Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
As a parent, I want to be sure that my children are reading and studying the Bible. I want to make sure I’m modeling that and helping them to set good habits that can grow with them into adulthood. It can be hard to find the right tools and to know how to answer all the questions to do this, though. With both of my kids are interested in Biblical prophecy, I feel way out of my depth on that particular topic – and that’s why we’re so excited to read 30 Prophecies: One Story from Christian Focus.
I was excited to receive this book and to start reading through it, but My Big Helper walked by as I pulled it out of the envelope. After asking if she could look at it, she grabbed it, started flipping through it, and walked away. It was difficult to retrieve – a sure sign of a winner in this house.
Later, when I finally got the book back and sat down to read it, My Little Man sat down beside me. He promptly tugged it out of my hands, put it on his lap, and started reading. Lost it again.
Since we are in history competition season and workloads are high around here right now, we’re spending less time on our read-alouds than we normally might. My kids are both teenagers, though, and they’re very capable of reading on their own – and read it they did (it’s geared for kids ages 5 – 12). With our time constraints, I never was able to read it with them, but when I tried to talk to them about it, they bubbled over with all of the things they liked about the layout of the book.
My Big Helper really liked the features of each chapter. Most chapters are a double-page spread, although some are a little longer. Each section is marked by the symbols above, and each element is clearly spelled out. The language is simple and direct and easy to understand. We all enjoyed this. I like not having to worry about figuring it out or misunderstanding something, but I also like the section that explains what the scripture would have meant to people of the era. Knowing that culture, traditions, language, and customs are all different, it’s hard to know how meaning might change over time – and having this spelled out is important.
I also really like the application section. I think this is something that many people miss when they hear sermons or read the Bible. If we’re not looking for those ways that it all applies to us, it’s easy to miss those important items – especially when they’re wrapped in terminology that isn’t so common anymore. We have to look deeper, and this book helps kids do that.
As a kid, teen, and young adult, I tried many times to read the Bible. I really wanted to – but I never made it even halfway through Genesis. I had no idea how to do that, and I always got lost because I didn’t know how to fit the pieces together. Reading the Bible chronologically helped me to put the pieces together, and that’s why I appreciate the timeline that’s included in 30 Prophecies: One Story. It will help kids see which prophecies were happening when, and that helps you to put the whole story together.
There are several other cool features like this in the back of the book. My favorite was a list of character profiles. For each person, it lists what that person did, what that person wrote, and where you can find his story. As a student, I was taught how to study – and when I started looking at the Bible as a text I wanted to study, it made it much more approachable. This list will do the same thing for even very young kids.
You can see that the pages are simple but clear. The icons show what each piece of text is, and the illustrations bring home the point without being distracting.
30 Prophecies: One Story is a great book for kids in elementary grades and older. It would make a great read aloud, but if your kids are like mine, bringing it in the house is all it would take for the book to disappear and to be read. The author does a great job of showing that the Bible contains different kinds of text, and that one of them is prophecy. These scriptures are made clear and applicable, with a great deal of context and information that is suitable for the whole family.
Most important of all, everything in the book relates back to the Gospel message. Whether your children have chosen faith for themselves yet or not, there’s something for everyone in this book – but don’t take my word for it. Read other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew to find out what other people are saying.
