Little Pilgrim's Progress: From John Bunyan's Classic

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Not simply a great story but an amazing way to have deep conversations about Heaven, the gospel, and our pilgrimage here on earth. While the story itself was fun for my kids, and the illustrations were beautiful, I struggled with the theology. Despite my theological drawbacks, I would read this version with children, with some discussion about the usefulness of the allegory in daily life.

Before the book starts, a full dozen pages are devoted to "extra" illustrations that tell a bit of Christian's background before the story begins. It’s both a simple adventure story and a profound allegory of the Christian journey through life, a delightful read with a message kids ages 6 to 12 can understand and remember. They are equating the truth with the pictures in the story and it's a great foundation for them to build on as they learn deep and profound truths.There are some problems with how disabilities are portrayed that might discourage kids with disabilities (this is true for more than one Christian allegory). All the same characters (as children) and same situations but written so that children can read and get a grasp of the wonderful work by Bunyan. Then it fell from his shoulders and rolled to the bottom of the hill, and when he turned to see what had become of it, he found that it was quite gone. The characters are animals and it makes the story all the more enchanting and endearing to read through with kids, while bringing me to tears many times throughout.

And if the truth be told, I think a lot of the parents find it more understandable than the original, too.Our older kids (aged 7 and 5) both glued in from the beginning to end, imagining the world that Bunyan originally created with the same names, places and content as the adapted version published in 1947. I mean, Pilgrim's Progress has both a novel and a popular magazine named after one of its locations, and one can't pretend to understand the arc of Little Women without knowing the gist of Pilgrim's Progress.

There stood the Cross, and the moment little Christian began to climb the path that led to it, he felt that the bands that fastened his burden were breaking. Most pages have some small illustration, and the short length of the chapters is ideal for reading aloud. But when teaching anyone about God, you have to keep personal opinions and guesses out of the equation.Joe Sutphin's marvelous, lavish illustrations go a long way to making the allegory more accessible to young readers. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. As with the real Pilgrim's Progress, the first part is better but there are some wonderful highlights in the second half and we do come to love Mercy, Great Heart, and the boys in Part 2. Taylor took John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and simplified the vocabulary and concepts for young readers, while keeping the storyline intact.