Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent

Jotham's Journey : A Storybook for Advent. 

In this widely popular, exciting story for the advent season, readers follow ten-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family. Though he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, Jotham also encounters the wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem.

We finished this wonderful book on Christmas Eve, right before we went to the midnight service at our church. There is something so satisfying about sitting together in our family room, with Advent candles burning and the children spellbound, listening to every word of Jotham's story. The children are captivated and want to know what happens each night.

The story follows Jotham's journey to find his family after he gets angry at his father and runs away. He has many exciting adventures and our children want to read the next day's section. Jotham ultimately ends up in Bethlehem and his life intersects the lives of Mary, Joseph, and the newborn Christ child in a lovely way that brings home Christ's divinity as well as the humanity of his infancy.

As a homeschooling mother, I really appreciate the way Jotham's Journey makes biblical times come alive. Even though there are very few illustrations in the book, the text provides many details about daily life that raised good questions from our children, showing their engagement with the story and their desire to understand the setting.

Jotham's Journey IS a Christian story that tries to bring to life the true meaning of Christmas - the birth of the Savior. This is the first time we have read this book and I know it won't be the last during Advent. We loved this book!  Reading Jotham's Journey together has been a simple and completely rewarding way to draw our family together.