When Lighting Struck! The Story of Martin Luther ~ Book Review
We have been slowly studying the middle ages this year, one of my favorite time periods. Knights and castles what could be more interesting to young children?
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product for review, all opinions are 100% my own.
This past Halloween was the 498th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. The middle ages and reformation time periods as always been of interest to me.
So I was really excited to read When Lighting Struck! The Story of Martin Luther by Danika Cooley.
Learning About Martin Luther
When Lighting Struck! is a historical fiction book about Martin Luther. It is a 265-page hardcover book and is also available as an eBook. Containing 23 chapters with additional author's notes and more.
It's intended for children in middle school, but it's so well written that it makes a wonderful family read-aloud for all ages adults included!
The Story Of Martin Luther For Kids
When Lighting Struck! Starts out with Martin Luther traveling on his way to law school when a bad storm comes up. Martin is nearly struck by lightning and promises God that he will become a monk.
Martin's life flashes before his eyes and the reader is taken back in time to see some major events in Martin Luther's past. Death of his younger brother, harsh punishment in his family, trials at school, and an impatient, temperamental father.
All the things that led up to Martin being on the road that day.
After becoming a monk Martin Luther travels to Rome considered a very holy city at the time. After arriving is sees that the city he thought of as holy is making money charging people to see the holy relics and taking money to remove years from their purgatory.
This must have been such a shock to Martin, after being raised in such a strict area and spending time in a strict monastery.
Martin after studying the Bible learns that you can not buy your way into heaven and that a priest or pope can not forgive your sins. The only way into Heaven is through faith.
Martin begins sharing this belief with people in the church and later go on to write the bible in German so every German person would be able to hear and understand the word of God.
This is what created a separating from the Roman Catholic church and the creation of the Lutheran church. This was never what Martin Luther had intended, he didn’t believe at first that the Pope knew about the selling of indulgences.
He had hoped that through study and talks the church would be put back on the path of following the scriptures. However, this ended up creating a huge divide between the church leaders.
When Lighting Struck! is a wonderful, engaging book about the life of Martin Luther. I love the way Danika Cooley just pulls you right into the story with her writing style. Every time I finished a chapter the kids were wanting another!
Martin Luther is portrayed as a real person, not just the dry facts you would find in many books. You learn that he was temperamental, impatient, and really struggled with his anger. Martin was also very witty and compassionate.
I highly recommend the book When Lighting Struck! for anyone looking for a great book on Martin Luther and his life.
If you would like to turn this book into a full study Danika Cooley has available a FREE 12 week Unit Study and a free discussion guide.
