Book Review of:
My Answer Journal: What Kids Wonder
about God and the Bible
© 2000 by Mary J. Davis
Copyright 2011 by Lauretta Marigny - All rights reserved
Someone told me they used this as a family devotion book. I liked what the author did, but do not think she intended it for family devotion time.
The book has fifty-one lessons, or questions, grouped into nine chapters. The first is "Your Questions," a section of questions asked by real children. Then there are seven chapters dealing with various topics, e.g. God's Word, Prayer, and Being Saved. The final chapter is "Your Turn." It gives a blank lesson, and then explains how you can find the answer to your questions by using a concordance.
The book's strengths are:
It asks, and then answers, various questions children might have. The questions are well-chosen, for example, a few questions are: Who is the Holy Spirit? and, Can kids understand the Bible? The book uses scripture to answer the questions. Sometimes the scriptures are written in the book and sometimes the author just gives the reference. In the latter instance the child is expected to look them up.
It uses the Bible (the NIV, which is a very good translation) to make its case.
It has the elements of good devotion time, e.g. journaling, reading, and praying.
It teaches children how to find answers for themselves in the Bible.
The book's weaknesses are:
Some lessons in the book ask the child to look up and read a lot of scripture. The lesson on page 130 says to read 27 Bible chapters and the lesson on page 38-39 asks the reader to look up 23 different scripture passages. I think a child might get discouraged and quit the book if you expect them to do all of that. Maybe a parent could suggest that some lessons be done over a period of several days.
I thought one lesson interesting because the author asked the reader to use the King James to support one of her tenets. She was answering the question, "Were there once things on the earth like unicorns and dinosaurs?" The King James uses the word unicorn several times. However, the NIV and another translation that I trust (over the King James) translates the word wild oxen. Even in the King James, when they use the word unicorn, a few times they put "rhinoceros" in the margin as an alternate translation.
The book would best be used for a child's personal devotion time. If it was altered to be used for family devotions the journaling aspect of it would be lost. However, those questions might create good family discussions.
