We love listening to audio books and educational programs when we are on the go. Our family has recently been given the opportunity to review the latest Christian audio drama from Heirloom Audio, which is called St. Bartholomew’s Eve.
It is appropriate for elementary school aged kids and above. We listened to it as a family and everyone enjoyed it! There are a few intense scenes that you might want to preview first, especially if your child is sensitive to battles and sword fights, and ultimately, death.
We decided to listen to this audio drama on our way to, and back from, our Wednesday homeschool co-op. There are over 2 hours of content in the story, so it took us 2 weeks of Wednesday listening to finish it. We received the digital audio book files as a download, and I loaded it on my phone and used Bluetooth to play it over the van’s speakers.
As with all of Heirloom Audio’s productions, the voice cast featured some great talent that we’ve heard and seen elsewhere, such as Elizabeth Counsell from The Chronicles of Narnia and Andy Harrison from The Secret Garden.
The story is based on the story St. Bartholomew’s Eve by G.A.Henty. It is about the Huguenots, of Protestant Christians, in France in the late 1500s and their battle against the Roman Catholics. There was a huge fight for religious freedom, and the story builds until the end, where they finally get to the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre. In the story, Philip has gone to France to help his cousin François and uncle in their fight.
As always, my kids enjoyed battle scenes the most. The sound effects make it sound like you’re really there! At one point, the characters dress up like their enemies to find out what is going on during a seige, and my kids could not believe they would disguise themselves as the very people that were trying to kill them!
We had to look up some history about the time period to understand the context of what was going on with the Christians of this time. It seems so foreign for us to not have freedom to worship as we please. In the 16th century, it wasn’t so easy in France! There was a lot of back and forth and so many lives lost for the cause.
The theme of the story seemed to be that it is always best to trust in God and believe that he will always be on your side. The good of Jesus Christ will always win in the end, even among trials and difficulties that seem void of hope. There is ALWAYS hope, and we are to believe. The characters in this story had undoubtable faith, especially when it mattered most, in the face of true persecution.
The digital download retails for just under $20, or you can get a physical copy of the set with 2 discs for just under $30. I like having the files digitally so that we don’t lose or scratch them, but also because my van does not have a CD player and that’s when we listen most to audio productions.
There were 80 of us on this Crew review! See what other families thought of this audio adventure by clicking on the banner below:
Feeling very good to listen it. Great drama ever. thanks
Thank a lot Jenn…..