Heaven is for Real for Kids: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back

Description

Heaven is for real, and you are going to like it! Colton Burpo came back from his trip to heaven with a very important message: Jesus really, really loves children. In an effort to reach even more families with this eternally significant story, this runaway bestseller is now told from Colton-kid to kids! Children will receive the same comfort and assurance that so many adults have received from the trade book. Beautifully illustrated under Colton's direction, he shares his experiences in first person and comments on things that will be important to kids. A letter to parents is included to guide them as they talk to their children about heaven. Scripture along with a Q&A section with answers from the Bible are also included in the book. Editorial Reviews Colton Burpo was just four years old when, after a near death experience, he returned to tell his parents that he had been to heaven. In this children's book, Colton himself describes his experiences in the higher realm and explains how it applies to life on earth. Heaven is for Real for Kids also contains illustrations of the heavenly realms as Colton saw it; letter to parents about approaching the topic with children; and a Q&A section with Bible-based answers. (P.S. Colton's parents' Heaven is for Real has been a resilient nationwide adult bestseller.) Publishers Weekly The bestselling book is adapted for children, which makes sense since the story involves a child, Colton Burpo, who told his parents he visited heaven during a life-threatening surgery when he was three. Heaven is filled with angels and also animals; Colton reported playing with dogs, cats, elephants, and kangaroos, and saw Jesus riding a big white horse, to which illustrator Ong gives a rainbow mane. It's all very kid-friendly. Parents who bought and liked the adult version of the story will likely buy this for their, or someone else's, kids; a gift inscription page is included. Ages 4-8. (Nov. 8) Kirkus Reviews 2014-05-02 This picture-book adaptation of the Burpos' 2010 account for adults of then-4-year-old Colton's near-death experience comes with a built-in audience but doesn't reach much further than it.A note to parents and grandparents precedes a two-page explanation that, during a visit to the hospital, "Colton closed his eyes, and when he opened them-- / Jesus was with him!" The boy's brief sojourn in heaven is related in an ingenuous child's voice laced with exclamation marks. Readers learn that "Heaven is not scary--ever!" and that "Everyone is happy there!" He meets a number of biblical celebrities, his great-grandfather and--tellingly and horrifically--"my big sister [who] was so excited to see me that she wouldn't stop hugging me!" Several pages of description of heavenly delights follow before Jesus explains that he is "answering your dad's prayer" and returning him to this vale of tears. Children entranced by the happy animals and Michael's awesome flaming sword will feel that Colton got a very bad deal. Ong paints a supersoft-focus heaven populated by white-robed angels and a crowned Jesus. Aside from an appealingly rainbow-maned white horse and the welcome inclusion of dark-skinned angels (none of them named characters), the aesthetic is one that recalls mass-produced mid-20th-century Sunday school materials. Believers may well be charmed by Colton's close encounter; nonbelievers will suspect that Colton's account of heaven owes more to his parents' stories of his big sister's afterlife than actual experience.Is heaven for real? Maybe, but this book is not likely to persuade any skeptics. (Picture book. 4-8)