Jonathan Park: The Adventure Begins (Jonathan Park Audio Adventures)

Jonathan Park is an audio CD series published by Vision Forum. The story traces the adventures of the Park and Brenan families as they strive to build a creationist museum that explores the fallacies of evolution. Each episode is approximately 26 minutes long with a total running time of about 4 hours. There is a study guide provided which gives more details regarding the various science topics discussed in the stories including archeology, anthropology, paleontology, zoology, weather, and other topics.

REVIEW
We discovered this series recently when searching for an exciting radio program for our 7 year old son. Jonathan Park captivates him. He loves it! We relate the stories to an 'Indiana Jones' type genre only set in a drama where the families are trying to build a museum to support the creationist view of the world while debunking evolutionary ideas. Sprinkled throughout the fictional stories are true events and scientific facts that not only expose the fallacy of evolution but also explain why it is the creationist views, not the evolutionary ones, that are really supported by science.

We have found these stories exciting for our boys and refreshing as they present scientific truths with a Biblical world view while captivating our boys' attention -- a rare find in children's media these days. I have been amazed by some of the information that I learned from these stories.

Each CD set contains about 12 stories and there are four volumes to date. They do build on each other a bit as the families move forward in their adventures. You can listen to them out of order but it is probably best to start with Volume 1.

We highly recommend these stories for children who like adventure and who like science. Our five year old enjoys the adventure but misses a lot of the science. Our seven year old seems to absorb and process the science especially after we discuss the points in each story. The study guide is also a helpful resource for discussion.

I would recommend this series for learning for ages 7 and up, for entertainment ages 5 and up. One caution: suspense plays a major part in each story and might be too intense for some children who are especially sensitive. We listen to them together and this seems to help with the 'fear factor'.