Why is Keiko Sick? A conversation with your child about why bad things happen.

by Stacia McKeever
Illustrated by Ingrid  Beyer

This is a "full-of-teachable-moments" book.  Emily's best friend Keiko is sick with cancer.   She learns that sickness is the result of living in a "broken" world.  God is powerful to heal our sickness, but sometimes his ways and timing are different than ours.  Sometimes faith and relationship grows through the hard things. There is a helpful Things To Do and Talk About Together section in the back of the book.

"When each of us sins, we're actually saying that we don't want God in our lives.  So, with these terrible things we experience a little bit of what it is like to not have Him in our lives."

We have read this book over and over.  Heavy, hard, real life issues are addressed in a way that a child can understand and relate to.  We also learned fun things like how to count to ten in Japanese, and to show practical love to a friend who is sick by making a card or something special. Emily's mom helps her to make a scarf ☺.  Learn more about author Stacia McKeever.

I received a copy of this book from New Leaf for the purpose of this review.