Book Review - Ten Commandments for Children

The following review was written by Todd and Nicole Kooienga on The Ten Commandments for Children by Ronald Cammenga (Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing, 2023). This review was originally published in the July 2023 issue of The Grandville Gleaner.

The Ten Commandments for Children is a valuable book for all ages. The book includes twenty-eight chapters. Each “chapter” is contained on two facing pages with illustrations. The first seven chapters give instruction on what God’s law is and why He has given us His law. Then there are two chapters for each commandments, with the tenth commandment having three. Usually the first chapter teaches what the commandment forbids, and the second teaches what the commandment requires.

The book can function as either instructional or devotional. We used it for family devotions and it worked very well. Each chapter includes a suggested applicable Bible passage (usually around 10 verses long), a memory verse, and a Psalter number. The length of the passages and chapters worked well without being so long that the children lose focus.

There are also three questions at the end of each chapter. These questions were excellent for reviewing and reminding what was taught. The questions in each chapter vary in difficulty, making it beneficial for both younger and older children, and even adults.

We appreciate how Prof. Cammenga does more than make general statements of what we are to do and not to do. But he makes pointed statements and questions to show how we are to apply the law to the lives of children, like reminding them that they are obeying the 1st commandment when they are listening in church on Sunday. Also, the book does well in the beginning and end of reminding us of how the law shows us our great need for Christ.

The book was written with children ages 6 – 9 in mind, but it can be of great benefit to older children and saints of all ages. The length of the “chapters” make the book well-suited to be used as a devotional. While the book is concise, it is by no means simplistic. There are many examples in the book that show what we might consider small or insignificant sins for what they really are; sins against God’s law whereby we see our old man’s hatred for God or our neighbor. The book shows how quickly we can forget God, His love for us, and our love and obedience to Him. Let us always be singing “Oh how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day.”

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Ronald L. Cammenga is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament Studies at the Protestant Reformed Theological Seminary in Wyoming, Michigan. He is a former pastor, and he and his wife, Rhonda, have eleven children and many grandchildren living in four states. Ten Commandments is his first children's book, and serves as the first in a 3-part series for young readers on doctrine for children.

Ana Sebastián is a digital illustrator and visual development artist based in Madrid, Spain. Ana also likes to work with colored pencils and watercolors and enjoys reading and traveling in her free time.

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