The Really Radical Book for Kids by Champ Thornton

This resource book is designed to be read one chapter at a time to help children ages 8-14 understand more about God’s Word, salvation, and living a Christian life, as well as examples of “radical” men and women who have lived for the Lord.

This book has one mission: to point kids to God and His Word. While they have taken great care in how they constructed the pages to look- engaging illustrations, fun random facts, interesting designs- the text itself is filled with Biblically sound concepts and ideas that uphold the mission. Besides the biographical sections, the chapters have a central theme, for example, “How to Become to Christian,” and then age-appropriate explanations. The author doesn’t shy away from hard topics- there is a chapter devoted to sin where sin, iniquity, transgression, and wickedness are all discussed. This is followed by something more lighthearted: a chapter on creating a secret code using your Bible, using the Atbash code from Jeremiah as inspiration.

While you certainly could give this to a child to read independently, I think the most fruit would come from engaging in this together with a child. Some of my favorite quotes from the book are:

“So we actually don’t need to believe in ourselves. Instead, we need to trust the only One who can rescue us from ourselves!”
“If you ask them, most Christians will tell you that the older they get, the more the see how sinful they really are.”
“Every person is a sinner. And because God is holy, He cannot just ignore sin. He cannot make an exception, letting off-the-hook sinners who try to be good. All sin must be punished.”
“A Christian isn’t a person who at some time in the past repented of sin and trusted Christ. Instead, a Christian is someone who continues to repent and trust in Christ all through life.”

Overall, I think this is a fantastic resource for children ages 8 and up!

Things to note:
-a Chinese proverb is quoted
-When explaining how to become a Christian, the author notes several ways people might try to explain this. He includes “You need to ask Jesus into your heart,” and “You need to pray to accept Jesus.” He neither condones nor condemns these. I think his goal was to try and show that people mean the same thing when they use these less-than-desirable phrases and to explain to the reader what becoming a Christian really means.
-In the same chapter, the author states “The Bible teaches that God saves people who ask him.” He then goes on to explain that asking has two parts: repentance and faith. I agree, I just think the quoted sentence can be misleading for children. In the full context, it makes sense though.
-The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia are referenced
-There is a page of funny stories titled, “Stoopid Stories”

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