Xochitl Dixon is hands down one of our favorite authors over here. Here beautiful picture books are full of Biblical truth, made accessible for the youngest in the family. Her newest title, ‘What Color is God’s Love?’ is a celebration of the way God displays his love through creation.
What I Love
One thing that sets Xochitl’s books apart is her unwavering commitment to showing littles diversity in the illustrations of her books. This one is no exception. Each page, shows children from a variety of races, family settings, and even with disabilities. Diversity is a hot buzz word in kids lit right now, and we’re seeing an increase of books showing littles with disabilities. This is important, but Xochitl’s books are one of the few Christian kids books I actually feel get it right. The characters with disabilities are naturally apart of the picture, so much so that unless you are looking for this type of representation, you may miss it. They aren’t othered. Their disability isn’t the focus, or even the main thing about them. They are simply existing. And this is good. The more I’ve been listening tonl disabilities advocates that actually have disabilities, the more I realize this is so important for children with disabilities to be seen in our media, without their disability being ‘the thing,’ so to speak.
As far as the actual words on the page, they are brilliant. I love that Xochitl uses colors to explore the love of God. That is such an easy to grasp concept for littles, and this book takes them on a literary nature walk, exploring how we experience God’s love in color. From the yellow sun that grows flowers, to grey skies showing God’s power in a thunderstorm.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:20 (NIV)
Xochitl consistently points to God’s love displayed through Creation. She bookends the story with two scriptures focusing on God’s love:
We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
1 John 4:16
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10
Lastly, I love that she includes an activity and discussion questions to take the learning further. Books are tools and can only go so far in discipleship. I love that Xochitl takes the time to equip parents and teachers in engaging littles with the material, helping them understand, and absorb the message.
What my littles love
First of all, my littles love that Xochitl features Callie, her service dog, in all of her picture books. This is the highlight of the book for my 2 year-old. Everytime we turn the page, he enthusiastically searches for Callie, and gleefully signs ‘puppy’ once we find her.
I was really blown away with my 7 year-old’s take away from this book. As we were exploring some of the activities, she declared, “You know, I think the color of God’s love is actually a rainbow. Because the rainbow reminds us God chose us, so all the colors tell us how much God loves us.”
Anytime a book gets my 7 year-old preaching, I know it’s a win.
Baby Devotions 