Gay, Jerome, Jr. African Heroes: Discovering Our Christian Heritage.  Illustrated by John Joven. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2023.

Guide to categories: Kid Review – review of books for elementary-aged and younger children

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Summary

African Heroes: Discovering Our Christian Heritage shows children how God has used all races and ethnicities in his plan of redemption by celebrating and highlighting the contributions of African theologians and martyrs.

Jordan and Jasmine’s dad loves history and is always telling them stories about the past. One day when their family is out on a picnic, they start asking if there were any Christians who looked like them who God had used to help the church grow. They are excited when their dad shares inspiring true stories of early Christian leaders—both men and women—from Africa who helped to grow the early church in remarkable and significant ways.

Author Jerome Gay introduces children to the stories of eleven amazing African leaders including Augustine, Athanasius, Tertullian, and more. African Heroes presents these figures on a level children can understand with diverse imagery and colorful illustrations by John Joven.

• Written for children ages four to seven to show the African roots of the early church.
• Key principles and Bible verses are connected with each leader; for example, Augustine’s life and work in Algeria is characterized by grace (Ephesians 2:8). 
• Christian parents and church leaders will value sharing this resource with children to show that people of diverse cultures were part of the early church.

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Until I read African Heroes I did not realize the role Africans played in our Christian Heritage. I had heard of some of the people mentioned in the book but not all of them. There were also a couple I did not realize were African. I really enjoyed that Gay ties the historical accounts back to how it could apply to the reader. I also appreciated the ties to previous historical accounts in the book which help the reader tie everything together. 

I also liked the fact that Gay used the frame tale of a picnic with his wife and children as the setting for the story telling of the book. 

John Joven’s cartoon-like illustrations help to give readers an idea of what the location of each story looked like at the time it was being lived. They compliment the text well. 

African Heroes is an important book for all Christians as it reminds us that the Gospel was spread by people of many different cultures. 

African Heroes: Discovering Our Christian Heritage would be a great book for a K-12 Christian school library. It is appropriate for older elementary and middle school students and would be a great jumping off point for further research. Christian families of all cultural backgrounds should share this book with their children.

I received a complimentary copy of African Heroes: Discovering our Christian Heritage. This is my honest review. 

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