Darkest Night Brightest Day: A Family Devotional for the Easter Season

Bought for my 4-6 yr olds. Lots of words are big, concepts are big. Personally I loved this book but had to re-explain ALOT to my kids or break it down for them better so they understood. But ultimately we all loved it, and frankly I’m not sure I’d change the older language - maybe write another instead. Great book!

Bought 30 of these book to give to our church families on Palm Sunday! They are so beautiful and I love that it includes questions to help further engage your family in the Easter story. 10/10 would recommend!

I am so glad I found this in time for the Holy Week! The storytelling was powerful and lined up to Scripture! The illustrations were beautiful. I was captivated by the cover!

We purchased 40 copies to give to families at Easter and are very pleased. Although the print could be larger, in some ways that makes it easier for those with younger children, as I think they will need to paraphrase and "read the pictures". This is a book that will grow with them! We love that it goes all the way to Pentecost and the flipping over of the book makes it so meaningful, especially since most of our children have been through Godly Play. After the crucifixion, we always say "But WE know that is NOT the end of the story!" And on Easter we say, that the resurrection of Jesus turns everything inside out and upside down! We can't wait to present this to our families, this year by Palm Sunday!

The strength of this book is that it summarizes and harmonizes the accounts of the gospels regarding the events leading up to, and following, the cross. A family will read seven summaries leading up to the cross, and seven summaries of the resurrection to the ascension. Each day ends with 4 questions that you can ask your family for discussion. The questions vary. However, I find that the questions are not as deep, insightful, or focused on the major points as I would like. I have found this to be the case with other devotionals written by Machowski. If you want a great book on how to teach your children the Gospel from all of Scripture, check out "Show Them Jesus" which is also printed by New Growth Press. That book won't give you a pre-printed devotional to read each day, rather it will equip you with the skills to point to Jesus and engage your child's heart from any passage of Scripture. Resurrection Eggs would probably be a better resource for smaller children. And, all children would probably benefit from better questions. The art, and the creativity of the book are good. It is not a bad book by any means, and we even provided this book to all the families in our church.

The book finally arrived here in the Philippines after three weeks! I've been looking for a good Easter resource for our family devotion and this book is just perfect. Each chapter is theologically rich but easy to grasp for my young kids. The discussion questions are also very helpful. I love feature where we flip the book to the other side and it takes us to the resurrection of Jesus and the events that followed. The book itself is gorgeous and beautifully illustrated.

Every book I've read from Marty Machowski has been absolutely amazing! Although most of his books are directed towards children, they are just as engaging and powerful for adults. His newest upside down Easter book is no exception. The book is unique in that it's double sided and upside down: part one of the book on one side while part two of the book is on the flip side. Part one is titled Darkest Night and part two is titled Brightest Day. The Darkest Night chapters: - The Triumphal Entry - The Trap - The Betrayal - The Arrest - The Trial - The Crucifixion - The Burial The Brightest Day chapters: - The Stone is Rolled Away - Jesus is Risen - The Road - The Doubter - The Catch - The Ascension - Pentecost Each chapter lists corresponding scripture references for families to read on their own either before the book or after the book. The chapters also conclude with questions to discuss as a family to help ponder the story. I love this portion of each chapter as it promotes great discussion about biblical concepts and push children to have a better understanding of God's work that often doesn't make sense to the real world. The illustrations are phenomenal as usual with Machowski's books. Extremely engaging and depict many of the better options for each section of the Easter story. The chapters are a bit detailed and long so would be best read to ages 5-10 but still enjoyable for older children as well. This is an absolutely wonderful option for families to prepare for the Easter season. I received a digital copy of this book from New Growth Press in exchange for an honest review.

It is a well-designed and well-written book. We gave out copies to families in our church. As a father and pastor, I'm thankful for this resource.

Darkest Night Brightest Day is a beautiful family devotional. It is a perfect resource to use in preparation for Easter. This book is cleverly designed to include the final days of the life of Jesus and his crucifixion with the book oriented one way, and then the reader flips the book over to read about resurrection. This design reinforces the darkness that is transformed into ultimate hope. While this complimentary book was provided for review by New Growth Press, no other compensation was given. All remarks are my personal and honest opinions.

This is such a beautiful book, and will be treasured in our family for years to come. The content is easy for kids to understand, and has depth for parents too! The illustrations are absolutely stunning, and should be made into prints!