Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent (Storybooks for Advent)

The book is designed for a parent to read aloud to the family. Children ages 4-10 would probably enjoy the story (the heroes/heroine) are all 10 years old. Readings are broken into sections to be read each day of Advent. At the end of each section are some questions to discuss. The reading always ends on a cliff-hanger so you want to come back every night and read it. Lots of customs and insight into the world of the Jews at the time of Jesus make it interesting even for adults. Great story! So are the sequels: Tabitha's Travels and Bartholomew's Passage. We also got Ishtar's Odyssey. I think it was written later and isn't quite as great, but still really good.

I sat down to read the first installment of "Jotham's Journey" and ended up reading the whole story. The conflict, tension, and cliffhangers kept me reading. This story will keep everyone's attention. There is the threat of violence and some scary situations, so parents should read the story to see if it is age appropriate for their children.The villain, Decha, is formidable and keeps coming back like the energizer bunny. Older children may get a kick out of this, but Decha's violent nature may be off-putting to some readers.I liked how the journey ends at Christmas. The Advent readings tie nicely with the story and highlight the importance of Jesus's birth.Ytreeide captures your attention in chapter one and keeps you reading until Christmas morning.

This advent book is perfect for Christmas. As a mom I enjoyed reading an exciting and suspenseful yet biblically sound story with a devotional and lesson that encouraged my spirit and my children’s. It’s great for the family together and we looked forward to it every night. I will mention though, if you have younger children, it can be very descriptive and slightly mature at some parts, for example without giving away the story, death, slavery, violence are mentioned. I just jumped over the descriptive parts and said something vague instead. I still give it 5 stars just parent discretion if you have little ones who might get nightmares and very empathetic you’ll want to be aware to avoid certain parts of the story and find a way around it. My 3 year old lost interest quickly but my 6 and 7 year olds loved it. We look forward to making this a new family tradition and we tie this in with Seeking Shepherd instead of the elf leading up to Christmas.

We read this as a family in December. Although we received the book late, we caught up. Everyone (7 and 9year old) had a difficult time not finishing the book at once since it’s so well written.

We read this advent story for Christmas last year and my daughter absolutely loved it . The only think she didn’t like was not reading the whole book at once . But we loved the story and the lessons and the way it pointed everything to Jesus

This book was an excellent choice for our family read-aloud time during Advent leading up to Christmas. It brought the Bible to life (made it easy to understand; living book) and it includes thought provoking questions at the end of each chapter.

Loved reading this with our kids - from age 5 and up the engagement was really great. Loved the exstensive deep dive into the historical cultural background which Jesus was born into. Really fun!

My children loved this book when they were in elementary school. We read it out loud with the whole family. Now I’m reading it to my Grandchildren and they love it too!

So well written, that both the children and myself were enraptured from the very start. Highly recommended!! A story with a great twisting plot, and great thoughts at the end of every section. We will be reading this again. I'd recommend this to anyone with older children, or whose children have great imaginations. Even my three year old could follow along because of the colourful imagery painted by the text. Fabulous book!! I cannot recommend it more. This book has challenged me in great ways.

It's good story, with plenty of zip to keep it interesting. 9yr old and 7yr old boys were really engaged. It's somewhat jumpy in narrative with a few too many characters but kids really enjoyed it and we loved the reflections. Will do the other one next year.

A wonderful book for the whole family. My children were always pleading with me to read more. Exciting and well written. Loved the way it used so many biblical characters

We really enjoyed reading this book over the last few weeks. Very exciting but definitely PG 13 rated. Not suitable for very little ones.

Absolutely made our Advent. 11 year old and 6 year old sons were particularly gripped but 4 year old daughter also enjoyed.