Good Night Tales: A Family Treasury of Read-Aloud Stories

by Michael J Fischer (Illustrator)

Overview

Good Night Tales leads your children through a vivid, beautiful, and imaginative adventure through Scriptural truths. This collection of Scripture-based stories brings a forest to life through animal kings, trolls, plum-loving giants, and fiddle-playing crickets. Stories include reimaginings of Israel asking for a new king, parables about searching for the kingdom of God, and Psalm 23.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631465567
Publisher:	Navigators
Publication date:	10/01/2017
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	195,379
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

1 SAMUEL 8

Kings of the Forest

Do you remember a time when kings ruled the forest?

When the wilderness was not its own, and the mountains were reverent?

Dandelions bowed, shadows brightened, creatures sang, and the forest brimmed with blossoms and gladness.

There was the king who ruled the trees, who smelled of red maple and whistled the most somber of melodies as he walked through the forest at dawn.

There was the king of the flowers, who was draped in delicate petals and strands of ivy and whose famous temper would change with the seasons. Flowers would blossom or wilt depending on his mood.

There was the mountain king, who ruled over the peaks and hilltops that stretched far and long throughout the forests. When the clouds rained, the mournful king would cry into the night with the voice of thunder.

Every king in the land was powerful, but only one was glorious.

His name was so pure that no creature or tree dared to pronounce it. He was the King over all the other kings, and everyone — from the leaf beetle to the hare to the buffalo — bowed down to him. He spent long days roaming the land, talking with animals of all sizes, helping the weak, and guiding the strong. He loved all the creatures in his realm. And as the sun was setting by the great waterfall in the White Willow Gully, he could often be found singing to any animal that was near.

He truly was the greatest of the kings.

All the kings worked together to care for the forest, making sure the trees shaded the deer and the bees fed the flowers. But one year, when winter hung on just a little too long and its cold winds wouldn't retreat, something terrible happened.

IN the White Willow Gully, all the creatures of the wilderness gathered before their glorious King.

"If you were truly a great king, you would stop this winter!" cried the toad.

"We no longer want to hear your songs," squawked the birds.

"We want a king like the others," lowed an elk.

The glorious King, with sadness in his heart, gave them what they asked for. He turned and left the forest.

Day after day the animals searched for a new king. They wanted a king that was not only like the others in the forest, but better.

They found him waiting in a dark and mysterious corner of the forest. He hibernated in the Bitternut Caverns every season but winter. This bear was a ferocious, powerful, dreadful being.

"He is strong!" whispered one fox to another.

"All the other kings will fear him," said the mountain lion.

The animals asked him to be their leader. The beast was only too happy to oblige. His time had finally come.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Good Night Tales"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Casey Fritz.
Excerpted by permission of NavPress.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

FOREWORD, 8,
TO THE READER, 10,
GOING DEEPER: DISCUSSION PROMPTS, 172,
1 SAMUEL 8 Kings of the Forest, 12,
MATTHEW 13:44 Of Trolls and Treasure, 32,
PSALM 23 A Sheep's Journey, 52,
PSALM 139:14 The Extraordinary Ordinary Snail, 64,
PHILIPPIANS 2:3 The Song of the Cricket, 72,
LUKE 10:25-37 The Good Mouse, 86,
MATTHEW 25:14-30 The Wood Elf Who Wouldn't, 96,
LUKE 15:3-7 The Toy, 110,
JOHN 8:1-11 The Plum-Eating Giant, 120,
JOHN 12:23-26 Fell into the Earth, 132,
GENESIS 7:1-5 The King Is Calling, 140,
1 JOHN 4:7-19 Do You Love Me?, 156,

What People are Saying About This

Eugene Peterson

I love children’s books. As a father of three and a grandfather of nine, I have done more than my share of both reading children’s stories and inventing a few of my own. . . . My friend Casey Fritz is a dad and also a pastor, and he writes stories for children. This quite glorious book is full of interesting characters. . . . You and your children will be captured by all of them.