Last year in my 12 Days of Christmas Planning series, I highlighted one of my favorite children’s book series in my Celebrating Advent post.
I thought it was worth revisiting this year and sharing a short review for those of you who are unfamiliar with the series. These books are highly worth the purchase! I only recommend products and purchases to my readers that I believe in wholeheartely, and these are at the top of my “all-time-favorite-children’s-books” list.
A few years ago, my friend’s family came over for dinner at the end of November. She gave me an early Christmas present that turned out to be one of my family’s most anticipated traditions of the year!
She gave me the book, Jotham’s Journey by Arnold Ytreeide. It is part of a three book series which also includes Bartholomew’s Passage and Tabitha’s Travels. Each of these books is an Advent storybook, so they are intended to be read each day for the four weeks leading up to Christmas. Read one book each year, and you will have three year’s worth of Advent stories.
The first year, we read Jotham’s Journey, with our children every day either after lunch time, or before bed time. I have never seen my kids so excited about a book. Every chapter is so intense, it’s almost impossible to set down without peeking to see what happens next. I homeschool my children, and we often read books aloud after lunch, but I honestly never had my children beg me to read the next chapter (or chapters!) of a book the way they did with this!
Jotham’s Journey is the story of a shepherd boy who becomes separated from his family and follows his journey to find them. As he travels, he encounters theives, kidnappers, and a number of popular Biblical figures involved with the story of the birth of Christ. Jotham is on more of a journey that he ever realized. It is action-packed, suspenseful, and intense.
It is recommended for ages 4-8, but my personal opinion is that the minimum age should be 5 or 6. On the other hand, my 12 year old still finds the stories hard to resist and is really looking forward to the next book. It’s hard to put an age cap on the books because even my hubby and I enjoyed reading them with our children, but probably the best age range in my opinion would be 6-16.
I was so thrilled about it and enjoyed the book so much myself, I got the next two in the series. Last year, we read Bartholomew’s Passage and loved it just as much. There were some surprises we enjoyed that tied into the first book, so that was fun. This year, we will be reading Tabitha’s Travels and we can all hardly wait to begin (me included :))!
I also found that Ytreeide wrote another book that is an “Advent” for Easter. It’s called, Amon’s Adventure. I purchased it and gave it to my kiddos last Christmas. They were ecstatic! We read it before Easter and loved it, too. I do recommend waiting to read that until after you’ve finished the three book Christmas series, because it did have a few tidbits of information that we didn’t know fromTabitha’s Travels. It doesn’t give away any major spoilers, but I still think it’s better to wait.
The anticipation of waiting a year in between each book is not easy, but it makes it so much more fun! Each and every chapter ends with a major cliffhanger, so you can hardly wait until the next day to see what happens.
There is also a short devotional at the end of each chapter that can be used to talk with your children about the real meaning of Christmas (and Easter). Honestly, I have a few theological differences than the author, so my recommendation is for you as a parent to read the devotionals ahead of time and decide if it is something you would like to use or adapt.
I hope this review was helpful, and if you decide to read the series with your children, I would LOVE to hear about it!
Merry Christmas!
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Who publishes these book? thank you
Valerie, it is published by Kregel Publications.
thank you .after reading your reviews and a few others and checking out the publishers statement of faith I ordered all 4 books they sound like they will be a great addition to our home library!
I’m glad you got them, Valerie. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear about it. 🙂
Oh, we love, love, love these books! This year we’re beginning again with Jotham’s Journey – I have a 6 & 9 yr old who haven’t joined in before…but my 14 year old is just as excited (she can’t remember all of the details from before). Our family has been so blessed by these!
Enjoy Tabitha! 🙂
I don’t have little children or grandchildren but i do have an “adopted” sister and her little girl has become my niece (when you are an only child you have to go out and adopt family). Anyway, these books sound wonderful for her and me both! I can hardly wait to order them. Thank you so much for sharing!
You’re welcome, Diki. I would love to hear what you think! Enjoy! 🙂
I’ve never heard of these books but you have sold them to me. I am looking forward to receiving my first copy as much as my kids ha!
I’m glad to hear you’re going to try them, Britney. Let me know what you think. 🙂
Hi Ginny ~ We read Jotham’s Journey and to say that we loved it is an understatement. What a wonderfully written story. Simply beautiful. I had a great deal of difficulty getting through the last few pages – I was so moved by the thought of passing by the mother of the Messiah – then the last chapter! Amazing. My 7 year old son also begged for “just one more chapter, Mom? Pleeeeeze?” He loved Jotham so much that we are now reading Tabitha – not waiting until next Christmas. I will be ordering Amon’s Adventure, too. These books are such a blessing.
Thank you so very much for recommending these books. The time we have spent reading & talking about the powerful messages is something I will cherish always. Any other great book on your shelf?
Remarkably, the author lives about 20 miles from me. I would love to meet him & his family. Surely, he has traveled to Jerusalem, Bethlehem & all points in between.
Thank you, again.
Grace & peace to you.
I am SO glad to hear how much you liked Jotham’s Journey, Audrey! Thanks so much for letting me know. I don’t always hear what people think about my recommendations, so it’s nice to get some feedback. If you haven’t already started Tabitha, I would recommend reading Bartholomew first. Although there aren’t major spoilers, there are a few things that could give away a bit of the suspense in Bartholomew if you’ve already read Tabitha. The same goes for Amon. It’s meant to be the fourth book in the series. However, since it’s for Easter, it is a bit different, but you will meet the original characters from Jotham’s Journey in it, too. Have fun! And I TOTALLY know what you mean about the emotions! There were times that I couldn’t even read because I got so choked up. My kids thought it was hilarious that a book could make me cry. 🙂