Penny Preaches, Amy Dixon and Rob Dixon, illustrated by Jennifer Davison. IVP Kids (ISBN: 9781514008584) 2024.

Summary: A young girl loves the big ideas she hears in Sunday sermons, aspires to preach, but friends discourage her.

Penny loves going to church with her family. She especially loves the sermons and the big ideas her pastor shares about God, about his love that has no limits. Penny likes that the important words start with the same letter. She even likes the tiny microphone he wears.

Penny wonders if she could do that. She wants to share big things about God. So, she begins by practicing with her animals after she has searched and written down some of God’s words in her notebook. Then she invites her neighborhood friends.

But they don’t applaud. Instead they question. “Girls can’t be preachers, can they?” She wonders if they are right and tucks her notebook under her bed.

But God gives her more words. And she writes them down in her notebook.

And that Sunday, her family visits a new church with a pastor named Sarah. When Pastor Sarah shares amazing stories and important words (that begin with the same letter), Penny claps loudest of all. But what happens next, when Pastor Sarah notices Penny’s notebook, exceeded Penny’s wildest dreams.

This is a wonderful story that affirms that there is room in church for everyone’s gifts, even girls like Penny and women like Sarah. And I love the idea that preaching is about sharing the words God gives, the big and important truths about God.

Bright, colorful illustrations by Jennifer Davison capture the joy of sharing God’s words with God’s people. They effervesce with the excitement of a young girl who finds God giving her words she wants to share. Together with the wonderful turn in the story the Dixons tell, we learn that God’s good gifts for God’s people are given to all and should be shared by all.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.