“The Littlest Nephite” is a new children’s picture book series designed to teach children stories from the Book of Mormon using the medium of rhyme. The first installment in this series is called “Nephi and the Brass Plates” and is taken from the life of the prophet Nephi.
We begin by meeting The Littlest Nephite, our tour guide through the story. He is very small—he stopped growing when he was 3’9’’. He’s been around a long, long time—in fact, no one’s sure just how old he is, and his height only confuses the issue further. But regardless of his age, regardless of his height, he has a job to do, and that’s to tell us how things really happened in the scriptures.
The Littlest Nephite was on hand to hear Lehi preach to the people of Jerusalem. He had been given his errand of the Lord and had seen the destruction of the city in vision, but no one would listen to him. They said he was silly and walked away from him. Lehi knew the time had come to take his family into the wilderness where they would be safe.
They left everything they owned and headed out into the desert, but then the command came to go back and get the brass plates. Nephi knew the Lord would help them in their quest, so he had a positive attitude about returning to the city. It wasn’t an easy task, and Nephi had to use all his faith to make it through, but he returned with the plates to his family, and they were blessed for their obedience.
Of course we’re familiar with the story as adults, but this picture book breaks it down into simple components to help your youngest readers (or listeners) understand the basic elements of the story. The cute illustrations, provided by Rebecca Miller, go along with the text very well, creating a complete package.
I’m not sure how many books are scheduled to appear in the series, but I think we can reasonably expect one for each major story in the Book of Mormon, or at least for the stories that center around Nephi and his family. I’ll keep you updated on that as I discover it for myself. In the meantime, you can enjoy “Nephi and the Brass Plates” by clicking here.
(This book was published in 2008 by Cedar Fort.)
Related Blogs:
Family Home Evening: Nephi and the Brass Plates
Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 3:17-28
Sharing Time: The Scriptures Show Us the Way