Good news, and for me it’s seemed a long wait! During the past few months, two books have been published that are geared for our children and teenagers:
Teach It to Your Children: How Kids Lived in Bible Days by Miriam Feinberg Vamosh (Jerusalem: Avi Ofra Media, 2012).
What Did Jesus DO All Day? Discovering the Teen Jesus by Felicia Silcox (New York, Harrisburg, Denver: Morehouse Publishing, 2013)
Teach It to Your Children features twelve fascinating chapters geared for Christian children from age 5. The book was written for people who love the Bible and want to share its life-changing stories with the younger generation. Your children will love reading the beautifully illustrated fictional story accompanying each chapter. Then, together you’ll discover how each topic comes alive in the Holy Land, with information gleaned from the world’s top biblical scholars. And finally, for hours of meaningful fun, each chapter’s special message is brought home with Bible-based games and activities. Reading this book with your children is a wonderful way of fulfilling the biblical command to “teach them to your children—reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut. 11:19; JPS; cf. Deut. 4:9). For the story of how this book came into being, see Miriam Feinberg Vamosh, “How a Book is Born: Teach it To Your Children: How Kids Lived in Bible Days.”
What Did Jesus Do All Day? with its ten chapters, bridges two very different worlds—the one teen Jesus knew and the one our teens know today. Jesus knew the world of the Holy Land in the first century, an ancient world steeped in Jewish culture but molded by Roman rule. Archaeological discoveries continue to uncover what everyday life was like back then. The book features a timeline, glossary and bibliography. Each chapter has Scripture references and questions for discussion. Words, names and terms listed in the glossary are bolded in their first usage in the book. Also included are photos of archaeological discoveries that allow the teen to see—even touch—fragments of the world where Jesus lived. (For the story of how this book came to be written, see Felicia Silcox, “The Genesis of What Did Jesus DO All Day?”)
