Customer Reviews

Little Pilgrim's Progress: From John Bunyan's Classic (The Message)

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As a parent I want the books I read my children to not only be entertaining, but to open their eyes to the world around them and present Truth to their little hearts. Little Pilgrim's Progress, a child's version of John Bunyan's classic allegory of the Christian life, does just that. Helen Taylor does an excellent job of keeping the story simple enough to thoroughly engage my 3 1/2 year old son without dumbing or watering it down. It has everything an active little boy could want in a story- adventure and battles, danger, swords, giants and dragons and it's full of spiritual lessons along the way. The chapters are short, only two to three pages, and each one left us eager to find out what was going to happen next.
The book is divided into two sections, the first being the story of little Christian, a boy living in the City of Destruction. The King sends him a message through His servant Evangelist and Christian sets out on his pilgrimage toward the Celestial City. Along the way he meets other servants of the King who help him along the path and some who become his traveling companions for parts of the journey. He also meets with many of the King's enemies; Self, Worldly, and the Giant Despair who inhabits Doubting Castle to name a few. He learns to love the Prince as he faces danger, temptation, doubts, and even suffers on behalf of being one of the King's Pilgrims. The second half of the book is the story of Christiana, a friend of Christian's from the City of Destruction. She too is summoned by the King and sets out along with her brothers and baby sister. Because they're so young the King gives them a guide, a young man called Greatheart. As they travel their company grows to include many others, and it's wonderful to see the children learn to love and trust the King as they journey toward His city.
My son loves to play that he's a character from whatever we're reading, and because this story is about children he especially enjoys playing that he's one of the King's little pilgrims. Even though they're young they face great danger, and the King makes them brave and strong to fight battles. This story has given us many opportunities to talk about the great Spiritual truths that are inherent in it. My son's name is Latin for Pilgrim or wanderer, so I was able to explain that to him in the context in which we intended it when we called him that.
I think one of the marks of a good children's story is that it can also keep the attention of the adult reader! Little Pilgrim's Progress not only did that, but challenged and encouraged me in my own journey on the Way of the King. I know that this will be a book we'll want to read many times. I, for one, can hardly wait!

I have strong memories of this book from when I read it as a child, very different from other books, and fascinating, one of my favorites, couldn't get it out of my mind. When my children were young, I remembered this book and obtained a copy. The first time I read it to them, they were only 3 1/2 and 5 1/2. I knew they were young, so was amazed at how much they liked the book and would beg me again and again to read "just one more" chapter. (I would still suggest this book for slightly older children, maybe in the younger elementary years.) But it really is an amazingly gripping book for children, with lots of important lessons that can be learned and discussed. My son, after reading about the character "Help" early in the book, asked whether could change his name to "Help"! (We suggested that he have it as a second middle name). Then later he wanted to add the name "Greatheart". Anyhow, I will end with saying I strongly recommend this book.

In this wonderful book (published by Moody Press), author Helen L. Taylor takes the Christian classic Pilgrim's Progress and reworks it for younger readers. She simplified the words and concepts, but stayed remarkably close to the original story. The paragraphs are nice and short, which makes this an excellent bedtime read, which is how I read it to my nine-year-old son and eleven-year-old daughter.

This is really two stories in one book, the first story tells of Christian, a small boy living in the City of Destruction, who hears Evangelist talking about the Celestial City where the great King lives. Christian becomes a pilgrim, and sets off for the Celestial City. Along the way he has many encounters and learns many lessons. The second story is about Christiana, a friend of Christian, who sets out with others to walk the same path, and they encounter many trials, often different than the ones faced by Christian.

This is an excellent book. It is jam-packed with Christian concepts, which you can then stop, at a convenient chapter break, and explain. Indeed, if I have one complaint, it's that I wish that this book had a study guide to accompany it! My children were a little disquieted by the martyrdom of one character, but as this is also a part of the Christian experience, I am glad that this book addressed it.

So, I must say that my children and I all loved this book. As a matter of fact, I think that I will make reading it a yearly tradition (for a while, anyway). We highly recommend this book!

we used this as a read aloud with our kids ages 4-11 they love it. 2-3 page chapters make it a great bed time story. We talked about christian characteristics and worldly charateristics these things are rarely taught. Great Book!

This is a great book for children to get the message of "Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan. It is written so they can understand it and gets them caught up in the adventure and stories in the book. I use it to teach lessons on Sunday at my church. We read it together and then discuss what the story might mean to them and how they can use what little Christian learns in his life lessons.

This is a good book, and Helen Taylor has done a fine job of simplifying the language and making this great work accessible to children. However, the characters, who are children, are portrayed as adults view children, not as children view themselves. We are constantly reminded how small the pilgrims are: they walk holding hands, they are grateful that a big person is present, they fear that the king will not accept them, because they are so small. Christian is constantly thinking about his departed mother (at least in the beginning, this mostly stops about half-way through his journey). I find that children do not think of themselves as some other class of person and can easily identify with adult characters. They don't tend to think of themselves as small, and the fact that they hold hands etc. is something that adults notice about them, but they themselves are not aware of. So, whereas this is a fine book, when considered as children's literature, it leaves very much to be desired.

So, for my part, as I read this fine book to my children, I'm cutting out all references to Christian's mother and as much as I can about their age and size. It's not hard to do and improves the flow of the story.

If you would like to read Pilgrim's Progress to your children, this would be a good choice.

I got this book in 3rd grade and read it over and over until it literally fell apart. Once I became a parent I looked and looked for it, but I could never find it. Finally I found it on Amazon and ordered it. It is the same exact book I read in 1983. I read a chapter or two every night after dinner to my kids, and they loved it. The chapters are short which keeps the kids from losing interest. Thanks for the blast from my past. This children's version of a great classic novel keeps all the meaning of the original story and simplifies for young minds. Children and adults will enjoy this book.

I think this book completely misses the heart of John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress. I don't think he would be pleased with this rendition of his story at all. The idea that Pliable could come to the gate unbidden by the king would have been completely alien to John Bunyan! I have only read the first few chapters and have been sorely disappointed.

This book is a personal life-long favorite. I am now in middle-age, but still have my original copy of this book from my childhood, one of only 2 or 3 (at most) items that I still have from my growing up years. I read this book numerous times as a child and young person, and still find that I am moved and learn from it even today. This book gave me a vision for the journey of life, back when I was a young child, that has stuck with me through all these many years of life, with all the many challenges I've encountered along my journey, as well as all the many unexpected gifts and helps I've received along the way, all of which together have served to teach me so much and to grow me and to help guide me along my own individual journey toward "The Celestial City." I hold a tremendous fondness for this book, and recommend it highly. In my opinion, it ranks among such important and influential classics as Hannah Hurnard's "Hinds' Feet in High Places" and C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia."

If I were to recommend Pilgrims Progress to someone it would definitely be either the original or this one - depending on their age and literacy - as opposed to any of the modern abridged versions. I particularly like the way the Christiana section is rendered in the childrens version - it really comes to the heart of the how we are intended to be walking in community, not in isolation, as the body of Christ, and shows the Lord's tender heart towards the weakest members.

The section on Giant Despair and Doubting Castle is gripping and so true to life. I also like the rendering of the valley of the shadow of death - which to me is really the pivotal point of the book and of Little Christian's deepening of faith - the moment at which the sun rises on Little Christian and he looks behind and sees how much worse he has come through really was than what he even knew at the time, so he sees the mercy of the Lord in keeping him in darkness at that time, and he looks forward to see a path strewn with snares and knows the Lord brought the light just in time to save him from that.

My daughter and I have read this dozens of times and the copy I have had since childhood is in tatters.