God, Can You Hear Me?

Reviewed By Robin Caldwell

Author: Justine Simmons, Rev. Run Simmons, Robert Papp (Illustrator)

Someone once told me that it’s easy to write a children’s book, and that’s what she believed until she actually had to write one. Needless to say, she knows better now. A few colorful pictures and a simplistic story do not make for a book that actually speaks to the heart of a child. Why else do people remember Green Eggs and Ham or Curious George, and Madeline in their advanced years? We remember these books and the characters because there was something brilliant in the content. I recall vividly wanting to go beat the Grinch up for stealing Christmas, and thinking that Madeline dressed kind of cute for a girl in a convent school.

Will children remember God, Can You Hear Me? (Amistad) by Justine Simmons with the help of husband, Rev. Run, and illustrator Robert Papp? I’m not sure, but there is something brilliant in the content: answers to questions not only posed by children but by adults as well.

Reminiscent of books in the Golden Books Treasury, God, Can You Hear Me? seeks to provide instruction in an easy-to-follow manner that neither insults children nor frustrates the adult reading the book to a child. The answers in God, Can You… are satisfying, and even invite further discussion between a parent and child, which was the book’s intended purpose.

But, the ease in which God, Can You… was written is open for debate, because it was written on the heels of Justine and Rev. Run’s devastating loss of their daughter, Victoria. Victoria died within minutes of her birth. God, Can You… served as a healing balm for the Simmons family.

There are a number of great selling points to God, Can You…, primary would be the illustrations by Robert Papp, which are lifelike and in living color – a major factor in attracting and keeping a child’s attention. Plus, the illustrations do a beautiful job of reinforcing the direction of each problem and question posed in the book.

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