Youth Books

What an absolutely delightful book this is. First, the cover design is sure to catch the eye; it is bright and inviting, wooing you to taste the morsals of spiritual wisdom inside. What is this work about? How to live a better life by living the Word of God. This is done in a non-preaching way, light-hearted yet packed with the truth of the Word of God. We have topics such as words, worth, and relationships and we have questions, answers and tips to help along the way. The format is a personal, easy to follow read and draws you from one page to another.
All in all this book is a big winner. It's real, it's fun and will be a jewel in any readers hands, young or old. Highly recommended!

I got this book in order to mentor one of the students at my church. The book was so good that I am now doing a group study with 12 girls in our youth group. The book meets teenage girls where they are, and helps them to develop a Godly character in themselves. It teaches them about things that they deal with on a daily basis, like gossip, relationships and who they are in Christ. Point of Grace did a terrific job at writing this book and I recommend it to anyone with teenage girls. I also recommend it to parents to help them understand what their teenager is or will be dealing with at school and in their social circle.
Love the book!!!!!

Make it Real is a devotional and Bible study workbook for Christian teenagers. This guide looks at a variety of real issues that young adults face on a daily basis such as gossip, body image, and self improvement. Christian pop artists Point of Grace share their wisdom on a wide variety of topics and give advice on how to stop the habit of gossip, being genuine, choosing role models, and creating a healthier self image. Each section is complete with study guide exercises including Bible scripture readings and questions relating these reading to the subject at hand.

Make it Real shows young girls that Christian values and Biblical scripture are directly relevant to their lives. It also illustrates the importance of healthy body images. The members of Point of Grace are great Christian role models that try to live what they preach and really feel that f teaching teenagers to be true to themselves and their Christian faith is important.

Point of Grace is a popular Christian singing group with a particular attraction to teenage girls. As part of their ministry they regularly have conferences for teenage girls called Girls of Grace. This book is basically a devotional and Bible study workbook for teenage girls. In it the members of Point of Grace discuss many of the most common problems of teenage girls. These include gossip, being true to yourself, dealing with the games they play, and self-esteem issues. Make It Real delivers Christian based answers and guidance for those dealing with these most common of teenage issues. Each section ends with discussion topic questions that make the book a good guide to get young girls thinking about how to apply the information in their everyday life. Make It Real is a highly recommended book both for any teenage girl and for parents seeking to understand, or remember, the problems of being a teenager and how that has changed today.

I just finished reading this book, and really loved the fact that you can get advice from a mom and a daughter. The book is funny, has lots of stuff to do, and has loads of interesting and very useful information. The authors really understand kids my age.

I have been reviewing books for girls who are in their preteen years. The interactive book I like best is "Girls: What's so Bad about being Good?" (Authors: Harriet Mosatche and 12 year-old daughter Liz Lawner). The format is teen friendly and inviting. A wide range of topics will captivate young readers. The book is written in a format that will guide and encourage young women to make positive choices. Highly recommended.

This book has everything I was looking for. The best part was that the information was down to earth, stuff I can actually use in my life. When I had my copy at camp, all the other girls kept grabbing it so they could read it too!

What a great book this is - I bought it for my daughter who is at an age where she has lots of questions - some easy to ask, some not. This book has provided a save place for those questions along with work sheets to get her "journaling". I have and will recommend this book to my friends with daughters this age (11+).

Linda Masters has created a clear-minded, exuberant body of work obstensably for children; this is a work that might equally be called "Spritual Parables for Adults" as well as "Gold Fish and Silver Kisses." More than art, her work is a gift to all who read it. It encapsulates, without airless theological retoric, the lessons, trials, and ultimate rewards of the strivings for a truly meaningful and moral life. Learing to have life more abundantly is the real Christian message, a message Ms. Masters sends to all children and adults willing to see their world anew.

Gold Fish and Silver Kisses, How to Talk to Children about God, is a beautifully written, doctrinally sound book that puts important Biblical concepts into easily understandable language. Mrs. Masters "puts the cookies on the bottom shelf so the children can get at them." Each short devotional ends with the suggestion of small gift to give the child as a reminder. For example, in the story of Gideon, "Armed with God's Trumpet", she suggests giving small plastic trumpets.

This book would be extremely useful to Christian parents, grandparents, homeschoolers, youth workers and pastors.

This book is really a classic! And there is nothing else like it available for parents. Linda Masters has written 101 "sermons" for toddlers and pre-school children about the Bible and God; they are all charming, the style is warm and loving and she offers tips and techniques for adults about how to use these "sermons" in any church setting.
This book would also be a welcome gift at baby showers, at baby christenings and at early birthdays. Or just to give to parents of young ones.

Donating this book to churches in memory of relatives would also be worthwhile.
"Gold Fish and Silver Kisses" is simply a wonderful book!

A must for every Christian, or simply moral, home. The sermons are written for the average child to understand but more importantly to internalize. They are spiritual, moral lessons based on scripture (with specific Bible verses and prayers) designed for meaningful family times, Sunday school classes, Christian schools, children's sermons at a church of any Christian denomination. I have personally seen groups of children (and their parents!) mesmerized by the author's presentations. The suggested tokens add an extra dimension to the lessons and act as memory enhancers that really work! Excellent for newborn gifts, grandparent gifts, gifts for yourself! This is a book that will be around for generations to proudly pass down and enjoy sharing together for decades.

This book is thoroughly enjoyable, with M. M. Kaye describing her idlyic days in India in a wonderfully interesting, humorous way, which makes this book a pleasure to read and a must own!

What a terrific book--nostalgic, romantic, funnny, poignant. I was utterly charmed once again by Ms. Kaye's writing. Her descriptions of visits to the Taj Mahal and spring in Kashmir are beautiful. I can't wait to read "Enchanted Evening."

Ms. Kaye has the most wonderful way of describing scenes, colors, and events of an era never to be seen again. Her family led a story-book life of adventure and she makes it look so easy to overcome the forces of nature that were part of living there with very few, if any, modern conveniences. It was a delicious read and I hope Ms. Kaye is busily at work on the next book of her travels in China! I am grateful for this journey back into a gentler, quieter time.

At long last, the sequel to Sun in the Morning -- and as always, M.M. Kaye's writing is evocative, sumptuous, and addictive. (The Far Pavilions is one of the two books I always travel with -- the other is Gone With the Wind -- because I can start reading anywhere and become totally immersed, no matter how many times I've read it.) No one is better at evoking that time-lost period before the Second World War; the details are not only fascinating but reveal to us moderns what the world once was like (which in British India in many cases seems rather closely to resemble E.F. Benson's town of Tilling...). Since I owe not only my interest in, but my several-hundred-volume library on, India to reading The Far Pavilions, I must admit a certain partiality here -- and a burning desire to read the sequel to Golden Afternoon.

I run youth programs in Iowa, and after reading Mr. Wolff's book I feel more educated in the world of youth sports. Not only will this help me in my programs but also at home with my three sons.

I've enjoyed reading Rick Wolff's columns for years - every one seems to be just on the mark. This book is a great compendium of his thinking, caring approach to being a coach and parent. Any parent signing up a child in youth baseball (or any sport) should have to promise to read this book!

Not only does Wolff point out some of the problems with youth sports today, he also gives solutions. As a concerned parent and coach for my children's basketball, softball and soccer teams, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the important ingredients for coaching and being an encouraging parent. This book renewed me and now my children and their teams are enjoying sports more and becoming more successful. I re-read the book prior to every season and get more out of it each time.

This is an excellent overview of the proper attitude to have in coaching kid's sports, as well as containing good tips for parents on their role. But I wonder if it needs a chapter on getting the people who need to read it to actually read this book. I think the concerned parent, the one who wants to learn, will seek out this book. It is the unconcerned parent or coach, who thinks they know how to mold champions, that won't even think to read a book like this.

If there is one criticism of this book, it is that it tends to focus on team sports and does not explore the differences of how to interact with a child involved in individual sports (running, swimming, tennis, golf, etc.). Of course, the biggest abuses of poor coaching and loutish parental behavior tend to be in team sports like baseball. But I think the book would be improved with more specific examples related to individual sports to complement the information about team sports

This is a highly readable, informative, balanced book. I'm picky about books on this topic; many of them lump all young adults together into the same category. I appreciate how this book acknowledges the different types of young adults (those who focus on social justice, those who are drawn to the sacraments, etc.) and offers concrete ways to minister to them. It's a wonderful read for those who minister to young adult Catholics, as well as anyone who is curious about how the "younger generations" of Catholics experience their faith.

Another unique feature of this book is the middle section, which offers in-depth profiles of a sampling of young adults. I'm someone who is fascinated by others' experiences of faith, so this section was a real treat. It's also a great way to put a "face" on the ideas discussed throughout the book.

One last reason I enjoyed this book: when I was getting my teaching credential, one of my professors told us to think about past teachers we'd had, and the teaching methods they'd used that had worked for us. She then told us that we needed to learn how to teach in a way that was totally the opposite of that. Her point was that kids learn in a variety of different ways, and that if we fixate only on the methods that worked for us, we won't reach a huge number of our students. This book makes the same point with regards to faith. Everyone engages with their faith in a different way, and if we want to effectively minister to young adults, we need to provide a variety of ways for them to connect with their faith community (sponsoring all-night Adoration, organizing volunteer trips to the soup kitchen, etc.). That's such a crucial message, and this book does a great job of communicating it.

Young adults' search for God
Reviewed by ERIN RYAN, National Catholic Reporter

These days, there seems to be a lot of discussion in church circles about how young people are the future of the church and a lot of consternation about what Catholics can do to bring them in. However, most church ministry programs for young people tend to focus on teenagers or children. Two recent books speak to the young adults in our midst.

In his book for youth ministers, Googling God: The Religious Landscape of People in their 20s and 30s, author Mike Hayes makes it clear that young adults are more than just the church's "future." They are the church now.

Mr. Hayes is the associate director of Paulist Young Adult Ministries and the managing editor and cofounder of the savvy bustedhalo.com Web site for Catholics in their 20s and 30s. His book provides a close look at young adults in two specific generations: those in the often cynical, questioning "Generation X," defined here as people born between 1964 and 1979, and "Millenials," defined as people born after 1980, who are more often concerned with rules and order.

In Part One of Googling God, Mr. Hayes, who says he belongs to Generation X, explores how these two generations have been shaped by events in the world around them. Then, taking a cue from Mary Anne Reese in America and a symposium paper by Fr. Jim Bacik, he offers seven classifications or orientations that can be applied to young adult Catholics: eclipsed, private, ecumenical, evangelical, prophetic, sacramental and communal.

Part Two of Googling God contains interviews with 12 young men and women ages 22 to 39, six in each of the two generations. Most are practicing Catholics, but some have stopped going to church. Some grew up in traditional ethnic Catholic families such as Hispanic or Filipino households; others grew up in ecumenical families that practiced different religious traditions. Many people who cross over the "evangelical" category, say, are looking for emotional experiences in their worship: "God often is so far removed from young adult life that they long for opportunities where they can see, feel, taste and smell the very fervor of religion," says Mr. Hayes, who points out the importance of following up these experiences with solid church teachings and guidance from ministers.

In Part Three of Googling God, Mr. Hayes gives practical advice about methods of doing ministry and resources for further reading. He also stresses the importance of using technology, especially the Internet, and gives tips on how to start your own Web page, which every church should have, he says, in the age of Google search engines and instantaneous answers.

Mr. Hayes also notes that all the young adults he interviewed wish for "a more collaborative dialogue between the church and young adults," and that whether they are from Steubenville or from a Jesuit parish in New York, they tend to think beyond "liberal" or "conservative" categories. And from the interviews, it is clear that while their approaches to life are diverse, each young person has clearly given a lot of thought to the spiritual questions he or she has faced.

"God, for me, is like someone who's already up when you've come downstairs in the morning and you're stumbling to get that cup of coffee and he's already there with his," says 24-year-old Jeff G. "And you sit on the front porch in a rocking chair and the sun is just starting to rise over the horizon and he says, `It's a beautiful sunrise!' And I say, `Yeah.' And that's it."

It's hard to think of a more personal description of the divine than that.

Another book, Blessed Are the Bored in Spirit: A Young Catholic's Search for Meaning, is aimed toward young adults themselves. Author Mark Hart, vice president of the youth ministry LIFETEEN, leads conferences and retreats for teens and adults and is also author of Ask the Bible Geek: Answers to Questions from Catholic Teens.

Mr. Hart stresses on his first page that he is a "postmodern Catholic" and invites young people to delve more deeply into church teachings they may not understand. But while Mr. Hayes advised ministers to listen to young adults first and then explain church teaching within the complexity of their lives, Mr. Hart sees the situation a little differently. "The pews are emptying because the truth of Christ has been forfeited, too often, on altars of conformity, funded by the court of comfort and public opinion," Mr. Hart writes in his introduction. And later he writes: "People who can put a probe on Mars, clone animals and solve the intimacy issues of 80-year-olds want to alleviate all mystery and end all pain. ... The reality is that life is filled with sin and suffering and there are two kinds of people: those who run from it and those who deal with it. Do yourself a favor and learn to deal with it."

Mr. Hart intends to help people deepen their faith and their awareness of God's love for them. He has some lovely things to say about seeing the life of faith as positive fulfillment in God rather than a set of rigid commands, especially in Chapter Five: "Reconciling Your Issues: Thinking Outside the Box." It's a matter of taste, though, whether you find humor in his pun-filled chapter titles like "When the Family Meal Leaves You with Heartburn" (about bad liturgies) or "Time to Exorcise" (after a discussion of vain gym rats) or "Discipleship 101: The One Elective Needed to Pass."

Unfortunately, in spite of what Mr. Hart says about his book being a look at the "modern spiritual journey," his puns and light personal narratives, alternating with a heavy advice-giving style, wind up making the book rather bland. Mr. Hart does throw in references to anime or " `The Karate Kid's' Mr. Miyagi," but too often they come off as strained attempts to be relevant or funny. There's much general discussion about such topics as how young people want to be good but like to have sex, or how this is a culture of death, or how Mass is dull, or how it's hard to corral the whole family to church on a Sunday morning. But the book would have been more helpful if Mr. Hart had discussed more specific, concrete incidents in his life and how he faced them rather than relying on distillations and themes.

Both authors both clearly have a lot of experience with young people, but by letting the young individuals speak for themselves, Mr. Hayes winds up with the more engaging book.

Erin Ryan is an NCR staff writer. Her e-mail address is eryan@ncronline.org.

National Catholic Reporter, October 5, 2007

Absolutely fantastic reading. Thank you for the time spent writing this book, it's a must have guide for those working for the good of all those young people out there.

This book is directed primarily at those attempting to organize Catholic youth ministries, but it's a very insightful read for anyone involved in recruiting or organizing youth groups (religious or otherwise) at all. Mr. Hayes draws on his many years of personal experience with younger Catholics to identify a wide variety of interesting Gen X and Millennial profiles. He sheds light on much of the outdated logic or group think which has lead to the declining numbers of younger Catholics who are actively involved in organized church events/activities. He also provides us with many helpful suggestions on how to appeal to both Gen Xers and Millennials. The last chapter of the book gives step by step directions on how to organize and get your message through to today's young adults. The easy to follow directions make you feel as though you're reading one of those "For Dummies" books. Overall, this is an excellent resource for anyone who's looking to recruit and organize younger people of faith. Many older church organizers would be well advised to read this book.

Giving a children's sermon is a complex task, difficult to do well. Biblical and theological understanding, an awareness of child development, and speech communication skills are needed. Coleman shines as he wisely discusses these in Part I, the theoretical and practical foundations section. I recognized mistakes I made in the past, but Coleman readily admits he fell into the same traps before he studied it so carefully. The key, he says, is to give an opportunity for kids (and adults who are listening in) to be met by the gospel of Christ. We are to present a message that opens up the meaning or significance of a biblical passage, rather than retelling stories and leaving kids to try to figure them out alone. Part II provides a variety of types of sample children's sermons. I look forward to sharing Coleman's insights with the volunteers who lead children's messages in my congregation. I highly recommend this book to pastors, Christian educators, and church leaders. It should be required reading at seminary!

Preachers need to read brief theological books on preaching every couple of years. Whether it is Barth, Craddock, Stott etc. we need to get someone else's perspecitive. It is vital that someone shakes up our thinking from time to time. The truth is that Coleman's book is the only book that does just that concerning children's sermons! Yes, the book does have some helpful sermons that one can use but that is not the greatest strength of this wonderful book. The book challenges us to look at what we are doing critically. I have been preaching children's sermons weekly for over twenty-five years. This is the first book that I have read on the subject that asks the tough questions. Yet I must admit much of the book encouraged me. It affirmed certain conclusions that I had reached on my own. In the end the book has made me more confident in directions I have taken such as often working with a puppet and some times merely reading a good children's picture book where Jonah is a mouse and the Ninevites are cats. His understanding of law and gospel in relation to what children need was very helpful and is usually missed in the normal "moralistic" children's sermon. I highly recommend this brief and thought provoking book. I wish that I had read this book in seminary!!!!!

Gospel Telling is more than just a compilation of children's sermons, although there are plenty of wonderful children's sermons in this useful book! Coleman explores the theology behind children's messages, leading the reader to think about his or her own theology. This thoughtful book will help the busy pastor or Christian education director reassess why we need children's messages in worship. In addition, it is a book that encourages preaching the Good News to children in theologically sound ways. Part II demonstrates ways to put the theology explored in Part I into practice with sample messages in a wide variety of styles. I wholeheartedly recommend this practical and inspiring book.

Richard Coleman takes a refreshing, new look at the art of children's sermons and Biblical storytelling. This book challenges the pastor or Christian educator to look beyond moral tales and worldly wisdom and into the transforming love of God. Helping children to experience Jesus and his teachings first hand is the work of the storyteller, and Christian formation rather than Christian education is the goal. With a clear understanding of child development and how childen hear stories, Coleman says that children's sermons must be "simple, direct, dramatic, and participatory." Over 30 sermons of various styles are included with helpful suggestions about delivery, choice of language, imagery, and possible use of objects, although Coleman cautions that the "object lesson" alone is not enough. The sermons are often open-ended, allowing children to draw their own conclusions and brief enough to encourage embellishment and creativity on the part of the storyteller. This slim volume is an excellent resource for beginners and seasoned storytellers alike.

Greenbelt brought back childhood memories of a Texas lake and the antics one can get away with as a young kid. It reminded me of times that I had not considered in ages. Times when I was invincible.

The stories in this book transcend a regional area, they could have occurred on a Texas Panhandle lake, a California beach or on a Iowa farm.

Read this book to remind you of your own childhood or to remind you of a childhood you wish you had lived!!

Released just in time for for summer reading, I heartily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure. Jim Man's style is easygoing, and at the same time compelling. I kept reading "just one more chapter" to find out what would happen next to Jim, Dwight, and the other colorful characters. This book truly is a return to a simpler time in the not too distant past. A time when kids explored the outside world on their own, and a Mother's parting words were "Be home in time for supper".

I picked up the book on a Friday night. I was skeptical at best, but everybody leaves the bookstore with a book; and besides, the author was at the bookstore doing the dog and pony show trying to sell some of his books. Politely, I bought the book, came home and was mesmerized for the next four hours (I am a slow reader). I liked the size of the book, it wasn't real intimidating and I thought I would give it at least three chapters. That was all it took and I was hooked. A NOSTALGIC RETURN is exactly what I got. Mr. Man's book took me back to my own childhood and the amazement that I (and he)lived through it. Chapter after chapter was adventure, exploit, and just good ole' childhood mischief. I finished the book that night (to my wife's dislike). Several times she woke up and hit me with the pillow because the bed was shaking from my laughter. I honestly couldn't put the book down. Anyway, for what it is worth, I wish I had the book to look forward to. Write on Mr. Man, Bart boxwell

Here we have Jim Man's portrait of a summerful of visits to a lake house in north Texas of 1972 (age 12). The outstanding quality of Man's writing is its credibility: on a topic almost hand-crafted as a foundation for tall tales, I'm darned if I don't believe just about everything he says.

I too grew up in the 1970s in the West, and we did in fact use to shoot at one another with BB guns, dig through any half-ruined building available to us, and gad about on any wheeled vehicle we could scrounge up. While Jim's story is one of a lot of fun--some better and cleaner than others--it is a story of lessons learned about himself and others. Jim's friend Dwight is an especially compelling character, the kind you can't invent; they either are authentic or they are not. (His accent, by the way, is authentic. He sounds precisely like my very rural, very Texan father-in-law.) By the end of the book--which I wish had been longer--I really wanted to know what ever became of the boys in the book.

As a book for young people, I'd rate it PG-13: the author could have easily pushed it toward R-17, but a visible effort was made to take the edges off the language and content; this effort might not get the credit it deserves, but parents buying books for their children will appreciate it. If you're raising kids today, _Greenbelt_ will encourage you to pose the question: how come we turned out all right in spite of the fact that we behaved like Jim and his cohorts? It will appeal especially to anyone who likes motorcycles, fishing/boating, and modern-day Tom Sawyer hijinks. For anyone who grew up in rural Texas, naturally, the appeal will be even stronger. I came away liking the genuinely warm, adventuresome Man family, and I reckon a lot of readers will too.

Well written and astute, Katya Jung (Cathy Young) did an outstanding job of capturing life in the former Soviet Union in the 70's and 80's.

It is a shame this book went out of print so quickly. The author was a fresh, naive immigrant at the time, with perhaps a tendency to engage in a cliche or two but with a very witty turn of phrase. She acknowledged upfront the fact that her experience in Moscow--one that included a nanny, summers at a dacha and in Latvia, and a father with an important job with Melodiya who seemed very wise to the ways of politics--differed from those of the average schoolgirl. Those caveats aside, Young (Jung in her native Russian) engages us in a story of a girl growing up as a Jew in Brezhnev's Russia, to some extent aware of the differences in politics amongst adults around her, to some extent just being a kid, ironically learning and performing in her appartment for Mama and Papa "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Lloyd-Weber's "Jesus Christ Superstar." As she discusses her life in a special English school for which she qualified from first grade to tenth, when she emmigrated, the anecdotes she tells of herself and other children are amazing both for their similarity to Western primary and secondary educational experiences, and their differences. One of the more horrific scenes schoolchildren (not the author) become involved in has to do with a hockey game, at night, where many Western tourists are attending. Kids would know that Westerners would have gum, candy, and other treats to hand out, and would, in gestures highly embarrrassing to the Soviet heirarchy, not wanting their populace to have a third world sheen, grab, beg, and run for such treasures. Apparently to stop this from happening, when the hockey game let out and the children were waiting as expected, all lights on the outside of the arena and parking lot were turned off. Deathly screams were heard, but as Young states, it's difficult to know whether anyone was hurt or died because it was never covered in the media. (Young also notes that she felt much safer walking around in New York at night in 1988 than Moscow; the reason people thought there was "no crime" under communism was that it simply didn't get written about. Everyone knew someone who had been mugged, raped, shot, or so forth.)

Many of Young's other stories of school are much more idyllic, learning about the history of Russian literature and poetry, learning about those who went against the system as well as those who were held up as Soviet models. There are the descriptions of the ceremony surrounding school: flowers brought for the teacher on the first of September, the first, second and third graders in their Octoberist scarves, pinned with a tiny gold picture of the baby Vladimir Lenin, the older children in their red and white Pioneer uniforms. Each dual desk accomodated one boy and one girl. Young, flirty female teachers the boys oggled at, and old grouchy teachers. An air raid drill with real air raid masks.

Sprinkle in some great Soviet jokes, a few more anecdotes concerning home, travel, relationships between Katya and her family and friends, and this book becomes not only fascinating but enjoyable to read.

Speaking of jokes, to set up my title....the author lived in the USSR when it was being run by a funny looking guy with very bushy eyebrows named Leonid Brezhnev. To everyday Russians he was known to not speak very well, according to Young...both because it seemed he had marbles in his mouth and because he needed a lot of prompting, and was always seen reading notes up close. Ergo, he is alone in his apartment, the doorbell rings; and Leonid Ilyich slowly pulls out a paper from his pocket and reads "Who....is.....it?" (paraphrased from book).

I did not give the book five stars because I know that while the writer's experience in Russia was exceptional, her experience as a Jew leaving Russia was also exceptional. And with the amount of worldliness she had at that time, she should have known that. I would have liked to have discussed the experiences, for example, of friends she'd made in New York who'd had a more difficult time. Ms. Young talks freely with her school friends about leaving Russia (although she tells them she's going to Israel); I have immigrant friends who were told "we're going on a long vacation; we can't tell you where, and you can't tell anybody" and they didn't, out of fear of the government intervening, even though they had a legal right to leave.

I was lent this book by a friend who grew up in Soviet Russia. The author has done a magnificent job of illustrating what life was like under the communist regime. Soviet Moscow seen through the vivid memories of a young girl is a fascinating and sometimes disturbing place.

I enjoyed the opportunity to be taken inside a different culture and shown around by such a masterful writer. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in first hand accounts of Soviet Russia or biographies that illustrate a different lifestyle. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A friend lent me this book to give me a feel of what her childhood was like. It paints a vivid picture of Soviet Russia seen through the eyes of a young girl. It was a fascinating and insightful read that taught me a great deal about a very different way of life.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in Soviet Russia or who likes to read biographies that illustrate a different culture to their own. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I thought that Heart of Gold was a good biography based book for school aged kids. It was an easy read for the elementary early middle school kids and it had a good positive message throughout. Kerri talked about her struggles with not only gymnastics but being away from family, jealosy between teammates, and self doubt and insecurities that everyone has at some time in their lives. She teaches through her book that if you stay true to yourself, you will always win out in the end. I recommend this book to any gymnast who loves the sport of gymnastics.

This was a great biography of Kerri Strug, though it was meant for a younger audience and reading level, it was still very appealing. It included many great pictures, and her biography. I think all Kerri Strug fans will enjoy the book, nevertheless how old they are. Great book, awesome pictures!

This was a very enjoyable book even if you are not a gymnastics fan. It tells how she rose to the top and about her injuries along the way. I think everyone should read this book!

KERRI WON AMERICA'S HEART IN '96 AND CONTINUES TO STUN MEZMERIZE AND INTRIGUE M