Attack At The Arena

Patrick was pushed with the men down a long hallway. It was lined with cells on each side. Some held more men. Others had caged animals. “It’s like a zoo,” Patrick said. What are the animals all doing here?”

“The same as us,” Aldric said. “We’re here to die for the glory of Rome.”

Book: Attack at the Arena (AIO Imagination Station Books) by Marianne Hering and Paul McCusker, Focus on the Family and Tyndale House Publishing, 2011

Genre: Adventure

Target Audience: Boys and girls 8-13

Subjects: Murder, Rome

Summary: A trip to ancient Rome sounds quite exciting to Patrick and Beth – until they get captured and sent to the arena! As soon as the kids returned from their adventure with the Vikings, Mr. Whittaker receives another note saying Albert needs his help. This one says that he needs a silver cup. The Imagination Station still won’t let Mr. Whittaker have adventures for some reason, so Patrick and Beth go in pursuit of the cup. Beth posing as a slave is caught and sent to Emperor Honorious. Patrick joins up with a monk by the name of Telemachus, but is captured and sent to the arena to die for the glory of Rome. The people are demanding more violence, more death and Patrick and Beth may be the ones the crowd gets!

Notes: This is the 2^nd in the Imagination Station Adventures series. The series is much like the secular Magic Tree House books but instead of wizards and magic it’s imagination and inventions giving them the different place/different time experiences. The radio show the concept is taken from is very solid – full of great spiritual elements and lessons and challenges as well as fun and excitement. This book did a much better job than some of the other in the series at focusing on spiritual elements. The spiritual elements in this story is the historical event of Telemachus requesting that if the emperor profess Christianity, he put a halt to the violence of the arena because the God of Christianity does not delight in murder. As with the Magic Tree House, part of the focus of the series is on giving a picture of the time and place featured in the setting of the book.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 4/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

1 John 3:12 – Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.