Series: Their Side of the Story
Published by B&H Publishing on June 2015
Genres: Children's, Bible Stories
Buy on Amazon
The Dove family seems to have the perfect life, and that makes Raven jealous. Learn with Raven how to combat jealousy and live life in harmony with others.
Have you ever been jealous of someone who seems to be better than you at everything? In this atypical keeping-up-with-the-Joneses story, Raven overcomes his jealousy of the Dove family and learns to appreciate the hard work and sacrifice of others. In their Have You Heard Their Side of the Story series, Troy Schmidt and Cory Jones combine talents to take young readers on a journey through a biblical narrative using the eyes of an animal participant…in this case, one of Noah’s two ravens.
Now, if you know the biblical story, you know that the Raven was sent out before the Dove, but it was the dove that found dry ground. In the story, that translates to Raven being a little more than miffed at being drug along on this long and smelly cruise and getting angrier and angrier at the perfect life of the Dove family. When Raven fails to be able to fly enough to find dry land, the job goes to Dove instead. At the end, Raven has a change of heart and realizes that Dove was simply doing what God had created him to do and the two families become friends.
As you can tell, the storyline deals with the emotions of bitterness and jealousy. This is an important theme in the life of a young person, especially at an age where skill sets vary tremendously. Some can read fluently, some stumble over letters. Some are athletic, others struggle to run. It’s a difficult age because it has the most developmental variation at a time when kids are least likely to understand it.
I felt that the book did a great job treating the issue positively, taking young readers through accurate emotions associated with jealousy. The “Parent Connection” at the end really ties things together, giving some simple discussion questions, a memory verse, a Bible reading, and an activity.
Like the rest of the books in the Their Side of the Story series, the reading level hovers between 2nd and 3rd grade, so this is a book that “older” readers can read and younger readers can have read to them. The visuals are fun, the colors vibrant, and the story engaging. A great book and a great series for your little one!
Other Books in the Series