JOSEPH: THE DREAM INTERPRETER
By Helen Clark
Day One. 164 pages. £6.00
ISBN 978 1 846 253 058
A Bible character study book for young teenage Christians — a hard project to do well! Helen Clark’s latest offering emphasises God’s providence, as do the rest of her ‘Pocket Bible People’ series.
The varied structure is helpful — split into headed sections retelling the story with interspersed notes, application sections, illustrative contemporary stories and ‘think tank’ sections for further study (though most teens would skip these unless working through as a group).
Helen picks up on God’s care and plan for Joseph (‘The Lord was with Joseph’). Definitely aimed at Christians, moral application could have been more gospel-shaped, as Joseph ‘died in faith… having seen and greeted the things promised from afar’ (Hebrews 11). In one example, pastoral counsel for tackling jealousy boils down to: ‘Pray and try hard’, rather than focussing on God’s gracious providential care, as he works all things for the glorious good of our becoming like Jesus.
With pages of off-topic speculation, I query whether Joseph merits 12 chapters. The editor could have reduced the book by cutting out issues children wouldn’t have thought of, and made the text manageable for teenagers — or the ‘8-12s’ for whom DayOne publicise the book. (Unless your young teens routinely tackle ‘sensationalise’, ‘detrimental’, ‘attire’ and ‘subconsciousnesses’!) As a 12-year-old keen reader commented to me, it’s jumbled up — ‘two pages on sex, but it’s not a sophisticated style’.
I recommend reading this selectively with a group of committed Christian teens, using the excellent ideas and skimming over the extraneous.
Rosemary Statter,
Solihull Presbyterian Church; teaching in a Birmingham secondary school
