Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Abraham's Journey Review #hsreview

Photobucket


We love to read in our house and were very excited to receive a new book to review from Inspiring the American Dream.  We received a paperback book titled Abraham's Journey.  A physical copy of the book costs $14.99.  It is written by coauthors Robert and Kathleen Basmajian.  This book is a "best fit" for ages 7-12.  I did read it to children younger than this who did understand and take away things from it, but they were not able to read it themselves.

Homeschool Book review
Cover of the book we received.
Through the course of the book Abraham meets several different people.  He meets with Abraham Lincoln(called the Wise Old Man), Martin Luther King Jr, Amelia Earhart, Mark Zuckerberg, as well as Bill and Melinda Gates.  By meeting with and talking to these people, Abraham learns how to fulfill his dream.  His dream is synonymous with the American dream.  Abraham must focus and use his faith, compassion, and charity to help himself achieve his dream and that is what each person as an American must do to achieve the American Dream.

The book starts with Abraham learning that his parents have lost their jobs and there will be no presents for Christmas.  He sets out to find a way to make Christmas special and help everyone still get presents.  As I was reading this to my children they understood this and tried to brainstorm of ways to still have presents with no money.  They wanted to wrap up toys that were theirs to give to their siblings or make something for each member of the family.  Both great ideas but not what Abraham came up with.

Now comes a part that my kids weren't all that familiar with.  Abraham texts his friends on his smartphone to try to think of ideas for saving Christmas.  Neither my husband or I have a smartphone and our children haven't really been around them much(the oldest is 8) and do not have phones of their own.  I had to explain to them that some phones are like computers and that you can search for things and do things on them.  We've used computers for school so they were okay with that explanation.

Anyway through his phone Abraham meets his guide, The Wise Old Man, who is Abraham Lincoln who will guide him through cyberspace to meet the other characters and help him learn how to achieve his dreams and work for what he wants.  Through his journey Abraham learns about himself and others.  He learns how to help himself achieve dreams and how to help others.  He learns to be kind and give to others who have less as well.  The book ends with his family helping out some homeless by donating books, blankets, and money.

homeschool book review
Pages from the book.
My children listened intently thorough the book and liked the ending.  They labeled it pretend but did say that they wanted to keep it and read it again.  I think as they get older they will get more from the book and understand more.

To read more reviews of Abraham's Journey make sure to head to the TOS Crew Review Post and click on all the different reviews.  We all reviewed the same book, but everyone takes something different away.

Disclaimer:  I was provided with  a copy of this curriculum for free in association with the TOS Schoolhouse Review Crew.  I was not compensated in any other way besides this curriculum.  All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own and not influenced in anyway.  I was not coerced to write a positive review but rather wrote my own thoughts(or those of my children) on the curriculum.  I am disclosing this to be in compliance with the FTC Regulations.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! This sounds like a really great book. I would love to read it to my kids...I will have to check it out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a nice book - and different.

    ReplyDelete