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Editorial Review Product Description
With whimsical, full-color illustrations and engaging prose,this book teaches church history in a fun and creativeway. Dramatically converted on the stormy seas, aslave-trader-turned-abolitionist penned the best-loved hymn of theChristian faith. A church father was arrested and martyred forteaching the truth about Christ’s incarnation. Captured bypirates and shipped off to Ireland, a priest baptized thousands ofpagans, from paupers to princes. Now who ever said church historywas boring? The Church History ABCs is a fun way for kids to learnabout great figures in Christian history. Twenty-six heroes ofthe faith march through the alphabet, boldly telling their storiesin language children can understand. This wide range ofcharacters—men and women from across the centuries, fromall over the globe—reflects the breadth of church history andreminds children that these great figures of the past were living,breathing people who lived and died for the glory of God. ... Read more Customer Reviews (9) 
Church history fun for all ages
Children's books on church history are rare, good ones even rarer and ones that can appeal to all ages rarer still.The Church History ABCs by Stephen J. Nichols and Ned Bustard is a children's book that certainly falls into the latter category.You would think that a book about church history would be geared towards older children and a book about ABCs would be to kindergarten-age children.How then does Nichols and Bustard manage to quite successfully marry the two concepts?
Each letter of the alphabet features a prominent figure from the history of the church.There are the more well-known ones such as Calvin, Edwards and Spurgeon.But there are also some not-so-well-known people like John Donne, Hippolytus ("Let's get one thing straight, my name is Hippolytus, not hippopotamus"), Tertullian, Vivaldi and Florence Young.Each person is accompanied by a brief informational snippet about that particular person, written from his or her perspective.
The beauty of each letter/person is that every piece of information can stand on its own depending on the age of the children.For instance: "'A' is for apricot, apple and Augustine - Africa's ancient bishop."That alone is enough to teach a younger student to associate a letter with a name as well as other common items such as an apple.For the student that is a little older, the biographical information can be included.For the more curious/able student desiring to know more, there is still further information about each person at the end of the book.
The real fun part, however, is in the illustrations and can probably be turned into a game of sorts.Hidden in each illustration are clues about that person that will be answered either in the brief biographical sketch on the same page or in the fuller paragraphs at the end of the book.For example, "A" is for apricot and apple, but why is there a pear on Augustine's page?What's up with the heart John Calvin is holding?Why on earth is Jonathan Edwards wearing an Indian headdress and eating chocolate?Why is Spurgeon holding a sword and a trowel?The subtleties in each illustration make discovering more "secrets" about that person all the more interesting.(And don't think we didn't notice the cigars in Spurgeon's pocket!)
This is an excellent resource for children of all ages to learn about great people God has used down through church history.I'd give this book 6 out of 5 stars if I could.
(Thanks to Crossway's Homeschool Book Review Program for the opportunity to read and review this book.)
Good Resource
The Church History ABC's is a wonderful resource to accompany an ABC's curriculum (and there are several free ones out there!). It's really a great resource to accompany any home library.
It has just the right amount of information to wet a child's appetite for history. Being geared for kids [roughly] 4-8 years of age, it has the potential to offer plenty of fun information for a 4 year old, while allowing for further study for an 8 year old. In addition to having some extra facts in the back of the book, it's a great opportunity for making a library visit to check out each person individually.
I appreciate the extra words they include for each letter to help a child understand each letter has a sound and the hero (or heroine) mentioned was not just coincidental. While I have sat down with my children (ages newborn - 8 years) and read a couple pages, I wanted to hold off and weave it in with our home school, which I'm so excited about!
Also, there is a nice website with further activities - [...]
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*This book given to me courtesy of Crosswayin exchange for this authentic review. To read my full disclosure policy, please click here.
Educational yet entertaining Tour of Church History for Multi-aged Children
Crossway's newest release in the field of church history is an alphabetical romp through church history designed to both engage as well as educate children about the men and women chosen to represent the heroes of the faith. Interestingly, The Church History ABCs: Augustine and 25 Other Heroes of the Faith by Stephen J. Nichols and illustrated by Ned Bustard easily lends itself to reading (and rereading!) on multiple learning levels:
1. The basic core text of each page can be simply read aloud to younger children, as in "E is for eggs, elephants and Jonathan Edwards."
2. If desired, a parent can then ask questions or clarify what is represented in the picture or what the parent knows about the historical figure. Since Jonathan Edwards is wearing an Indian feather and beads, the parent can explain how Edwards became a missionary to the Mohicans.
3. Alternatively or additionally, the parent could read the additional text which explains the historical figure's life from his own perspective.Reading additional information might be reserved for a slightly older child or during successive readings.
4. Older students could also read the appendix, which includes further information about the significance of different items pictured with each character and further detail about his life. For example, Edwards loved to eat chocolate and purchased a great deal of it, which is explained within the appendix. (The appendix does contain a very small font size, so seems best geared to middle school age or older--yet pre-bifocals age.)
5. A different historical character could even be studied each day or each week, with a student researching the person and discovering more information about him.
Some of Bustard's illustrations also include photographs of items which relate to the character yet which are better represented in photographic format, such as Oxford University on the page delegated to John Owen. Bustard's illustrations can be described as stylized colorful drawings, and fans of Veritas Press may recognize him as the illustrator of some of the Phonics Museum titles. Several coloring pages and activities can be downloaded from the book's webpage. Also included within the appendix is a listing of these historical people in chronological order, for those who prefer to study them in this order.
Overall, I found this title easy to read, interesting for my children (as well as myself!), flexible in its use for multiple age levels, and broad in its scope of historical coverage. Furthermore, I like the nicely oversized hardcover and the occasional humorous elements. Perhaps my only complaint with this title is that occasionally an odd selection of an historical person is made, reflecting the authors' personal favorites--or in some cases, broadening the scope of historical coverage. Our family welcomes this interesting, flexible title to our homeschooling library and anticipates re-reading it often and with deepening appreciation.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Crossway. No other compensation was received and my own opinions are expressed in this review.
The Church History ABCs
I received The Church History ABCs from Crossway in order to review. This juvenile book tells stories of people of church history in short, easy to read segments. Just as there are 26 letters of the alphabet, there are 26 "heroes of the Faith" introduced. We start with A for Augustine, "Africa's ancient bishop" and end with Z forZwingli, "Zurich's Reformer".At the end of the book, there are four pages containing more details about each person.
Although this book is short enough to read all the way through in one sitting, I would recommend you pick a letter of the alphabet, go to that particular page, read the information there, then go look up more information about him or her on the internet or in your local library. This could easily be used as a starting point for a biographical report.
I personally don't care for the illustrations, but I can easily overlook these. Also, the type could be larger, especially the last four pages. In all, though, I like the book. It's educational and even I learned about several people I had never heard of.
I received this book for free in exchange for my honest review.
Loved by me. Loved more by my daughter!
My thoughts? (part one) If you have kids and want them to have a primer in church history, get this. Like, now. Seriously.
The gist? This book is a colorful, kid-friendly ABCs of, you guessed it, church history. From Augustine to Zwingli, you'll find illustrations and a paragraph for each person. In the back, a more adult-slanted paragraph can be found, which also explains some of the more cryptic pictures. For example, Jonathan Edwards is eating a chocolate bar in his because he loved that particular treat, and he has a spider pictured with him as a call back to his famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," in which he compared sinners to spiders dangling over hell by a thread. (Wow. That sounded creepy, as if you'll find that type of thing in these pages. No worries, this book doesn't delve into imagery like that!) The authors also provided a chronological timeline in the back, from Ignatius (who died in 110) to Florenece Young (died 1940).
My thoughts? (part two) I have a sweet girl who loves this book. I'm not sure how much she's getting from it yet, because some of the vocabulary is a little over her head (it's geared toward kids a little older than her, ages 4-8), but she loves the colors, loves to have Mommy read it to her, and loves asking questions about the words and pictures. Did I fall in love with it right away? Yes. Do I love it even more now because she loves it? YES.
Did I love it when she climbed into bed at 6:30am yesterday with the book, woke me up, and asked me to read her all of the stories? Notsomuch. But I do still love the book!
And did I mention that you should get this? 'Cause you should.
Edited to add: Oh my goodness, I just found the book's website. (I don't think Amazon allows links, so just search for it.) It has coloring pages and activities for some of the people featured. I'm psyched.
(The FTC requires that I disclose that Crossway Books provided this book for me to review. Crossway, however, required nothing from me and didn't ask for a positive review or anything else.)
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