousness of Heaven alive. This book would be a great story to have around when having to help a child greive a loss or preparing them for a major loss in their lives.
Overall this book is a great asset to our collection.
"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this Review"
Anonymous
Posted February 28, 2011
God Gave Us So Much by Lisa Tawn Bergren is a wonderful compilation of three stories by Bergren. Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven are all written from the perspective of a polar bear cub, as she questions her Mama, Papa and Grampa Bear. The little polar bear asks questions much like my children do, questions that are hard to answer in a way that kids can understand. The pictures are illustrated by Laura Bryant, who does a fantastic job capturing the love between this polar bear family. This book was a little long to read all at bedtime, so we broke it up and read each story separately. The boys always love our story time together, but they seemed to especially enjoy this book. It seemed to really answer some tough questions that they had pondered before. If you have little ones, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It's definitely one that we will treasure for a long time.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review
lilmsp
Posted February 26, 2011
God Gave Us So Much is a collection of three books from author Lisa Tawn Bergren and illustrator Laura J. Bryant.The book includes God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love and God Gave Us Heaven. The stories follow a family of polar bears with one inquisitive little girl polar bear whose curiosity is endless.
Storyline
Each story finds the family in a different context. In God Gave Us the World the polar bear family is visiting a museum where they learn about how other bears live around the world. This provides the opportunity for the parents to tell the children about all that God has provided for us--bamboo for the pandas and termites for the sloth bears. It also illustrates that not all bears are the same. In every story the answer to each question points back God.
Illustrations
Illustrations in this book vary from full-page to inset. It almost has the feeling of a scrapbook; each page is different from the next. The watercolor is colorful and soft in tone. The illustrations certainly add to the storyline in some areas, providing extra context and action.
Engaging, Interactive, Inspiring?
While the content of this book is good and it introduces big ideas about God in a tangible way for little ones it's a bit long. Obviously three books together is a lot to handle and it's not intended to be read cover-to-cover. But each individual story is rather lengthy in my opinion. The author may have over reached in trying to cover every aspect of the topic at hand. It is engaging to a degree. Once you understand the device of the polar bears answering questions to their child the reader can get into the story, but the questions seemed to never stop. This book didn't offer much in the area of interactivity, but the topics explored do cause the reader to consider some big ideas about God, so in that regard this book does have a measure of inspiration.
Final Thoughts
With this book being a collection of stories and the list price at $19.99 God Gave Us So Much would be ideal as a gift for the child of a friend or relative. For our three-year-old it was a lot to take in, but in time some of the questions posed by the child in this book will be questions that he is exploring, so we'll keep it close at hand for when that day comes.
This book for this review was provided to me, at no cost, by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. for the sole purpose of reviewing.
AbsolutelyKathy
Posted February 21, 2011
God Gave Us So Much by Lisa Tawn Bergren is a delightful collection of three of her stories, God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven. As you read this book you are following along with an adorable polar bear family. The stories are told though the inquisitive eye of a child polar bear and his parents.
The first story God Gave Us the World, goes into the story of how God created the world and created everyone different. This is a great way to teach your children about different cultures and races in the world. Also to embrace the differences in the world and to be loving towards everyone. This story also introduces the idea that God created each one of us and made us all special in his vision. It is a loving story and answers many questions that young children will have about people being different or looking different then themselves.
The second story is God Gave Us Love. This section goes into how God made us with love and wants us to spread that love to everyone. I believe this section is very important to kids today. Since there is so much tension and hate in this world today with the war going on over seas. I believe it is important to remind kids to shower people with love even when they may not be very happy with that person. The story also shares the different forms of love as example of the love a Mom and Dad has for each other or the love we have for our friends. The whole story teaches children the important lesson that we want to love others as God loves us.
The third story God Gave Us Heaven introduces Heaven and death to young kids. Now I am hesitate on the idea of introducing this topic to very young kids. Just because of the can of worms or questions that this will open up. Also I don't believe at least for my 2 year old daughter that young kids can fully understand or need to learn the lesson of death. But I do believe if your child is faced with the lose of a family member or a loved one. That this story does a wonderful job of teaching them about heaven and how there is no more pain in Heaven. It goes further to teach how beautiful heaven is and how God created Heaven so we could live forever by his side.
Other then how I love the level that the stories are written so that young kids can understand complex morals and beliefs. I believe that all three stories could be used as tools to start God conversations with your kids. The best part for kids and adults are the beautiful illustrations down by Laura J. Bryant. I was afraid the three stories all together would be to long for my 2 year old daughter's attention span. But the pictures kept her snug as a bug right beside me the whole time. She still enjoys grabbing the book and just sitting down by herself to thumb though the pages to view the pictures.
I would highly recommend this book to any person that wants to share God's love and stories with a child. I am so blessed to have received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. I know that my child and myself will will cherish this book for many years to come.
S_Mama
Posted February 11, 2011
"God Gave Us So Much" by Lisa Tawn Bergren (illustrated by Laura J. Bryant) is a treasury of three stories from the God Gave Us series. It includes the stories God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven.
How adorable are these books?! I love books that bring the heavenly realm to my children. Heaven and God are complicated things to explain to children. Moose knows that Jesus loves him and we love God, but I don't know how much he truly knows. Books like these God Gave Us stories help parents tell their children (help me tell my children) how much God loves them.
God really did give us the world, love, and heaven. And these stories use a very cute family of polar bears to help explain that love! Mama, Papa, and Grampa Bear help explain God's gifts to Little Cub. My boys really liked sitting down to this book, although we take it one story at a time. My boys are creatures of habit so this isn't one of their favorite books...yet! But I know that it's a book we will continue to read for a very long time.
There are other stories in the God Gave Us series: God Gave Us You, God Gave Us Two, God Gave Us Christmas. I hope to add to our collection - and hope you decided to add this to your collection.
God Gave Us So Much by Lisa Tawn Bergren is book made up of three of stories in the God Gave Us" series. The stories included in this treasury are God Gave Us The World, God Gave Us Love, & God Gave Us Heaven. Each of the stories are illustrated beautifully with full large page spreads by illustrator Laura J. Bryant.
In this book, we are taken on a journey of learning about God's love and care by a little Polar Bear cub. In each of the stories you'll find that different family members of polar bear answer the questions that are pondered by the cub. The sort of questions that are asked and answered are those that children of a young age most certainly have or will eventually have. The explanations are done extremely well so as not to confuse in any way.
God Gave Us The World talks about learned the importance truths about God and his creation in making us all different and not the same and how to celebrate those differences and care for the earth around us.
God Gave Us Love teaches us about loving each other and that the gift of love itself comes from God. Three different types of love are explained in an easy way that all children can understand.
God Gave Us Heaven has Little Cub asking what's heaven? This book does an exceptional job in explaining a question that may sometimes be hard to explain to a child.
We are fans of Lisa Tawn Bergen over here and what a blessing this book has been to our family. I would highly recommend it! I really enjoy reading this book to my children. My daughter loves having her bedtime stories so I welcome that this book even includes a ribbon place marke so as the next time we read we can continue to the next story without losing our place!
Lisa has also written God Gave Us You, God Gave Us Two, and God Gave Us Christmas. We can't wait to add the rest of these exceptionally well written stories to our home library.
MsAmberRocks
Posted February 2, 2011
The childrens book, "God Gave Us So Much" by Lisa Bergren is a real treat for children who have many questions on why God is so giving. The book is made up of three individual stories: God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven. Each story has a young polar bear cub asking questions pertaining to the topic at hand. The answers are always biblical in explaining how much God loved us and gave us such wonderful things. It gives the most simple answers for a child who has the most curious mind. The illustrations are breath taking and I found that while reading the story my children also enjoyed pointing out the pictures. This opportunity allowed me to help interpret the book for my children and expand on key points. The book is an excellent one for reading before bed, or as a gift for a child aged zero to eight.
Thank you to WaterBrook Multnomah for providing me with a review copy of "God Gave Us So Much".
MorePreciousThanGold
Posted January 24, 2011
God Gave Us So Much is a beautiful special edition children's book with three stories - God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven. The art is well done and appealing to little ones with plenty of color and cute characters. It also includes a satin ribbon to keep your place.
This book is about a polar bear family that lives in the North Pole. In "God Gave Us the World" Mama bear teaches Little Cub that God made the world and everyone and everything in it. In "God Gave Us Love" Grampa Bear teaches Little Cub about God's love and how we should love others. Lastly, in "God Gave Us Heaven" Papa Bear teaches Little Cub about Heaven and how wonderful it will be to live there.
I like how the author uses dialogue between the curious Little Cub and his parents and grandpa to teach him about God. I also appreciated that it is written in a very understandable way for young children. While I certainly won't be using this book to teach my children Theology, it is a fun and cute book of stories that they can enjoy.
Disclosure: I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group . I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.
mommydearestGF
Posted January 12, 2011
God Gave Us So Much is a limited time three book edition by Lisa Bergen. The pictures are illustrated by Laura Bryant. In the nice hardcover book are three short stories, God Gave Us the World, God Gave us Heaven, and God Gave us Love. The three stories are written from the perspective of a baby cub that is very curious. The first story is God Gave Us the world explains why God has us where he does. The little cub and his family visit the museum and discuss how wonderful a creator the Lord is. The second story is God Gave Us Heaven talks about what heaven is like and answers many questions that would be typical of a child. For example is there food in heaven? This was my favorite story of them all because Bergen answers the questions wonderfully. The last story in the trilogy is God Gave Us Love. In this story little cub explores the different types of love such as mushy love like what mama and daddy have. The book is very well written and age appropriate.
I loved this book and thought it addressed many good concepts. Although the book was a little too long for my 2 and 3 year old they did enjoy listening to a couple pages of the book. This is a book that I will save until next year when they can appreciate it more. The illustrations were very well done. I loved the book and would recommend it to children ages 4-8, but all ages would get something out of this well written book.
I was given this book by Blogging for Books to give an honest review.
country_mama
Posted January 10, 2011
Continuing in the "God Gave Us" Series by Lisa T. Bergren and Laura J. Bryant is a stunning triology called "God Gave Us So Much". There are enough words to the story to keep my 5 year olds attention (I frequently will read chapter books to her, so alot of picture books are too short for her) yet the words are simple enough that a younger 2 or 3 year old would also be able to keep up with the plot.
I'm always watching for clearance sales, and normally that is how I purchase books for my kids as well. Forget that with this book, it is a full price keeper! And there are actually 3 stories in book - "God Gave Us The World", "God Gave Us Love", & "God Gave Us Heaven". This is one of those books that is so special to my family I can see keeping it to pass down to my grandkids.
The illustrations & paper quality are the best. I actually find myself wanting to open up this book and touch the pages and look at the beautiful watercolor paintings without even reading the book! There is just the right amount of God in this book that I think it would still be a wonderful book for a family that doesn't typically buy children's books with a religious theme.
waterthatplant
Posted December 21, 2010
God Gave Us So Much by Lisa Tawn Bergren, art by Laura J. Bryant
This is a limited three-book edition that includes Lisa Tawn Bergren's God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven. The hard back book includes a ribbon book mark.
The stories follow Little Cub and her polar bear family. Little Cub is a curious little bear, constantly asking questions. In God Gave Us the World, Little Cub engages in a discussion with her Mama whilst they visit the "Bears Around The World" museum. Little Cub is curious about all of the different bears - where they come from, what they eat, what they look like - and learns that God makes each bear different. The focus is on God the Creator and the world that He creatively made.
In God Gave Us Love, Little Cub learns from Grampa about love. The story starts with Little Cub being annoyed with some playful otters and Grampa teaches her through discussion that love is not always easy but it is always right. He tells her about God loving us most of all by sending His own Son so that we can choose to never be separated from Him.
Lastly, God Gave Us Heaven has Little Cub talking with her Papa about what happens when this life is over - when we die. Papa answers all of Little Cub's questions in a patient, informative way, teaching her not only what heaven will be like, but that they only way to heaven is by choosing Jesus.
I really enjoyed reading these books to my children. Little Cub's constant questions remind of my own 3 year old son. The curiosity of the little bear is not squashed by impatient adults, but answered honestly and in an educational way.
FrogsandKisses
Posted December 3, 2010
My children love reading time and the book God Gave Us So Much did not disappoint any of us. This book is a compilation of three titles by Bergren, God Gave Us the World (the newest addition to the God Gave Us series), God Gave Us Love, and God Gave Us Heaven.
Each book in the series is written from the viewpoint of a polar bear cub and her conversations with her Mom, Grandpa, and Dad. Little Cub asks the grown-ups in her life many of the questions that my children ask me, "Why did God make so many different types of animals and people?", "How come sometimes I don't feel like loving others?", "Could we ever do something to make God not like us?", "What is heaven?", and "When do we go to heaven?" plus it answers many more. Many of the questions are hard to answer, even for adults, but are especially difficult to explain in kid terms. Bergren not only addresses the topics without avoiding the hard questions, she answers the questions in ways that kids can understand! Oh, and she does it with adorable, fun-loving polar bears with beautiful artwork by Laura Bryant.
On a personal note, we bought God Gave Us Heaven after my grandmother passed away since my oldest daughter was very close to her GG. The book really helped us explain things at just the right level for our then 3 year old. I recommend these books and can't wait to read more in the series: also available is God Gave Us You, God Gave us Two, and God Gave Us Christmas.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
Lori802
Posted December 2, 2010
This is a three book treasury, including God Gave Us the World, God Gave Us Love and God Gave Us Heaven. This book has delightful illustrations that fill the pages and compliment the story. Little Cub is told about God and the world He created, His love for us and heaven in a way that is easy for a child to understand. I read this to my 4 1/2 year old son and he enjoyed it and seemed to understand the concepts that are being portrayed. It was a great way to introduce these ideas and open up further discussions about them. Little Cub asks many of the questions I've already heard from my son and the story explains and answers them very well. I think this would be a great fit for a child around the age of four on up. It would even work well for an older child who may not have been told about God and His love for us. The writing, while understandable for a young child, is not childlike that an older child might object too. A great book to read and discuss with children. Very sweet, yet honest, relatable, and so important.
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Posted November 14, 2011
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Overview
Three Adorable Tales for Children of All Ages!
Through the eyes of a curious little polar bear, young readers are invited into engaging journeys through the Arctic North Pole to explore some of their most tender-hearted and important questions.
Mama, Papa, and Grampa Bear, the ever-loving and ...