Jotham's Journey: An Advent Storybook to Nurture Faith and Imagination

Momof8: These are great read aloud for families with children. The stories are captivating and the children are interested in knowing what happens next. Excellent author.

United States on Jul 11, 2023

akaladybug: 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.

United States on Apr 25, 2023

Olga: We loved reading this book with the whole family. The storyline captured our attention and transported into the ancient times. Each chapter closed with some ideas to reflect on and gave opportunity for discussions.
I recommend this book to every family.

Canada on Mar 09, 2023

BMBWriter: 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.

United States on Feb 15, 2023

Christine Sanchez: 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.

United States on Jan 08, 2023

Steven Ibbotson: Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent (Kregel, 2008) was recommended to our family for the  Christmas season. Although we were not able to read it during Advent*, our desire is to do so next year and enjoy the book afresh.

The story finds a young Jewish boy, Jotham, lost and separated from his family one night while assisting his father, a shepherd. As a result, he is picked up by a traveling caravan and encounters various people, some helpful, some not so beneficial. Of course, all the adventures lead him towards the baby in Bethlehem, though not without some harrowing experiences.

Clearly the author has done his research on life in first century Israel and Jerusalem and weaves some interesting biblical history in with his creative and expert storytelling. The book definitely provides a variation on a traditional Christmas advent reading, though not to a point of being untrue to the Scripture narrative.

Note: There are some parts of the story that may be too violent or "scary" for young children (eg. Jotham is separated from his family for an extensive period of time and thus camps with "strangers.")

Our children (7, 9 & 11) enjoyed the...

Canada on Jan 25, 2020

Lucy: My mom bought Jotham's Journey thinking it would be nice to read a chapter to the family each night of Advent. 'Simple, short, spiritual.' the author had written in the introduction. Perfect. A Christmas story for the whole family.
By the second chapter we were looking at it more critically. The wide, fearful eyes of the younger children as Jotham watched his own blood drip from the fangs of a demon-jackal made us wonder how this story was supposed to relate to the birth of Jesus Christ. After discovering that this horrific scene was just a dream, we kept reading, although now slightly doubting that this would become a read-it-again Christmas favorite for our family.
I will say that we were kept on the edge of our seats as Decha of Meggido relentlessly hunted the ten-year-old Jotham throughout the story, and for good reason. This man was portrayed as some sort of human fiend. He murders an old man and is proud of the fact that he killed his father at the age of twelve. Decha continues to find opportunities to assure Jotham that he will, eventually, kill him too, and his ruthlessness is proved once again when he slices off the fingers of another young boy.
Jotham himself...

United States on Dec 31, 2019

J. v. Kirchbach: Wonderfully atmospheric book for advent. The scene of Israel at the time of Jesus‘s birth is depicted through the eyes of a child and for the ears of children ! Historical information is mixed with biblical stories and each day‘s reading ends with a mini- sermon, something to think about and consider the meaning of advent time today ! Our family loved it !

Germany on Dec 27, 2019

sheila K.: We have read this book a few years already. My kids (8+) loved listening to it as a read aloud during Advent.
Even the second time around was very enjoyable for us all.
The only contention I have with this series is that the wisemen don't arrive in time for the stable, they come a year or 2 after.
But still a very, very well written, exciting story for the Advent season.

Canada on Feb 25, 2018

tina chan: I only paid a little over a dollar for this ebook so I hesitate to criticize but.... there are more editing mistakes than I would consider acceptable in a published material and sometimes it reads a little awkwardly. The plot is, however very exciting and it is interesting how the author wove the coming of Christ into the story. I am reading it to my 7yr old and I have to edit the more gruesome or violent scenes because he would get very scared and have nightmares about it. I feel it would be more appropriate to be read without editing to an older or less sensitive child.
Over all the story is very good and makes you want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen....it certainly gets my child into bed for story time each night.

Canada on Dec 17, 2014