Also by this author: Abigail and the Big Start Over
Published by Good Book Company on October 21, 2024
Genres: Children's
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Fun, absorbing novel that helps kids aged 7+ to engage with the Bible as they learn that it’s only through Jesus that we can please God.
It's nearly Career Day, and 9-year-old Abigail is trying to decide what she wants to be when she grows up. She wants to do something that will please God and her family, so she decides she will be a missionary police officer-a job that she thinks means behaving perfectly and making sure everyone else does too!
But all her efforts seem to backfire. After some helpful Bible teaching from her loved ones about the story of Paul's conversion, Abigail rethinks what it means to please God and to "be good"!
This fun, relatable story will help kids to realize that it’s only through Jesus that we can please God. And with the Holy Spirit’s help, they can become more like Jesus and do good works with him.
The Abigail books are a fiction series designed for children 7 years+. They follow the adventures of 9-year-old Abigail as she figures out what faith means for her everyday life. Young readers are inspired to read the Bible, talk to God and apply what they believe to their own lives.
Includes book-club kit with questions for discussion. Can be used in homeschool groups or kids' book clubs.
This book is the second in a series about Abigail, a creative nine-year-old who grows and learns through her experiences at school, at home, and at church. Bethany McIlrath writes from a child’s perspective in a very convincing way, and the illustrations from Katie Saunders are cute and add extra energy throughout the book. Someone can jump straight into this book without having read the first, because the author weaves in all of the background information that you need to know. Still, people who have already read the first book will get the most out of this, seeing how the author builds on the original story with similar themes and more character development. We learn more about Abigail and some of her family members and classmates, and also meet some new characters.
This story involves Abigail preparing for a career day at school, trying to decide between multiple different careers and picking a combination of ideas that she thinks will impress other people and make God proud of her. Through a variety of mishaps, she learns that she can’t please God through her own efforts, and can’t be perfect all the time. She learns more about grace through the story of Paul from the Bible, and through conversations with her parents. Personally, I found the number of mishaps overwhelming, and some kids will feel stressed about how many things go wrong, and how much worse Abigail makes them through her misguided plans.
Abigail and the Career Day Catastrophe is a cute chapter book that will entertain kids and teach them lessons about how the gospel applies to everyday life. This series is a great fit for Christian families who are looking for engaging stories that teach life lessons in a natural way, and the book includes discussion questions for book clubs and an advertisement for free tie-in activities on the publisher’s website. Although I didn’t like this story as much as the first one, this is another solid entry in the series, and I look forward to Abigail’s future adventures.