A valuable instrument for parents who want to teach Christian principles to kids.
A fantastical debut children’s book evokes the New Testament.
While fishing, Aaron and Evelyn Freeman save a young boy from drowning and carry him home. He doesn't seem capable of speech and is terrified of light. Their parents, Clara and William, lovingly accept him and name him Chris, but shortly thereafter, goblins invade the house and demand to leave with Ilissa, their 11-month-old daughter. According to the goblin in charge, Maruffo, it is their right to bring her to their underworld lair. William defiantly refuses and is killed by the goblins, who then take Ilissa and burn the house down. Clara flees with the remaining three children to Aunt Sarah and Cousin Freddy’s house and reveals a series of shocking truths: she’s not really Aaron and Evelyn’s mother, nor was William their father. She found them when they escaped the underground cave governed by goblins—just as Chris once did—and the couple decided to raise them as their own. Wilfred deftly describes the tug of war between humans and goblins in narrative terms clearly modeled on biblical history, providing vivid details. The goblins are former angels who rebelled against their beneficent creator, Abba, and are now obsessed with destroying mankind. Abba, in order to save humans from bondage, came down to Earth in the form of a slave and sacrificed himself so he could produce a hole in the cave through which humans could escape, an event referred to as the Emancipation. The Brotherhood, a group comprised of former slaves, is the caretaker of written histories much like the Bible. Wilfred meticulously re-creates principal New Testament stories in a way likely to be digestible by young children. He also helpfully includes discussion questions at the conclusion of the book as pedagogical tools for parents (for example, “What would be the best part of adding a new member to your family?”). But some of the plot—there’s a decadelong war between humans and goblins—doesn’t seem all that didactically useful if the overarching point is a first encounter with central Christian ideas.
A valuable instrument for parents who want to teach Christian principles to kids.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-9625-4
Page Count: 140
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
A satisfyingly streamlined World War II thriller.
During the Nazi occupation of Paris, an architect devises ingenious hiding places for Jews.
In architect Belfoure’s fiction debut, the architectural and historical details are closely rendered, while the characters are mostly sketchy stereotypes. Depraved Gestapo colonel Schlegal and his torturer lackeys and thuggish henchmen see their main goal as tracking down every last Jew in Paris who has not already been deported to a concentration camp. Meanwhile, Lucien, an opportunistic architect whose opportunities have evaporated since 1940, when the Germans marched into Paris, is desperate for a job—so desperate that when industrialist Manet calls upon him to devise a hiding place for a wealthy Jewish friend, he accepts, since Manet can also offer him a commission to design a factory. While performing his factory assignment (the facility will turn out armaments for the Reich), Lucien meets kindred spirit Herzog, a Wehrmacht officer with a keen appreciation of architectural engineering, who views capturing Jews as an ill-advised distraction from winning the war for Germany. The friendship makes Lucien’s collaboration with the German war effort almost palatable—the money isn’t that good. Bigger payouts come as Manet persuades a reluctant Lucien to keep designing hideouts. His inventive cubbyholes—a seamless door in an ornamental column, a staircase section with an undetectable opening, even a kitchen floor drain—all help Jews evade the ever-tightening net of Schlegal and his crew. However, the pressure on Lucien is mounting. A seemingly foolproof fireplace contained a disastrous fatal flaw. His closest associates—apprentice Alain and mistress Adele—prove to have connections to the Gestapo, and, at Manet’s urging, Lucien has adopted a Jewish orphan, Pierre. The Resistance has taken him for short drives to warn him about the postwar consequences of collaboration, and his wife, Celeste, has left in disgust. Belfoure wastes no time prettying up his strictly workmanlike prose. As the tension increases, the most salient virtue of this effort—the expertly structured plot—emerges.
A satisfyingly streamlined World War II thriller.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-8431-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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