Water or Goo?

This book was quite good. I liked the bit were the toilet at Emily's house exploded. I don't really get it when Daniel was on the TV screen, Dad got angry. It was good how in the end Shanti and her village got water that was clean, and it had a bible verse to it. Thanks Penny, for writing this book!

Matilda Cheng :-)

[aged 9. blogged with permission]

Write children's books

Here's a fine challenge from Trevor Cairney for Christians who have the ability to write children's books.

Children's stories and the gospel

Justin Taylor has linked to Trevor Cairney's post on Christian writing for Children, which is good news because what Trevor said deserves a wider readership.

Here's a quote from Trevor's post that I found fascinating:

The starting point for my seminar was the central proposition that the gospel of Christ is the central narrative to which virtually all other narratives have some relationship – certainly in the Western cultural tradition and literature. The central focus of the Bible is Salvation History; with its central narrative tracing both the history of Judaism and Christianity and God’s redemptive plan for his people. In the beginning God created…and it was good. But sin entered the world, man rebelled against him and so God placed a curse upon his creation that one day would end in judgement. But God always had a plan for such rebellion; a plan of redemption motivated by love. An amazing gift of grace; his own son sent to die that we might be restored to a relationship with him.

I have no idea at all how you work out that "the gospel of Christ is the central narrative to which virtually all other narratives have some relationship". I note that Trevor does qualify the statement somewhat, but now that he's put the thought into my head I am going to start reading fiction books with this question in mind. Wish I'd been at the seminar so I could have asked some follow-ups. I like the summary of the gospel that Trevor has given too, though I might have added something about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. That, I suppose, is the ultimate happy ending, though not for his unforgiven enemies.

I have three girls under ten and I have often thought I would like to write stories for them. Trevor's post is a good encouragement to this and it would be terrific if a few people read it and were spurred on to making their own efforts.

Actually I did once tell my daughter a story about a cat that didn't keep his word, got lost and ended far from home without its parents. It was all rather unpleasant really now that I think of it. Maybe that's why I stopped trying. Right now our youngest loves The Little Red Hen because she can read the words for herself. Hmm. I reckon this blog entry is one paragraph too long, starting to ramble now, and the dreaded ellipsis seems almost inevitable...

Oh, I know what I wanted to ask. Anybody read any good kid's books lately?

Kids reading grown-ups Bibles

I got a bit carried away with a comment on Nicole's blog so I thought I'd bring it over here.

The issue was, when do you start your kids on grown-ups' Bibles?

Our two eldest girls (9 and 6, nearly 7) are both on grown-ups' Bibles at bedtime. We just read and have a little chat about the stories. After a few weeks of sort of doing it unintentionally with Ruby (actually, she insisted, she was really excited about having her own proper grown-ups' Bible, even though it was only Luke's gospel) I thought to myself "Why haven't I been doing this always?"

What's good about it? Everyone enjoys it, you don't have to search through your memory to see whether the embellishments or omissions are significant, and it's the Word of God, not some hokey little kid's word game or picture puzzle as sold by Matthias Media ;-) where the answer to the deeply probing question is S-A-U-L or some such.

Matilda (9) even sat through the full list of names in Ezra 2 the other night. I think she just enjoyed sitting with me and reading, although by the end of the chapter she was looking a bit puzzled.

Hey by the way have you noticed the similarities, contrasts, and links between the account in Ezra of the people coming out of Babylon, and the links back to the Exodus story? It's pretty amazing, and I only really just picked it up as Matilda and I were reading. Ezra's not a book I turn to regularly, so that probably explains not having spotted stuff before.

The obvious thing is the contrast between Cyrus, who is so happy to let the people go, and Pharaoh back in Exodus who has to be forced to God's will. But what do you know, the people under Cyrus also give of their gold and silver, just like the Egyptians gave their gold and silver when Israel left Egypt. Also, back under Pharaoh the narrative makes a big thing of how many hundreds of thousands of Israelites left Egypt (all part of God keeping his promises to Abraham back in Genesis 12:1-3 about having multitudes of descendants). When you read Ezra 2, however, the numbers are pathetic. Take this random cut and paste:

Ezra 2:19 The sons of Hashum, 223.
Ezra 2:20 The sons of Gibbar, 95.
Ezra 2:21 The sons of Bethlehem, 123.
Ezra 2:22 The men of Netophah, 56.
Ezra 2:23 The men of Anathoth, 128.
Ezra 2:24 The sons of Azmaveth, 42.
Ezra 2:25 The sons of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, 743.
Ezra 2:26 The sons of Ramah and Geba, 621.
Ezra 2:27 The men of Michmas, 122.
Ezra 2:28 The men of Bethel and Ai, 223.
Ezra 2:29 The sons of Nebo, 52.

So it goes on. Matilda was very patient with it. Actually, I don't think she realized she was supposed to be bored.

(Remember Isaiah 10:22!)

It's a tragic little remnant isn't it? Clearly God is faithful even after his terrible judgement. And—just like in Exodus—the people having been rescued out of Babylon, where they were exiled, now set about rebuilding what they need for worship "as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God." (Ezra 3:2; an explicit link back to Exodus. Notice that there is no Sinai parallel, however. They already have the law).

So there you have several points of connection and comparison with God's earlier glorious rescue of the people from Egypt. The current little rump of people is so reduced that you don't know whether to laugh and rejoice over God's rescue of them, or weep and wail over the devastation that's been wrought. Like seeing an old friend after many years, now ravaged by cancer. And sure enough:

Ezra 3:12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,
Ezra 3:13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

Matilda was able to tell me afterwards that the reason those old folks were crying was because this new temple was nowhere near as good as Solomon's. When and how will God keep his promises to restore Israel? Will the people stuff up again? I can't remember how much of the other bits we went into. But there you go! We both benefitted from that bit of Bible reading. Isn't God kind!

Meanwhile Ruby and I are doing Luke paragraph by paragraph, and having a great deal of fun with it so far.

Ten Girls who changed the world (review)

Ten Girls who Changed the World by Irene Howat. (Christian Focus Publications, 2001)

What a messy looking book! That's a real pity, because the cover art on my edition is elegant, but they managed to trash it through cheap paperback production values, use of a sans serif font, and a few other bits and pieces that even I noticed. That means you're not going to give it away as a present to somebody without risking looking cheap.

The text of Ten Girls Who Changed the World, however, is not half bad. It's got ten and a bit pages each on Gladys Aylward, Mary Slessor, Isobel Kuhn, Elizabeth Fry, Jackie Pullinger, Amy Carmichael, Joni Eareckson Tada, Catherine Booth, Corrie Ten Boom and Evelyn Brand; all great missionary women who one way or another have been used by God to make a big difference in people's lives.

The stories are brief and well told, and there is enough gospel in them to make this more than just a group of inspirational tales. There are some fairly shocking insights into the way life is and the way other religions are.

So we learn, in the Elizabeth Fry story, about Newgate prison in the 19th century holding 300 women and children in four rooms, and that each day the women and men were allowed to mix together. Even this PG version has them "gambling and drinking, fighting and dancing" and spending time in the four rooms "cooking, eating, sleeping and everything else as well." Similarly we read in Amy Carmichael's story of how Hindu girls were offered up to the gods because they were unwanted. "They are given to women who are prisoners in the temples and they are kept there and become prisoners too. Then, when they are five or six years old, they are given to the priests and are slaves to them until they are no longer young and beautiful"

Black Beauty or Saddle Club this ain't. Mary Slessor's story tells of babies, thought to be demon-possessed, abandoned in the African bush, or killed and their mother cast out to die. Corrie Ten Boom's story speaks of the horrors of the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Yet at the same time, the theme of God's grace is strong:

One day, a long time later, a man spoke to Corrie after a church service. He had been a guard at Ravensbruck. 'Isn't it wonderful that Jesus has washed my sins away', he said, holding out his hand to shake hers. So many things went through Corrie's mind. Had he forced her to parade naked? Had he laughted at poor dear Betsie when she coughed herself sick? For a minute her arm seemed glued to her side. The she prayed a quick silent prayer and God filled her heart with forgiveness. Corrie Ten Boom took the man's hand in hers and shook it warmly. And that was a miracle.

Try to ignore the fact that this book looks like it was printed on toilet paper, and buy it for a girl eight years or older. It's no messier looking than the secular Horrible Histories books, popular with this age group, and has the grace of God predominating over the gore.

2 more preschoolers' Christmas presents? Well, one.

Read-Aloud Bible stories vol. 1 by Ella K. Lindvall; Illustrated by H. Kent Puckett.
The Nativity Play. by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen

I'm only going to recommend one of these.

These are two books for preschoolers, and they’re both pretty good in the sense that pre-schoolers will love them and they are readily available. I got mine at Moore Books in Newtown, but they should be easy to get in other places or, failing that, online.

You’re not looking for complexity when you pick up a book for a preschooler, and on the patented Cheng ‘non-complexity’ scale, both books are doing well. If you or your kids love the TV show or book Kipper the Dog, you and they will love The Nativity Play by the same creators (Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen) . Although at nearly $AUD16 where I bought mine you would want to love them quite a lot, as there are plenty of high quality secular pre-school books available for cheaper.

This one is the story of a kids’ Christmas play and is a lot of fun. I enjoyed the little kid dressed up with the donkey’s head, and the bit where they nearly lost the shepherd with the key line to a toilet break. And what was that key line? “The Saviour of the World is born.” That’s pretty good, really, and if I was giving a present to a family where eyebrows might be raised over the giving of a childrens’ Bible story, I would consider this as a fun and acceptable alternative.

The other book, Read-Aloud Bible Stories Vol 1. caused me more problems, although the problems won’t bother the kids at all. At least not until they reach adulthood and they start to reflect on their childhood and wonder why their Bible reading skills are so dodgy.

In fact, based on my own experience of several years of reading to little kids, this one is a winner from a storytelling point of view and you can see why it is still in print after so many years. Here’s a sample:

Too-little Zaccheus started to run.

(Go, Zaccheus. Go fast.)

He came to the tree.

(Climb, Zaccheus. Climb fast.)

Now Zaccheus was up high.

He could see the daddies coming.

And the mommies.

And the grandpas.

And the grandmas.

And the uncles.

And the aunts.

And the boys.

And the girls.

And the friends.

And THEN—

(well, you’ll have to turn the page, won’t you)

This is good stuff for parents who want to keep the attention of one or more restless children. Short, part of a series, and plenty of interactivity. The pictures are big, bold and simple. I don’t like them, but there’s no reason kids wouldn’t enjoy them.

However.

My main difficulty with this and, often, so many other Bible stories and story books that I pick up, is that apart from the fact that they’ve been taken from the Bible, both the stories but especially the way they are applied are almost incidental to the gospel message. God cares for you and knows you by name, that’s true. But to use the Zaccheus story of Luke 19:1-10 to establish such a point (as this read-aloud book does), is dodgy indeed. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” is what this incident is really about (Luke 19:10), but in the version here Zaccheus is not so much lost as short, or should I say TOO LITTLE (the story does). There is no indication at all, in this retelling, that he was a corrupt and sinful man who, in the face of grace, exemplifies repentance. That’s not good.

It’s not the only slip-up either. It’s true that God hears us, but this is not the main point of the Bartimaeus story, which is to contrast the faith of a blind man with the unbelief of those who shoud’ve seen who Jesus was, but didn’t. Jesus does welcome little children, yes, and he welcomes you—but the reason the story is there in Mark 10 is to teach other people that their understanding of the kingdom of God is wrong, and that they must become like little children in order to receive it. (see Mark 10:15).

Some of the stories are better, but in a volume where 3 of the 5 stories either miss the point, obscure it or get it wrong, why would you buy volume 2?

Pilgrim's Progress II

Which brings us back to Geraldine McCaurean's enjoyable retelling of the original. A few years back this particular book won a couple of Blue Peter awards, and you can see why. The sex changes of one or two of the characters comes as a minor jolt, but I don't suppose the kids will notice or mind that Hopeful is now a woman, for example. Many of the names have been changed to protect the guilty—'Pliable' has become 'Mr Bendy'; a certain 'Mr Alec Smart' appears on the scene to offer advice.

Other changes are slightly more disturbing, and all the more because they need a bit of close reading to pick them up. Bunyan's "cartloads of...wholesome instructions" that the King (i.e. Jesus) had commanded to be sent to fill in the Slough of Despond , in McCaughrean's version, has expanded to include " stone statues of saints, plaster madonnas, oil paintings in heavy gilt frames...and any amount of beautiful quarried marble". That's hardly the sort of material that the Protestant Bunyan would depict God sending to help his people out of despair, and it's not a helpful addition to this book.

Here's another. In Bunyan's version, Hopeful and Christian are very close to the end of their journey when they are shown a door in a hill by some shepherds. Here it is in the original:

Then I saw in my dream, that the shepherds had them to another place in a bottom, where was a door on the side of a hill; and they opened the door, and bid them look in. They looked in, therefore, and saw that within it was very dark and smoky; they also thought that they heard there a rumbling noise, as of fire, and a cry of some tormented, and that they smelt the scent of brimstone. Then said Christian, What means this? The shepherds told them, This is a by-way to hell, a way that hypocrites go in at; namely, such as sell their birthright, with Esau; such as sell their Master, with Judas; such as blaspheme the Gospel, with Alexander; and that lie and dissemble, with Ananias and Sapphira his wife.

We're in no doubt that those who turn away from God are destined for hell. Here it is in the McCaughrean retelling.

"What's in there?" asked Hopeful, intrigued."

"Oh, just the way back," said the shepherds..."Do you want to see?"

The shepherds carefully open the door.

No horned demons or impish ghouls streamed out, no bubbling tar. There was just a chute of blackness on the other side, a tunnel falling away into Nothingness, a fast route to Nowhere.

That's not what Bunyan wrote, and it's not even close. You couldn't read Bunyan and conclude that he was an annihilationist, a man who believed that after judgement we simply disappear into oblivion. But by contrast, you can't read this retelling without feeling that the full biblical doctrine of judgement has been not so subtly undercut.

One more thing, and that'll do. You can't read Bunyan's original without ending up knee-deep in Bible quotes by about the second paragraph, all meticulously referenced. They are all gone from this retelling, or only hinted at. Yet the solid ground of Bunyan's story is that, although allegorical, it is bedded down firmly in the truths of Scripture. Without that truth, it's just another (good) story.

There's enough of the grace of the original—and of the Bible—to make this rewritten version a book that could still have value. But I wouldn't buy it for my kids. I'm going to wait a couple of years and put the original Bunyan in their hands. Or maybe, read it with them and appreciate again the rich reminder of God's grace against the backdrop of his real and terrifying judgement of sin.

Another Christmas book—Pilgrim's Progress I

Sitting next to me on the desk here in the office is John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress, retold by Geraldine McCaughrean and illustrated by Jason Cockcroft.

Whenever I read retellings of Pilgrim's Progress it reminds me how much I love the original. The main character, Christian, is a deeply attractive person who struggles with all the normal doubts and fears of a Christian life. He is sometimes easily led astray by shortcuts and apparently wise companions—although with names like Obstinate, Pliable, Mr Worldly Wiseman, Formalist, Hypocrisy, Talkative, or indeed

"Mr. Smooth-man, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Mr. Any-thing; and the parson of our parish, Mr. Two-tongues"

you occasionally think that maybe Christian could've picked up a few more clues (Is anyone else thinking "My name's Smoke-too-much, Mr I-smoke too-much" from Monty Python?)

One of the best parts of the book is where Christian and his friend Hopeful come to a river of deep waters that all must pass through before they attain the Heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. Peter Jensen read from this passage at Bruce Smith's funeral a few years ago:

Hopeful therefore here had much ado to keep his brother’s head above water; yea, sometimes he would be quite gone down, and then, ere a while, he would rise up again half dead. Hopeful did also endeavor to comfort him, saying, Brother, I see the gate, and men standing by to receive us; but Christian would answer, It is you, it is you they wait for; for you have been hopeful ever since I knew you. And so have you, said he to Christian. Ah, brother, (said he,) surely if I was right he would now arise to help me; but for my sins he hath brought me into the snare, and hath left me. Then said Hopeful, My brother, you have quite forgot the text where it is said of the wicked, “There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm; they are not troubled as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.” Psa. 73:4,5. These troubles and distresses that you go through in these waters, are no sign that God hath forsaken you; but are sent to try you, whether you will call to mind that which heretofore you have received of his goodness, and live upon him in your distresses.

Then I saw in my dream, that Christian was in a muse a while. To whom also Hopeful added these words, Be of good cheer, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. And with that Christian brake out with a loud voice, Oh, I see him again; and he tells me, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” Isa. 43:2. Then they both took courage, and the enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over. Christian, therefore, presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow. Thus they got over.

Now, upon the bank of the river, on the other side, they saw the two shining men again, who there waited for them. Wherefore, being come out of the river, they saluted them, saying, We are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those that shall be the heirs of salvation. Thus they went along towards the gate.

Now you must note, that the city stood upon a mighty hill; but the pilgrims went up that hill with ease, because they had these two men to lead them up by the arms: they had likewise left their mortal garments behind them in the river; for though they went in with them, they came out without them. They therefore went up here with much agility and speed, though the foundation upon which the city was framed was higher than the clouds; they therefore went up through the region of the air, sweetly talking as they went, being comforted because they safely got over the river, and had such glorious companions to attend them.

John Bunyan writes with insight and sympathy about the fear of death, and because he does this so well, the comforts he offers about the glories and joys of heaven are all the more reassuring. I find it hard to read this passage without tears in my eyes.

Children's Christmas recommendations

From the comments on a previous post.

The See With Me Bible is great for pre-readers. The only words are a small summary at the end of each story (which should mostly be ignored). Very detailed pictures help kids to remember the stories really well. It does rely on the 'reader' knowing their bibles.

Candle Bible for Toddlers. One line per page. Simple stories. Lovely pictures. Great for the littlies.

The Lion Storyteller Bible. The author is employed as a storyteller, so the stories are really well written and even include suggestions for some stories for group involvement. The story is over two pages, so better for infants kids than toddlers since there won't be enough page turning for the younger crowd.

Yes, the little ones want to see those pages turned, don't they! I did like your comment that the words in the first one you recommended "should mostly be ignored". I know what you mean.

I'm interested in hearing more from other blog readers, and also why you like what you like.