Breathe: A Child’s Guide to Ascension, Pentecost, and the Growing Time by Laura Alary. Illustrated by Cathrin Peterslund

A young girl wonders why Jesus came back to his disciples on the first Easter Sunday only to go away again. She asks, “Why did he get their hopes up?” As she thinks about how afraid the disciples must have been when Jesus left them and ascended into heaven, she thinks, “It would help to have a friend who never goes away. I wonder who that could be?” 

Author Laura Alary’s easy-to-understand narrative adroitly juxtaposes the first disciples’ experience of Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost with the young girl and her church family’s celebration of these biblical events. Alary, who has also written Make Room: A Child’s Guide to Lent and Easter and Look! A Child’s Guide to Advent and Christmas, spells out the life-changing impact of the coming of the Holy Spirit on God’s children. They are consequently filled with a desire to serve God and others and take care of God’s good creation. Cathrin Peterslund’s energetic, bold illustrations portray the fear, sadness, joy, wonder, love, and fellowship of Jesus’ disciples, then and now. Breathe would make a great addition to a family’s devotional collection and to a church library. (Paraclete Press)