[This is a Tyndale House Ministries children's humorous story including brief Christian stories from the New Living Translation of the Bible.]

Merle and Pearl are squirrels that were accidentally dehydrated in a cave 2,000 years ago next to the Dead Sea (in the Holy Land).

They were found by a boy and rehydrated, then stolen (kidnapped?) by a bad guy working
for an evil man who's dream is to have a talking-animal petting zoo.

As the squirrel's friends attempt rescue (the posse includes the boy, his parents, friends, and animals including a donkey and camel), places in the Bible are mentioned jokingly or as a point of interest. However, without a map, tossing around place names was meaningless to me.

As a Christian, I was interested and anticipated some fun. I smiled occasionally, but the humor felt forced and flat, like a woman yelling "Peeping donkey!" or Pearl talking about how inept Merle was after he did something clever.

I encourage humor to teach, and Christian values are worthy topics, but this book was disjointed, the grammar made the story confusing in some parts, and I was mildly offended by some of the jokes and situations.

The things I found most interesting were facts about the habitats and animals in areas they travelled through.

2/5 Stars
1 Star for Christian themes and scripture
1 Star for nature facts

Thanks to Tyndale Kids, Tyndale House Publishers, and NetGalley for the preview of this ebook pdf; the review is voluntary.

#RiskyRiverRescue #NetGalley
#DeadSeaSquirrelsSeries
#TyndaleHousePublishers #TyndaleKids
#ChildrensFictionChristian
#ChildrensHumorousFictionChristian
#AuthMikeNawrocki #IllustLukeSéguinMagee
#LukeSéguinMagee #MikeNawrocki

I read this to my 5, 8, 10, and 11 year olds. Since we're big fans of Veggie Tales, I figured they'd love it! The only one who liked it was the 8 year old.

It was difficult to keep the characters straight, and it was just...silly. What I would call twaddle. There were a few little tidbits about the Bible or the Biblical region, but not enough to make it better for my kids.

*I received this ebook courtesy of NetGalley for my review. All opinions are my own.*

Another exciting installment of the Dead Sea Squirrels series, the 10th book takes us to Israel where we find that one of the Dead Sea Squirrels has been squirrelnapped and is in danger of being a part of a petting zoo. This book follows the fun and hi-jinx of the Gomez family and their friends as they travel to Israel to find the missing squirrel. My kids have devoured every book in this series, and have looked forward to reading this book since the last was published! I especially like that each book in this series contains Biblical information about God, Jesus, or important places in Israel. I even learned several things about Jesus’ baptism in this book that I did know previously know! Highly recommend for elementary school aged readers!

Many thanks to Tyndale Kids and Net Galley for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Risky River Rescue is a fun story that children and adults will absolutely love. The story follows the Gomez family as they search for Merle in the Holy Land. I absolutely enjoyed discovering the Holy Land and the biblical values shared through this adventure. I highly recommend this delightful read. Highly recommend it!

Risky River Rescue is a fun story that children will love. It teaches Biblical values while taking children on a fun adventure at the same time. The story follows the Gomez family as they search for Merle in the Holy Land. Merle has his own adventure, and just barely manages to escape from the dreaded Ruben.

This book is fun from start to finish! My children absolutely loved following along with Merle and the Gomez family. There are twists and turns that keep you guessing all along the way, and you're never quite sure if the Gomez family will finally catch Merle or if he will manage to escape again.

This book also teaches wonderful Christian values. Children learn about choosing to follow God's will for their lives and how to please God by obeying him.

This is a fantastic family story and I highly recommend it.

Risky River Rescue is a lot of fun! I love how well the personalities shine through. Pearl's no-nonsense, realistic outlook, and Merle's carefree way of being comfortable and seeing the bright side of the situation were well done.

The Gomez family and their entourage were resourceful and clever, and hilarious. (Just act like we're supposed to be here, no one will notice)

The best part for me was learning that it's believed that Jesus was baptized at the same spot on the Jordan river that several other awesome events happened. I love how big things like that can be tucked into a story for kids, and not feel preachy or lecture-y.

This is Book 10, and really needs to be read in order. My family had read 1-2, and were able to catch up/follow the story, but definitely could tell we'd missed a lot. This didn't stop us from enjoying the story.

I received an advance copy of this book from #NetGalley and chose to review it here. All thoughts are my own.

This is a cute story for young readers that is amusing and exciting as well as educational. Animals that talk, includiing the Dead Sea Squirrels, and some human friends such as Dr & Mrs. Gomenzes,and Michael and Jane, join together and tour the Holy Land while looking for one of the squirrel-napped Dead Sea Squirrels named Merle. His wife's name is Pearle. She is eagerly helping to look for Merle too. Fun stuff.

If any child has been to Sunday School hearing different Bible stores and seen some maps of the Holy Land, then some of the places named in this book will be somewhat familiar, like the Dead Sea, Jordan River, Nazareth and so on. The animals also tell Bible stories about those places and their significance, in short blurbs.

Although this Risky River Rescue book is the 10th in a series about the Dead Sea Squirrels, it can be a stand alone feature. The author has introduced each of the main characters and given them brief but interesting bio's. If any of the children are familiar with Veggie Tales, it'll give them an idea of what they can expect from this engaging tale. Additionally, I'd like to note that because the Bible stories seem to be accurately related as compared with the actual Bible version, I would, given opportunity, give such as a gift to a grandchild if I had one or to young nieces and nephews.

~Eunice C., Reviewer/Blogger~

February 2022

Disclaimer: This is my honest opinion based on the complimentary review copy sent by NetGalley and the publisher.

<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/04b37ae7f3ff846e213a00a515d0a1f507bf1833" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>

<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/95bfbb51bd15b75713b08162cd37354affcfcc50" width="80" height="80" alt="50 Book Reviews" title="50 Book Reviews"/>

A fun, new instalment of this series. My kids devour these books and are so excited for this new book. I love that they are learning some Biblical history and how it relates to our modern world.

i received an ARC of #RiskyRiverRescue from #netgalley in exchange for an honest review