Children's book from Christian authors offers a timely way to teach younger kids about the Passion. "The Greatest King" teaches lessons in sacrifice, humility and service wrapped around a fantasy adventure and the Passion of Christ.
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 30, 2004 -- What a difference a movie can make on a life. Be it a trivial, fleeting influence on your outlook or a supercharged,spin-your-head-around and make you cry type of experience, the power of a good film is just something that is
hard to ignore. Such has been the case for Mel Gibson's recent powerhouse of a movie, Passion of the Christ. The impact that it has made on adults and older children is only reinforced by the fact that it has been embraced by almost every Christian group. How does one argue with affected lives and blockbuster receipts that are being
predicted to sink those of Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and even the all time leader Titanic?
Looking at these blockbusters, though, you realize that these great movies are basically "safe" Hollywood material that you can easily bring your younger kids to. Sadly, the Passion movie just does not belong to this category. The intense, gory violence is probably too intense for younger kids to absorb and much less, understand. No parent would want to risk traumatazing their 4 to 9 year olds with the very graphic images in the movie. How can one then impart the tremendous message of Christ's suffering and sacrifice without scaring them?
Authors Jerry Yu Ching and Mike Onghai seems to have had the perfect solution for some time now. The second edition of their book, "The Greatest King" has just come out of publication and offers the right blend of appropriate children's material and an unflinching portrayal of Christ's suffering and death. In what Our Sunday Visitor has
called, " A spectacular visual presentation," the book has managed to merge the kid friendly styles of comics and the best of current picture books that children love. The Greatest King masquerades as a secular fantasy and adventure romp that is sure to entertain the squirmiest 6 to 9 year old.
Using this as the springboard, Ching and Onghai eventually deliver the goods...the message of Christ's love and sacrifice and what true greatness really means. "Whoever wishes to to become great among you shall be your servant.." Matthew 20:26-27. And therein lies
the main theme of this book. The theme of service, sacrifice and love ....wrapped around the Passion of the Christ!
Ching is a Los Angeles-based animator with credits on Mulan, Tarzan, Casper and Fantasia 2000. Onghai is a magazine co-publisher in New York. They are the creators of e-card site cheerupcards.com.
The Greatest King is available for $13.99 through most bookstores and Amazon.com.
Images from the book and it's synopsis are online at http://www.thegreatestkingbook.com.
The Greatest King by Jerry Yu Ching and Mike Onghai. Second edition., 7 3/4 x 10 1/16, 46 pages, 40 illustrations.
ISBN 0-9743215-0-8 $13.99 Publication : April 2004
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