God Went to Beauty School (by Cynthia Rylant)

In a series of free-verse poems, God comes to earth in human form to experience normal life in the world he has created. He gets a dog, a couch, and a cold, makes spaghetti, gets a job, climbs a mountain, and, of course, goes to beauty school.

In human form, he reacts as a human; he wants comics and juice when he has a cold, cries at movies, doesn't like to eat alone, enjoys watching TV and playing poker, and even gets into a bar fight. And, since he's doing it all for the first time, it all seems amazing and wonderful.

Recipient of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, this is a good example of what's wrong with children's literature awards in this country: Children are not considered. Certainly it's well-written, amusing, thought-provoking, and (depending on your own beliefs) worth sharing, a poem at a time, with your kids. It might even get them looking at the world through this unusual lens, and wondering how God would experience other aspects of their own lives.

But is this a book that kids will pick up, read, and enjoy? Oh, a few might, children with a real taste for religious speculation, or those looking for a really short, easy-to-read book to fulfill an assignment. But in general this is not a book written to appeal to kids; it's written to appeal to those who make the buying decisions --librarians, and the award committees that influence them. And because it won an award, it will sell, and more books like it will be written and fill up our libraries -- then we'll wonder why kids don't like to read.

Author: Cynthia Rylant
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Publication date: May 22, 2004
Number of pages: 56
Hardcover price: $14.99