Rarest Kind of Best

CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER – 1945

Prayer for a Child

Rachel Field, author
Elizabeth Orton Jones, illustrator

New York: Macmillan, 1944
26 pp

Age: infant +

Interests: prayer, God, bedtime, night

A simple prayer-poem written for one little girl, but also for all the children of the world. Warm, soft drawings depict the girl and her world – her room, her toys, her friends, her parents. A rhythmic, soothing book for bedtime. Similar to Goodnight Moon, in that the girl lists the things around her, but in the form of a prayer. And it moves from the immediate (her room), out to the global (all the children of the world).

Books with a spiritual theme have gone a little out of style in recent years, but here is a gentle, sweet one for families open to the idea.

(This title at amazon.com)