A throne touching the throne

QUEEN ELIZABETH II
The Queen Who Chose to Serve
By Alison Mitchell & Illustrated by Emma Randall
Good Book Company. 24 pages. £6.99
ISBN 978 1 784 987 527

We should be grateful to the Good Book Company for this excellent series of children’s biographies in the Do Great Things for God Series. This book, like all in the series, is attractively written, skilfully illustrated, and beautifully produced. It is issued to commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee which celebrates the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

The target audience is 4–7-year-olds, but I guess that most people would enjoy reading it. I like the way that this fast-paced story picks up aspects of the Queen’s childhood, youth, and the drama of her becoming Queen as a young woman. The story highlights the sense of destiny in the way that she came to be in line to the throne and the dignity with which she has served her subjects over the past 70 years.

The book also deals well with how this service has flowed out of the consistent thread of Christian testimony in her life. Examples are provided of her public statements of faith in Jesus; these have been particularly prominent in her annual addresses to the Commonwealth on Christmas Day.

This would make a good gift for children in your family or neighbourhood. Perhaps churches could donate copies to local schools and libraries. We talk a great deal about national treasures. The Queen is one of them, not least because she has found treasure that is greater than all platinum or diamonds.