God Made All Of Me – A Book To Help Children Protect Their Bodies – Book Review

God Made All Of Me – Book Review

If you are like most parents, you probably recognize how important it is to educate and protect your children from sexual predators. However, without guidance, you may be unsure of the best way to broach this topic with really young children.

That’s where Justin S. Holcomb and Lindsey A. Holcomb come in.

This couple recently wrote God Made All Of Me – A Book To Help Children Protect Their Bodies. This educational resource is designed to help parents with 2 to 8 year olds educate their children about their bodies in a way that they can easily understand.

The overall message of the book emphasizes that God created their bodies good, that some body parts are private, and that there are ways for them to differentiate between safe and inappropriate behavior.

The book can be divided into three parts.

• The book opens with a letter to the parent or caregiver that provides a statistical basis for the book.
• The middle section is the “story” part of the book – but it’s really more of an interactive teaching tool for parents to share with their children than a traditional children’s story. The illustrations by Trish Mahoney are beautifully rendered and provide the perfect accompaniment to this portion of the book.
• The final section of the book, 9 Ways To Protect Your Children From Sexual Abuse, contains helpful tips for parents.

Although God Made All Of Me is presented as a children’s book, the strength of this book lies in the guidance that the authors provide to parents on how to broach this topic with their children (part three of the book). The tips in the final section of the book are quite helpful.

However, in the children’s portion of the book, the message is not as strong or as clear-cut as it should be. For instance, in the beginning of this section, the message that “When God made people he called it very good” overlooks the fact that we live in a fallen world and not everyone has our child’s best interest at heart.

Further in the book, the identification of certain adults as trustworthy – daddy, teacher, doctor – does not take into account that sometimes, the people closest to our children take advantage of their trust, and we as parents need to prepare them for that possibility.

God Made All Of Me is an important book – we definitely need more resources like this within the Christian community.

However, it’s a book that should be read and used with discernment so that you can adapt it to your family’s needs, particularly based on the age of your child.

I rate this book 3 ½ stars.

About The Authors

Justin S. Holcomb

Justin Holcomb is a minister and teaches at Gordon-Conwelll Theological Seminary. He serves on the boards of REST (Real Escape from the Sex Trade) and GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in Christian Environments). Justin has authored, co-authored, or edited more than 10 books.

Lindsey A. Holcomb

Lindsey now works at home, but previously served as a case manager at a sexual assault crisis center and a domestic violence shelter. Together they conduct a variety of training seminars to service providers, churches, and organizations about how to prevent, recognize, and respond to child, sexual, and domestic abuse. Lindsey earned a Master of Public Health.

Resources

For More Information

• Visit Justin’s Website.
• Visit Lindsey’s Website.
• Connect with Justin on Facebook and Twitter.
• Connect with Lindsey on Twitter.
• Visit God Made All Of Me Blog Tour Page.
• God Made All Of Me is available on Amazon.

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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

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