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New Season, New Format, Same Quality
As I already mentioned, our family simply loves Brinkman Adventures audiodramas! In fact, my children look forward to the opportunity of reviewing each new season that comes out, and they often request to listen to CD's from prior seasons over and over again. Therefore one CD or another from our Brinkman Adventures collection always seems to be in our minivan while the others are often at hand in the house.
We have all come to appreciate how the true, modern, missionary stories that the fictional Brinkman family tells offer a blend of excitement, humor, suspense, faith, and fun. Every dramatized episode of the Brinkman Adventures proves faith-filled and action-packed, and we enjoy living vicariously through them as we listen along.
This was as true for us with Season 6 stories as it has been of Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4. (Somehow we missed Season 5 and hope to add it to our collection one day.)
What was not the same for us with Season 6 was the format and length of the audiodramas. For Season 6, we received a digital version oinstead of a CD.
I had no problem downloading and unzipping the audiofiles, however, when I attempted to burn them onto a CD to keep in our minivan, our computer kept giving me error messages. This was disappointing since we find CD's far more convenient than digital files, but I suspect the error was due to an issue with our laptop, not the files themselves, since other Homeschool Review Crew members had no problem burning CD's.
Not to be chagrined, I tried using our laptop in the minivan to listen to Season 6 in our minivan, but the volume just would not go up high enough to be heard clearly by everyone over the background noise of tires on pavement. Thus, we were unable to listen to Season 6 when driving and had to enjoy the missionary stories at home.
Typically, however, unless we are sick or doing a laundry marathon, we do not sit to listen things for long spells outside our minivan. Thus, I was glad to that the Brinkman Adventures have moved to releasing audios after every six episodes now, instead of after more, which means Season 6 is 2+ hours long instead of the typical 5+ hours of earlier season. That meant we did not have to spend so much of our precious home time in one room listening to the stories.
The flip side, of course, is that we enjoy the stories and wanted more of them! So, my children and I have agreed that we'd like a CD format in the future and hope that Season 7 is more than 2+ hours long.
Our Thoughts about Underground Rising
I like his audiodrama, because it is exciting. There were battles. There was jail. There was suspense. Most importantly, there was faith.
My favorite story was Free Burma Rangers, Parts 1 and 2. It was the most exciting because we heard all about a boy who became a man who was a green beret and, then, a missionary.
As a missionary, he formed a group that saved people. The man was able to use his green beret skills to do God's work.
After we listened to that story, we looked at Real Stories online to learn more about the man and about being a green beret. It was cool to watch the green berets sky jump.
I would recommend this audiodrama to families with boys like me who like battle, excitement, and faith!
I will add the caveat that some eight year old boys might not relish all the excitement of Season 6, since there are a few more intense scenes. As with all Brinkman Adventures audiodramas, these are preceded by a suggestion for hose under 10 to listen with their parents, and, for my family a least, are well within the range of enjoyable family listening.
My 11-year-old is my most sensitive child and she was okay with all of Season 6, although she did ask that we not listen to it before bed "just in case".
She had this to say:
I thought Season 6 was okay. We did not get this one on CD, and I prefer a CD. I also prefer more stories in one collection, but I still liked it!One of the stories was about a girl named Samantha. Her parents lost a baby and take her family on a camping trip a year later.
During the camping trip, Samantha's dad is putting her to bed and her mom is out tending he fire. When her dad goes back out, her mom says, "I just had a very strange thought. We are meant to go to India." her dad has had he same thought and her brother Huck yells, "Where's India?"
Soon enough, he finds out, because the family goes here and lives with orphans who they help. At firs,t Samantha doesn't like it, but, then she does. Before they go to India, Huck has an allergy issue after eating a ham sandwich. They have to use an epipen on him. Later, in India, he says he is healed of his allergies. His parents test it and, miraculously, he is!
I liked this story, because it was interesting to think about living a normal life one day, and, suddenly, becoming a missionary another day.
My daughter seemed to really connect with the character Samantha as we listened. I can totally see her becoming a missionary some day and putting her own child in a similar situation.
My oldest son liked all the stories, too. He found the "Free Burma Rangers" exciting like his younger brother did and was riveted by portions of "Dutch Underground" as the Brinkman's great grandmother told about how she was a part of he Dutch resistance when Nazis took over Holland and of the close calls and imprisonment she endured.
He also appreciated the allegorical story "Twice Born Fly", and had this to say:
Season 6 was good. There were only a few stories, and I would have preferred if they has as many stories as earlier seasons, but the stories they did have were very, very good. The characters were believable and the plots were exciting!The story "Twice Born Fly" was funny. I had a feeling the story Jack Brinkman told in it was a dream - and it was! He talked about being in prison, which was strange and a giveaway to the dream.
In the story, there is an analogy to how Jesus saved us. It is well done.
I thought it was funny, too, how one of the kids in the story swallowed a fly, I later learned this was a real thing that happened. It said so on the website.
After I read more, I watched a video where a larva turns into a fly. It was slightly gross.
Having real stories and videos on the website adds to the fun and learning of the audiodramas.
I would recommend Season 6 to families who want to hear exiting stories about missionaries. In fact, I'd recommend all of the Brinkman Adventures!
We've reviewed all of them but Season 1 (which I got for Christmas one year) and Season 5 (which I want). They are all good and we listen to them a lot.
We sure do listen to the Brinkman Adventures a lot! We're delighted to have Season 6 to add to our collection and recommend it to others!
Learn More
You can listen to samples of the audiodramas online.
If you're curious about other seasons of the Brinkman Adventures, we've also reviewed:
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| Season 2 |
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| Season 3 |
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| Season 4 |
We've enjoyed them all and would recommend to anyone who like adventure, faith, and exciting audiodramas!
