One Hand, Two Hands Book by Max Lucado
One of my sincerest hopes for my kids is that they evolve into kind and helpful human beings.
Some days, that seems like a tall order!
Talking to children about helpfulness from very early on certainly can’t hurt the effort. Leading inspirational author Max Lucado has a new book out that addresses this very topic.
One Hand, Two Hands is a simple book that uses the metaphor of a child’s hands to illustrate the importance of helpfulness.
With beautiful art by award-winning illustrator Gaby Hanson, the book walks children through all of the typical uses we have for our hands: playing, brushing our teeth, lifting a cup, washing the dog.
It uses a light rhyming pattern to make the message fun and engaging. Once the book finishes talking about how we use our hands in day-to-day life, it then moves into a discussion of how else we can use our hands: to help, to love, to be kind. It gives concrete examples for children on how to be helpful and kind by using their hands.
I read this book to my children tonight before bedtime. It is a very quick and easy read – in fact, my 7 year-old could have read it to my 5 year-old.They enjoyed the darling illustrations and “got” the message very quickly. When I asked them what the book was about, they both said, “We should always be helpful and use our hands to do good things and not bad things.”
The book definitely gets its message across in a lightly religious and easy way. I’d say the book is appropriate for children of ages 3 up to 7 or 8. After that age, I think the book might be a tad too light on content and discussion about HOW to be helpful. But it’s a great starting point to start encouraging helpfulness in children.
One Hand, Two Hands is available at Amazon for $12 bucks:
