Title: God Gave Your Soul Eternal Worth
Author: Jenni Guzman Bautista
Publisher: Olympus Story House
ISBN: 978-1-969422-93-5
Pages: 24
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book / Spirituality / Poetry
Reviewer: Beth Adams
Read Book Review

Author Jenni Guzman Bautista has created a beautiful book with poetic and prayerful messaging, overlapping artistically detailed images of a child being comforted by its mother, working through the miracle of God’s love. With text, which can be put to music of the song’s melody “Hush Little Baby,” the pages turn with deeply penetrating images of maternal love, providing a foundation for young minds to grow into a Catholic world where God always protects nurturing young souls.

“Hush little baby don’t say a word, God gave your soul eternal worth. And if you ever doubt His grace, promise you’ll seek His holy face” begins the book’s journey into the spiritual realm of eternal love and peace. The constructive collaboration of melodic prose superimposed over deeply warm and comforting illustrations makes turning these pages an inspiring lesson, a storyboard of Christianity’s beliefs, empowering each person’s soul, providing inner strength to overcome all of life’s challenges.

Each message conveys an emotion of God’s love, as channeled through a mother’s nurturing. The images within are like going through a gallery with astonishing detail, utilizing warm and deep colors, and tells as much as the text, making this a truly multi-media presentation of words, phrases, and images. I was personally moved by the image on page 11, showing a sleeping child cuddled up in a giant hand, the hand of God. It made me pause in my reading to admire the talent the author used in showing the protection and love God provides to innocent, vulnerable children.

Ideally suited to be a bedtime read to the youngest of children, God Gave Your Soul Eternal Worth is a blessing, a prayer, and the most powerful influential way to escort young minds onto the path of Christianity. For those who seek the strength to handle all of life’s challenges, knowing everything will be all right if you delve deeply into faith and believe in God’s ever most powerful love.

Jenni Guzman Bautista has created a wonderful children’s book which can be the perfect gift or acquisition for faith-based families with soon-to-be-born or infant children. It, when read repeatedly at bedtime, will become a foundation for building confidence, security, and appreciation in those developing minds with all of God’s wonderful love, which is so elegantly written and displayed in this creative book. After finishing the read, while in my mind I was imagining the melodic pace of each prayerful message, my first thought was simply, “Amen.”  With meaningful lessons and a comforting message, this uplifting book encourages children to embrace who they are, treat others with compassion, and remember that every soul has eternal worth.