4.28 AVERAGE

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was SUCH a great book. The kids (10, 8, 6) said it is one of the best books we've ever read. We listened to the audio, and the kids looked at the pictures in the physical book (the one with the animals). We had read Dangerous Journey a few years ago, but this was our first time reading Little Pilgrim's Progress. 
adventurous challenging hopeful slow-paced
wildreader14's profile picture

wildreader14's review

5.0
adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The original “Pilgrim’s Progress” is a classic tale of how to live a Christian life among the Evil and Wickedness of the world.

This version takes the story and puts it into a way children (and anyone young-at-heart) can enjoy and understand!

The illustrations of the animal characters are very cute and help visualize the characters’ journey. (Personally, I think character names like “Evangelist” and “Faithful” fit talking anthropomorphic animals better than humans)

The chapters are very short so it’s fast paced. Overall, Highly Recommend this version!

I really enjoyed this book. Initially I thought it was an abridged version of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress but it ended up being a children's version of the novel, with children as the main characters. Now I want to read Bunyan's own version and see the difference between the two. This version by Taylor was really well done and made everything easy to understand. It certainly could be a great children's novel for parents to read to their kids at bedtime and then explain how the Christian life is like that.
At first, I was dismayed at the lack of community present in the pilgrim's life. However, this element became a lot more evident throughout the second half of the book and I am glad it was structured that way. I appreciate that it covers the many difficulties and joys of being a disciple of Jesus and that it shows that there is variety in each person's journey. Some have an easy journey, others extremely hard; some are alone, others have a strong community; some are old, others are young; some people die for their faith, others abandon the faith; and sometimes the journey is easy, other times the journey is almost impossible. All in all, this book is a great allegory of the Christian life and does an extremely good job of portraying it well. Although no allegory or metaphor is perfect, the imperfections certainly don't hinder the truth.
bfrodermann's profile picture

bfrodermann's review

5.0

My son loved it and couldn't wait for us to read the next part each time

Read this aloud to our girls and they gave first half of the book (about Christian) 4 and 5 stars and they gave the second half (about Christiana) 3 and 4 stars. I found many of the analogies wonderful and cried more than once, but some parts of the book definitely dragged for me. Overall, very glad I read it and that we now have the shared experience of it.

Split votes from the kids but well written and brought up great talking points, even things we don’t agree with. Illustrations are great. Overall, loved the discussions that came about.

Great book. Read with 2 kids ages 8 and 10. They loved it, and begged for more. Easy to understand, and brought in great talking points.
emmatalksaboutbooks's profile picture

emmatalksaboutbooks's review

4.0
emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
adventurous funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated