Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Arch Books

When I was young, my parents purchased every Arch book that was in print then. We read through the whole set several times and some favorites hundreds of times. Since our children are the only grandchildren so far, my parents gave the whole set to us.
Over a year ago, Gina mentioned on her blog that she was reading some Arch books by Erik Rottmann to her son. I recognized that name. I taught at Zion Lutheran Academy in Fort Wayne with Erik's wife, Kelly. My dad bought 5 Arch books for us at that time that were published by Erik. We have read those books several times. We keep them in our box of books for the Lambs to choose from each night for bedtime stories. I don't like the new Arch books as well as the "classics" that I grew up with. But Erik does a nice job of including baptism and the Lord's Supper in his Arch books. I was glad we purchased Erik's Arch books.
Just recently, Kelly joined a CCLE e-mail group with me. I e-mailed her and mentioned that we were enjoying her husband's books. She mentioned that her husband had a new book called Rahab's Red Thread. This book was her husband's idea, not CPH's idea. I'm going to have my dad get us that one. I look forward to reading it.
Esther will enjoy this comment. Kelly has seen Arch books in her local Dollar General Store for $1 each-including one written by Erik. Now I'm going to look there, just out of curiosity. What a different kind of market for Arch books to be in!
I looked at the CPH website and it wasn't the easiest to find Erik's books-partly because his last name has 2 "n"s. (I wouldn't know any other names like that-my maiden name!) But here's the list of Arch books that Erik has written that I could find.
*Deborah Saves the Day
*Rahab's Red Thread
*The Easter Victory
*Barabbas Goes Free
*His Name is John
*Timothy Joins Paul
*Jesus My Good Shepherd
*A Meal for Many
*The Parable of the Prodigal Son

The way that CPH does it, they pay Erik one lump sum, so he isn't making anything now if you buy his Arch books. But they little money he has been paid has been nice for their one income family. I would encourage you to look for these Arch books!

2 comments:

Esther said...

Arch books at the dollar store? That's AWESOME! We actually belong to the Arch book club through CPH, so we've got almost all of them. Our kids carry them around everywhere!

Dakotapam said...

I too have at least 100 arch books from my childhood and we pick up more when I see them. The new ones are not as good, but they work. Some from the late 70s are downright funny...Kiri and the First Easter comes to mind (Or maybe it was The Man who Carried the Cross). The first book I ever read on my own was Donkey Daniel in Bethlehem...and the cover is worn off! A second favorite is the Innkeeper's Daughter! I'll have to look for some of the titles you suggested, and possibly get them for our Church bookstore!