Jumping into Graphic Novels With Focus On The Family {review}

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Thousands of families have raised their children listening to Adventures in Odyssey.  When I received Captain Absolutely from Focus On The Family to review, I was looking forward to introducing great characters in an action packed graphic novel format I knew my tween sons would love.

 

I remember being introduced to Adventures in Odyssey when I was nine years old. I was friends with a girl about my age who had a collection of cassette tapes that she could play in her room. We would listen to stories while we played and laughed along to the antics and perils of the characters. Even though it was a long time ago and the exact story lines have long faded from my memories, I remember that feeling. Being carried by a great story.

 

Focus On The Family is a time-tested source of stories you can trust to bring life lessons, challenging themes that help form Christian character and stories that engage readers. They have been doing it since I was a kid. The beauty of Focus On The Family is that they are committed to growing and changing with the culture.

Their focus is strengthening families and their core strength is providing tools for building stronger families. They have a huge children’s ministry that is vibrant, relevant and thriving. Where other producers have slid into irrelevance by failing to modernize and keep up with today’s visual culture Focus has stepped up as a producer of high quality products that appeal to kids today.

 

We have had a subscription to Focus On The Family’s Club House Magazine since my teens were in elementary school and we look forward to every issue. When we got our book; Captain Absolutely, in the mail the kids were excited to dig right in. Apparently, the Adventure in Odyssey characters make regular appearances in their Sunday School Materials as well so they were more familiar with the characters than I realized. They were soon jumping back and forth, filling me in with plenty of back story and details.

 

Both of my middle school boys read the book as well as my elementary age daughters. All of them enjoyed the graphic novel design. They have started reading more graphic novels recently because they are very popular in our local library.  The nice part about the books from Focus On The Family is, I never have to worry about the content. You can be assured that the story line is going to align with your family values.

 

Captain Absolutely and graphic novels like it are a great transition book for a struggling reader. My 8^th grade son found the transition into larger chapter books very intimidating. He kept putting off reading time and resisting book suggestions. Graphic novels were one of the things that got him to decide that reading was not all bad. There are some great books out there and he discovered that reading was a fun activity that he could enjoy.

 

We will definitely be keeping an eye out for the graphic novels from Focus On The Family in the future. We are fortunate that our local library often listens to homeschooler book recommendations. This one is going to be on our list of suggestions so more kids can have access to it.