A simple yet potent message from a child who’s a sometimes-bland messenger.
A hospital-bound child offers messages of hope in a Christian novel by debut author Smith.
Kipper is about 6 years old and has never known life outside of a hospital. When that young narrator first appears in this inspirational novel, he is in the intensive care unit, and his future on Earth is anything but certain. Yet Kipper is not one to fret. He has a penchant for drawing (his artwork appears throughout the book), a love of clouds, and, after a chance encounter with a young Chinese girl, a personal relationship with Jesus. Kipper’s body may not have much mobility, but his mind is free to roam. And roam it does over topics like the beauty of nature, the free will of humans, and the importance of trusting completely in God. Even as Kipper becomes weaker physically, his spiritual self grows. He learns not to worry, and he encourages readers to do the same with statements such as, “Everything, good and bad, happens for a reason, beyond our own understanding through life.” Kipper’s spiritual progress, though largely predictable, provides a force for reflection. If someone with so little, whose entire life has been so confined, can find so much reason to rejoice, why can’t everyone else? Certain parts of this tale lack much in the way of substance, however. A toy sailboat race has him describing every sailboat and its construction. Kipper also describes every child who participates in the race. This information is no more enticing or motivational than it sounds. Nor is the event made more exciting by the reader’s being told: “It was so exciting to watch, as this race unfolded!” In the end, though, Kipper’s lesson is as lasting as his circumstances are difficult, and some readers might learn much from a boy on the brink of death who finds no reason to give in to despair.
A simple yet potent message from a child who’s a sometimes-bland messenger.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-72833-406-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Unanswerable questions wrapped inside a thought-provoking yarn.
An inspirational novel about a disaster and an answered prayer by the author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003).
What if you call out for the Lord and he actually appears before you? Days after billionaire Jason Lambert’s luxury yacht Galaxy suddenly sinks in the North Atlantic with many illustrious passengers aboard, a few survivors float in a life raft. Among them is Benji, a deckhand who narrates the ordeal in a notebook while they desperately hope for rescue. Lambert is a caricature of a greedy capitalist pig who thinks only of himself and his lost ship and mocks Benji as “scribble boy,” but the main character is a young stranger pulled out of the water. “Well, thank the Lord we found you,” a woman tells him. “I am the Lord,” he whispers in reply. Imagine the others’ skepticism: If you’re not lying, then why won’t you save us? Why don’t you answer our prayers? I always answer people’s prayers, he replies, “but sometimes the answer is no.” Meanwhile, the ship’s disappearance is big news as searchers scour the vast ocean in vain. The lost survivors are surrounded by water and dying of thirst, “a grim reminder of how little the natural world cares for our plans.” Out of desperation, one person succumbs to temptation and drinks ocean water—always a bad mistake. Another becomes shark food. The Lord says that for him to help, everyone must accept him first, and Lambert, for one, is having none of it. The storyline and characters aren’t deep, but they’re still entertaining. A disaffected crew member might or might not have sunk the ship with limpet mines. And whether the raft’s occupants survive seems beside the point—does a higher power exist that may pluck believers like Benji safely from the sea? Or is faith a sucker’s bet? Lord knows.
Unanswerable questions wrapped inside a thought-provoking yarn.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-288834-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
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