Forensic Faith For Kids -- my REVIEW

1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."  As believers in Christ, we ought to be willing and ready to explain why we believe in Christ and the Bible.  This is not just for adults, but youth who are believers ought to have this confident reasoning ability to share what they believe and why they believe it. 

The dictionary will define apologetics as, "reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine."  Sometimes we understand/believe things but have difficulty explaining why.  This book that I had the opportunity to read for review, Forensic Faith for Kids by David C Cook and Case Makers Academy, is written to help kids reason out and share the details of their faith to others.







The book is a story about two different investigations -- one is a few kids trying to solve the mystery of the "appeared out of nowhere" dog and the other is a few kids trying to share their beliefs in Christ as God with some doubting friends.  They are mentored by a detective, who is teaching them forensic-type skills to solve their mysteries.  He gives them tips and then sends them out to investigate.  He teaches them skills and "tools" and gives them great talks and rules. Here's one for example:  RULES ABOUT EVIDENCE: 1.  Just because someone writes something in a book, it doesn't mean it's true.  2.  Everything has the potential to be evidence.  3. The more cumulative the case, the more reasonable the conclusion.

The book is written in a voice that makes it sound like the reader is there, involved with the story.  The characters in the book are children who are doing the learning and investigating, as well as the (adult) detective.  

There were a lot of points made in this book that I really appreciated.  I want to share a few of them:
                           ***Unreasonable faith  -- "inspite of" evidence
                                 Blind faith -- "without" any evidence
                                 Forensic faith -- "because of" the evidence


                          ***Even though you might use evidence to figure out if something is true, you're still going to have some questions that are difficult, if not impossible, to answer


                         ***Don't be afraid when unbelievers make claims you can't answer; Christianity is true. It can survive the toughest questions.  When someone...says something    untrue about Christianity and you're not sure how to respond, just say, "That's                           interesting, let me do some research and I"ll get back to you."


Along with the book, there is a video series that moves chapter by chapter through the whole book.  It's found at Case Makers Academy and it is a real detective (the author) speaking about the exciting finds in the chapter.

Also on that same site there are three different printable pages for each chapter, one is a parents' guide, one is a training activity sheet (kind of a fun activity page relating to the chapter), and one is an academy notebook sheet (a fill-in-the-blank style note-taking page).

My 14-year old daughter and I read this book and watched the videos.  My daughter thought that the book was a little "young" for her and I agree.  I think that the way this book is written is for a much younger than 14 yrs old audience, though the topics and concepts were perfectly suited to even older teens.  Personally I didn't care for the writing style ("Daniel says..." "...replies Jason") to me it kind of sounds like someone narrating/reading a comic book aloud, or is reminiscent of those choose your own adventure books I read as a preteen in the '80's (though this book is not like them in format--you do not choose your own paths).  However, the book was not written for me, it was written for younger kids :) I did like the content.

I think that this book, Forensic Faith for Kids, uysed alongside the videos and worksheets on Case Makers Academy would make a wonderful study for a group of young kids (preteens?) -- something like a Sunday School class or a Bible study.  It's good content that will be reinforced through the use of the videos and the worksheets.

To read more reviews of this book, please click on the link below! :)