We read this as a family two years ago. It was by far our favorite part of Advent, and the Christmas season. Arnold Ytreeide does such a great job with these books. You read a chapter each night, with the end of the book culminating on Christmas. Although these books have been around awhile, until last year they were out of print. You had to rely on eBay or Amazon, and let me tell you the old supply and demand economics was definitely at work. 
You can imagine my joy when they announced the reprint. Although we had to take last year off, I just couldn't justify $100 for a book I knew I could get for less than $15 in a year. I was chomping at the bit to get our copy of Bartholomew's Passage for this season's Advent. I'm happy to announce our copy has safely made it to the Nomad Pad, and is patiently waiting for the first day of Advent to bring us great joy.
**Note to parents: The opinions about this book are mine, and mine alone. I first heard about these books on the SL-Catholic forum, where people were praising them. HOWEVER, as with everything, not everyone shares the same opinions. After I purchased the first book, I was scared stiff. One woman came out of her blog silence, and railed on and on about how terrible and awful the book was. She felt it was too dark and scary. Now when we read the first one, The General was 10 and Princess was 7 going on 8. My kiddos are pretty sensitive, and we had no problems. Please do read other reviews if you have concerns. End of warning.
Good luck planning your Advent season. If you do decide to go with Jotham's Journey, the first of the trilogy, you can find them here. Let me know what you think.
Oh, I'm so glad you brought this up, Tami. Jotham's Journey is one of the two books I'm getting ready to order for Advent. The other is The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean. I've been looking at it online and was considering buying it, but I found it at the library the other day and now I know I want to get it. I'll put Bartholomew's Passage on the list for next year. Thanks for the recommendation. I am SO looking forward to the Advent season!
ReplyDeleteI agree -- I like to being planning for Christmas AFTER Thanksgiving. That allows for the full enjoyment of each holiday in its own right. That said, I often end up starting too late, and there have been some years when the kids were little that we celebrated Orthodox Christmas instead of Western Christmas; those extra 13 days made a great deal of difference to me. However, the kids sometimes complained!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait til Desi is old enough to do this kind of reading! Do you have any special books you read to Bubby at this time of year? Nick always loved "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", and we read it every year. His father was atheist, and I had to be careful how much religion I put into things. So glad those days are over!!!
ReplyDeleteChristmas happens after Thanksgiving in our house as well. And we are doing our best to get away from a lot of materialism.
And I can't buy those cute advent calendars with the chocolates, lol....one year we bought 2 cause Dave ate all the chocolates. Do you use those? I ended up thinking it was a bit commercial.
Thanks for the suggestions!
ReplyDeleteDon't make me want more books! They sound good, I think I will check out the library at church.
ReplyDeleteBrenda,
ReplyDeleteWe have baby board Bible books, so we use those for Bubby. Another one I like is The Star of the Manger by Joni Oeltjenbruns. Tomie DePaola writes and illustrates some beautiful stories. Over the years some of my favorite books for the younger set have come from WalMart of all places.
Yes, we use the Advent Calendars. They are commercial, but they are lots of fun too. I think if we keep that stuff in perspective it is fine, because in the end Christmas is a great celebration. It should be fun. Now if the true meaning is lost in the candy that is a problem, but if you are explaining it as you go I think kiddos are a lot smarter than we think. I know my favorite part of teaching is the learning I experience. Enjoy!
Jody, you NEED these! They are that good.
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