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Hello All:

We are getting ready to start our adventure unit with DITHR. I'm trying to chose what to read for our story time. I'm about half way through Marguerite Henry's book, King of the Wind. (I'm a slow reader!) I'm wondering why Carrie said (in the Appendix of Beyond) that it's not for sensitive readers. (It's ok if you ruin the ending for me - meanwhile, I'll keep reading )

My main question, though, is how do you deal with this story in a Christian family that is based in Arabian culture. (for the first half anyway) How do you explain to a 7 year that not everyone worships our God? I suppose this question could be about any book that introduces other religions. I'm not trying to open a can of worms with this question, but truly trying to figure out how to answer the questions I know my curious daughter will raise.

Thanks in advance!

We started that book in Beyond but couldn't get past a few chapters. My boys just weren't open to the whole horse thing.
The part about being Arabs was hard for me at first. I wasn't expecting it, honestly.
We did read and LOVED Missionary Stories with the Millers though and it offered a lot of opportunity to discuss people who don't love our LORD and who worship false gods. We had great conversations. Granted, the premise was different, in that Missionary Stories it was obvious that they were working to present God to the other peoples. But I was blessed over and over as my kids showed empathy and concern for the other people.

It's been a couple of years since we read this book, so I could be wrong, but I think part of the 'sensitive' issue may be because he was treated very harshly (abused?) byt his master. Also, I think there is some mistreatment (whips?) of the horses. Some children would be very upset by those things.

As far as the 'worshiping other gods' part of the story, for us it wasn't a problem. I guess we've always talked about that and my dd just took it in stride. I would say just answer her questions as honestly as possible, explaining that we live in a world of sin, where some people do not obey or love God and decide to worship other gods (Buddha, Allah, cars, money, people, etc.). Then I would show her the 10 commandments (I think that's in Deteronomy or Exodus ) where one of the commandments is that we shall not have any other gods before Him(God). Tell her God has given us a free will to choose, but there are consequences (separation from God in hell) for not choosing to ask Jesus into our hearts as well as consequences for disobedience even if we are followers of Christ. I guess then I would just make sure that she also knows that the boy is a servant/slave and very young. We all have to be taught about Jesus and taught His word; he did not have this privilege. However, I think in the story he still ends up having his prayers/wishes answered and is able to fulfill his dream, and ends up living with someone who will take good care of him.

I hope someone else will chime in who has a better memory than I do that can answer your questions more thoroughly. Also, someone with more experience homeschooling and answering all these 'biblical' questions.

The ladies are doing a good job of helping you! I agree with InHisTiming that the content warning for sensitive listeners is due to the harsh life that Agba and the Arabian horse must endure.

My boys loved this book and begged for more. It definitely requires a more seasoned listener to appreciate it. I know my sister had mentioned that this was her son's favorite book that they read-aloud, and he's read it again on his own several times since then. It was an eye-opener for my boys as to how blessed of a life my kiddos have! It also made them understand that there are children who are without parents that are living in harsh conditions much different from the privileged life they lead.

The Arabian culture drawn out in the book gave us a chance to discuss what life looks like without Christianity. By reading the Bible stories throughout the years, my kiddos had already heard many times about those who did not worship our God and what that leads to. InHisTiming explained very well how this opportunity can be used to go back to the Bible and read God's commands on worshipping other gods and contrast a life with Christ to one without.

Blessings,
Carrie