Book Review: The Lord’s Prayer (FatCat), Kennedy/Senkbeil

Unlike his orange cousin, FatCat is a friendly feline who throughout the book learns the Lord’s Prayer. The catechism is “fat” because it is “bursting at the seams with meaning, challenge, and comfort.” FatCat makes the catechism approachable, as kids can look for FatCat on each page while hearing their parents read the very prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Just as FatCat hides throughout the book, so you and your child can “hide the words of the catechism in your hearts.” 

The unfolding of your words gives light;
it imparts understanding to the simple.
…………………………………..Psalm 119:130

Throughout the book, Harold Senkbeil opens up each line of the Lord’s Prayer for all God’s children and explains it in simple terms. We pray for God’s kingdom to come. But, as Senkbeil asks, “Can we make God’s kingdom come? No! His kingdom comes all by itself.” But, being a grandfather himself, he knows many children will ask where God’s kingdom is. “Wherever Jesus is, there he rules as King. He brings us life and forgiveness, peace and salvation.” God does this by sending “his Holy Spirit to us, so we believe God’s holy word and live godly lives.”

Throughout the book, Jesus is portrayed with dark-skin like a typical Middle Easterner. Natasha Kennedy, the illustrator, uses vibrant colors to engage your child. In “Give us this day our daily bread,” Jesus walks with a little boy and a basket of five loaves of bread and two fish. At the same time, others are passing around bread and eating large fish. There is still a line of numerous people walking up the mountain to get to Jesus. In “But deliver us from evil,” almost half of the spread is filled with a wave threatening to crash down on Jesus and his disciples in their boat. While everyone else is freaking out, Jesus stands there, calmly, with one hand up, ready to delver his disciples.

Each part of the prayer receives its own spread, and the illustrations for each spread are based on at least two (but often six) Bible verses (listed at the end of the book). “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever” uses imagery from Ezekiel 37 and the “valley of dry bones” (which is also seen in The Apostles’ Creed volume). When Jesus returns, his kingdom will be forever. We will be raised from the dead (Ezek 37:1–14), with his word standing forever (Isa 40:8) and giving light to all that we may see light (Ps 36:9).

Speaking of, after the catechetical teaching, there is a section on how families are little churches and one on family prayer which includes the Lord’s Prayer. There is a section to parents specifically about how the illustrations are meant to spark our biblical imaginations (as mentioned above). Natasha provides a list of scriptures for each part of the Prayer that “shaped and limited” her artwork.