Three Men Who Walked in Fire (Arch Books)

 Three Men Who Walked in Fire
Arch Books
Written by Joann Scheck
Illustrated by Sally Mathews
Copyright: 1967
Format: Paperback
Status: Not currently in print, but pre-owned copies are available on ebay. 
Conclusion: Keep

I've always thought that the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was a pretty well known story for children.  However, I appear to be wrong about that. This version is the only one I own, and in fact, it is the only one I've seen.

The Good Points: 

  • This book does a great job of staying true to the Bible.
  • It gives an introduction as to who the three boys are and how they ended up in Babylon.
  • It also attempts to give the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo some personality traits to make them individuals and more identifiable for children.

The Discrepancies:

  • This story does not mention Daniel or anything that he did.
  • In the Arch book, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo stayed away from the statue so they did not have to worship it, and they were noticed by their absence.  That is not mentioned in the Bible.  What it does say is that some men informed the king that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo weren't worshipping the king's gods or his statue.

I'm impressed. I could find very little wrong with this book, and of the two things I did find, one was simply to make the book a more reasonable length and the other wasn't necessarily wrong, it's just not specified.  This book is definitely a keeper.  The Publisher of Arch books recommends it for ages 5-9, but if you are reading it aloud you can certainly read it to younger kids as well. My three year old son loves this book.



(I really like how the illustrator made the furnace look like a robot. I'm not sure why they chose that, but it certainly amuses me each time I read the book).


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