Tuesdays Treasure - 14

This week at the Plaza I noticed that they started putting out the Christmas decorations (a little early to my way of thinking!) which got me thinking that I wanted to share with you some of the books we use at Advent with our family in case you wanted to purchase them to bless your family before Advent begins on 27 November 2011.

Personally I love Advent as it is an opportunity to take all the commercialism out of the Christmas Season and a time to build family traditions and memories.  I love that it is an opportunity to pass on traditions to my children and to create traditions using the colours of Advent.  More on this next month ........

Jotham's Journey

• Author: Arnold Ytreeide
• Format: Paperback
• Number of Pages: 168
• Vendor: Kregel Kidzone
• Publication Date: 2008
• Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
• ISBN: 0825441749
• ISBN-13: 9780825441745
• Ages: 8-12
• Series: Family Story for Advent

About 11 years ago I first read about Jotham's Journey on the Sonlight Forum in the lead up to Christmas.  I was looking for something different to do that would enrich our family.  There were a few positive comments and some negative but I decided to take the plunge and purchase a copy (which is now falling apart with use) I must confess this is by far the BEST advent story book I have ever purchased.  Every year we talk about it and we read it for a couple of years in a row until I purchased the next two books in the trilogy: Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels. We now read one of the books each year starting at Advent.  I love Advent Wreathes and Jesse Tree's and look forward to sharing our stories with you this coming November and December.

A few of the book sites have listed this book for 4-8 year olds and I disagree with this evaluation as the story is quite in depth and needs children to be older for them to appreciate the content.  There are quite a few frightening happenings that young children should not go to bed thinking about (such as when Jotham's is kidnapped by .... (better not let the cat out the bag here LOL)) We tried reading Jotham's Journey with Sir N last year but he was too little to understand.

To obtain the full pleasure of the trilogy you need to read Jotham's Journey first.  The other two books can be read in any order. Each book comes with a chapter explaining Advent Wreathes and traditions.  The back of the book has a calendar giving the dates of Advent for the next 10+ years.  Each evening you light the candle on the Advent Wreath and then read the story.  (We share out a holiday lollie that we only eat at Advent) At the end of each chapter there is a focus on Jesus page with scripture and a prayer.

I found some great information on how and why Jotham's Journey was written. 

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 168
Vendor: Kregel Kidzone
Publication Date: 2009
Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
ISBN: 0825441730
ISBN-13: 9780825441738
Ages: 8-12

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 160
Vendor: Kregel Publications
Publication Date: 2010
Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
ISBN: 0825441722
ISBN-13: 9780825441721
Ages:8-12

These books are currently on sale at Christian Book.com and they are also available at Amazon.com where you can take a sneak peek inside as well as from The Book Depository and in Australia from Koorong.




Which are some of your favourite books for Advent ?

Blessings

Edited 12/10/2011

Thank you Erin from Seven Little Australians who recommended I take a look at Aussie Book Threads where she has a special section of  Advent / Christmas list of picture books and chapter books. Take a look and see if you can find something for Advent that would suite your children's ages.

This post is linked to Favourite Resources Link Up Party over at  Learning All The Time