How I Pray for My Friends is told from Erik's point of view. The little boy leads us through his day, telling us about his friends, their needs, and how he responds to the needs. The pictures are painted from his point of view also.

I'm not a fan of bug-eyed children or pictures made to look like they were colored by eight-year-olds and yet the illustrations in How I Pray for My Friends are funny and interesting and kids will like them, I think. Ms. Taylor used bright colors for the book and she had a frog and a bird travel through the pages with Erik and his friends. The bird is the only cute character in a book full of Rugrat ugly type characters, but the kids are comical, the scenes are varied, and I found myself wanting to read on and explore Erik's world.

The text is sweet, coming dangerously close to being syrupy a few times, but the author manages to inject enough humor into the book to save it, I think. She dresses Erik, who's quite the little do-gooder, in a shirt covered in smiley faces. I found that funny.

I like the way Erik is willing to act on his prayers, too. It's important to teach kids this. Erik asks Jesus to comfort his friend and then he pats her on the arm, in effect becoming God's hands and offering God's comfort. This is great.

It might have been a bit more believable if young Erik wasn't quite so good or if another character got to be the knight in shining armor once or twice, though. By the time we got to the page where Jesus tells Erik how to pray for little boy with the divorcing parents, I was tempted to find it all too perfect for this fallen world. A few pages later, though, the author shows Erik beseeching God out loud with a persistence and an earnestness that surpasses all previous prayers and I had to laugh and admit that I liked the little kid after all. How can you not like a kid who prays with the dog, frog, and bird, begging God to give his friend's father a job? heh heh. Don't I wish my own children were such great, unselfish, young prayer warriors? Shoot, forget the kids, I wish I was as diligent and sincere as young Eric.

How I Pray for My Friends presents a potentially boring topic in a funny, colorful, interesting way. The problems the characters face can be used as conversation starters between small readers and their parents. If it had been available several years ago, I would surely have bought this book and shared it with my children when they were little.

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Copyright © 2005 Sally Apokedak