Book Review: The God Puzzle by Valerie Ackermann
Book Description:
The God Puzzle is a colorful, easy to use tool to help you communicate to your child the rich truths about God, His ways, His will and His love.The God Puzzle will help you address doctrinal themes of the Christian faith in a kid friendly way, present Bible lessons in an interactive way that will hold the child’s attention and deliver quality teaching with no preparation needed. 75% of children leave the church when they leave home. Something isn’t working. Sunday School isn’t doing it all. Kids need answers, good ones. And they need them from you, the parent. This book enables you to give them simple, clear answers.
My Review:
I thought this was a wonderful way to grow closer to God and His word through study and discussion. It was full of Scripture to look up, asked age appropriate questions, and had different activities to break up the sections.
I thought the puzzle was a great way to look at the Bible and the author did a great job bringing everything together in a natural progression.
I brought our daughter in for this review as she is in the age range the book recommends. She has slight comprehension issues, so I was interested to see if this would be difficult for us to navigate together.
I had to break the verses down for her and explain them, but she definitely understood the phrases, matching, and other activities. We had great discussion.
So I was surprised when her review wasn’t excellent.
- She said it was a lot like a school book, and a lot of writing. I emphasized that I went a little fast and that the book is designed to go as slow or fast as the reader wants.
- She also felt a lot of content were things she’s received at home, school, and children’s church. She wondered if the book would be better for kids not familiar with the Bible.
- She was tired when I talked to her, but I tried to look at it from her perspective. She’s looking and writing in books 5 days a week. She’s visually stimulated, so for her to equate this to a school book, I think she needed more color, something a little different to make it look less academic.
Would every child be like this? I don’t know. But she was consistent that this wasn’t her favorite study, even with the two characters journeying through the book together.
As a parent, I loved it and thought it was well done. But I wanted to be honest regarding my daughter’s feelings.
What makes The God Puzzle unique?
– ready made discussion questions for parent to ask their child in each lesson
– can be done at any pace that works with your family…every night, once a week, 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there…it fits into realistic family life
– puts the pieces together for a child to understand God, the Bible, and the Christian faith
– in each lesson the responds to the truth so they understand their relationship to God is personal and life transforming
– any parent, whether they know nothing, or a lot about God can start teaching their child today with no prep
– deep theology put into language a child can understand
– deeply Biblical, each lesson points to Christ
– put in an order that starts with creation, and teaches the Bible as one story that all points to Christ
– child stays engaged by filling in blanks, crosswords, drawing, matching and using their Bibles as they learn
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
