The Suitcase: A Story About Giving

Two of my children have autism. One of the gifts of autism is the ability to think concretely about big, beautiful ideas. This poignant story of faith features a boy with typical autism characteristics. I highly recommend it for Christian families who want to look deeper into the parables of the Kingdom of God, especially if those families have members who are concrete thinkers.Thomas, the stories protagonist, has many of the hallmarks of a boy with autism: he enjoys spinning and lining up toys and a favorite quiet spot and talking at length about subjects he loves. I was immediately fond of Thomas, as he reminds me so much of many of the persons I love.I love two things especially about this story:1.) The parables about the Kingdom of God are represented in terms of the concrete thinking that is recognizable and accessible to people on the autism spectrum.2.)Thomas is thoughtful about his faith and takes it seriously enough to fill a suitcase with items he'll need to enter the Kingdom of God.It's rare to find a resource, much less a beautifully illustrated children's book, that shows concrete thinking as a gift. It's even rarer to find autistic children shown to be gifted with insights about faith.I plan to use this book to supplement discussions with my children about the meaning of Jesus' parables of the Kingdom of God. We will probably also read the book in our church's children's groups.I like that Thomas' family is multi-ethnic, and the group scene at the end of the book includes a diverse group of adults and children. It's good for children to recognize themselves in books, especially when the children are concrete thinkers.Families will enjoy finding references to each of the parables in Thomas' suitcase. My favorite was the mustard seed. The seed is small, but Thomas went to great lengths to find it. The artwork, lovely throughout, is especially poignant here in conveying the earnest faith of a young boy who takes God at his word. (See photo excerpted from the book.)I received a reading copy of The Suitcase in exchange for an honest review. It makes an excellent Easter/Pascha gift for the children in your life.

A sweet and wonderful story about the beautiful heart of a child and the corporal works of mercy. Very touching and for all ages.

A gift and i’ve Had no feedback

As a Sunday School and Christian School Teacher, I am always on the lookout for beautiful picture books that will present meaningful ideas for my students. I teach pre-K- 2nd grade Sunday School and 3rd-5th grade Writing/History/Faith. After I read this book, I thought to myself, “that is the book I wanted last October, when we were doing our HUGS-based lessons. The goal was to teach the children Christ’s words, "Do it to the least of these my brethren and you do it to Me" (Matthew 25:40). The lessons were great, but I think that nothing offers a feast for the mind like a living book to supplement any lesson.This book is a good living book for that Gospel passage. The young boy in the story takes Christ literally and is ready to put it into practice – after packing his suitcase with all of the bits of Biblical commands and images he has learned over the years. The surprising part of the book, for me, was that his parents get on board right then at that moment. As I read the ending, I was a little irritated, thinking, “right, she can’t just turn the stove off, leave all those dirty supper dishes, and go out the door!” So I was thankful for author Jane Meyer’s page of suggestions at the end of the book. After a gentle reminder that parents should take care not to put off their child’s heart-felt desire to serve others, (entertaining angels is one thing the young lad had in mind when he packed his suitcase!), she offers a list of ways to make that practical in daily life. In the end, even though I think this will be a nice book to read to my students, I think it holds an even more important reminder for the parents. I am thankful that I received a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.

I was given a review copy of Jane Meyer’s “The Suitcase” and was excited to read it. This is a pan-Christian children’s book about a young special needs boy. His characteristics point towards autism, but the story never explicitly states this. Since I have taught special needs children and have adopted three, I was immediately pulled into this story, thinking about all the times my children have done something completely unexpected that left me in awe of their sincere love for God.I re-read this book several times and kept thinking of the various ways I could use this lovely story within a classroom setting, at home, and for parents. There are opportunities to extend discussions and activities related to almsgiving, prayer, Scripture (Matthew 13:31-32, Matthew 17:20-21, Mark 4:30-32, and Luke 13:18-19), humility, entertaining angels (the icon of the Hospitality of Abraham), and salvation.This last topic of discussion, salvation, is why I gave this book only 4 stars. “The Suitcase” seems to present salvation from a “once saved, always saved” perspective which I find interesting only because I am familiar with Meyer as an Orthodox Christian author and so I was surprised to see the story shift in such a direction near the end. That said, I could be reading more into the text than was intended.All in all I still think this book is worth purchasing for the discussion opportunities previously mentioned, and even the seemingly different view of salvation could be used to spark a discussion on the topic.

This book helps the reader to develop empathy.