Book Review: Character Sketches, Volume 1

This book is one of our very favorite parts of homeschooling. The kids love it! It's unique format takes a specific character quality and focuses on four different aspects of it in four separate chapters. Each chapter uses an example from the Bible and from the world of nature to explain that specific aspect of the quality being studied. 


The best way for me to explain is to give an example. 


In Chapters One through Four, the character quality being studied is Loyalty. In Chapter Two, the aspect of Loyalty focused on is "Standing With Those I Am Serving In Their Time Of Need." The illustration from the world of nature is the Canada Goose, so the chapter begins with a story about how the goose shows loyalty even to the point of death when its family is in danger. The illustrations alone are worth the purchase price. Each chapter has a large full colored illustration of the animal. Our kids love to try to draw their own version of each animal as we read the chapters. Following the story, there are several pages filled with fascinating facts and more illustrations about the animal for that chapter. 


Each chapter then moves on to a character study from the Bible, in this case, Mordecai. The Bible character is introduced in a suspense-building page long story where the reader/listeners are challenged to try to guess the identity of the character before the end of the story. The next pages of the chapters contain a detailed study of that person's story and how they displayed or failed to display the character quality for that chapter. Mordecai was an example of Loyalty as he "stood by" the king when he learned of a plot to assassinate him. 


There are three volumes in this series and all are jam packed with wonderful information. The books are designed to be read by fathers to their children and encourage great discussions in the search for Truth. By giving such great examples, children can firmly grasp concepts that would otherwise be too abstract for many of them. The books are large, beautifully bound and are almost 400 pages long. We plan to buy each of our children their own set as they begin their families. 


This is #38 out of 52. I've gotten behind in my reviews, so now I'm playing "catch-up."

Join the Fun!