The Holy Ghost Is My Friend

I loved the creative way children can learn about the Holy Ghost and how it plays an important role in their everyday lives. The shine the light feature is fun and adds another layer of excitement as the hidden picture is revealed. This is a book my daughters love to read at home and at church during sacrament meeting. It was also helpful with reverence while we watched General Conference in our home. A great resource and would make a perfect gift for the holidays!

(I received a complimentary copy of the book; all opinions in this review are my own)

The Holy Ghost is My Friend is a book that every family should have. It is written for children to explain who the Holy Ghost is, what He does for us, and how to feel His promptings.

The book is unlike any other I have ever seen. Each page has a hidden picture that you can see if you shine a flashlight behind the page or hold the book up to the light. It is brilliant, and so apropos to teaching about the Holy Ghost.

The artwork is beautiful, and the lessons about the Holy Ghost are absolutely correct. They are explained in a way that kids can understand, with real-life situations.

One of my favorite pages explored how we don't know how people are feeling inside - whether their hearts are full or broken, so if we ever have a prompting to serve someone, we should. There is a reason.

I am so grateful I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. It is one we will read in my home for years to come!

This is such a cute children's book! My little guy and I enjoyed reading it together with our flashlight. I haven't read one of these kinds of books before and it was just fun to be able to shine the light through the page and see a picture answering the question. So cute!

I thought the author did a great job explaining what the Holy Ghost is and does for a younger crowd. I'm not sure how much our 3 year-old got out of the words in this book. But I do know that he had a great experience reading it and will want to read it again and again and use a flashlight, because it's just fun and he will eventually understand what the book is teaching.

The illustrations in this one are just fun! It really was a pleasure to read. If you've got little ones, this is a great book to use to teach them about the Holy Ghost!

I have some rather mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it does a great job of explaining some of the roles of the Holy Ghost and how He helps us. On the other hand, the illustrations and first page part of the book imply that the Holy Ghost appeared at Christ's baptism as a dove (not to mention the cover). I would have liked it to be clearer that the Holy Ghost descended as gracefully and gently as a dove, not in the actual physical shape of a dove. And that the dove signified the Holy Ghost's presence, but was not the Holy Ghost. As Joseph Smith explains:

“The sign of the dove was instituted before the creation of the world, a witness for the Holy Ghost, and the devil cannot come in the sign of a dove. The Holy Ghost is a personage, and is in the form of a personage. It does not confine itself to the form of the dove, but in sign of the dove. The Holy Ghost cannot be transformed into a dove; but the sign of a dove was given to John to signify the truth of the deed, as the dove is an emblem or token of truth and innocence” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 276).

The other thing that I wish the book had included is a description of just who the Holy Ghost is, beyond being a friend such as a member of the Godhead, a personage in form, but who has no physical body.

The book does a nice job of explaining some of the different ways the Holy Ghost can help and the ways to invite Him to do so. And the flashlight aspect of the book which brings a hidden picture to the surface followed by a following page that explains what the picture represents. There is a page depicting a child being tempted that shows temptations as purple demon creatures. I think I would have preferred a different picture here.

Overall, the book works, but it could have been better.