John Owen

John Owen
Simonetta Carr
Pages: 62
ISBN: 978-1-60178-088-1

Summary: A great biography about a great theologian, simple enough for a child to understand.  The book starts with a map of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England.  This easy to read tool is a great help to understanding the story.  John Owen is portrayed as a man who deeply loved the people of God and really strove to impart the truths of God's Word to them.  It talks about his upbringing, his education, his congregation, persecutions, the great fire of London, the Great Ejection and how his writing addressed the spiritual issues of the day in the context of the difficulties and circumstances they faced.  His writings still apply today, for man's heart is still desperately wicked and his desires never changed.

Personal Thoughts: The pictures in this book are just fantastic.  Each page also has an excellent picture to word ratio so that the child never loses interest.  Since the book is lengthier than a normal child's book, it has been divided into several chapters, making it easy to put the book down and resuming later.  The end of the book has a neat timeline of events as well as a small section highlighting some of the significant historical events of that time.  At the very end of the book we are treated to a modern version of John Owen's catechism, created for young children.  One might not think that a book about John Owen would be terribly interesting to a child since his writings are often perceived as being complicated and deeply theological, but the author has done an excellent job of showing the 'humanness' of this man of God.

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