Heaven Is for Real for Kids: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back

by Todd Burpo, Sonja Burpo

Overview

In this amazing true story, Colton Burpo shares his comforting and exciting experience in heaven, where he saw Jesus, lost loved ones, and other miracles.

During a surgery, four-year-old Colton visited heaven, and he wants everyone to know how wonderful it is there! Following the runaway bestseller for adults, Heaven is Real for Kids includes

• Colton's memories of heaven, including sitting on Jesus' lap, singing angels, animals, and even some of his own family members
• beautiful illustrations created with Colton's directions
• a letter to parents to guide them as they talk to their children about heaven
• an age appropriate Q&A section with answers from the Bible

Build up your child's faith and comfort their heart with this reassuring picture book for 4- to 7-year-olds. Whether a child is grieving for a lost loved one, asking questions about God and heaven, or just likes true stories about other children, Heaven is for Real for Kids will show them that there is life after death and that Jesus loves children very, very much.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400318704
Publisher:	Nelson, Tommy
Publication date:	11/07/2011
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	68,060
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD580L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Todd Burpo is pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan and a volunteer fireman. He and his wife, Sonja, have four children: Colton is an active teenager; he has an older sister, Cassie; a younger brother, Colby; and a very special sister he met in heaven. Sonja Burpo is a busy mom and pastor's wife. A certified elementary teacher, Sonja is passionate about children's ministry and helping women work through the difficulty of miscarriage.

Sonja Burpo is a busy mom and pastor's wife. A certified teacher in the state of Nebraska, she has taught in the public school system both in Oklahoma as well as in Imperial. Sonja is passionate about children's ministry and helping women through the difficulty of miscarriage.

Editorial Reviews

Colton Burpo was just four years old when, after a near death experience, he returned to tell his parents that he had been to heaven. In this children's book, Colton himself describes his experiences in the higher realm and explains how it applies to life on earth. Heaven is for Real for Kids also contains illustrations of the heavenly realms as Colton saw it; letter to parents about approaching the topic with children; and a Q&A section with Bible-based answers. (P.S. Colton's parents' Heaven is for Real has been a resilient nationwide adult bestseller.)

The bestselling book is adapted for children, which makes sense since the story involves a child, Colton Burpo, who told his parents he visited heaven during a life-threatening surgery when he was three. Heaven is filled with angels and also animals; Colton reported playing with dogs, cats, elephants, and kangaroos, and saw Jesus riding a big white horse, to which illustrator Ong gives a rainbow mane. It’s all very kid-friendly. Parents who bought and liked the adult version of the story will likely buy this for their, or someone else’s, kids; a gift inscription page is included. Ages 4–8. (Nov. 8)

Publishers Weekly

2014-05-02
This picture-book adaptation of the Burpos' 2010 account for adults of then-4-year-old Colton's near-death experience comes with a built-in audience but doesn't reach much further than it.A note to parents and grandparents precedes a two-page explanation that, during a visit to the hospital, "Colton closed his eyes, and when he opened them— / Jesus was with him!" The boy's brief sojourn in heaven is related in an ingenuous child's voice laced with exclamation marks. Readers learn that "Heaven is not scary—ever!" and that "Everyone is happy there!" He meets a number of biblical celebrities, his great-grandfather and—tellingly and horrifically—"my big sister [who] was so excited to see me that she wouldn't stop hugging me!" Several pages of description of heavenly delights follow before Jesus explains that he is "answering your dad's prayer" and returning him to this vale of tears. Children entranced by the happy animals and Michael's awesome flaming sword will feel that Colton got a very bad deal. Ong paints a supersoft-focus heaven populated by white-robed angels and a crowned Jesus. Aside from an appealingly rainbow-maned white horse and the welcome inclusion of dark-skinned angels (none of them named characters), the aesthetic is one that recalls mass-produced mid-20th-century Sunday school materials. Believers may well be charmed by Colton's close encounter; nonbelievers will suspect that Colton's account of heaven owes more to his parents' stories of his big sister's afterlife than actual experience.Is heaven for real? Maybe, but this book is not likely to persuade any skeptics. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews