I Sing for the Animals by Paul Goble

The other day (as in two months ago) I was in the library in the kids section and saw this little book. And in close proximity, I saw two more little books. I am a little books kind of person. Must. Look. At. Little. Books. 

(And please so not laugh at my poor caribou with only one antler. He would feel badly about it. Worse than he already felt loosing it in a death defying fall to the floor, propelled by a four year old bent on mayhem.) 

After I snagged all three, I realized I was in the religions section. I mean, who really peruses the religious section? But little books are little books. And Paul Goble, Tasha Tudor, and Cyndy Szeckeres are nothing to sneeze at. So I took them all home. 

I quite liked this little book. All about nature showing God's handiwork kind of thing. 

"Plants and trees, birds and animals, all things like us to talk to them."

How about that. 

"We see God in the sun and the moon, and in the rocks and mountains, and in all the works of his Creation. We draw near to him when we are close to the things which he has made."

I quite like that. And that sunrise...!!

Paul Goble has illustrated a lot of Native American legends and stories, so I assumed this was another Native American book, but he said that this was just his own thinking about God. 

Aren't the pictures awesome though? A combination of realistic with surreal.  

You can definitely see the Native American influence!

"God's voice is the silence of the sky, the great open plains and the high mountaintops. We hear him speaking to us like silently falling snow."

I am pretty much in love with this picture. 

"We sleep, and are made pure and new again during the night."

"O Lord, how manifold are thy works? In wisdom hast thou made them all, the earth is full of thy riches."

And a bible verse.

Really, this is a rather nice little book. I am not typically a huge fan of religious themes in books, because.... well a relationship with God is too personal for some random author to pontificate on, but this is seems gentle and straightforward.