This was such a fun book! Although Katy Morgan wrote this book for young children, ages 8-12 yrs, I thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult.

The premise of the story is a retelling of Jesus' birth through the eyes of Mary, Joseph and Zechariah. Morgan does an amazing job of bringing such insight to their specific viewpoints of Jesus' birth.

Morgan's writing style is so engaging. She does a wonderful job of weaving scripture and other biblical insights throughout each story.

I have always been hesitant regarding retellings of Scripture. It can be fun, but ultimately the retellings bring in details that are the author's creative mind and not part of the true Scripture story. Thus, it can confuse young readers of what exactly is the truth and what is simply embellishment from the author.

I greatly appreciate Morgan's conclusion to her novel - Notes. This section is exactly what I wish every retelling would include. She begins this section with the following: " If you're wondering which bits of The Promise and The Light we know for certain and which bits I've invented, you've come to the right place. These notes explain some of the decisions I made and point you to the Bible passages which contain the original accounts." She lays out specific scripture references for each chapter along with her detailed explanation regarding her creativity and Scriptural truth.

She also structured the book with some genius intent: with 25 chapters, the reader can read one chapter per day to follow the advent calendar. This is very doable for children 8-12 yrs as the chapters are short enough.

I received a copy of this book from The Good Book Company in exchange for an honest review.