A polished volume of Christian spiritualism.
A debut Christian work encourages faith in the face of doubt.
Duckett begins this inspirational book with the story of her son getting hit by a car. The author was on her way home with supplies for the 9-year-old’s birthday party when she saw his mangled bike lying by the road. The boy had been mercifully thrown free of the wreckage, requiring stitches but sustaining no serious damage. According to Duckett, God spoke to her after the accident, directing her to Psalm 91:11-12: “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone.” God, the author believes, sent his angels to lift her son away from harm. But why her son and not the children of other parents? “It is impossible to find ‘because answers’ that make sense of the ‘why questions’....There are mysteries not meant to be solved, but God’s sovereignty is there to be found.” God does not always interfere in such direct ways, but Duckett encourages readers to open their minds and hearts to the intervention that God offers. Using events from her own life as a guide, the author explores the often unexpected means through which God makes his love known to humans, imperfect recipients that they are. Duckett is a strong writer, expressing her beliefs in a refined yet conversational prose that expresses her devotion with occasional flair. The way she roots her ideas in incidents from her own life keeps the work mostly compelling, though some readers may be incredulous at just how often God seems to intercede directly on her behalf. This is assuredly a work for a certain type of Christian audience, and anyone with a theological worldview much different from that of the author’s will likely be dissatisfied with its relative simplicity. That said, for books of this genre, Duckett’s is well-written and well-meaning, and like-minded Christians should find much in her story to inspire and invigorate their faith.
A polished volume of Christian spiritualism.Pub Date: April 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5127-8235-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This early reader is an excellent introduction to the March on Washington in 1963 and the important role in the march played by Martin Luther King Jr. Ruffin gives the book a good, dramatic start: “August 28, 1963. It is a hot summer day in Washington, D.C. More than 250,00 people are pouring into the city.” They have come to protest the treatment of African-Americans here in the US. With stirring original artwork mixed with photographs of the events (and the segregationist policies in the South, such as separate drinking fountains and entrances to public buildings), Ruffin writes of how an end to slavery didn’t mark true equality and that these rights had to be fought for—through marches and sit-ins and words, particularly those of Dr. King, and particularly on that fateful day in Washington. Within a year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed: “It does not change everything. But it is a beginning.” Lots of visual cues will help new readers through the fairly simple text, but it is the power of the story that will keep them turning the pages. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-448-42421-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
Puccini wins the prize for most-maligned great composer. In a fit of depressive self-deprecation, Puccini himself called his own music ``sugary,'' and the persistent popularity of his mature operas at box-offices around the world for nearly a century has too often provoked critical condescension, as if art so well-loved could not possibly be worth much. But that situation, thankfully, is changing, and this much-needed essay collection on Puccini by leading scholars of 19th- and 20th-century Italian opera is worth a good deal more than several new biographies. The volume ranges from a lengthy piece on Puccini's family by his granddaughter (one of the editors) to chapters devoted to Puccini's ``musical world'' and each of his operas by luminaries such as William Weaver, Harvey Sachs, Fedele D'Amico, Verdi heavyweights Mary Jane Phillips-Matz and Julian Budden, and William Ashbrook. A favorite: David Hamilton's expert investigation of the early Tosca recordings, especially the legendary ``Mapelson cylinders'' of live Metropolitan Opera performances from 1902-03, to see what light they shed on Puccini's original interpreters. The editors, perhaps hoping to attract non-musicologist admirers of the Luccan master, issue the disclaimer that ``this is not a work of scholarship'' (even though two of the chapters make a start on an accessible Puccini bibliography). They needn't have worried. Lovers of Puccini and Italian opera at every level of interest and knowledge will want this book. (Photographs—not seen)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1994
ISBN: 0-393-02930-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
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