I am ordering books right now for the start of school, and I see mixed reviews on Amazon about this book. i have a feeling I might be in agreement with the negative ones because I really just like to stick to the truth of the Bible. Has anyone else felt this way? And if so, did you substitute this book with something else? Any suggestions? Maybe some Answers in Genesis materials or something? I am relatively new to homeschooling and brand new to CM, and don’t have the Module 1 guide in front of me yet.
I really like the Adam and His Kin book – but it’s for older students. I can’t remember what age group Mod.1 says it’s for, but in my opinion, it would be an easy read for high school – and that’s who I’d have read it.
It’s been a few months since I read it again (having first read it about 3 years ago), but from what I remember, Beechick does have some “imagining”, but it’s nothing that threw up a red flag for me. We really don’t know ALL that went on. From what I could tell, her ideas were not un-Biblical.
I enjoyed it because it really put “flesh” on these people – and started my own interest in that time period. (And for the past couple years I’ve been searching out books on the topic of life before the flood and wondering if it was possible for pre-Flood people to have had computers? Why not? We don’t know – everything was destroyed. Anyway, it’s fun to wonder!)
At the end of the book, Beechick includes the text of the KJV, Gen. 1:1 – 11:27a, so it’s right there to compare. Her appendices list (and annotate) who the writers of Genesis were, the scripture text, further study ideas, and an annotated bibliography.
I just had this same conversation with a library patron and gave pretty much the exact same answer. I tell my children when we read any novelized account of Scripture that this is NOT the infallible Word of God. It’s speculation and we treat it that way. Nor is it abstract and hard to understand. But I think it helped my boys to see that these were real people in real space and time. When we read Moses by Opal Wheeler, they understood that there was a real mother weaving a real basket for a real baby who would be placed in a real river with all the fear and trepidation that went along with it.
Scripture is the only source of absolute Truth but I think these other resources can benefit as long as we understand their limitations.
I have found that you have to very carefully read and judge Amazon reviews about any books where the subject matter is creation or things related to the Bible. Some negative reviews are simply from people who are not Christians–particularly atheists–and they just want to discredit Biblical scholars or authors who write about creation.
Others are reviews from Christians who don’t like anything that does not quote the Bible book and chapter or uses the Bible to write a fictional work. That’s just where they are in their faith, and for them, a book such as Adam and his Kin would cause them more angst than edification. If you are okay with explaining to your children that some of the book takes the Biblical account and imagines the details surrounding that account, then I would say to take the reviews with a grain of salt and go ahead with the book. It was a good read for my high schooler a year or two ago.
We are reading this now with 9 and 12 year old. Beechick did take the Bible as well as other historical documents and weaved a story through them. It does help picture the beginning in your mind. So far we are enjoying it. I just tell my children the same as above, we don’t know every single thing that was said and done but we can fill between the lines. People spread over the earth, wickedness grew, Adam and his sons told of creation and their sons and grandsons etc carried the story throughout generations. Some people listened some did not etc. This lead to judgement. What were people doing, thinking during that time etc..The flood and a story weaved about their lives. HTH 🙂
We are doing the Gensis reading and the Beechick book……my daughter is not wanting to read it because she feels like it is the same thing we just read in the Bible. Feels repetative, she says. Sure, it has a little more supposing, but basically the same. Not sure what to do with that?>?
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