Lives of Faith & Grace Series by Assorted Authors (from Crossway)

This middle grade biography series is written in traditional third-person biography style and is aimed ages 8–13. There are study questions for each chapter and a timeline at the end of each book and black and white drawings sprinkled throughout the text. At the time of this review, the series includes:

John Bunyan
Lemuel Haynes
Katie Luther
Martin Luther
Corrie ten Boom
Harriet Tubman

This new series from Crossway aims to “engage readers 8-13 with the stories of Christian men and women from history.” These books are brief in nature and highlight only the major events in each person’s life. If you are looking for a solid biographical introduction to get young readers interested in the lives of Christian men and women, these titles could to just that. While each title has a different author, the tone seems to be lighter than some other series while still covering challenging events. For example, from Martin Luther:

“In 1542, Martin’s daughter Magdalena fell deathly ill. As her condition worsened, Martin prayed for his Lena: “I love her very much, but if it is your will to take her, dear God, I shall be glad to know she is with you.” Though Martin put on a brave face, he was overcome with grief.”

I have not read all the books in the series (as some are still in pre-release), so do know that this isn’t an exhaustive review, but rather a series recommendation based off of what I have read, with the caveat that each book is unique and will contain differing levels of violence, turmoil, hardships and more, depending on each person’s life.

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