All my children have read through their little age-appropriate Bible at least once. By the time they get through it, they will often feel accomplishment and get excited to go back to Genesis where they forgot the stories from the beginning.

Our family read through Hooked on the Book by Liz and Jack Hagler together, and it was a glorious, refreshing overview of the whole Bible. They had so much fun reading about a “chapter” (the book has a reading plan that breaks it up into seven chapters) a day and easily understood the main theme of the Bible as a whole for the first time.

The book commences with a young boy named Patrick who, due to his boredom one Saturday morning, decided to pick up his Bible and read it. He was suddenly pulled into his Bible and led on a quest guided by several heroes including Moses, Joshua, King David, Daniel, Matthew, Paul, and John to explore and follow the story of Redemption from Genesis all the way to Revelation, touching on every book along the way. Each page is colorful, hilarious, and filled with eye-grabbing action and text boxes that include Bible facts, poems, and remarks from characters we meet along the journey.

One of my favorite aspects of this book was the continual reviewing of the gospel: that sin entered the world, we are all sinners, Jesus died to forgive us of sin, if we believe in Him we are saved, and he’s coming back one day! I also loved at the end of the book the author clarified some things that they incorporated that weren’t necessarily scriptural such as their picture of King David playing every type of instrument possible all in one sitting while writing the book of Psalms. A third point I respected was the drawing of attention to the prophecies of Jesus written long before he was born!

Hooked on the Book is accompanied with a bookmark that can be personalized with the child’s name and includes a checklist of what books of the Bible they have overviewed as they read through the book.

The book concludes with Patrick landing back on his bed at the end of the day thrilled with all that he learned in his Bible. He is now “hooked” on reading his Bible.

Hooked on the Book is a great text to give kids for a “bird’s eye” look at the Bible as a whole inviting understanding and allowing them to connect main themes and the larger plot that would normally escape their radars when reading their Bibles at a slower pace. I would not use this book as one to replace their Bible reading, but it is a fun, colorful overview that could complement their prior knowledge in the stories and doctrines of God’s Word. This is also a really exciting way to get those kids who are uninterested in the Bible to see the adventures that it holds.

-Product review by Cassie Deputie, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July 2017

Another Reviewer’s Perspective:

Hooked on the Book: Patrick’s Adventures through the Books of the Bible

Liz and Jack Hagler

Hooked on the Book

http://hookedonthebook.com/

(831) 970-5416

Meet Patrick. Patrick is bored. So bored that he picked up his Bible. Suddenly, he was yanked INTO the Bible and off on the adventure of his life. So begins Patrick’s Adventures through the Books of the Bible.

Patrick is guided along through all 66 books of the Bible by the various authors, such as Moses, King David, Matthew, and Luke. Using a combination of prose to explain a bit about where the story is going and rhyme to talk about each book, Patrick learns a little bit about the books of the Bible. By the end of his journey, Patrick is “hooked on the book.”

This colorful, hardback book is approximately 8” x 10”. Full of cartoon drawings placed artistically on the page, the reader will follow Patrick and his guides through a main point or two in each Bible book.

Due to the fact that there is not a lot of depth in the description of each book of the Bible, this is probably appropriate for a 7- or 8-year-old. However, due to the graphically designed pages, it might be hard for a child of that level to follow the flow of the story. So in regard to the design, it is probably better for an 11- or 12-year-old student.

I had hoped that the book would work well as an introduction for my students who participate in Bible Bowl each year, but I found that the information is really just a minute touching on the idea of the book, rather than an overview of it. For example, the description of the book of Matthew says it is the story of baby Jesus. There is no mention of his sermons or teachings or miracles or parables. I found this simplicity to be true of most of the synopses. However, this book would be a good one for students who are very new to Bible study and need a very, very basic understanding of the parts of the Bible.

—Product review by Lori Hooten, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July 2017