With beautifully colored figures and all the important characters from the story, Footsteps of Faith: Queen Esther brings to the hands of learners a way to enhance learning and encourage memory. The story from the Bible of how a Jewish girl named Hadassah was raised by her uncle Mordecai, and then became Queen Esther of Persia, is brought to life through story re-enactment.

Footsteps of Faith is published by Figures In Motion. Using hands on activities and retelling stories, history is brought to life, with more learning and retention of important details. This book comes with full color, stunningly beautiful figures printed on card stock to cut out and assemble with brads. These drawings are true to the time period. There is also a set of the characters in black and white that can be colored, then cut out and assembled.

The characters included in Footsteps of Faith: Queen Esther are:

• Esther,
• Mordecai,
• King Xerxes I,
• Haman, and
• Queen Vashti.

The characters are simple to put together with brads and provide hours of fun and learning. The pieces for each character include letters to make the alignment and placement of pieces together simple. It does not take long and the kids can get right to learning with the figures.

In the book, there are some additional resources. First, there is a set of cards, one of each character. The cards give a synopsis of the character's participation in the story being retold.  Next is a page that includes detailed instructions for assembling the figures.  Finally, there is a page of suggested activities and uses for the figures and the website for the internet-linked activities.

Footsteps of Faith: Queen Esther is an internet-linked book. What this means is that there are additional resources and activities that can be found on the internet to help enhance learning with the figures. The Queen Esther book has a link to a script of the story to assist in acting it out, as well as couple of coloring pages of Queen Esther and Mordecai.

There is so much value in hands-on learning. When we received this book, the three girls very quickly examined it and decided it was something to do right then. So, they grabbed the scissors, brads, and hole punch. A couple of hours of engaged learning ensued with the girls acting out the story of Queen Esther, pulling out their Bibles to check some facts, and having a grand time. They even used some of the figures to do a play of their own creation using improvisation. The possibilities seem as endless as their imaginations.

Footsteps of Faith: Queen Esther is a winner in our home!

—Product review by Lori Hooten, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, May, 2016