Book Review: Jotham’s Journey

Posted by Cindy on December 21, 2006

Wow!  That’s the best word I can think of to describe this book.  Since baby is on his way any day now, we didn’t read through Jotham’s Journey the way you’re “supposed” to.  We began the first of December and read one, two or three chapters a day until we finished.  I have to admit that it would have been hard for even *me* to read one chapter a day because they are so exciting and leave you wanting more.  We also didn’t do the Advent candles with the book, simply because we weren’t following the daily reading schedule.

I highly recommend this book!  One caution, though, it is intense at times and some little ones may find it to be too scary.  My 6 1/2 year old listened intently and loved the book, but would ask many questions about the story throughout the day if we ended our daily reading time with an especially serious cliff-hanger.

The author is a master storyteller and weaved such an interesting story line that it often left me with my mouth open in awe of his creativity in tying together the story of our Savior’s birth with the story of the main character.  He also did a wonderful job of allowing the main character to grow in wisdom and stature as we watched.  I especially loved the “main message” of how our disobedience has consequences, and I was glad to see that Jotham recognized this and tried harder each time to be more obedient.

Sadly, this book, as well as the other two in the series – Tabitha’s Travels and Bartholemew’s Passage (I think I have those titles right) are no longer in print.  From what I understand, the author is trying to find a new publisher.  Maybe we can all bombard Purple House Press with a request to reprint these??  Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on the other two books in the series!