Prayer for a Child

Originally written as a bedtime prayer for the author's own young daughter, and then presented in this lovely little picture-book, Prayer for a Child is a classic domestic blessing ritual, in which the child supplicant calls down a blessing on all of the wonderful things in her life. "Bless this milk and bless this bread. / Bless this soft and waiting bed / Where I presently shall be / Wrapped in sweet security," it begins, going on to mention many of the other people and things that make her life special. The prayer concludes: "So let me sleep and let me wake / In peace and health, for Jesus' sake."

Awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1945, Prayer for a Child is a delightful book, with a sweet and heartfelt prayer that many young children show more will take to heart - given the reference to Jesus, it is clearly meant for Christians - and adorable artwork that captures one young girl's bedtime rituals. I particularly liked the scene with all the little children of the world, as it shows great diversity, with young people of all races and backgrounds happily grouped together - something that can also be seen in illustrator Elizabeth Orton Jones' paintings for the 1944 Caldecott Honor Book Small Rain: Verses from the Bible. As I mentioned in my review of that book, one of my absolute favorites when I was learning to read was What Miranda Knew, which Jones also illustrated, so the artwork here felt very familiar, and had immense appeal for me. Recommended to Christian families looking for bedtime prayers for their children, and to anyone (like me) who loves Elizabeth Orton Jones' work. show less

The first page gives the prayer in its entirety. Then couplet by couplet the book expands with illustrations of all the things the child asks blessings for – bread and milk, Mother and Father, toys, etc. It’s a lovely prayer, and the illustrations are delightful.

This was first published in 1944, and its gentle message is still appropriate. However, the illustrations made me cringe for the lack of diversity. That is, admittedly, a modern sentiment. Despite the Caldecot award that Elizabeth Orton Jones’s illustrations deserved, I can’t help but wish this would be re-published with new illustrations that showed more children of diverse backgrounds.

I’m not sure this needs a review.

This book is charming, the soft and nurturing warmth of family and God shine from this book in a way relatable to small children.

This particular edition is larger and a better choice for reading aloud and sharing the illustrations.

This is a really cute book. The story is written as a verse, an actual prayer, and narrated by a little girl. The little girl in the illustrations looks about three or four years old. Her prayer consist of thanking God for all the simple but meaningful things in her life. The book is wonderfully written and has a great flow to it.

The story is written as a verse, an actual prayer, and narrated by a little girl. I thought the illustration accompanying the blessing of “all the children far and near,” showed how this book represents all cultures. In the crowd of children, one can pick out Eskimos, Dutch, Oriental, African and Indian children. This reminded me of the song “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” (…”red and yellow, black and white”)

This charming book is a prayer being told by a little girl, thanking God for all the things that she has. I feel that this book moves from pharse to pharse smoothly, even the youngest listener can understand what is being said. As a added feature one can experience a children's poetry book with an extra advantage of it being an award winning story book.

Lovely! After the King's left my baby girl this book on her first Epiphany, I read this to her every night for years. Perfectly illustrated, quietly charming. My daughter loved the little angels that were at the beginning of each page, so when I painted and decorated a bed to be her first "big girl bed," I put one of the angels on each bed post. I get teary thinking of this book.