Tuesday 11 October 2011

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

12 comments:

  1. Chareen
    Don't you find postage from Christian book to Aust very dear? Maybe it is what I am choosing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Erin

    No I find their postage quite competitive really considering the items are coming from the USA. Their rates start at 33 % and get lower as your order increases. I went in with two other friends and our postage was only 20 % for airmail.

    Koorong and Word charge 23 % so there is very little difference. I often do a price comparison including postage to see if it's worth doing an overseas order.

    For Jothams Journey for example:
    Christian Book 7-99 + 10 = 17-99
    Koorong 13-95 + 2-95 = 16-90
    Book Depository 14-98

    So I would order the single item from the Book Depository

    Trilogy of books
    CB 22-99 + 10 = $33-99
    Koorong 49-85 + 6-50 = $56-35
    BD $44-94
    So I would order these from Christian Book.

    It takes a little bit of time but it's worth the research.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If this is a little old for Sir N to you have any recommendations for little ones my age?
    Jane

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Jane :)

    I would recommend The Advent Story Book.

    Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas (Hardback)
    By (author) Antonie Schneider, Illustrated by Maja Dusikova,

    http://www.amazon.com/Advent-Storybook-Stories-Before-Christmas/dp/0735819637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318411575&sr=8-1

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jane
    I have lots of pic bk rec's here
    https://sites.google.com/site/aussiebookthreadssite/advent-christmas
    and scroll to the bottom to find chapter books, an alternative to the set Chareen recommends is Jostein Gaarder's the Christmas Mystery.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Erin Thank you so much for that link. There are some great books there and I have a few of those on the Christmas bookshelf :) I am going to purchase your recommended one for Sir N to enjoy this year.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Erin

    Have you seen or read The Jesse Tree ?

    http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Jesse-Tree-Geraldine-Mccaughrean/9780745960760

    ReplyDelete
  8. Those are our 'favourite' books for advent too - so character lesson filled!

    I'm not sure if you've participated in this blog award yet so I've elected to gift you with a blog award. If you'd like to accept - and join in on - a One Lovely Blog Awards posting just pop over to our blog to pick up your award picture and post along.
    "No thanks" is a good asnwer too ☺

    http://www.last-in-line.info/2011/10/jasmine-of-retrobabooshka-has-gifted-us.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for sharing such a nice collection of books that are part of a wonderful tradition in your family! And, thank you for linking to Favorite Resources :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. You are welcome Susan. Thank you too for hosting a great link up.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've seen these recommended by a few people, haven't checked them out yet though

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Annette they are worth every penny. Please do invest in them. We love them very much my older children still talk about them.

      Delete

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