This book was such a breath of fresh air to read to my boys. I love how it takes a topic that kids have so much interest in and makes it into a story that you can imagine reading to your kids each night.

As a parent or educator there are so many things we wish to teach our children but cannot simply sit them down in a chair, point our finger in their face and begin to teach and preach at them. And if even the mere idea of discussing anything to do with God with your children starts you having heart palpitations, fear no longer, because Carl Solomon Sr. has written, “Do Animals Believe in God?”

Not only does Solomon have more than 40 years experience in the Health-Science field, worked with the homeless, as a missionary, Sunday School teacher and has more credentials than a mama kangaroo can fit in her pouch, but he’s also a father and a grandfather. And now he is going to help us with our dilemma and open up the subject of both God and His creation by introducing us to Daniel.

Daniel is a young boy who decides he is going to spend the day trying to discover if God really exists. But what makes this unique is whom he is asking. Every animal that he comes across gets asked, “Do you believe in God?” And they don’t only give a simple “yes” or “no” answer. They give the “why” to the answer as well.

For instance, when Daniel asks a giraffe, “ Do you believe in God?” the giraffe tells him that he does. Then he explains the reason he does is because he’s grateful for the long neck God has given him in order to get at the food high in the trees. That way he can reach the leaves and berries he enjoys the most. The bear is also grateful to God for his big paws that allow him to scoop up large amounts of honey so that he’ll be prepared to hibernate through the winter. And the cow believes in God and is content to roam through green fields, munching sweet grass and providing milk. But it goes beyond just finding fulfillment in our purpose. Especially if we are viewing our purpose by what makes us useful to others. The little sea horse gets delight in his “stallion” body that allows him to gallop through the waves and the monkey is very happy and satisfied with his arms, legs and toes so that he can have his fun swinging through trees. And so Solomon creates a mental image of our God who loves to make each of us interesting, unique and, yes, always with a purpose, even if that purpose is simply to play.

And finally when Daniel’s day of exploring, learning and chatting with animals comes to an end, he finds his mother and father waiting for him. And he asks them the same question he’s been asking throughout the day, “Do you believe in God?”(So consider this your warning because it’s probably going to be coming at you too.) Because, if ever there was a children’s book written to be shared between parents and children, this is the one. Does any person, young or old, get confronted with a more important question than whether or not God exists?

This book is definitely meant for younger children. By the time they are over 7 years old, it will probably not hold their interest anymore. However, the illustrations are so beautiful and lush that even I, as an adult, spent some extra time just looking at them.

But if you look at this book as just a first step, setting a foundation for a life of faith for your children and leading them to even more and deeper questions, it becomes even more essential.

And if I could be so bold to suggest that once your children are too old to read this book with you anymore, why not just put the book aside for “memory times” and all of you head outside, doing your own nature exploration and asking your own questions. Finding answers, building faith and making memories.

I am not a parent myself so I probably would not have bought this book under my own initiative, so I am very grateful for the copy I received from Christian Faith Publishing, BooksGoSocial and through Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

And I thank you for once again spending your time to read another of my reviews.

LLR

This was an enjoyable book, while also teaching children about god. They will know that he made everyone perfectly.

I was really curious as to what the message of this book would be. After all, believing in a deity (or deities) is something that appears to be uniquely human. According to this book, though, animals are just as sentient and sapient as we are, able to contemplate their place in the world and realize that they were created by one specific deity. Books like this are kind of insulting, in my opinion. They make Christians appear overly credulous and unable to think critically. They're preaching to the choir, and to anyone who doesn't share the belief system, they look an awful lot like propaganda.

I don't really have anything good to say about this one. The writing is pretty bad, with a verb conjugation error in the very first sentence. The rest of the book is written almost like a script or an Internet meme, with no conventional dialogue tags (even though almost the whole book is dialogue):

DANIEL: Excuse me, Mr. Whale, do you believe in God?

WHALE: Yes, I do! Remember, God asked me to swallow Jonah to test Jonah's faith in Him.

Most of the animals' reasons for believing in God are rather circular. Many are a variation on: God made me, so I believe in God, because He made me. The snake is an exception but, like the whale, its belief is tied back to Bible stories (it believes in God because it sinned, so God made it crawl on the ground).

I wondered what livestock might believe. Would animals crammed into a stinking feed lot believe in God? We don't really find out. The only livestock animal that's featured is a cow in a pristine pastoral setting, and she believes in God because God made grass for her to eat so she can make milk and serve humans. In fact, the last sentence of the book talks about how animals were only put here by "the Master" for us to enjoy. (This book would not go over very well with vegans.)

The layout isn't great, either, with the text sometimes layered over dark and busy parts of images, making it challenging to read at times. The digital illustrations are bland and uninteresting.

I wasn't expecting to love this; I was more curious than anything. I don't think I would've been satisfied with the answers in this book as a kid, though. The question is kind of ridiculous to begin with, but I wish there had been more than circular reasoning offered. Animals believe in God because they believe God created them? Sorry, but that's a weak argument... even for a children's picture book.

This story is an excellent conversation starter for your little one and will assist in extended biblical discussions. A sweet picture book for one on one time.

This was a sweet short childeren book that had a wounder message. :)
The art was nice and the story as well, great sunday read or bed time story.

This is a quick book for your readers who love animals and are of a Christian faith. It highlights many different animals that each give thanks to God for their unique bodies and abilities they have. I enjoyed the clean simple writing style making it easy for young readers to enjoy on their own however the installations lacked detail and dimension.

Do Animals Believe in God?
by Carls Solomon Sr.

3 out of 5 stars

I got this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Reading children is always relaxing for me. Do Animals Believe in God is an illustration book. It tells the story about Daniel who curious whether the animals around him believe in God. So, he tried to wander and ask every animals that he met. He asked the animals, do they believe in God? If they so, why they believe?

Actually, the moral value from this book is very simple. The proof that God exist could be seen from his creation, start from the animals around us. All of the animals, have their own role in life. If there no one who can create all of them, who will control all of the things in the universe?

Not bad at all for children book. Even though, I didn't really disturbed by the illustration, I think they are not really engaging. Then, Daniel does change his question, but there's no really story here. Daniel only repeat his question to every animals. It makes me a little bit bored.

But still, the title is very eye-catching. Moreover, a children book with questioning on the existence of God as a topic is not common. Therefore, I decided to choose this book from netgalley.

This question posed by Daniel to all of the animals he encounters is one animal lovers and Christians pose as well, I do believe that animals love God and that God loves them in return. The illustrations are lifelike and the animals include butterflies, tortoises, kangaroos and even snakes,