Reuben and Joseph

The Adventures of Reuben Sense #2

by Natalie Vellacott, Lauren Densham (Illustrator)

8 year old Reuben is popular. He loves his family, school and circle of friends.
Joseph is a ragged, dirty child from a poor family that have just moved into the area. Today is Joseph's first day at Reuben's school.

Reuben faces the first of many choices as Joseph stands by himself in the doorway of the classroom.
What will Reuben do?
a) move away and ignore Joseph
b) smile but then focus on the lesson
c) hold his nose and look disgusted
d) get Joseph some supplies so he can sit down

Whichever path Reuben chooses, he must learn the importance of caring and sharing quickly, or he may have to start again!

This brilliant series of Christian Choose Your Own Adventures are for kids aged 7-11 or younger children as a read aloud with an adult. They teach Christian values to children in a fun and exciting way, always with a touch of humour and will keep your kids quiet for hours as they investigate all the options along the way.

Don't miss out on these books that your children will love. Click the BUY NOW button to let your kids enter Reuben's world today.

Genres: Choose Your Own Adventure

138 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2017

About the author

Natalie Vellacott spent a decade as a police officer in England before swapping her badge for a Bible and heading for Southeast Asia as a Christian missionary. She volunteered on Logos Hope, a giant ship, for 2 years with 400 people from 65 other countries enduring the cultural catastrophes in order to enjoy the exciting adventures.

Natalie began writing in the Philippines when she fell in love with a group of street children addicted to a solvent called Rugby. Having founded a charity to help the boys and draw attention to their plight, she naively entitled her first book and has been trying to get it out of the Rugby Union chart ever since.

Natalie has also dabbled in Christian fiction for children, in the choose your own adventure style, mostly for the benefit of her nephew, Reuben, who is pleased that he takes centre stage.

Natalie is now involved in evangelism in the UK. In 2023, she published a new book about her recent experiences, as well as a series of contemporary short stories based on some of the parables that Jesus told.

Reviews

[Loz Densham · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are brilliant. Think choose your own adventure, but with a bit more of a focus on moral choices. They are written as fictional adventure stories but particularly tackle the importance of making wise decisions, then having to face up to the consequences of their actions. There are three books in the series, all featuring Reuben, a loveable but easily distracted young lad who often finds himself in tricky situations! The young reader is then able to choose how the story plays out. My kids love these books as they can read them multiple times and have different adventures each time. Would highly recommend to buy for your own children or they make a lovely gift!

[Robin Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is second book [mobi.file] I won as part of a collection of five books written by the author through a giveaway she recently had on LibraryThing, and the following is my honest opinion.

In “Reuben and Joseph” the author, Natalie Vellacott, has returned with her interactive manner of story-telling, a manner in which the reader determines the path the story will take. We all remember what happened when we’d been kids and someone new moves into our neighborhood and they tried to joined our circle of friends, and what we did as we interacted with them.

This is the basic premise for this story and concentrates on how Reuben interacts with the new boy Joseph. Joseph’s parents are not as well off as Reuben’s, in fact, they’re poor. Not only that, Joseph seems not to be sure of basically everything, including his own birthday.

While the first book about Reuben dealt with his own honesty and integrity, this book dwells deeper into his Christian faith and how to interact with someone who has far less than yourself. Will Reuben do as the Good Book instructs us to do, and share what he has with Joseph who seems to have nothing, or will Reuben simply turn his back on Joseph and ignore his needs? Will Reuben offer Joseph his genuine companionship or ignore what we’re religiously taught to do? Will Reuben demeanor allow him to discover the reason for Joseph’s wearing tattered clothing or looking grubby?

All these questions are part of the interactive journey this book’s young readers have to take by making the correct combination of choices as they and Reuben learn about the biblical lesson of the importance of caring for others and sharing what he has with those less fortunate.

Once again, the different possible paths this story can take is quite numerous, ensuring it will keep the young reader’s interest going until the end. For wanting to teach her young reader’s this important biblical lesson, I’m giving this book and its author the 5 STARS it desires.

[Andrex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph, 8, is a new boy in school and instructed to sit by Reuben. Not that presentable and a little on the smelly side, how will Reuben react? That's your first decision to make.

This story illustrates well that, as Christians, we truly need to shine Jesus in our everyday lives and that may mean going the extra mile. Excellent book. Great example for kids, showing them how different things can turn out when Reuben makes the wrong choice and/or is selfish.

I purchased this book for my Kindle. I was not required to write a review but chose to do so. Thanks, Liz

[R.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked this one too!! Again, loved how the reader can choose the answers and it's different every time!

I really felt bad for Joseph, but the choices I chose throughout the book brought him to a good ending! Yay! :)

Highly recommended for young and older readers alike!

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review

[C.A. Pack · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Reuben and Joseph: A Make Your Own Decisions Book” by Natalie Vellacott is an interactive children’s book about a young boy faced with making difficult choices about a new boy in school. The story is designed to go in several different directions depending on which action the reader wants Reuben to take. The results show how right or wrong a decision may be, and sometimes takes the reader back to the beginning to start all over again, so they can make better choices.

This is a good book for a parent to read with his or her child. There is a lot of jumping around between sections of the book because of the different choices given, however, links are provided for all the options. This book stresses Christian principles.

[Linda J.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you looking to spend some quality time with your children? This book is for YOU! Reuben and Joseph by Natalie Vellacott is a fabulous inter-active story to teach your child how to handle situations and dilemmas that might happen in real life.

I read this book twice. Once to get the "feel" of the complete options, and then followed through with making a decision on the story problems to complete the ending.

Since iPads are in most of the schools today for learning use, I feel this book would be a great teaching aid as the Kindle form of Reuben and Joseph could be used effectively with adult supervision, answering even more in depth questions about faith and making the right decisions that might arise. Also, a great gift to a child who would enjoy the "choosing" of the adventure. A book that can be read many times over.

[Hock Tjoa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a worthy attempt to teach young readers the consequences of judgments and choices. A boy in school faces a newcomer who appears in need of better clothes and personal hygiene. Practically all the "plot" involves choices the reader makes on behalf of the main character.

Links represent the various choices. I confess that I had trouble with these links. Most of them strike me as simplistic even for elementary or middle school (let alone adolescents). Some of the links actually don't seem to work for me and I felt there were too many of them.

As a reader, I felt frustrated in learning how the story unfolds and wished that there might have been more story in the mix with the choices.

[Watson Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's difficult--for several reasons--for me to review this particular book.

I think the book does a nice job of achieving what it set out to do, which is to teach children some lessons about Christian ideals, especially when it comes to sharing with those who are less fortunate.

Since this is the sort of book where you read a bit, and then have some options to direct the story, then read a bit more, and then have more options, a really complete review would need to go through all the options to make sure every one of them worked. I only went through the book twice: one time answering honestly with what I would do, and one time being a jerk. So I went down a path where I had a "successful" ending and one path where I had a "unsuccessful" ending.

However, there were a couple of places where I think a bit more editing would have been nice, some places where pronouns weren't clear. And as an American, the repeated use of "Mr" without a period was strange to me. I didn't realize that was a British thing until I looked it up.

[Parker Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book to read to your children uses a reader guided method to teach children important biblical lessons. I thought the scenarios were realistic enough as you selected which decision to make. Some of them were completely wild and way out there but they weren't bad at all. I like how a poor decision just led the child back to the beginning of the book although real life we don't have that option. We're all searching for the undo button somewhere.

A good book for children.

[Emma Debruyne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a bad book and can surely teach children a few things, but for me it was to christian. Don't get me wrong it's not a bad thing to be, but this book made me feel like the main character only did things because he wanted to be a good chitstian and not a good person. I think you don't need to be relgious to be a good person.

[Mandy Boerma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these choose your own adventure books, and my daughter does too. Great lessons and outcomes. A wonderful way to show kids that their choices will effect their lives.

[Catherine Freed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughtfully interactive

My family has enjoyed reading and discussing this book together. Great books, like this one, demonstrate how our choices can impact and influence those around us.

[Michael H McGinley · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE IT!!!!

This is such a great book and it shows how to help others who are in need. It’s 1 of the best books I’ve ever read!!!!