The Book of Belonging by Mariko Clark

The Book of Belonging gets a lot of the Bible right but makes some significant omissions.

The Book of Belonging: Bible Stories for Kind and Contemplative Kids by Mariko Clark, illustrated by Rachel Eleanor. Random House Convergent, 2024, 287 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10

Recommended for: ages 14-up

At first there was a swirling, watery mess. It was somehow chaotic and empty, all at the same time It was everything and nothing at once. But God began to speak . . .

God sang a love song, and life emerged.

God took the mess and made it meaningful.

God took the emptiness and filled it with goodness.

It was all good, especially God’s last creation of humankind. God’s plan all along was mutual belonging: the divine to the human and humans to each other. In the beginning all of creation belonged to the man and woman, with just one prohibition: “Eat from any tree in the garden except the Good and Bad Knowledge Tree. You are not ready for that knowledge yet.” Knowledge without wisdom would destroy them. We all know what happened, but God did not give up on the dream of belonging—not then, not ever. The dream persisted through human history, all the way down to God’s appearance on earth as a man.

Yeshua, or Jesus, told stories and healed infirmities and walked on water and called a band of men and women to draw especially near to him and experience his ultimate belonging. But he also had a mission to fulfill:

He was God in a body, and that body was part of a bigger story. A story of heaven bumping earth. Hope mixing with sorrow. A story of Already and Almost. So there he hung in the messy middle, arms outstretched as it to hold it all, as if to hold us all.

The prose is often beautiful and even profound; the illustrations are delightful. The theology is lacking. There’s much of “belonging,” nothing about sin—which makes the explanation of why Jesus had to die in that “messy middle” sweet but empty. The Bible stories feature women primarily, from Sarah to Huldah the prophetess to Rhoda the servant girl. Nothing wrong with that, but by twenty or so pages in, readers will realize that God is never given a male pronoun, or in fact any pronoun. A more loveable deity you’re unlikely to meet, but this god is more cozy than holy. The Book of Belonging offers some striking and valuable insights, but it’s incomplete at best.

Bottom Line: Interesting discussion fodder for grownups and teens, but it doesn’t “belong” on a permanent shelf.

Also at Redeemed Reader

Reflection: Our very first Redeemed Reader post was Emily’s advice on Buying Your First Story Bible.

Reviews: We’ve reviewed lots of Bible Storybooks over the years. Two of our favorites are The Biggest Story Bible Storybook and The Beginner’s Gospel Story Bible.