Rachel Field‘s Prayer for a Child (1944) is a deeply Christian picture book for children—and, yes, for everyone else as well—which deserves its fame and Caldecott award. Its domestic idyl might as well be Heaven itself, and a finely, lovingly depicted female child inspires us to assert that of such is the Kingdom.
She is depicted by illustrator Elizabeth Orton Jones, who purveys muted, soothing color and gentle, enticing texture. Field’s prayer is one of innocence and simple rhyme, in a children’s book for the ages.
Leave a Reply