OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "How to Pray" by Marie l Dorismond.]

Marie Dorismond noticed that her grandchildren thought of prayer as a formal recitation performed only at church or on certain occasions. She wrote the book How to Pray: Introducing Children to Prayer to teach her grandchildren that prayer is a personal conversation with God that can happen anytime and for any reason.

The author has cleverly designed this eight-chapter book. The first seven chapters correspond to the days of the week, with the reader following the Conny family as they go about their activities. The stories focus on Nicole, her younger brother, three-year-old Nason, and her older sister, ten-year-old Nallie. Their mom, dad, and dog round out the household. Each day brings opportunities for the siblings to pray. At the end of each chapter, there are questions to reflect on what the family experienced that day. The questions are simple and can easily encourage a discussion with young readers about their families.

The eighth chapter is fun. It is a random collection of Nicole’s prayers. This is my favorite part of the book because it shows that nothing is too insignificant to pray about. An example is her heartfelt prayer about studying hard but still missing several vocabulary words on her test. She wisely follows up by asking the Holy Spirit to help her study in the future.

This book comprises twenty-six pages and has an inclusive theme. It references both Protestant and Catholic prayers and the tradition of observing the Sabbath on Saturday as well as on Sunday. This representation provides an opportunity to discuss the different ways to worship God. I also appreciate the diversity of the children on the cover, but I would suggest showing them in a more casual setting to reflect the content and purpose of this book.

Unfortunately, there were many grammatical errors, and this disrupted the reading experience. The most common error involved dialog punctuation. Since the story was heavy on dialog, this issue made reading difficult. In addition, I recommend highlighting the prayers in a different font or effect to distinguish them from the rest of the narrative. This would improve the transition from activity to prayer throughout the story.

I rate How to Pray 2 out of 4 stars because of the issues previously mentioned. After a round of professional editing, this read could be a wonderful guide for adults to reinforce prayer with the children in their lives. It could also serve as a lesson outline for children’s church or Bible study. Children ages five through nine could easily read this book and would be best suited for the content. However, l recommend having an adult facilitate the discussion questions to explain the different worship styles and engage younger children in the experience.

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How to Pray
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What a wonderful book to guide children to learn to pray and draw close to God. So disappointing that there is poor editing in the book.

Wow!!!! Amazing prayer book guide for kids. I really love the part that says Notting is too insignificant to pray about.
Awesome book despite the grammatical errors.

Chizioboli wrote: ↑02 Feb 2021, 15:11 What a wonderful book to guide children to learn to pray and draw close to God. So disappointing that there is poor editing in the book.

It is a indeed a wonderful idea. I hope the author decides on another round of editing. I think this would make a great Sunday school lesson.
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Catherine15 wrote: ↑02 Feb 2021, 17:39 Wow!!!! Amazing prayer book guide for kids. I really love the part that says Notting is too insignificant to pray about.
Awesome book despite the grammatical errors.

The author recognizes it’s never too early to teach children about prayer. This book is a great idea.
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What an adorable idea for a book! I hope they fix the grammatical errors, I would certainly love to have some help explaining prayer to my kids.

While this might not be a book I would share, it sounds like this would be a wonderful addition to a religious families home. Hopefully it gets another round of editing and then can be shared with young kids and families.

This sounds like a wonderful introduction for children into what prayer actually is. I know the misconception that it is 'only for special or serious occasions' is prevalent in children from raising my own. I like that it encompasses more than one denomination and how their prayer is similar and different. Thanks for the interesting review!

Kirsi_78 wrote: ↑03 Feb 2021, 10:54 What an adorable idea for a book! I hope they fix the grammatical errors, I would certainly love to have some help explaining prayer to my kids.

I hope the author does too! This book could help many families.
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Rwill0988 wrote: ↑03 Feb 2021, 13:22 While this might not be a book I would share, it sounds like this would be a wonderful addition to a religious families home. Hopefully it gets another round of editing and then can be shared with young kids and families.

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Kelyn wrote: ↑03 Feb 2021, 21:16 This sounds like a wonderful introduction for children into what prayer actually is. I know the misconception that it is 'only for special or serious occasions' is prevalent in children from raising my own. I like that it encompasses more than one denomination and how their prayer is similar and different. Thanks for the interesting review!

Yes, the author has managed to pack quite a bit into this short book. There are some great conversation points.
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I wonder what is nicole's age? I appreciate the author's intention to impart her knowledge and faith to write this book. To teach children how to pray is a very noble and fruitful thing to do. Hoping the book will have a thorough edition to make it a kind of guide for parents to teach their children how to pray. Thanks for the review.

I love the idea of describing prayer as a personal conversation instead of a formal recitation. Such topics and themes are capable of leaving quite a lasting impact. It’s too bad about the encountered typos, but perhaps a revision will quickly follow. Thanks for your lovely review!

That's so thoughtful of the author to write this wonderful piece to teach children tright way to pray, and to catch them young. I remember this quote " Train if the child in the way he should go, and when he's old he will not depart from it"

zyxskip wrote: ↑04 Feb 2021, 12:44 I wonder what is nicole's age? I appreciate the author's intention to impart her knowledge and faith to write this book. To teach children how to pray is a very noble and fruitful thing to do. Hoping the book will have a thorough edition to make it a kind of guide for parents to teach their children how to pray. Thanks for the review.

Nicole’s age was never given, but she’s in the second grade, so she’s probably 7 or 8, which would put her right at the target audience age. I do hope this book goes through another round of editing. It could be a great tool.
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