Their Name is Today Review and Giveaway

About the book:  “If you want to glean insights into how to raise and influence children to be more compassionate and considerate, more courageous and confident, more independent, secure, and unselfish; if you want your children to be more loving and joy-filled, then get reading!” —excerpt from Mark K. Shriver’s Foreword (President of Save the Children Action Network)

Despite a perfect storm of hostile forces that threaten to deny children a healthy, happy childhood, courageous parents and teachers can turn the tide. Yes, we can reclaim childhood, says Johann Christoph Arnold, whose books have helped more than a million readers through the challenges of education and family life. In Their Name Is Today, he highlights drastic changes in the way our society treats children. But he also brings together the voices of dedicated parents and educators who are finding creative ways to give children the time and space they need to grow. Cutting through the noise of conflicting opinions, Arnold takes us to the heart of education and parenting by defending every child’s right to the joy and wonder of childhood.

About the author:

A noted speaker and writer on marriage, parenting, and end-of-life issues, Arnold is a senior pastor of the Bruderhof, a movement of Christian communities. With his wife, Verena, he has counseled thousands of individuals and families over the last forty years, as well as serving as an advisor at several innovative private schools. Arnold’s message has been shaped by encounters with great peacemakers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, Cėsar Chavez, and John Paul II. Born in Great Britain in 1940 to German refugees, Arnold spent his boyhood years in South America, where his parents found asylum during the war; he immigrated to the US in 1955. He and his wife have eight children, forty-four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. They live in upstate New York.

OBM says:  I don't know that many of my friends in the homeschooling, super-invested as parents, community would find this book very insightful, as most of what it has to offer is exactly the wisdom behind what we do and why.  But for my family members who think I'm crazy for doing what I do, and for those who are watching their children's childhood slip by in not-at-all the way their own childhood was spent, it might be very informative.  Some of the suggestions include understanding the need for children and their value to society, valuing play as their work, letting kids experience trying and failing and trying again, spending time away from "screens", taming materialism, being consistent in discipline, meeting the needs of difficult children by discovering how to support them, and showing children how to treat everyone with respect.  While it's written in a positive, affirming manner, and it makes references to God, it's not overtly Christian, and even non-Christians would glean wisdom from it.  The resources quoted through the book come from a myriad of sources, none of which is the Bible, but rather are other books and articles on childhood development.
You can read more about or purchase Their Name is Today on the Plough Publishing House website.

If you'd like to win a copy of Their Name is Today, and you are a resident of the U.S. or Canada, just enter the giveaway below.

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