Elizabeth Johnson offered our family the opportunity to review some new books published by Multnomah Publishers, Inc. She sent us a list of books with summaries to choose from. Here are the summaries provided by the publisher for the books we choose to review:
Kingdom’s Dawn, Kingdom’s Hope, and Kingdom’s Edge by Chuck Black
Good and evil clash. Leinad and Cedric are determined to not only survive, but claim hope and victory! In Kingdom’s Dawn , Leinad and Tess, along with all the king’s people, must escape slavery by the powerful Lord Fairos. Kingdom’s Hope finds them free and arriving in the Chessington Valley . But when they forget the king, will Kergon and the Kessons capture them for good? After many years, Kingdom’s Edge finds Cedric living a hopeless life until a stranger appears with powerful words of a new kingdom and a grand army. Swords, knights, and battles define these captivating tales that parallel biblical events from Genesis to the time of Jesus!
Kingdom’s Call, Kingdom’s Quest, and Kingdom’s Reign by Chuck Black
The final three books in the Kingdom series for young readers follow the life of Sir Gavin, a Noble Knight who aids in the execution of a stranger who comes from a distant land claiming to be the King’s son. When an unexpected encounter changes his life—and the kingdom itself—Sir Gavin received a new name and a mission to take the Prince’s message not just to the people of Chessington but to everyone in the kingdome of Arrethtrae. The quest for good in a dark world climaxes years later when the evil Dark Knight, Lucius, reigns in Arrethtrae with comlete authoriity. Will the King himself be able to return Arrethtrae to the land of light it was created to be?
Written for ages 10-15, the Kingdom series depicts the battle of good and evil without using magic, mysticism, or witches. Spanning the time of Jesus to Paul’s conversion to the second coming of Christ and the book of Revelation, the final three books in the series will remind children of their own significance in God’s kingdom. Each book contains discussion questions that can be be used as part of a homeschooling curriculum or to enhance discussion between family members.
When the first three books arrived, my 12 year old daughter read them in one day. The books are less than 200 pages each and have very engaging stories. She enjoyed explaining the biblical symbolism behind the stories and characters. My ten year old also enjoyed the books. However, the ten year old was disappointed that the third book in the series picked up the story a couple of generations later and did not continue with the same characters from the first book.
About the time we received these books in the mail, we had an "incident" at our local library. My 12 year old daughter is branching out from the children's section. She picked out a few books with a similar knights and middle ages look to them. After she brought the books home, she asked her dad if he thought they would be appropriate to read.
For days the library books sat on the counter by Henry's computer. We didn't have time to read a whole book, so I tried reading reviews online. Many of the reviews described the book as suitable for teens. Nothing jumped out as obviously bad. So, I resigned myself to spending the time to read the books so that I could comfortably give them to my daughter. When Henry finally sat down to read one, it didn't take any time at all.
Luckily, he started with the second book. It began with the teenage heroine lying naked with her lover, reminiscing about her exciting first sexual encounter. Her lover was a robin hood type, and they were are on a quest to find the heroine's betrothed. I thought, "Great. Let's just romanticize promiscuity and adultery. Just what I want my pre-teen to read."
Carmon at Buried Treasure has a good post about this sort of problem in so called "teen" books.
I like that the Kingdom series book because they are entertaining stories with a message I can support. Today, the next three book came in the mail. I told my daughter she couldn't read them until she helped me write a review for the publisher. My 12 year old daughter is a reluctant writer. I've never seen her write so fast. While I was reviewing my 12 year old daughter's book report, the ten year old walked into the office where we were working. The ten year old said that she had changed her mind and now wanted to read the third book in the series so that she would be ready to read the next three books.
I will end my little review with a few words from my 12 year old's book report.
The Kingdom series is full of bible symbolism. I can feel my Heavenly Father and Savior’s love through these books. I can groan with Moses about Israel’s pigheadedness and feel Adam's pains when Cane murdered Abel. The Kingdom series allows me to understand what and why things happened. I enjoyed guessing which prophet or person from the bible the Knights in the stories represent. Each of the books are extremely well written and I can’t get enough.
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Related Tags: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., Kingdom Series, Chuck Black, Christian books, public libraries, problems with teen books
2 comments:
My Hubby is a PRUDE about what the kids read and watch on TV/DVD. So when he SUGGESTED several times that I should have the kids read DUNE, because it was a Science Fiction Classic I got the books. I was busy so Lord Epa got to read them first. Talk about mature content.
It is hard to catch everything. I wish they had a website like screenit.com for books. (Screenit.com posts very detailed movie reviews which describe any possible questionable content. Note: You do not have to join to see the reviews, just click on the No Thanks button to continue.)
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