I have to confess that, although we love Max Lucado’s books, and although we’d heard of Hermie before, I had never actually read a Hermie book until this month.  Some of you, though, will have been familiar with Hermie for a while.  You will be excited to learn that there are now Hermie books available for younger readers!

For those of you who, like me, are unfamiliar, Hermie is the name of a caterpillar who features in a series of stories by author Max Lucado.  As is true of his other stories, the Hermie stories teach truths about God and His Word – most notably teaching how special we are to God.

These new books are grouped based on reading ability, which I find really handy, as a homeschool mom.  I got to check out three of them.  Hermie: A Common Caterpillar is labeled as a “level two reader.” This is for children who are learning to read for themselves.  My nine-year-old is a pretty strong reader, so she probably doesn’t need this, reading-wise, but I suspect she’ll still enjoy the story.  Her four-year-old sister will be ready to start reading it on her own before too long!

The theme of this story is that God made us each the way He did on purpose, each with our own unique strengths.  Children will also learn about prayer, as Hermie talks to God as part of the normal course of his day.

For the smallest ones, there is now Little Hermie.  These are board books designed to be read to young children.  I love board books for my babies, because I can read to them while they sit in my lap, and they don’t tear the pages when they grab at them!  We received Thank You, God for Loving Me and Thank You, God, for Blessing Me.  Each of these is a prayer that Hermie prays.  Of course, the things he thanks God for are specific to him (“eight little buggy feet,” for instance – why does a caterpillar have eight feet?) but are good illustrations of things our children can be thankful for in their own lives.  Food to eat, bodies that work (assuming they do), friends, family, etc.

One little detail I noticed that I really appreciated was the terminology.  My parents always tried to use biblically-based terminology with us, from the time we were babies.  For instance, “be gentle” rather than “be soft”; “be kind” rather than “be nice,” etc.  There is nothing wrong with the other phrases, but using the Scriptural terminology helped reinforce that we do what we do because God tells us to!  We have tried to do the same thing with our own children.  Little Hermie asks God to help him “be kind” and “obey”  – both Scriptural terms for biblical concepts.  It’s a tiny detail, and I wouldn’t have disliked the book if it said “be nice,” for instance, but it is a plus that it says  “be kind.”

Giveaway!

One of you gets to win all three of the books we got: Hermie: A Common Caterpillar; Thank You, God, for Loving Me, and Thank You, God, for Blessing Me.

See the Rafflecopter form below to enter.  (If you are reading via email or RSS, you’ll need to click through to the site to see it.)

Disclosure: I received the Hermie books described above from Tommy Nelson at no cost to facilitate this review.  Tommy Nelson will also be providing the prize pack to the winner.  As always, all opinions are purely my own.