New book project: Illustrated hymns for children
This project was born out of my own desire, as a mother, to have a resource I could use to teach hymns to my own children. Learning and memorizing hymns is an important (much-neglected) part of the Christian tradition, presenting a fantastic opportunity to share God’s Word through song within families.
Because I wanted this book to facilitate the memorization of hymns, both for me and my kids, all of the hymns I chose can be found in the LSB. This is what we hear each week; still, many or most of these hymns are pretty universally known. I selected the 24 hymns I wanted to use by the following criteria:
• All public domain (to prevent copyright issues)
• Highly singable tunes, but not dated-sounding
• Relatively short; most hymns are 4 stanzas or less (with a few exceptions)
• Covering a range of subject matter across the church calendar; many that deal specifically with Christ as our Redeemer
The illustration style was originally inspired by studies of the “golden age” of children’s book illustration from the first part of the 20th century. They are colored pencil drawings, but less cartoon-y and with realistic attention given to proportion and other details. I was shooting for beauty instead of a “cool” factor. My own personal experience as a child is that when it came to church stuff, beauty was cool, and highly attractive.
These illustrations depict personal applications of the hymn from a child’s perspective, where they actually interact with Jesus. This is shown to happen:
• As children participate in the Divine Service;
• As they learn about their faith and church through other learning/teaching experiences;
• In prayer;
• As they learn love for their neighbor in their vocation as a son, daughter, friend, etc;
• As they picture themselves as part of the Scripture stories and so are depicted witnessing the events as they take place
To help the parent or teacher using this book, there’s a section with the melody line for each hymn, an assortment of discussion questions and thought starters about the content of the hymn, and a memory verse. These extras can be adapted according to the learning level of the child, and are meant to help bring out the layers of meaning in each song.
I intend to go ahead with self-publishing, making the book available for any who are interested. It’ll probably be ready in a few months’ time. The notes are completely finished, and the illustrations are about 1/4 of the way there. Alex is doing the formatting for all of this, which includes a LOT of graphics, so he deserves the biggest props that can be given. The book will probably be around 90 pages max, 8 1/2″ x 11″and in full color. If we use Lulu again, the price should end up in the $25-30 range. It should be ready in a couple months.
Thoughts, comments, questions? Is this something you would want to see?
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February 4th, 2010 @ 7:38 am
What an awesome idea!!! I know our Pastor teaches hymns to our Sunday School and catechumens. It sounds like it could be a lovely resource for Sunday Schools as well as home? I’ll be waiting for it!!! Count me in as purchase #1!!
February 4th, 2010 @ 8:43 am
Yep, Yep!!
February 4th, 2010 @ 7:50 pm
I can easily see this as a great resource. Put me down for a copy too! (I’ll talk to you about my “order”)
February 5th, 2010 @ 10:03 am
Great idea.
Question: what can you do about a parent who can’t sing? LIke at all. Terrible. Makes people cry?
February 5th, 2010 @ 3:26 pm
Hmm, may be something for the god-children.
I wonder if those parents who can’t sing have any friends who play an instrument and are willing to record their playing? Or are there recorded versions of the hymns anywhere? Maybe that could supplement the family musical talent. There’s nothing wrong with talking the words of a hymn, though.
February 5th, 2010 @ 6:59 pm
oh, on Tracey’s note–you could have available along-side it a cd of you or Al or a combination of the two of you singing and playing guitar…fun fun–I know Al has recorded music before–that would work for those folks who ‘can’t’ sing or can’t read music…
sounds like a great idea!!
February 5th, 2010 @ 8:30 pm
I love the idea. I can’t read sheet music though, and as a newish convert, I don’t know any hymns by heart yet so I couldn’t “Oh I know this one” and bust out singing to my kid. (We also go to a TLH church, but I guess that doesn’t matter here) It would be enormously helpful to have the most basic melody accompaniment. Even if it was played by with one hand on the piano and recorded on a cell phone and I could download the file and make myself a CD. I mean.. I NEED backup!
Please include a little bit of a markup on it so that you can compensate yourself for your time.
February 6th, 2010 @ 11:17 am
Hi Jen– I’ve toyed with the idea of me and Alex recording ourselves singing each hymn and making a CD. That’s an awful lot of work again, though. If you had NoteWorthy Composer, I could just send you the files I made of each song (they play right on your computer). If you can’t pick out the melody line that will be included in the book, then there’s one more option… keep sitting in your local church until you get the hang of some of the songs!
) This book is really meant to be a supplement to Sunday worship, and for the most part, the hymns in it aren’t exclusive to the Lutheran tradition. There’s “Jesus Loves Me,” “A Mighty Fortress,” “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” “Silent Night,” and so on. Maybe I’ll do a second post with the list of songs.
Mike– don’t know what to tell you if you can’t sing! Ask your wife to do the singing part, and you do the teaching part? ;o)
February 6th, 2010 @ 5:42 pm
Update: Alex says that NoteWorthy *Player* is completely free, so the files could be played that way. He’s also talking about recording our files through the church’s digital piano or something. In short: there will be audio resources available.
February 12th, 2010 @ 12:00 pm
Can’t wait to see it! I’m pretty sure a copy or two will make their way south
February 13th, 2010 @ 12:59 pm
This is something I would like to see. I would be interested in seeing your hymn selection.