Mr. Pipes Comes to America

Mr. Pipes Comes to America, Douglas Bond
(Christian Liberty Press, 2001), pb., 194 pp.
Ages 6 and up

My boys were delighted when I told them we were reading another Mr. Pipes book. I have commented on the previous two here and here. In this one Mr. Pipes comes to visit Drew & Annie in America for Christmas. They do some sightseeing in New England and, of course, Mr. Pipes tells them more about hymn writers. A big issue in this book is the much anticipated meeting between Mr. Pipes and the children’s mom and stepdad. Annie desperately desires for her parents to share her faith and hopes Mr. Pipes will be more successful in talking with them than she and Drew have been.

Once again fun stories and history set the stage for substantial discussions of theology and hymns with commentary and critique on the current state of the church. I thought the hymns discussed in this one did not quite live up to those in previous volumes, but it was still a great book. I want my children to see the enduring value of hymns that are good poetry and have substantive, theological content focused on God rather than ourselves. These books are great tools to that end. In fact these books will be great for parents to read and then consider the songs sung in their churches.

We wholeheartedly recommend this book. It connected well with our current study of the Revolutionary War era since several of the early chapters dealt with hymn writers from that time.