I and my kids have treasured Advent for the past three years with Jotham, Bartholomew, and Tabitha. This Easter season was made just as special with Amon. We were all so moved by the stories! We all hope you have more of these stories in you! However, just know that you have touched the lives of three children, and will continue to do so year after year. Your name is a household word for us. May God bless you! Kristin

please Write More!

Please, Please keep writing! We so enjoyed this book for Lent as well as your three books for Advent, which we have been reading every season since 2004. These books are treasures in our family. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Kris

I can not thank you enough for continuing this series into a Lent season book. We have loved your Advent books for years, but have really been lacking for study/story books for Lent (other than the best book of all, The Bible). It is so great to read such accurate Biblical accounts woven into your story. Thank you!!!!

Our family is currently reading Amon. Each night we gather together to hear the story, get closer to each other, and come closer to God. Thank you for this wonderful story and tool to help us focus on the Messiah, Jesus, the reason for Easter. I have used all the special features on the website and look forward to more added as we progress through the book. Our family has read the Christmas series for years now. This is certainly a gift from God.

I could hardly keep my voice level down at our bible book store the other night when I saw that the first of the new Easter series was on the shelf! I was giddy with excitement for this long awaited book. My oldest was only 6 when I first read Jotham's Journey to him and his younger siblings. He is now going to be 16 in the summer and he was as excited as the rest of them were. I have been talking about this new book for a while and just waiting for a publisher to take you on so it could become a reality in our hands. I have been praying for so many years for this project to be realized and am praising the Lord with you, rejoicing over it's completion! The gestation period, for this book, seemed to go on forever, but it's birth is beautiful! I am not disappointed in anyway. We read the first chapter last week, not knowing anything about Lent. Okay, we read the about Lent pages first, then looked up on the computer as to when Ash Wednesday was....not for another week?!!! My kids couldn't wait for me to start the reading (secretly between us I would have started it alone had I made them wait) so we read a chapter that night. It was wonderful and a great surprise for all. Seeing some of our beloved characters from Christmas show up for Easter! Anyway, Arnold, thank you for your persistence and for not giving up on Amon. We are truly blessed and anxious for the rest of the series to come out.

My brother bought Tabitha's Travels,Jotham's Journey,Bartholomew's Passage and Amon's Adventure.All of the books were wonderful.(I really enjoyed the ten-year-olds. They were my age. I am ten.) I think that Amon could be a Zealot fighting against the Romans.Mr.Ytreeide is a wonderful bookwriter and storyteller.I am a big fan of his books.He knows exactly how to tell a story and get you absorbed.I didn't stop until I read the end of the books.I read them over and over each night.Thank God for Arnold Ytreeide he is my number one author.

I just googled your books, Mr. Ytreeide, to find a place to ask you to write more books about Jotham, Bartholomew, and Tabitha. I see that you and others must have had the same idea! We've been rotating the advent stories for about 8 years now and have loved them (especially Nathan) each year. Have you thought about writing about Nathan? It sounds like he has had quite the adventures with some of his friends. I know the Lord will bless you for all the time you have spent showing what the true focus of Christmas is! Thank you for writing this new book about Amon. I'm sure my family and I will enjoy it as much as the three advent stories. Carrie <><

Thanks so much for your kind words.  We have an Easter book coming out this year to be used during Lent, just as Jotham is used during Advent.  The story follows Jotham's 13 year-old son 30 years after "Jotham's Journey". You can check it out here.

Other than that, I don't have particular knowledge of any similar family readings.  Perhaps another reader has some ideas?

Mr Ytreeide, My little family and I began our first Advent season on Jotham's journey just this year. I have three children - 2 boys and a little girl: Caleb (5), Emet (3), and Anna Ruth (1). I stumbled across the book accidentally on CBD and thought I'd give it a try. I'll likely be purchasing the entire set several times over as gifts now! It has been an absolute joy to see my boys (husband included)anticipate the advent reading each night and watch their faces as they sit wide eyed, imaginations going wild during the reading of the story. Then they talk about it all the next day. I'm so thankful the Lord put this on your heart as a ministry to families. What a blessing it has been to us. In fact, we have loved it so much, I don't want our family reading time to be an Advent only event.....and plan to search out some books we could read as a family each night. I do, however, love the built in scripture and Bible lesson in the Advent stories. If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them! God bless, and happy writing! Ann Ordway www.gourmettogerber.blogspot.com jaordway@hotmail.com

Tina -

Thanks for the kind words, and for your support!

As you probably know, when you sell a book to a publisher you generally sell all the rights to the story in any format.  In my contracts I retain the film and television rights, but sell all other rights, including any kind of electronic version.  So only Kregel would be able to release the Easter book as an e-book, and as far as I know they have no plans to do so at this time.

Sorry!

Also, in talks with the editors at Kregel, it sounds like they'll be changing the title of the book back to the original name:  Amon's Adventures.  Obviously this title fits in better with the Advent trilogy, and was my original title, but was changed somewhere along it's long path to publication.

God's blessings on you and your family!

aly

Dear Mr. Ytreeide, Our family has loved and sold hundreds and hundreds of your Advent Trilogy when we owned Lifetime Books and Gifts. We anxiously await MYSTERY OF THE TEMPLE COURT. Though we book lovers much prefer to have it in print format, would you please consider releasing it in e-book format? After so many years, it would be wonderful to have it available...in some format! Sincerely, Tina Farewell www.BobandTinaFarewell.com When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue— you sell him a whole new life. ~ Christopher Morley

We are so looking forward to the release of "Mystery." Each year when a new volume in the trilogy is re-released, I coordinate orders for 30+ families, and counting. All of are anticipating being able to use "Mystery" in our 2011 Lenten devotions. Thanks for creating Jotham and his friends - God has used them to enrich the spiritual walks of many.

I'm so excited to see there is a new book coming -- this one for Easter and yet still involving Jotham. I am sorry that Mr. Ytreeide has been afflicted with lupus (that explains the long silence) and overjoyed that he has managed to write more books. May God bless you for many years to come! Stephanie (Conover, NC)

WE have been reading Jotham's Journey and it's sequels for Christmas for at least 13 years and I think 14. We started when my oldest was around age 5 and he is now 19. All of the children have enjoyed the stories during advent season. Last year I went to Israel with my husband and visited many of the places mentioned in the books and we videoed ourselves talking about and acting out parts of the books while actually there, so that we could incorporate the videos and pictures into our reading of the books for years to come. Such fun! I am so excited to see that an Easter book is coming out... I can't wait to share it with our children.

Looking forward to this new family Easter resource. We just started our 2nd round of Jotham and look spending all of December on a reading adventure together.

Year after year each of my children gather around to listen to mom read from one of the stories in advent trilogy. They know the stories of Jotham, Bartholomew and Tabitha by heart and yet they get excited again as if they are meeting up with old friends. We are anxiously awaiting more adventures of Jotham in "Mystery of the Temple Court". Whenever I can get my hands on a copy of the advent books, I snatch it up and given them as gifts. Thank you for being apart of our Christmas. And for blessing us with your books.

I'm VERY excited about this Easter book!!! I'll buy several copies to give as gifts. We are on our third time through the Jotham series and the kids look forward to them EVERY year!!!

But if it's in the same vein as the previous books, we're going to add this to our list of books to buy. We're still waiting for Bartholomew right now as we missed that the first time around. However, when this comes out, we'll get this as well. I really look forward to it.

I wish I could impart to you a small idea of how your books have blessed our family - I can truly say they have become a part of the fabric of our faith journey. We often joke about the dung gate of Anghetti and having Decha breath, but we took much more then humor from our daily readings, I assure you! When we finally were able to get a hold of Tabatha's Travels this past December, we had to hide it so the children wouldn't read ahead. We loved Jotham's Journey and Batholomew's Passage so much, that we just HAD to have Tabitha - so we bid our max on e-bay and won. When we finished reading Tabitha, we started speculating about an Easter adventure ... we had Jotham and Tabitha all married and grown with children of their own, meeting Jesus on the hillside in Galilee and following Him to Jerusalem for the Passover. Needless to say, your book will be far better than our speculations! We are so glad you have it written and in the que for publishing! Thank you for using your gift to touch our hearts!

We're still waiting to hear from the publisher, but with the economy as it is, the book may be delayed.  We will notify all members by email, as well as here on the site, when the new book is released.

I am soo excited to have this new book available. My family and I have read Jotham's Journey, Bartholomew's Passage, and Tabitha's Travels over and over -- they are now fond Christmas memories for my older children and new memories for my younger. I recommend them for new adult believers as well -- they bring the Bible to life. Thank you so much for these incredible, well-written stories.

Has any undated information been given about a release date for this book? I can't seem to find a phone number or any information other than Fall 2008. Thanks

Hi: I am SOOOOOOOOO happy to have been looking around and found this new site. I have read Jotham's Journey and Bartholmew's Passage to my own kids three/four years ago. (now ages 13 & 10) This year I read Jotham's Journey to my 2nd grade class. I teach in a Christian school, and the kids LOVED it. I told them I had the second book and was considering reading it--even though Christmas is over. I also told them I was very sad I couldn't find the third book for under $60.00. And--that I wished I could find an EASTER book just as good. I am glad God spoke to/through you and you realized how much people enjoyed this series. I'll be on the look out for the re-release of Tabitha's Travels and of course this new Easter book! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Sincerely, Kelly Hearn Tri City Christian Academy

This is so exciting! I can't wait to get a copy to share the Easter season with my children in such a great way! I'll be keeping an eye out for when it is released!

I would love to have this book! I love Tbitha's Travels and Jotham's Journey!

I am new to the Jotham's Journey series and can't wait for the next 2 to be republished! I am also very excited about The Mystery of the Temple Court. Please let me know when it is available. I am thankful for the gift of storytelling that God has given to Arnold Ytreeide. His stories draw families together and teach powerful truths.

I would love to purchase my friends a copy of this book for Christmas. We have one complete set of the Jothams Journey books that we keep passing back and forth through the years. (I am also eagerly anticipating those being back into print). Please let me know if/when this book is available to purchase. Thanks!

Greetings, Every once in a while I Google Jotham's Journey. WOW! Today I found the new site! We are so glad that the Christmas books will be reprinted and VERY excited about the new Easter book. Thank you for all your hard work! Bless you! Bless you! Bless you!

Please let me know as soon as this becomes available. I have children 17, 16, 14, and 6. The Jotham's Journey series has not only become tradition but wonderful family memories. We have recommended these books to everyone we know. Thank you so much for them. Blessings, Gina Fallanca

Yip yip yip yahoo!!!!!!!!!! Finally you have found a publisher (or should I say have become a publisher) and we are so excited to know this will finally come to print. The Advent Series is an annual event in our home where we have to read all three because my kids love them so much (it does not even have to be Advent season for them to pull them down off the shelf to read them). We cannot wait to read this continuing journey. Thank you for bringing these characters to life. Many blessings in your new venture, Maridee Sauers The Sauers Family in Niger, West Africa

I am so pleased to hear that the Advent Trilogy will be reprinted and sold again! I have shared my books with so many friends and have lost track of them so I am thrilled to be able to purchase them again. What a wonderful Christmas gift they will make for my neices and nephews! I can't wait to share your stories with them! I am very excited to purchase the new Easter story! Our family has delighted over your wonderfully crafted books and look forward to reading them again and again and again! God bless you! Mary Murray