Tabitha's Travels: A Family Story for Advent (Storybooks for Advent)

We read one book a year at Christmas and the kids love the stories. It’s a great tradition and leads to lots of discussion. Also each of the 4 main characters (one per book) appear briefly in one another’s stories. My kids love it - they hear the description of the child and try and guess which character (Jotham, Tabitha etc) it is. Anyway they are well written books and my kids love them. Just for reference my kids are 3rd,5th & 7th graders. We began when they were 1st, 3rd and 5th.

We have all the books in the series and we do want as a read-aloud every Advent. My kids really enjoy the series but this is my least favorite one of the bunch. It's rather heavy-handed with the girl power stuff. I have both girls and boys and I even skipped a couple of the "Why are boys so dumb" messages. We don't have to empower girls by running down boys. Some of these messages are rectified over the course of events, but even in the very last reading on Christmas day there's a little bit of that still going on. Other than this issue it is a good story and we still include it in our cycle because we do enjoy hearing Tabitha's version of events.

This is our third advent book from this author and my 9 & 11 year old daughters are SO eager to read it every night. We will be purchasing the next easter advent book as well.

It's hard to find a book to engage, captivate, and teach truth better than this series. We didn't use it as an advent book. We started there, but kept going because we all loved it so much! I am currently looking for more books by this author. Wonderful, sound teaching as well!

After reading some lukewarm reviews, and thoroughly enjoying Jotham's Journey last Advent, I was apprehensive about including Tabitha's Travels into our 2010 Advent activities. Also, with two 6-year old boys, I was skeptical that a book with a girl as the main character would hold their interest. No worries. They plead for us to read more chapters each night and really get into the adventure. I think that the author has done an amazing job of telling a realistic old story with vivid details that capture even the youngest of imaginations. Yes, there are some suspenseful moments and some violence, but hey, the Bible has some of these too, yes? These tense moments can easily be explained to younger children and used as a tool to explain real world events. We have appreciated the discussion at the end of each chapter to assist families in real life application of the lesson of the day. Our family only has the highest praise for all of Mr. Ytreeide's Advent books and they have added a special richness to our celebration.

I heard good things about this book, so I was looking forward to reading it with my 3 daughters for Advent. Unfortunately, from the first to the last page this book was full of feminist attitudes.Tabitha is a young girl who is the focal character in the story. The book follows her through a number of adventures in an effort to save her father from the Romans.On page 1, I read, "That her brothers got to be those shepherds while she herself had to cook, clean, and take care of donkeys always frustrated Tabitha. "I can do as much as any boy," she thought."On pages 2-3 I read, "Even though she wasn't allowed to watch a flock herself, she liked traveling from this place to that, seeing new sights and meeting new people. Of course, it was usually her brothers who got to have the really fun adventures - fighting off wild animals and thieves, going inside the walls of the biggest cities, and best of all, entering the temple in Jerusalem. "As a girl, I don't get to do any of that," she thought again with a sigh."On page 91, Tabitha is in conversation with Elizabeth about the Jewish temple:"You mean men can go farther into the temple than women?" Tabitha exclaimed."Yes, child, that is how it must be." The heat of anger rose in Tabitha's cheeks, and she thought to herself that she was every bit as good as any boy, but she kept her lips tightly sealed.In almost every chapter, Tabitha has some thought or comment to make about how she is unhappy with how she is treated as a girl, and how she believes girls should be able to do everything boys do. As this theme was so heavy in the book, my disappointment with it grew as we continued reading. I was hoping that Tabitha's poor attitude about her own sex would be addressed somewhere, and it was at one point (The priest Zechariah told her, "It is not the way of our people. And we must each humble ourselves to the place to which God has appointed us."), but then it seemed to be forgotten again.Even at the very end of the story, this was Tabitha's response to the fact that her father didn't understand about the baby in the stable: "Tabitha just shook her head and wondered why boys are so dumb, but didn't say anything."Is this the sort of role model I want for my daughters? Someone who thinks her father is dumb because he's a boy? Someone who is unhappy with the role that God has given her as a future helpmeet to her husband? Someone who is bitter against the God who made her, for making her female? No, it is not.I would like to say that if these elements were taken out of the story (and they were completely unnecessary to the story), I would have liked this book very much. As it stands, I will not be keeping it in my home.There will probably be people who read this review and take issue with it. I have no interest in debating God's will for women. I wanted to put this review up here so that others like myself, who care about this issue, will be aware that it is throughout this book. If you would like more information about where I'm coming from, Google "What is Feminism" (in quotes) and "Chancey" and click on the first link for the article "What is Feminism?" by Jennie Chancey.

From the 1st of the series we've read, every chapter leaves them wanting to read onto the next chapter (we read aloud to them). We love how all the characters featured in each chapter are intertwined into the next book as well from some real characters in the Bible. They are 14 and 15 years old and we started reading these since 2 years ago and they still love them.

Arrived in perfect condition. And a beautiful book with an amazing story that will help your family truly understand the meaning of the season while pointing them to the truth of the gift of Jesus Christ and the hope he brings to the world.

A perfect companion to Jotham’s Journey. It weaves the story of Tabitha into what we’d already read. Her bravery shows us never to give up hope (my 9 year old says). And my 6 year old says he loved the bit when Tabitha saves her father by shouting at the Roman governor!

This is a rather lovely story to build up through advent to Christmas. It's a little contrived in places but this is a children's book not a Great Work of Literature so it's forgivable.

I can't recommend this series of advent stories highly enough!! Adults and children gripped!!

We had very special times this past advent season together as a family, reading this book before bed by candlelight...Arnold Ytreeide is a talented and gifted writer. His stories are suspenseful and exciting. Sometimes we had to lighten it up a bit for our four year old, because of the dangerous situations presented. Every night they asked if we could read more...and the thoughts and prayers at the end of each chapter were thought provoking and challenging. I would highly recommend all of Mr. Ytreeide's books. L.M. Ontario, Canada

I love this whole series and I especially love this one because it is from a girls perspective. It is solid bible teaching and also promotes the power and ingenuity of young women!