Jennifer Engstrom

Great Christian classic

Revisado: 01-19-24

Such a powerful book! Definitely recommend to Christians of any denomination. Though there is some criticism of western Christianity, generally it is all Christians who need correction in our view of God, ourselves, and the world.

One disappointment is that part of chapter 3 is missing in the recording, and that may not have been caught if I were just listening. I also had a hard copy of the book, so I caught it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Good option for history on car rides

Revisado: 05-27-22

I'm a homeschooling mom of 2nd and 5th grade. History is a subject I enjoy as part of schooling of my elementary kids, but it usually gets pushed aside for the much more urgent tasks of reading and math. For their age, this was a pretty good way to "do history" in the car as we go about our days.

The narration and even content is somewhat dry (I wonder if more "interesting" narration would eliminate the seeming-dryness of the content.)

Some reviews have stated this is white washed and racist. I will say that I have not done extensive personal research on some of the specific points named in the reviews (accuracy of slaves being fed meat comes to mind). Those reviews made me hesitant to use this book for my purposes, but I decided to listen with an open mind and correct as we went along through discussion with the kids, as it did not seem there were other options that would cover this period in this narrative manner.

We are about 75% through the book and we have listened to the portions other reviews highlighted as problematic, mainly what the lives of slaves were like. The descriptions were sufficiently horrifying to my children that I do not think a book billed as a children's audio book should have anything more descriptive. My kids at 8 and 11 do not need to hear about the worst experiences the slaves had to endure to feel absolutely appalled that this was ever considered acceptable, nor have they been left with the impression that slaves lives were ok. What IS shared left them enraged and was graphic enough as it is.

The authors did not pull punches about the racism rampant in the hearts of white Americans, even those against slavery, so I was glad of that, as well as the opportunity to discuss the fact that even though there has been much progress since slavery was legal and expanding, racism and evil are still a problems today.

The rationale behind why southern slave owners kept slaves and how the slave trade came to the US may seem like apologizing, but I look at it more along the idea of wanting to know the motive and journey to a crime. We CAN just say the perpetrators were evil and committed evil, but that isn't very instructive.

There has been a lot of information about western expansion that I had either forgotten from my school days, or maybe just wasn't interesting to me as a student, that I am glad to be learning or re-learning. The authors also point out the importance of the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin in turning Northern hearts and minds more strongly against slavery. I am adding it to my personal TBR stack.

The bottom line: This is a good option for homeschool use. It is not perfect, and it is definitely better for my 5th grader than my 2nd grader. I wish it was slightly more engaging to listen to, but it may be hard to make this awful topic and shameful history easy or enjoyable. I think the authors are well balanced given the intended audience. I will take good over perfect rather than nothing at all.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona