A Day with Jesus: The Story of Zacchaeus
is a book for beginning readers that uses patterned language to retell the historical story of Jesus and Zacchaeus. The inspiration for this book and other patterned books for young readers comes from Lee Jenkins' friendship and inpiration from Bill Martin Jr., author of Brown, Bear, Brown Bear and 300 other books for children.
The book requires a child partnership with a parent, other adult or older child. The book is read out loud several times to the beginning reader and gradually this child reads the book back with the same speed, voice inflection and pauses as the adult. Further, because patterns cannot tell the whole story, the adult fills in details from the complete story in the Bible.