Medieval Castle

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Medieval Castle,
Designed by Willabel Tong, Illustrated by Phil Wilson
(Piggy Toes Press, 2004), hb.

This is not the typical book I have discussed here. It is not a story but a visual. You open it all the way until the two covers meet revealing a 3D pop-up of a medieval castle. Doors open from one room to the next, as well as closets, treasure hidden under carpets, and even secret passages behind tapestries! It also has a working portcullis and several punch-out figures including knights, ladies and a dragon. This is great fun and a good way to familiarize yourself with medieval castles. This has been a big hit with my boys.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Audio

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While traveling during Spring Break we listened to the Harper Childrens Audio edition of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.. We read the whole Chronicles of Narnia series a couple of years ago (mentioned previously), but recently I have found both Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair in this unabridged audio editions for $10 a piece- about 67% off! We love Narnia so I picked them up- the more editions the better! I mention this first of all to suggest you might find these CD’s discounted in stores near you. I wonder if they are left-overs after the initial rush of Narnia items with the release of the movie.

Second, the reading is very well done. The Focus on the Family Radio Theatre editions are well done with the dramatic portrayal, but it is also good to have the whole book read, and read well. It is also nice to hear the stories read in an English accent, since this is how Lewis would have thought of his stories. Certain things just come out differently.

I could read/listen to these stories endlessly. I don’t know how many times we have gone through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Listening this time, though, opened up a good discussion with my boys about honor (drawing from Reepicheep)- what it means, how important it is and how forgotten it is in our culture today. This conversation is continuing to bear fruit.

On this listening I also noticed even more Lewis’s emphasis on children reading the right books. The most famous instance is Eustace not knowing anything about dragons because he did not read the right kind of books. This kind of critique is mentioned often. Also, in a number of places the children explicitly draw from events in stores they have read in order to decide how to deal with situations facing them. Lewis was overtly campaigning for the reading of classic fairy tales and myths.

We love to have good stories on CD for traveling. These unabridged Narnia books are more demanding than the Radio Theatre. I think they are especially suited for those who have already read the stories once and therefore can follow along more easily.

“I’ll Love You Anyway and Always”

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I’ll Love You Anyway and Always, Bryan Chapell
(Crossway, 2001), hb., 28 pp.

I like to see prominent theologians, pastors and professors writing children’s books. Chapell has written some very helpful books on preaching and Christian living, so I was quite interested in this book.

It is essentially a gospel presentation growing out of an instance of a father forgiving his daughter. The setting is quite touching with the little girl acknowledging her wrongdoing and then asking her father if he still loved her. Anyone with children can melt at this response. The father affirms his love by saying, “I’ll love you anyway and always.” He then takes the opportunity to describe God’s persevering love as well. He walks through the unfolding story of the Bible of God calling a people to Himself. The story ends with the little girl applying this forgiving love to her brother who had wronged her.
The gospel presentation was fine. The greatest thing about the book, in my opinion, is the example of a father taking such opportunities to explain the gospel to his children. Discipline/correction is an area wide open for us to explain the gospel. Also, the closing with the girl applying the truth in her interaction with her brother was very good. It helps children see that the gospel when received calls for us to extend the same forgiveness.

The Landing of the Pilgrims

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The Landing of the Pilgrims(Landmark Books), James Daugherty
(Random House, 1950), pb., 149 pp.

This was a much better book on the Pilgrims than the last one. Daugherty provides a good, accurate, well-told account of the Pilgrims from their time in England, to their flight to Holland, their eventual move to the New World and then their struggles over the crucial first three years. I really appreciated having this full scope of the story. You really can’t appreciate their labors and perseverance without the whole story.

This book is a straight forward telling of the story rather than a dramatized, fictional account. We typically enjoy the fictional stories best as they personalize the history through the eyes of a young boy or girl. However, this account was well done. It was not as dramatic as many other books we have enjoyed, but that is not its intent. My boys said they really enjoyed the book. One nice touch is the frequent quoting of accounts from some of the Pilgrims themselves (I have posted one quote on my pastoral ministry blog). I assume the quotes are primarily from William Bradford, but it is not made clear. Such clarity would be an improvement.

We recommend this book. You should know, though, that the quotes and the chapter titles tend to use older language which can be difficult. With a little explanation though you can make it through. One key point with the quotes is to realize that the letter “y” is used in place of “th”. This is never mentioned in the book, though a footnote to this effect would be helpful. Realizing this will make reading the quotes easier.

Lastly, while this is not presented as a religious book, it does handle well the Pilgrim’s faith. We would recommend this book.

William Bradford on persevering in spite of danger

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I am currently reading to my boys about the Pilgrims. In our current book (review coming soon), the author occasionally provides quotes from William Bradford’s journals. The following quote really struck me. Bradford is talking about the attempt to plant a colony in the New World. I thought of it in connection with pastoral ministry (no doubt it could apply in various areas), particularly the effort of renewal in the church. It will be difficult, there will be costs. Yet, it is worth it. This is good advice. Let us not be paralysed by fear. Rather, let us press on in faith.

“All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties; and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate; the difficulties were many, but not invincible. For though there were many of them likely, yet they were not certain. It might be that sundry of the things feared might never befall; others, by provident care and the use of good means, might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne or overcome.”

Chrysostom on Reading not Just Possessing Books

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I recently came across this quote while reading in Chrysostom’s sermons on John’s Gospel. I thought it was just as relevant today.

Furthermore, tell me who of you, when at home, ever takes the Christian Book in his hands and goes through what is contained therein, and studies Scripture? No one would be able to say he does. However, we shall find that games and dice are in most houses; but never books, except in a few. And the latter have the same attitude as those who do not possess books, since they tie them up and store them away in chests all the time, and their whole interest in them lies in the fineness of the parchment and the beauty of the writing, not in reading them. They have not bought them with a view to obtaining help and profit, but are eager to acquire them to make a display of wealth and ambition, so excessive is their vainglory. Actually, I hear no one priding himself because he knows their contents, but because he possesses one written in gold letters.

Now, what profit is there in this, pray? The Scriptures were not given merely that we might have them in books, but that we might engrave them on our hearts. The very possession of them was of itself, in truth, an object of Jewish ambition, since their laws were set down only in writing; yet from the very beginning the Law was not given thus to us but was set down in the bodily tablets of the heart. I am saying these things not to proscribe the possessing of books, since, on the contrary, I approve this and desire it very much, but I wish both the letter and the meaning of them to be borne about in our minds, that, upon acquiring the knowledge of these writings, our minds may in this way be purified.

Chrysostom, John Saint. Commentary on Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist: Homilies 1-47. Translated by Sister Thomas Aquinas Goggin. In The Fathers of the Church, ed. By Roy Joseph Deferrari. New York: Fathers of the Church, 1957. This link seems to be of a more recent reprint.

Learning Evangelism from the “Great Soul Hunter”

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Our state Baptist paper just ran a short piece I wrote with this title. It arose from discussions in my Johannine Literature class. I continue to be intrigued by watching how Jesus handles people, particularly in John’s gospel. This brief column deals with Nicodemus and the woman at the well. The theme could be continued with Jesus’ dealing with the crowds in John 6 and 8.

Hospital Visit

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I have obviously been away from blogging for a while. I took my wife to convenient care Wednesday morning (a week ago) with sharp, terrible pains in her side. We were sent from there to the ER and eventually were in the hospital until Friday. There were some tense moments as the cause was unknown, and then the early diagnosis was a likely blood clot in her lung. Eventually they discovered there was no blood clot (great relief!), but the cause was pneumonia which was creating inflammation and irritation in the lining around the lung. Antibiotics have worked well so that we came home last Friday, and, while she is not back to 100% yet she is much, much better. We were sustained in many ways by our church and other believing friends. It has been a wonderful thing again to watch the church at work.

Our last night in the hospital, we had an experience that reminded me of the importance of the pastoral role. We were awakened about 2 am by much commotion. A man on the floor had suddenly quit breathing and there was a scramble to save his life. In the midst of it the grief of his wife could be heard. My wife stirred me suggesting a pastor might be needed. As I emerged from our room and let the staff know I was available if needed, I heard the wife of the man in danger cry out amidst her tears, “Oh, I wish my pastor were here!” It was no fault of her pastor’s that he was not there. They were from out of town and no one had expected the visit to be life threatening. I was able to sit with her and pray with her as she waited. In the end they were able to regain a pulse and eventually they were moved to another floor. The last I heard the man was continuing to improve.

This experience powerfully reminded me of the importance of the shepherding role. It is a lot easier to read and write sermons than to walk with a person through the valley of the shadow of death. I do not intend to minimize the importance of study or preaching, but simply to assert that our wrestling with God and His word should result not only in sound exposition but in a reservoir from which to draw to aid individuals facing crises in life. This is a demanding task, and we need much grace. We must also habitually walk with God to be prepared for these instances. I found myself feeling unprepared.

Also, the cry- “Oh, I wish my pastor were here!” he has stuck with me. How often is this the cry, spoken or silent, of people whose pastors see themselves as simply business managers, professional speakers, etc.? May this never be so in our flocks. Let us be faithful to the charge given by the Chief Shepherd to watch over those whom He has bought with His own blood (Acts 20:28).

Voyage to Freedom

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Voyage To Freedom: A Story of the Atlantic Crossing 1620, David Gay
(Banner of Truth, 1984), pb., 149 pp.

We have a couple of books on the Pilgrims but opted to begin with this one. It was not a great choice. The style of the book is ponderous, and the vocabulary is difficult. It was frustrating reading. It seemed the author overdid it in an attempt at an elevated style. He would move into personification of the ship or storm in ways that were unclear and seemed forced. There was also a large amount of repetition. At points it seemed that almost every statement was repeated. Even where you might expect someone to say something twice for emphasis, it would be stated four times! This was annoying as I tried to read.

My boys especially like stories that incorporate children as main characters in the midst of historical events. The fact that this story was written from the perspective of a brother and sister provided some interest. There was a good example of forgiving enemies, some examples of earnest prayer, and a sobering account of a man who died rejecting God.

In the end we would not recommend this book. There are too many good books to be bogged down with one that is so laborious to read. The story of the Mayflower crossing can be told in a much better way.

UPDATE- While reading our next book on the Pilgrims, we have discovered some historical problems with this book. First, and most problematic, is the discussion of William Butten as a sailor who cursed the pilgrims and eventually died. Our current book says William Butten did indeed die of sickness on the voyage but he was a servant of one of the Pilgrims. Some searching confirmed that Butten was a servant and not a sailor. There apparently was a sailor who cursed the Pilgrims and then died, but he was not named William Butten.
Second, the book makes the point that no Pilgrims died on the voyage. This can be regarded as technically accurate, but it is misleading when you make a point of God’s protection from this. William Butten, a servant boy of one of the Pilgrims, did die on the voyage. You can get around this by saying he technically was not a Pilgrim himself. This seems a stretch. Then four other Pilgrims (including the wife of William Bradford and one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact) died on board the Mayflower during the months of stay on board before a suitable dwelling was built on land. This signals less than careful handling of the facts.
Lastly, I should have mentioned this before, but the author often referred to the Pilgrims as Puritans. They were in fact Seperatists.

Along Came Galileo

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Along Came Galileo, Jeanne Bendick
(Beautiful Feet Books, 1999), pb., 95 pp.

The next book after a string of really good books tends to be judged hard- and the Mr. Pipes books were really good! Therefore, it was with some uncertainty we moved to this book on Galileo. It is a brief book, so in our first reading we covered three chapters. After we finished my straightforward nine year old said matter-of-factly, “Well this book is neither exciting nor interesting.” We persevered, but it never really improved. Not only was it not very engaging, it was unclear what age group was its target. The writer paused to explain that a Grand Duke was a really important person (a painfully obvious thing to my 10, 9 and 6 year old), but discussed without any nuance the fact that Galileo was not married but had children with his companion (which was not at all clear to my boys!). All of a sudden I had to explain how this could be so.

Furthermore I was not pleased with the description of Galileo’s conflict with the church. There was conflict, and we have discussed how the church had some wrong ideas at this time (why Luther led a Reformation, etc.). The relation between science and faith is an important one that I want to present well to my children. It does not come across well in this book. Galileo is presented as arguing “that there must be two separate languages- the language of the Bible and the language of science” (64). This may be the way Galileo expressed it (I don’t know), but in a book pitched to children this deserved better handling since a “two languages” approach is often taken today in a way which marginalizes the testimony of Scripture.

In the end we would not recommend this book. It was not engaging and you could get the valuable information from an entry in an encyclopedia. The value of a book treatment is supposed to be in expressing such information in a way which appeals to the children and thus helps them to remember it.