Tu librito de bendiciones

Lo que dicen quienes lo compraron

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  One blessing before dinner, every night

  We started reading one page before dinner instead of all ten at once. My daughter now reminds us if we forget. It has become the nicest five minutes of the day and I did not expect a picture book to do that.

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  She points to herself before I open the page

  The character looks like her and she knows it. She points before I have even turned to the right spread. She is three and she already understands that this was made for her.

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  This is a keepsake, not a toy

  Going in the box with the hospital bracelet and the first shoes. It will mean more to her at twenty than it does now.

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  She started listing her own blessings

  Unprompted, at breakfast. She has a list. The cat is on it. So is the purple cup. So is the neighbor's dog. This book started something and I'm grateful for it.

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  My mother cried when she opened it

  I ordered it as a gift for my mother from her granddaughter. She called before she'd gotten through the third page. I could barely understand her. Very highly recommended for grandparents.

• The illustrations are warm without being sentimental

  I was worried it would be saccharine. It isn't. The art is genuinely warm and careful, and the text is honest in a way that doesn't feel forced. My daughter likes it. I like it. That's harder than it sounds.

• She recites it to her baby brother

  She's five and he's four months old. She holds the book in front of him and reads it slowly, pointing at the pictures like he can follow. He watches her. I watch both of them. It's one of the best things I have ever seen.

• The character is so accurate it surprised me

  Her braids, her favorite expression, even the way she holds her hands, all in the book. I uploaded one photo and did not expect this level of care. The whole family noticed before I said anything.

• She carries it to church every Sunday

  She decided it belongs there. It goes in her bag every week. She has shown it to half the congregation. Three families have asked me about it. I keep the link in my phone now.

• A gift I'll give again and again

  I've ordered three now: one for my daughter, one for my niece, one for a friend's baby. Every family had the same reaction: silence first, then a lot of feeling. This is the gift I will keep giving for the foreseeable future.