Homeschool Friday - Jack and the Lost Maze

Homeschool Friday is a feature here at Somewhere Only We Know that showcases books my family reads during homeschool and provides a mini-review/review for each.

Jack and the Lost Maze (Gold Tales)

By: Jenny Phillips

Publication: The Good and the Beautiful

58 pages

Genre: Children, Picture Book, Christian, Level-1

Source: Own/Personal Library

( Goodreads | The Good and the Beautiful )

Goodreads description--Jack has always been interested in the story about an old, hidden maze in the beautiful, mysterious hills around his home. One day, while tending his flock of sheep, Jack chases a sheep under a bush and finds himself in a lost maze! He cannot find his way out and wonders if he will ever get back home. Jack’s faith in God and his love of music and animals work together in this enchanting tale.

Most of the Level-1 readers we have are from publishers like Random House and Scholastics. But we use a homeschool curriculum company called The Good and the Beautiful for a lot of our curriculum. The Good and the Beautiful has its own books written by several authors. Jenny Phillips, the company's creator, writes many of the books herself. And the company emphasizes good and beautiful literature that has strong moral values. I cannot appreciate this more. Most of the "normal" level-1 reader books are about 32 pages long with one or two short sentences per page or opening. Jack and the Lost Maze is a good bit longer with 58 pages and usually, one or two sentences per opening.

Jack and the Lost Maze begins with a challenging words page that includes 4 words used in the book that might be a little beyond the child's reading level, but I like that this is included at the beginning of the book so that you can go over these words with your child before they come to them in the book. This way maybe they will already recognize the words and be able to read them from memory already. Or if they get to one of these words while reading and can't sound it out phonetically or remember it, they will at least not be surprised and feel discouraged for not being able to read a challenging word.

Jack and the Lost Maze is about a boy and his family. Many areas of the land they lived in were not safe. Jack read about a maze hidden deep in the hills that was thirty miles long. Jack cared for his family's sheep. Jack loved all the wildlife in the area. One day a foggy mist came in that made it hard for Jack to see. He found himself inside the maze. Jack realizes that his mom would tell him to pray. So he did. And God helped him. (I won't spoil how.) When he got home, he told all the people how God helped him. Jack ended up leading the men in his town/village to the maze, and together they explored and mapped the maze. But even as he grew older, he still told the story of how God helped him out of the maze.

Jack and the Lost Maze is a 5-Star level-1 book. (The Good and the Beautiful technically rates this book as a level 1B.) The morals and messages included in this book are what make this book a 5 Star book for me. We need more companies that focus on the messages we're sending to young kids. I also like that this is longer than a typical level-1 reader so that my son can get accustomed to reading longer books even though there aren't as many words on one page. Have you or your child read Jack and the Lost Maze? What did you think? Let me know!