The Gift of Sun Lee – Diane Bostick

This is a delightful story for children, about a little girl in post war China, a time when Christianity was still quite new into the country and it was very challenging to the traditional culture, customs and beliefs. She attends a missionary school and brings home a Bible, and with it the news about Jesus, that eventually changes her family’s beliefs.

It is a charming story of someone who hears the gospel and realises that there is a yearning inside herself to fill an emptiness. Once she had found Jesus and accepted Him, she was keen to show her father how important it was for him to do the same.

Throughout the book are some beautiful illustrations depicting the scenes of the story being told, something in their style is so distinctively Chinese.

The book is pitched for 9 to 11 year olds, although some of the vocabulary may be a stretch, which is no bad thing and may facilitate mutual reading with an adult and hence discussion.

It is quite insightful to get a glimpse into the culture at that time and how alien the teachings of Christianity must have been. With something so completely counter cultural, it is interesting to explore how they may have made sense of the teachings of Jesus.

Through Sun Lee’s actions, we can see the simple gospel message that if we love and feed others then we are doing it for Christ.

At the end of the book are some additional pages that can be used to colour in, as well as some questions to help further discussion, perhaps at home or in a Sunday School environment.

The Gift of Sun Lee, by Diane Bostick, is available here.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, but was under no pressure to provide a favourable review.