God Gave us Thankful Hearts by Lisa Tawn Bergren with art by David Holm is a wonderful children’s book. The story follows “Lil Pup” who is sad that winter is coming when it will be time to hibernate. After he complains to his parents about winter they show him all the things to be thankful for at all times of the year.

This is such a wonderful book for our children to read. This world needs more thankful people and that starts at a very young age. Even as an adult reading this it reminded me of all the little things that we can and should be thankful for everyday. No matter what our lives are like, there is always something to be thankful for, sometimes we just need to look a little harder. Any child would love to “read” this book at bedtime, and with this wonderful message it is great for little minds.

The drawings in this book are phenomenal. I loved to look at the pictures and I know any child would too. The pictures are happy and have enough detail to keep anyone intrigued.

This book was very well written for a child. It is easy to follow and understand as well as being easy to read out loud, a wonderful asset for any parent reading every night.

I would recommend this book to any parent who reads to their child and wants something positive that has a great message for their child. This will be a book your child will want to read over and over.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

"The trick of having a thankful heart is thinking about the things that make us happy, rather than the things that don't."

My thoughts: It is always a sweet treat to pick up one of Lisa Tawn Bergren's books. You can always count on them for spot-on treatment of the subject. In God Gave Us Thankful Hearts she gently weaves a story of a child's (in this case a juvenile pup) learning how to recognize what he can be thankful for in his or her daily life.

The usual thankfulness for the things one likes is acknowledged and then mama and pup discover in their day's meanderings lots of things they don't like but can be thankful for anyway. Thankful that even though they don't like poison ivy and react badly to it, they have learned how to avoid it.

While not exactly stated, the real theme of the little book is "being thankful in all things" and learning to give thanks no matter what state you are in.

I can easily recommend this as a good addition to that young child's book shelf and be sure to get it in time for Autumn or Thanksgiving. Great for libraries, too.

I received a complimentary copy from Blogging For Books on behalf of the publisher, Waterbrook, to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own and I was not compensated. ( )