J is for Jesus: The Sweetest Story Ever Told

Zondervan Publishing (publisher of The Purpose Driven Life and Praying the Names of Jesus) is a fantastic publisher of inspirational books and Zonder Kidz is a childrens division of the publishing company. This Christmas season, a book caught our eye called, "J is for Jesus: The Sweetest Story Ever Told" and we bought it for our family fun nights. We went a step further and purchased some candy canes to eat while reading the book. The kids (ages 3 to 11) loved the book which was filled with colorful pages. The book follows a set of kids who listen to a story from the candy maker and his explaination of which features of the candy canes represent which aspects of the Christmas story. We also enjoyed it's evangelistic ending proclaiming the good news of salvation.

I was orginally concerned that this book was going to make the dubious claim (an experience we've had at churches before) that candy canes were invented for a Christian Christmas purpose but I was put at ease when discovering that this story was written from a fictional perspective and just telling of a good story. The candy cane was used as a paradigm to drive the Christmas story and was successful in elevating the message over the candy cane.

I hope your family enjoys this story as much as we do.