From School Library Journal
Grade 6 Up-A collection of innovative, thought-provoking, and insightful poems. What would happen if God got a desk job? Or bought a couch at Pottery Barn? Or found some fudge in his mailbox? These are just a few of the mundane happenings Rylant places at the deity's feet. Through everyday events (like showers) to athletics (He falls 20 times while Rollerblading) to more shocking revelations (He gets arrested in a bar fight), God finds out what it is like to live like the rest of us. And guess what? He is just like one of us. He wants juice and comic books when He's sick. And through it all, God is surprised by these revelations. These short poems are visceral in their insight, and they shouldn't be considered blasphemous jokes as much as clever "what if?" ponderings. Has God just been "winging it" His whole life? Rylant has a carefully crafted response. Christian or private schools may find this collection inappropriate to their teachings, but read with an open mind and vivid imagination, it should speak to young people. A triumphant achievement.Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WICopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4-8. A recent hit song asked what if God was one of us? Here, the question is, what if He is just a Guy (or possibly a Girl) who plays poker and watches movies and sometimes catches a cold and needs Mother Teresa to come over and take care of him? Such is the premise of Rylant's slim volume of poems, which is classified as fiction. In the title poem, God goes to beauty school because He likes hands and wants to do nails for a living. (He calls His shop "Nails by Jim" because He worries that if He called it "Nails by God," people would think Him sacrilegious and not tip). From there, God is caught up in all sorts of worldly craziness, from getting arrested to writing a fan letter to a country music singer. The poems aren't particularly meaty, and a few of them may be deemed offensive by some readers. They are frequently funny, however, and they play on Christian tradition without disrespect, ultimately celebrating God's kindness and love. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

School Library Journal
Read with an open mind and vivid imagination, it should speak to young people. A triumphant achievement.

Horn Book Magazine Starred Review
"Rylant puts to…use her folksy storytelling skills…and her ability to sincerely extols life’s simple…pleasures and painful losses."

Book Description

He got into nails, of course,
because He'd always loved
hands --
hands were some of the best things
He'd ever done.

In God Went to Beauty School Cynthia Rylant imagines a God whose curiosities about the world He created inspire Him to go out and experience human things. But what would God do if He could live in a human world? Would He write a fan letter? Get a dog? Make spaghetti?

God Went to Beauty School celebrates the simple things in life while taking a long, hard look at what it means to be human. Rylant's soft, reflective, and often humorous verse glimpses everyday life through wide and wondering eyes and blends the familiar with the profoundly spiritual.

Card catalog description
A novel in poems that reveal God's discovery of the wonders and pains in the world He has created.

About the Author
Cynthia Rylant was awarded a Newbery Medal for her novel Missing May and a Newbery Honor for A Fine White Dust. She is the author of several popular series for the beginning reader, including the "Henry and Mudge" books. Cynthia Rylant lives with her family in Washington State.

ANNOTATION

A novel in poems that reveal God's discovery of the wonders and pains in the world He has created.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A novel in poems that reveal God's discovery of the wonders and pains in the world He has created.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Like Hollywood movies that present God as a human being with curiosities and foibles much like our own, Rylant's imaginative series of poems about God living on earth are filled with more contemporary references than developed theological ideas. Here God buys a sofa at Pottery Barn, gets cable ("Funny thing is,/ He liked it./ He knew He wasn't/ supposed to"), and plays poker with Gabriel ("corn chips all over the place"). Rylant's tone is hip and the voice is compelling. She fills the stylish poems with sly, often comical, religious references, but overall, the narrative favors whimsy over substance. When God opens His own beauty parlor, He calls it "Nails by Jim" because "He was afraid to call it/ Nails by God./ He was sure people would/ think He was being/ disrespectful and using/ His own name in vain/ and nobody would tip." Rylant pushes the envelope of political and theological correctness, in a wink-wink, saucy manner. The poem "God Is a Girl" tells readers that God "wears guy cologne./ He listens to guy music./ He eats guy food./ .../ Which is why,/ whenever He gets the urge/ to watch reruns of Sisters,/ He's embarrassed./ He lights a big cigar/ and spits." Sure to prompt energetic discussion, and not nearly as wickedly subversive as it may at first seem, this book will probably offend religious conservatives unless they have a liberal sense of humor. But Rylant hits the target: teens filled with questions about faith and how they fit into the world. Ages 14-up. (June) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Karen Leggett

Cynthia Rylant takes the marvelously warm wit that fills the pages of The Relatives Came and sends God on a tour of the world He created. It is a perfect portrayal of a loving, concerned and caring, literally down-to-earth God. It will be too literal for people who don't want God named or described with any human attributes. Otherwise, younger readers will appreciate how real God becomes: "God went rollerblading./He loved it./He wasn't very good at it./He fell twenty times./ But God always bounces back." Older readers, including adults, will love the whimsy mixed with respect. After He went to beauty school, "God opened up His own shop./He was afraid to call it/Nails by God. He was sure people would think He was being disrespectful and using His own name in vain and nobody would tip." The nails came about, of course, "because He'd always loved hands￯﾿ﾽhands were some of the best things He'd ever done..." God's tour of earth includes getting a dog, buying a couch, making spaghetti, getting arrested, writing a book ("not that one") and going to the doctor, who notices the skip in His heart (which had started way back, "when He first heard/that some people/didn't believe in Him./It scared Him. Still does.") Cynthia Rylant's poetic perspective on God is filled with exquisite images, touching humor and reverence. 2003, HarperTempest,

VOYA - Cheryl Karp Ward 0060094338

Although God wanted "to learn how to give a good perm," He found that He was "just crazy about nails." Believing hands to be His greatest creation, by doing nails He could hold them and examine their intrinsic beauty. After climbing Mount Everest, stunned by the tranquility and awe-inspiring view, God laments not putting everyone there because "nobody'd want to hit the guy next to him on top of Mount Everest." In twenty-three separate verses, God experiences everyday living-gets a dog and a boat, buys a couch, makes spaghetti, becomes a girl-all to become truly "All-Knowing." He sadly and often incredulously puzzles or regrets how His creations have somehow missed His true intent, the humanitarian conduct of life. Finally, more humanized, more approachable, and more vulnerable, God goes back to being God. Rylant packs a powerhouse of parables into this short piece. This reviewer-who is rarely at a loss for words-can hardly find enough to do it justice. Humor is coupled with the not-so-humorous aspects of life, prophetic wisdom with myopic perception, and abstract thought of the mystery of the divinity of God with concrete images of a manlike, flawed being wearing a personal shroud woven of confusion, disappointment, and loss. A basic understanding of biblical scripture is needed to understand the message conveyed. With increasing desire to provide Christian fiction for students, this book is sure to be well received. Even the not-so-religious reader, when reading these achingly beautiful words, cannot help but muse at Rylant's spiritual depth and insight. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8;Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2003, HarperCollins, 64p,

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up-What if God was like one of us-someone who went Rollerblading, ate fudge, got a cold? Short, crisp poems pose these questions and answer them with clarity and candor. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews