The Purple Puzzle Tree

When our children were growing up, back in the '70s, they were absolutely in love with a record and book series entitled:  The Purple Puzzle Tree.  

They listended to them almost daily for years!  The series consisted of 6 LP Vinyl records and 36 story books to read along with the records, of children's Bible stories written by Norman Habel.  

Habel was asked to write 36 stories for a grade school in St. Louis.  He wrote the stories and then   Well over a million copies were sold!

I don't really remember where we got the series, but the girls listened to them often,  The theology behind the stories is mostly sound from an evangelical point of view, and nothing more is added to the telling of the stories than C.S. Lewis added to The Chronicles of Narnia, the difference being that these are actual Bible stories, not allegorical interpretations.  The premise is that God had a plan for creation and every person fits into that plan.  The 36 stories cover everything from creation to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.  The songs are witty and creative, all centering on the main theme:  

Tiger, Tiger, tell me do you fly?
Do you slink around the ground or soar about the sky?
God made tigers, God made you and me
To fit together piece by piece in The Purple Puzzle Tree.

God had a puzzle plan of just how things would be,
And piece by piece the puzzle grew like a purple puzzle tree.
You will find the pieces fit much to your surprise,
When you learn to see God’s world through laughing children’s eyes.

Amazon only lists the books individually, so they can be quite a chore to find.  Thankfully, though, Goodreads.com has them all listed together with links to purchase used copies at Amazon.  They range from $3 - $6 each, which still makes buying the whole set a little pricey.  However E-Bay lists them individually as collector's items. So it might be possible to buy the books from Amazon, use them as long as they're needed and then post them for sale on Amazon or E-Bay to recoup some of the expense.  Just a thought.

Goodreads Link:  https://www.goodreads.com/series/147444-purple-puzzle-tree-books

Norman C. Habel's website:  http://normanhabel.com/?page_id=80 

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