Category Archives: Recs: Early Readers

picture books, and early chapter books, including Acorn and Branches books. Generally to about 3rd grade, but depends!

The Last Archer: A Green Ember Story

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Hello, everyone! I’m excited to announce our next read aloud will be The Last Archer: A Green Ember Story. It is a “companion novel” to the Green Ember series. Companion novels take place before or after the main story, or off to the side of the main story. So for The Last Archer, it is set in the same world as the Green Ember novels, but it focuses on the period before the main story of The Green Ember, and on a different set of characters. Our main character here is Jo Shanks. I’m happy to report there are four of these Green Ember stories, which we’ll be able to read together!

You’ll hear names of characters and places you recognize, and we’ll learn more of the back story of all that happened in Heather and Picket’s world. Click here to listen to Chapters 1-4. I’m already appreciating some of the life lessons I’m learning from Jo Shanks in the first chapters. Hope you enjoy!

Recommended Read: The Action Storybook Bible

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Hey, Gracepoint Berkeley church and beyond! You probably forgot about this here blog. I confess I kind of did too…until my *mom* mentioned to me that I hadn’t posted since last October. (Shout out to Mrs. Kim for reminding me to keep spreading the love of reading!)

I don’t want to make any promises, but I realize I should just write some posts about the books I most often recommend to people. Today I’ll start with a relatively new book from the super popular Action Bible franchise. As many of you who have read and love The Action Bible know, there are some intense parts (Valley of Dry Bones, anyone?). It might not be appropriate for younger kids, but at the same time, it’s a great way to get kids excited about reading the Bible. It’s awesome to see kiddos who come to Bibliopolis devouring The Action Bible, and reading it cover to cover multiple times.

Action-Storybook-Bible-3D-coverEnter The Action Storybook Bible: An Interactive Adventure through God’s Redemptive Story which came out this past October. It is designed for children ages 8 and under, and it is, as the subtitle states, an interactive reading experience.

I have one testimonial from a mom of a kindergarten boy here at Gracepoint Berkeley who said that her son asks to read it each day! There are questions to stop and talk about at the end of each section, so it can become a devotional type of experience for you and your child(ren) to share together.

So if you’re looking for a good book to go through with your child, or a good gift to get for the child of a friend or relative, I recommend it! We are carrying a limited number in our bookstore now. 🙂

Do you have an Action Storybook Bible testimonial to share? 

 

A Picture Book to Supplement Course 101?

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To continue the picture book theme I started (see my post on Halfway Herbert), today I want to feature The Big Red Tractor and the Little Village, another book by Francis Chan that was written in 2010 and I just discovered recently.

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Holly, Lydia and I took turns reading this one together. Their smiles speak for themselves. 🙂 

I don’t want to give away too much, but let’s just say that Farmer Dave discovers a special book that changes everything for the people who live in the little village. It’s reminiscent of the illustration of the cars at the car convention from Course 101, the Christian Foundations course we developed at our Gracepoint Ministries churches.

If you want a preview before purchasing the book for yourself, you can see this animated video version.