The Littlest Watchman: Watching and Waiting for the Very First Christmas

This story is great for kids to contemplate how it is hard to wait and takes patience but the coming of Christ is so worth it!

As advertised

Christmas time is a chance to deeply engage with your kids on a very practical level about the person and work of Jesus.It's an exciting time and I truly believe in redeeming the meaning of Christmas that our culture has lost sight of.This book does a fantastic job conveying the anticipation of Jesus coming, and the excitement we should have in our Savior, the greatest gift we could ever receive. My two year old daughter loved this book and it really helped me engage in simple conversation about the true meaning of Christmas and why it's unbelievably more exciting and wonderful than any tradition or meaning we tend to give it.The story is cute and engaging, it simply explains a wonderful truth and has beautiful vibrant illustrations. Every time we finished the book my daughter would immediately request to read it again.Highly recommended to parents trying to give true meaning, excitement and delight to kids during the Christmas season.

This is a sweet story, well-written and the perfect length to capture the attention of little ones and adults. In fact, at the end, I was sad that it was over! Although the Watchmen are a fictional group, which the book itself addresses, the story surrounding them is immersed in the broader context of biblical truth surrounding the story of Jesus' birth. And, if we're being honest, we all can relate to the littlest Watchman as he waits impatiently for God to fulfill His promises. It's truly a story that helped my son place himself in the celebration of the miracle of Christmas, and it will be part of our Christmas reading for years to come.

Mixes truth with fiction that can cause confusion. Through out the book, God is referred to as the maker, not till the end note is there an explanation, referring the Maker as God. Second the book is about a fictional character who is a watchman. He needs to watch a stump for a promise. Once the promise comes into a fulfillment, a shoot grows from the stump. I had to explain to my child how this represents lineage from a family tree through many generations. The shoot appears the night that Jesus is born. When the child runs to the Manger he sees his father already there with Mary and Joseph. In the end it brought up discussion about how we are watchman now waiting for Christ's second coming. For a child's book though I though it was a lot of stop and go, to explain truth from fiction, and what certain words were referring to. I had to tell him that there is no mention of a boy watching a stump that magically springs up a shoot the night Jesus was born. I may save this book for when my son is a little older. My son is 8 years old, for now this book is not for us.

The concept for the book is a cute idea brought out of Scripture, but I’m not sure that I love it or feel more in awe of Jesus after reading it. It fell a little flat for us & focused more on watching & waiting and little Benjamin than it did on the fulfillment of the birth of Jesus. I wanted a big celebration of fulfilled prophecy & the King’s arrival, but the culmination fizzled. It’s also a little long for young ones, and the ending was quite abrupt. We turned the last page expecting something more, & oops! that was it. Oh and “devotional” is misspelled on the back of the book. However, the illustrations are sweet & well done. It’s not going to be an endearing family favorite, but we’ll likely add it to our Christmas books rotation for December.

really a great and sweet book that you can use to explain during the advent season to your kids how GOD keeps his promise and is faithful for ever.

The book cover and pages are excellent quality materials and the illustrations are well done for children, the target audience. No doubt the desire of the author to produce a story for his own son is very admirable. Seriously. However, as a Bible-believing Christian, pastor, and father I would never recommend this book. Children can handle truth so teach them God's truth on an age-appropriate level. It was the sin of Ahaz in the time of Isaiah that led God to essentially pronounce the end of the Davidic lineage of kings. Righteousness is a big deal with God and so He ended the kingly lineage in 586 BC. This promise to Ahaz in Isaiah was around 736 BC. God's promise to David was fulfilled supernaturally by (1) causing a virgin to have a Son to be our Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), (2) causing that Child / Son who was to be born to be our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and (3) causing the Righteous Branch from the root of Jesse, David's father, to be the righteous Judge who would rule righteously throughout all eternity (Isaiah 9:1ff). There is SOOOO much biblical truth that children need explained that an extra-biblical, illogical story like this actually seems to diminish the reality of Scripture. I most certainly don't want this to come across as harsh and unloving. However, what children need is the depth of truth that God has given them in His Word. It's the role of parents to teach them line upon line, here a little, there a little (Isaiah 28:10) while sitting around the house, walking down the road, etc. etc. (Deuteronomy 6:7). Just one person's opinion. But my perspective is that God's Truth doesn't need fictionalized. It simply needs faithfully explained and put into practice day in and day out. We purchased this to be read to a third grade class but returned it due to the above explained issues. BTW, I realize that Christian fiction has it's place - to teach godly character, etc. But I simply see no legitimate reason or spiritual benefit to fictionalize historical events in God's Word, especially an event as vital as the coming of the Savior to save His people from the just judgment of their sin. FWIW.......

Was exactly the book we were looking for! Combing the Jesse Tree tradition with the Advent Nativity in a fun and faithful way.