Title: God Plants a Garden
Subtitle: A Different Kind of Love Story
Author: Buck Elder
Publisher: Brilliant Books Literary
ISBN: 979-8-88945-267-6
Genre: Children’s Book
Pages: 18
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Hollywood Book Reviews
Author Buck Elder has created a Best-In-Class story of creation, basically following Biblical foundations, yet expanding upon it by explaining the imagined thought process of God, as He decided what-and-how to make Earth a garden planet within His Universe. That sounds like a huge goal, and how Elder does it with apparent ease, demonstrates his skill in storytelling and elegant style in narration.
God Plants a Garden begins with white ink on a black page (reverse printing) subliminally showing the emptiness of “nothing.” Then God designs His Universe, so large that you can’t see from one edge to the other. As He then puts a rock in the emptiness to hold his garden, he calls it a “planet” – because He “planned it.” He then decides on water, land, and many shapes of this planet. Then, as He decides He needs light, He creates a bright globe shining all of the time, and because the brightest thing in God’s life was his son, He names it “Sun.” At this point the background of the pages begins to become white and yellow, and the text is black, making readers feel as if now they are in daylight. This is a very impressive mastery of storytelling using all of the elements of a printed page to imprint emotions in readers’ minds.
God goes on to make plants (named because He “planted” them), vegetables and all of the many colors and shapes of fauna. Among the narration of the story the author puts in some very subtle comments such as: regarding the size of the Universe “only God knows;” and regarding many decisions, “God knows best.” Those comments are often used when we are closing a discussion where the answer is uncertain and to move on, but Elder has woven them into the narration with such skill and humor the adults reading this book to youngsters will undoubtedly smile.
The definition of “Heaven” is from where God lives, “He ever.” I particularly liked the “midnight sun” morphing into “Moon.” Even the word “stars” comes from shorting “small lights, scattered twinkles, radiating sparklers.”
If you were to make the Book of Genesis into a children’s story, it would have many similarities to this cleverly worded narration by Buck Elder. This award-winning book is a must-have for all families with youngsters, especially faith-based families wishing to provide their children with an understanding as to where we come from. I cannot recommend this book more highly.