In two new books from best-selling children’s author Dandi Daley Mackall, clever rhymes and delightful illustrations help young children, ages three and up, understand God’s huge love for them and his joy in creating them. These enchanting picture books from the writer-illustrator team of Dandi Mackall and David Hohn will instill awe in young children as they revel in each page. Parents alike will appreciate the engaging stories that communicate God’s perfect plan and his divine purpose for little hearts.
In God Loves Me More Than That, children learn that God loves them deeper than a wishing well, wider than a semi-truck, louder than thunder, and softer than a kitten’s sneeze. Each question, presented with charming child-like faith will help young ones grasp the great love of God through comparisons and descriptions they can easily understand. In short, they’ll discover that His love is bigger, wider, higher, and deeper than anything they could imagine!
In When God Made My Toes, kids are drawn into the wonder of their creation by God. Their masterful artist who fashioned them just right for amazing and delightful adventures, such as roller skating, finger-painting, doing flips, and drinking cocoa. Children will come to an understanding that God shaped each part of their amazing bodies with joy, delight, and humor.
Author Bio
Dandi Daley Mackall has published more than 400 books for children and adults, with more than 3 million combined copies sold. She is the author of WaterBrook’s two other delightful Dandilion Rhymes books, A Gaggle of Geese & A Clutter of Cats and The Blanket Show. A popular keynote speaker at conferences and Young Author events, Mackall lives in rural Ohio with her husband, three children, and a menagerie of horses, dogs, and cats.
Illistrator Bio
David Hohn is an award-winning illustrator who graduated with honors from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has worked as both a staff artist and an art director for a children’s software company in Portland , Oregon , a position which led to his art directing an award-winning project for Fisher-Price. Hohn’s recent projects include Lisa Tawn Bergren’s God Gave Us Christmas.
INTERVIEW
Dandi, describe yourself for our visitors.
I’ve been a lifeguard, a teacher, a missionary behind the “Iron Curtain,” and now—a full-time writer of books for all ages. I love riding horses or just hanging out with our Paint, Cheyenne . I play tennis and walk around our lake, play family softball and even football.
How do you find time to connect with God?
Every morning I get up early (5 or 5:30 am), before the rest of my house wakes up. Then I go to my favorite chair in the house and read the Bible and pray. Those minutes set the tone for my whole day. I usually pray that God will help me see the little “gifts” all day long and to thank him for them—like the sound of a mourning dove or a surprising laugh from one of the kids. But I’ll be honest and admit that I can get so caught up in the details of living and writing and raising a family and just plain silly worries that I can forget that God’s right there with me—sigh….What a waste!
Who are your favorite authors? Favorite books?
I think my all-time favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. I have a lot of authors who are friends, so I can’t single them out. I admit I read lots of mysteries and many young adult novels. I also read piles of nonfiction books when I’m writing about a certain historical period. And I read books with animal facts, too.
Tell us about your journey to publication.
I started out writing for grown-ups and wrote my first book when I was living in Poland and being a “secret” missionary. I lived in a house with 20 Poles and no hot water and little heat. So every night after dinner, I’d retreat to my room and dive under the down comforter to keep warm—and I wrote…undercover. When I got back to the States, I had no idea how to get published, and I went about it all wrong—sending Xeroxed copies to publishers who didn’t publish the kind of book I’d written. But one of the editors suggested I go to a writer’s conference and learn how to submit a manuscript. I did, and in 24 hours I learned so much! My first 7 books were adult humor and inspirational.
Then I had kids. I rediscovered the joy of children’s books, and began writing baby books, then board books, then picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels. As my kids grew older, I wrote books for that age, but I hung on to the younger books, too. And now I get to write for everybody! Sometimes I can’t believe God lets me do this for a living.
Tell us about your current book?
My two new WaterBrook books are part of my series of rhyming books: Dandelion Rhymes. What I wanted to do was present the world of a child, a world where God is as natural as ice cream and Saturdays, where children have a faith grown-ups are told to strive for. In God Loves Me More Than That! , God’s love is bigger than elephants munching hay, …than hippos on a rainy day; God’s love is wider than a semi-truck from side to side, wider than the prairies where the cowboys ride. In When God Created My Toes, children are invited to wonder, to think about God having fun creating them, knowing what they’d do with every part of themselves…like toes: Did he make them wiggle? Did he know I’d giggle? Did he have to hold his nose…when God created my toes?
How did you come up with ideas for this book?
I do a lot of wondering about God. I think, hope, we all do, even if we don’t talk about it. Most of my books begin with my own sense of wonder.
List your three most recent books.
For WaterBrook: A Gaggle of Geese and a Clutter of Cats and Time for the Blanket Show! Actual most recent: Crazy in Love, Dutton-Penguin; Starlight Animal Rescue: Runaway, Tyndale; A Girl Named Dan, Sleeping Bear Press.
What’s next for you?
I hope to write more picture books in the Dandilion Rhyme series. I’m working on a young adult novel for Dutton, My Boyfriends’ Dogs, finishing up a teen nonfiction for Simon and Schuster: Horse Files, writing two Christmas picture books, and playing with a number of other ideas….
Where can visitors find you online?
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