Reading is kinda our thing around here. The kids go through so many books in a week, so it's always exciting when we get a new one to review. I've said before that we like all types of books from fiction to nonfiction. This time, we enjoyed a fictional book that is based on factual events. Imagine. . .The Great Flood by Matt Koceich places the reader in the story of--yep, you guessed it--the Great Flood.
Barbour Publishing was kind enough to send us this book. The company has been publishing Christian classics at value prices since 1981. With over 1,000 titles--covering audio books, Bibles, reference books, children's, devotionals, fiction, nonfiction, activity books, music, and more--there's something for everyone. This was the company that introduced us to the Diary of a Real Payne years ago. The kiddos liked that book so much that we purchased the other 2 books in the series. I was looking forward to reading another book that they offer.
Imagine. . .The Great Flood is the first release in an exciting new adventure series by Matt Koceich. Matt, a schoolteacher and missionary, began the Imagine series to help bring the Bible to life by portraying what it may have been like to live through a monumental biblical event. The books are written for ages 8-12, but are good for anyone who loves an adventure.
The day we received the book, the kids were getting over an illness. The two little boys (the ones who don't sit quietly for very long, ha) were napping, so it was the perfect opportunity for some reading. My girl cuddled up with me under a cozy blanket while the other two boys grabbed some Legos to keep their hands busy. At the halfway point in the book, I asked if they wanted to stop. Of course they didn't, and we finished the book in one sitting. It took less than 1 1/2 hours to read it aloud with a few short breaks. The 110 pages are broken into 15 short chapters, making it a quick read.
The story begins as Corey's life is falling apart. He doesn't understand why his family has to move. The idea of a new school, new city, new everything, scares him, but his mom assures him that he needs to trust God. Suddenly, Corey found himself face-to-face with a lion. Somehow, he had been transported back thousands of years to the land of Mesopotamia. He befriends Shem, son of Noah, and helps him load the animals on the ark. It was not an easy task though as they soon were attacked by the Nephilim. Superhuman giants, lion attacks, smashing boulders, a secret plan, a traitor, a sorcerer, a raging river, a deep pit, and a rhino ride are some of the excitement they experienced as they worked to prepare for the Flood. Corey learned to trust God and see the blessings in situations that he didn't understand. When he returned to his present time, he had a new attitude and learned a valuable lesson: things change, but God never changes.
The book is full of adventure and suspense. It does a good job putting the reader in the story and giving a glimpse of what it could have been like to live during the time of Noah. The only thing that I don't care for is that some of it is not biblical. I understand filling in details to make a story, but to change facts that are in the Bible to make a story "better" doesn't make sense to me. For instance, in this book, the rain pours before all the animals and Noah's family are in the ark; whereas the Bible says that they were in the ark and that God shut the door before the rain began. I made sure to read my kids the biblical account of this event and talked about this and a few other details that varied.
One thing that we found funny was that one of the character's name is Ardad (our dad). We made many jokes while we were reading (and even over the next few days, ha) whenever his name was mentioned. "Our dad did that? That doesn't sound like something our dad would do! Our dad lived before the Flood?" They thought it was so funny.
Here's what the kiddos had to say about the book:
Barbour Publishing was kind enough to send us this book. The company has been publishing Christian classics at value prices since 1981. With over 1,000 titles--covering audio books, Bibles, reference books, children's, devotionals, fiction, nonfiction, activity books, music, and more--there's something for everyone. This was the company that introduced us to the Diary of a Real Payne years ago. The kiddos liked that book so much that we purchased the other 2 books in the series. I was looking forward to reading another book that they offer.
Imagine. . .The Great Flood is the first release in an exciting new adventure series by Matt Koceich. Matt, a schoolteacher and missionary, began the Imagine series to help bring the Bible to life by portraying what it may have been like to live through a monumental biblical event. The books are written for ages 8-12, but are good for anyone who loves an adventure.
The day we received the book, the kids were getting over an illness. The two little boys (the ones who don't sit quietly for very long, ha) were napping, so it was the perfect opportunity for some reading. My girl cuddled up with me under a cozy blanket while the other two boys grabbed some Legos to keep their hands busy. At the halfway point in the book, I asked if they wanted to stop. Of course they didn't, and we finished the book in one sitting. It took less than 1 1/2 hours to read it aloud with a few short breaks. The 110 pages are broken into 15 short chapters, making it a quick read.
The story begins as Corey's life is falling apart. He doesn't understand why his family has to move. The idea of a new school, new city, new everything, scares him, but his mom assures him that he needs to trust God. Suddenly, Corey found himself face-to-face with a lion. Somehow, he had been transported back thousands of years to the land of Mesopotamia. He befriends Shem, son of Noah, and helps him load the animals on the ark. It was not an easy task though as they soon were attacked by the Nephilim. Superhuman giants, lion attacks, smashing boulders, a secret plan, a traitor, a sorcerer, a raging river, a deep pit, and a rhino ride are some of the excitement they experienced as they worked to prepare for the Flood. Corey learned to trust God and see the blessings in situations that he didn't understand. When he returned to his present time, he had a new attitude and learned a valuable lesson: things change, but God never changes.
The book is full of adventure and suspense. It does a good job putting the reader in the story and giving a glimpse of what it could have been like to live during the time of Noah. The only thing that I don't care for is that some of it is not biblical. I understand filling in details to make a story, but to change facts that are in the Bible to make a story "better" doesn't make sense to me. For instance, in this book, the rain pours before all the animals and Noah's family are in the ark; whereas the Bible says that they were in the ark and that God shut the door before the rain began. I made sure to read my kids the biblical account of this event and talked about this and a few other details that varied.
One thing that we found funny was that one of the character's name is Ardad (our dad). We made many jokes while we were reading (and even over the next few days, ha) whenever his name was mentioned. "Our dad did that? That doesn't sound like something our dad would do! Our dad lived before the Flood?" They thought it was so funny.
Here's what the kiddos had to say about the book:
I like the giants.
My favorite thing is that Noah saved him and he saved Noah.
I like how it was about the Bible.
We really enjoyed Imagine. . .The Great Flood by Matt Koceich despite the few inaccuracies and look forward to reading the second book in the series which explains what it would be like to live during the Ten Plagues in Egypt.
You can connect with Barbour Publishing on the following social media sites:
You can read more reviews of this book on the Homeschool Review Crew blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment