{"id":11250,"date":"2024-06-28T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/?p=11250"},"modified":"2024-06-13T14:59:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T20:59:58","slug":"you-can-go-home-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/schaeffersghost\/2024\/06\/you-can-go-home-again\/","title":{"rendered":"You can go home again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/a>

Image: Crossway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Have you ever read the parable of the prodigal son and thought \u201cthey should rewrite this for kids.\u201d\u00a0For <\/em>kids, yes, but that\u2019s been done.\u00a0Charlie and the Preschool Prodigal<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Ginger Blomberg is the telling of the tale about the brothers of the tale as children.<\/p>\n

The plot is pretty straightforward (and I won\u2019t spoil much of it here, though can one really spoil a children\u2019s book based on a story everyone knows?). Eddie is the mess\/wild kid, Charlie is the clean\/orderly one. One day Eddie runs away from home and spends the day playing and hiding from his parents (who are mostly left out of the narrative\u2013appropriate enough, given the source material). This is fun at first, then uncomfortable, then scary. Then Eddie goes home and is welcomed back by his worried father, who proceeds to give him ice cream. Charlie is not okay with this\u2013after all he didn\u2019t run away from home and didn\u2019t get an ice cream party for it. His father reminds him that he is loved and invites him to join the party with\/for his brother, and the book ends with the question of whether we think Charlie will join in, and whether we would as well.<\/p>\n

If nothing else, it\u2019s interesting to have a children\u2019s book that ends with ambiguity. That is what the parable does, of course. Just what are we supposed to do with that older brother? Like Jonah, we have a cranky figure left being mildly rebuked for his crankiness. Which as a cranky figure hits home, for sure.<\/p>\n

Again, it\u2019s a clever telling. The illustrations are solid (though I am\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>an art person, so take that for what it\u2019s worth). The themes of the parable are captured well and the text-to-image balance is well-struck (not always an easy thing in a children\u2019s book).\u00a0 I don\u2019t want the review to be longer than the book, so I\u2019ll wrap up here and just note that this is an excellent little addition to the series of kid\u2019s books Crossway has been cranking out.<\/p>\n

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the\u00a0City of Man Podcast<\/a>\u00a0an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog), and an Associate Profess<\/em>or of Political Science at\u00a0Southwest Baptist University<\/a>\u00a0in Bolivar, MO<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever read the parable of the prodigal son and thought \u201cthey should rewrite this for kids.\u201d\u00a0For kids, yes, but that\u2019s been done.\u00a0Charlie and the Preschool Prodigal\u00a0by Ginger Blomberg is the telling of the tale about the brothers of the tale as children. The plot is pretty straightforward (and I won\u2019t spoil much of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1469,"featured_media":11253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,764],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-childrens"],"yoast_head":"\nYou can go home again<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you ever read the parable of the prodigal son and thought "they should rewrite this for kids."\u00a0For kids, yes, but that's been done.\u00a0Charlie and the Review of "Charlie and the Preschool Prodigal" by Ginger M. 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