I was thrilled to get a chance to review For The Temple from Heirloom Audio. I received a 2 1/2-hour, 2-CD audio drama based on G. A. Henty's For The Temple. I also received a 51-page PDF study guide. It is also available as a fully digital recording with accompanying study guide download through their Live The Adventure site.
If you are familiar with Heirloom Audio productions, you already know that this is not just someone reading a book out loud recorded on a CD. They use some amazing talents to act out the story along with state-of-the-art sound effects.
The 2-CD audio drama contains approximately 2 1/2 hours of listening and is so much more than merely reading the book out loud. It is a well-done production featuring some well-known voices.
What is the For The Temple?
Even though I had reviewed Heirloom Audio before, with Wulf The Saxon, I was not very familiar with Josephus or his writing of the Jewish War, but I understand that the story in the audio drama correlates with it well. Heirloom Audio uses the works of G. A. Henty and brings them to a well-made audio production.
George Alfred Henty, G. A. Henty, is a master at creating strong moral characters who are placed in the setting of an interesting fictional story which lines up with real-life historical events. Henty began storytelling to his own children, telling stories that would last and build for days. He put these stories to pen and paper, writing close to 150 books and publications for magazines.G.A. Henty does a fantastic job of intertwining historical information into a fascinating and adventurous story of young heroes.
The setting is 70 AD Palestine and Jerusalem
This story takes us alongside adventures of John of Gamala, who meets Josephus, during the years of Roman occupation, political infighting, and lawlessness that resulted in the destruction of the Temple. As the listener, you will find yourself in the mix of conflict between Rome, with greedy political groups, and bands of robbers in Palestine. John of Gamala is humble and courageous and keeps his honor as he overcomes slavery and battles for what is right.
The study guide, which I received as a PDF download, is designed for parents who want to weave a biblical worldview into the study while talking with younger children about the storyline of the audio drama or to serve as lengthier, more indepth, written assignments for older students.
The guide contains questions and activities, segmented into covering approximately 4-8 minutes of the audio at a time. Each segment has three sections:
Listening Well
Thinking Further
Defining Words
Since the study guide was a download, I pulled it up on my laptop, and decided it was easier to do the work online, finding maps and such as the guide suggested. So, the next few pictures you will see the study guide contents on the left of the screen and the search results for the corresponding activity on the right (The maps were found as a Google search and not part of the guide):
One of my favorite parts of the study guide was the Thinking Further sections that had activities such as finding places on maps.
Another activity asked to find landmarks associated with the story, this cafe' of which is still in operation today:
And, a more indepth study of what the Ringstrasse was then and how it looks today:
How Did We Use It and What Did We Think??
For listening, I put it in our DVD player, which also serves as an audio player, and is located in a central living room in our house.
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Here is a quick sample of how it sounds:
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If you look closely over the CD cover, you'll catch a glimpse of my daughter in headphones.
I have reviewed G. A. Henty audio dramas from Heirloom Audio in the past and found this one to be of the same excellent quality.
I told my daughters about the audio and packed it along when I headed to the airport to pick up my husband from a business trip. Being on CD, it makes it easy to pop into a car CD player for on-the-go listening. When I arrived back home, I sat to listen with my 7th grader in the room and opened up the study guide to decide how I could best put it to use.
I felt as though I was drawn into the story and was sitting in the same room experiencing the fall of Jerusalem right alongside the characters. The main character, a young man named John, goes from the vineyard to the service of Josephus. He becomes the leader of a guerrilla band of patriots and fights for the Temple. He eventually also gains the favor of Titus.
MORAL LESSONS:
One big takeaway from the audio is that John of Gamala was willing to give up his own comforts, even his desire to marry, for a greater purpose. Another character, Jonas, was also delightful to become acquainted with. John is a really good leadership model. He inspires his men and leads them to protect something very sacred to the Jews who hated the Romans and had strong faith that God would save their nation.
HOW THE AUDIO IMPACTED US:
Before receiving this for review, I had very little knowledge about the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, but between the adventurous book come to life on the audio drama CDs and the detailed study guide, we have a plethora of information at our fingertips to explore and dig as deeply as we want. I especially love that also included in the study guide is a Bible Study that compares the story to scripture as a way to delve deeper for older students.
One of my favorite scenes was when John was being praised as this amazing courageous hero, and he was right there listening as they continued this praise for this John, yet in his humility, he didn't reveal himself, that he was actually the John they were speaking of.
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