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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
The kids and I lost interest. It was my 4th time reading it, and I was seeing religious triggers, so I stopped reading it to them.
This one, for me, is hard to rate. Following the illustrator on IG brought me along with great anticipation of a wonderful children’s version of Pilgrim’s Progress. However, I did not realize the written adaptation would leave me frowning. I could not get my head wrapped around Christian and Christiana not being husband and wife. Bottom line … I love the illustrations and the core of the message is still excellent, but the change in relationships was too much for me to get used to. Side note: I bought the audio version. A grandson enjoys Derek Perkins reading the book as he follows along.
Read the illustrated version of this out loud to my 5.5 year old daughter. We both enjoyed it and were a bit sad when it ended.
My kids who have read Dangerous Journey many times loved meeting their old friends again, and the simple text and pleasant pictures made it accessible for my youngest. They all gave it 4-4.5 stars.
I hate to be a spoilsport but this book was awful. Granted, I have not read Pilgrim's Progress- I know the patriarchy is strong in PP but I also hope that its themes are less works based and, frankly, creepy than this children's version. I read this as a read aloud with my two middle school girls. The themes we identified are:
1. Boys are far more capable than girls.
2. Don't ever talk to anyone who isn't a Christian (God forbid we try to reach our unsaved friends).
3. Works based faith will get you to heaven.
4. Creepy cult masters will come for you when you die (seriously. The shining ones knocking on your door to send you over the death river gave me all kinds of horror movie cult vibes).
I'm oversimplifying, I know. But this is literally what we gleaned- it provided comic relief. We all randomly interjected comments like "because girls can't do anything" for funsies.
It's good to see how my kids can identify questionable imagery which solidifies their own firm foundation.
The illustrations are beautiful.
1. Boys are far more capable than girls.
2. Don't ever talk to anyone who isn't a Christian (God forbid we try to reach our unsaved friends).
3. Works based faith will get you to heaven.
4. Creepy cult masters will come for you when you die (seriously. The shining ones knocking on your door to send you over the death river gave me all kinds of horror movie cult vibes).
I'm oversimplifying, I know. But this is literally what we gleaned- it provided comic relief. We all randomly interjected comments like "because girls can't do anything" for funsies.
It's good to see how my kids can identify questionable imagery which solidifies their own firm foundation.
The illustrations are beautiful.
4.5 stars
I haven’t read Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress” all the way through (I plan to next year), so I can’t speak to how faithfully this book adapts it for children, but to me it seemed really well-done. I reserve the right to change my mind after reading the original.
Even on its own, this is a genuinely wonderful book. The portrayal of the characters as animals, and of Christian in particular as a young rabbit, seems to make the material more approachable for children while still retaining the incredible power of Bunyan’s original work. As an adult, I was deeply moved throughout, especially when little Christian makes it to the Celestial City. The second half of the book tells the story of Christiana, portrayed as another young rabbit who is little Christian’s friend (rather than wife). The way this story frames the journey of the Christian life and the single-minded determination of the pilgrims to serve their King and reach His palace in the Celestial City is truly awe-inspiring and deeply encouraging. Obviously we have Bunyan to thank for that, but I think Helen Taylor does a really great job telling the story in a way that children can learn from and understand and grow to love and that adults reading to them can love too.
I haven’t read Bunyan’s “The Pilgrim’s Progress” all the way through (I plan to next year), so I can’t speak to how faithfully this book adapts it for children, but to me it seemed really well-done. I reserve the right to change my mind after reading the original.
Even on its own, this is a genuinely wonderful book. The portrayal of the characters as animals, and of Christian in particular as a young rabbit, seems to make the material more approachable for children while still retaining the incredible power of Bunyan’s original work. As an adult, I was deeply moved throughout, especially when little Christian makes it to the Celestial City. The second half of the book tells the story of Christiana, portrayed as another young rabbit who is little Christian’s friend (rather than wife). The way this story frames the journey of the Christian life and the single-minded determination of the pilgrims to serve their King and reach His palace in the Celestial City is truly awe-inspiring and deeply encouraging. Obviously we have Bunyan to thank for that, but I think Helen Taylor does a really great job telling the story in a way that children can learn from and understand and grow to love and that adults reading to them can love too.
Pretty good, but not as good as the original. However, my son was able to track along with the story
I started this book as a read aloud with my five-year-old. The chapters were a great length for this. The book held his attention. I decided to just read the first half of the book with Christian's story. We will go back and read Christiana's story eventually.
Read aloud with the kids. Soren really liked it. Having never read the original I can’t compare it to that, but I’ll be honest in that I thought reading this was like being whacked on the head with the obvious stick. But it was really easy for the kids to understand and it led to a good discussion on metaphor and symbolism and the kids felt really smart after that. The pictures were gorgeous.
Although different from the original pilgrims progress ( Christian is a little boy who’s mother has died and playmate is Christina ) it still keeps intact much of the original story. While there were sometimes I didn’t like name changes of Characters such as Apollyon to Self there were many times that the changes that were made to the original story brought tears to my eyes. It is truly a beautiful book. The illustrations are breathtaking. If you have kids you need this book. If you don’t have kids you need this book.