We are excited to review Ishtar’s Odyssey: A Storybook for Advent by Arnold Ytreeide.
I read a chapter to the family each evening before bedtime. Everyone enjoys listening, even Dad and the teenager!
This is a delightful story for the whole family during the Advent season.
What to Expect from Ishtar’s Odyssey
Before the Story: an introduction to Advent – the how and the why
About the Magi: what we know and what we speculate
Making Connections: At JothamsJourney.com explore maps, photos, and documents to help understand the times! To become even more a part of Ishtar’s experiences, taste traditional Persian foods with the included schedule. I love the addition of the food journey!
Advent Customs: how you can celebrate the Advent season
The Story
Our story begins with Week One, Fourth Sunday Before Christmas.
If you have a family advent wreath, there are instructions for which candles to light each day.
We meet Ishtar and his father. We join them on the exciting and dangerous odyssey to follow the Christmas star. Along the way, Ishtar meets Bartholomew, Jotham, and Tabitha (and perhaps a few more children the author plans to write about in the future? We hope!). This awarded cheers from my kids who know the stories are intertwined.
At the end of each cliff-hanger chapter, the author included a spiritual thought, Bible verse, and call to action.
We love reading “living books” – historical fiction that teaches. This book is quite accurate, offering a glimpse into the time period of the birth of Jesus, with many historical and cultural customs explained.
My children often beg to read more than one chapter each evening.
There are Special Instructions for Week Four. We cycle through our Advent studies each year, so the church calendar doesn’t always work out to be exactly four full weeks. Advent always begins on Sunday, but Christmas is on a different day each year. This reading schedule for the last week helps plan out the shorter chapters in order to complete the book on Christmas morning. There are also reading schedules in the back for many years to come.
You will love making Ishtar’s Odyssey a part of your Advent tradition.
We collect all the Ytreeide books and this is a welcome addition to our Advent collection.
Arnold Ytreeide’s family Advent devotionals are a much-loved Christmas tradition, enjoyed by multiple generations.
With over 100,000 books in print, including Jotham’s Journey, Bartholomew’s Passage, Tabitha’s Travels, and Amon’s Adventure.
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