Turtle Finds His Talent; Discovering How God Made You Special
Everyday, around 1 pm, you’ll find me cuddled up on my bed with my toddler, reading some books and getting him down for a nap. Everyday, at multiple points in the day, you’ll find me negotiating some sort of sibling squabble that centers around why someone should be permitted to do something because they’re better at it than the other sibling OR why the other sibling should do the task because they’re clearly better at it than they are. Everyday, for the past twenty years of my parenting career, you’ll find me muttering, “why are these children arguing over nothing yet again and why can’t I ever seem to make this argument go away?” When our friendly UPS driver, John, stopped by during lunch to deliver Turtle Finds His Talent; Discovering How God Made You Special by Lucille Williams, I wound up with not just the toddler, but his 7 and 10 year old siblings snuggled up in my bed to hear this story. It was just what this weary parent needed to help shift the tone of the squabbles.
Turtle Finds His Talent follows the days of Tanner the turtle as we experiences everyday experiences. As each day closes, we see Tanner talking with his mother about why he couldn’t run, jump, and reach into tall trees as his animal friends could. Each night, Tanner’s mother soothed him, reminding him that God made him “very, very special in his own way.” The book gently winds up to the climax of Tanner pulling himself into his shell when feeling overwhelmed and his friends being impressed with this skill. Tanner sees exactly what his mother has been talking about and finds great joy in what he can do and the talent that God has given to him. The words are gentle and paired with soft illustrations that will appeal to a wide range of ages. There is even a sliding page that shows Tanner popping out of his shell. There’s something for just about everyone to enjoy as a family reads this aloud.
This book would be a lovely addition to your ministries. A copy for your lending library would be well used, as would popping it into a prayground or pew baskets. It would also augment faith formation lessons about many gifts and one Spirit, the parable about talents, and several other portions of Scripture. It would also be useful in an enrichment class, showing children how to create stories that focus on one facet of Jesus’s teachings and creating a story for our youngest friends (and the pop up/slide mechanism can be duplicated by participants!) This would also be a lovely selection for a birthday gift or new member of the church gift for families that include younger children. This book fits well into discussions about personal talents, rejoicing in how God has designed each of us, and recognizing the talents of others, so if you have recurrent sibling squabbles akin to the ones my younger kids continue to have, snuggle up with a copy, the kids, and comfortable couch and see how this book can help you shift the discussion into the supportive zone.
