Book: Victory of the Warrior King

Victory of the Warrior King: The Story of the Life of Jesus (War of the Ages)

This book is published by Review & Herald. It is marketed as a kid-friendly adaptation of Desire of Ages. It is part of The War of the Ages series. The target age is 10-14. It can be purchased at an Adventist Book Center or at Amazon.

Let's just get the one "bad" out of the way first. Since I don't live near an Adventist book store, I really have no way to find out what a book is like until I purchase it and have it delivered. The sample chapter available at the Adventist Book Center online site does help a bit, but not much. So what is the bad? The implication that this book is somehow a kid's version of Desire of Ages. Let me just say, it isn't in the way that the marketing implies. About the only resemblance to Desire of Ages is that this book is also about the life of Christ (and perhaps also that there are other books in the series that come before and after), and the main theme of both books is to help the reader see that God is love.

With that out of the way, my opinion of the book itself is all positive. The genre would be biblical, historical fiction. The story is told from the point of view of Mark, a fictional recording angel. Mark records the lives of (mostly) fictional children that come into contact with Yeshua (Jesus). The children grow older, and they continue to appear throughout the story. The reader sees the real-life struggles that face each of these human characters, how each of them make decisions, and how God works with each to try to bring them into a relationship with Yeshua.

I appreciated very much how the author brings in and describes cultural and historical details that expand the readers' understanding of the biblical stories. I think many adults would also benefit from seeing these details.

There is a reason this book's target age is middle and early high schoolers. The author does not paint a nice, pretty, sanitized picture of life. The characters in the story are made to face life as it is. The stories deal with issues that face kids today: existence of evil, premarital sex, false accusations, sexual abuse, abandonment, lack of self-worth, murder of family members, unfairness of life, bitterness towards God. Although some parents may be uncomfortable with these issues and with some (not all) of the direct manners in which the story describes them, I don't think any of these would be a surprise to the kids. I really think that most of them are already exposed to much more, whether we as parents want to believe that or not. And I would ask anyone uncomfortable with this: would you rather have your kids be exposed to them in another setting, or in a setting that is true and good, albeit fictional?

I think this is what I was most impressed with. These characters and these stories are ones with which kids today can identify. It brings the Bible stories into the 21st century. It shows that the first century had the same problems that the 21st century does. It shows that Yeshua (Jesus) who walked the earth in the first century can still relate to kids of the 21st.

Some of the events and situations in the book do seem contrived. Yet they could have happened. Stranger things God has orchestrated.

I spent about eight hours over this last Friday and Saturday reading the book aloud to our children. It was really hard to take breaks and pause to do other things. The stories are that engaging. We had to find out how the characters would grow and develop.

I highly recommend this book. I look forward to obtaining the other four volumes in the series to read more of the old stories in a fresh, new setting.