The Great Escape

by Christine Farenhorst

P&R Publishing, 2002, 182 pages

reviewed by Adolph Dykstra

Christine Farenhorst is a superb storyteller. The Great Escape is a collection of forty short stories about events in the lives of Christians and unbelievers: each story teaches, each tale tells about the role of God in the lives of his subjects.

Every story is interesting and absorbing. In about three pages each tells about a person or an event in a manner that teaches solid lessons about victories or failures of people throughout the ages.

We read about Houdini, the escape artist, who could not escape from death. We read about the fictitious Lester Green, who convinced many gullible people that a cold car engine could be started by putting two hens on the car hood. We read about the orphan John Sebastian Bach, who ended all his musical compositions with “Soli Deo Gloria” (To God alone the glory). We read about the many Roman emperors who persecuted the believers. We read about princes and paupers, believers and unbelievers, the famous and the infamous, people from our own times and people long dead, and we smile, and sometimes shed a tear.

It’s a good book, a good read, a treasure worth acquiring, just based on the well-told stories. But there is more!

“The media, with its grasping secularism, has become the main voice in many households as lax fathers and mothers relinquish their holds on the spiritual lives of their children…” As individual family members we “are to speak intimately to each other of the things pertaining to God’s kingdom and of what He has brought about in [our] lives” So writes Christine in her Introduction.

At the end of each story are two questions. Just two! But each is powerful food for thought. Christine prays that her stories and questions “will encourage parents to speak with their children, and children to discuss with their parents, what God’s love and bounty has done in their lives and in the lives of past saints.”

“Soli Deo Gloria.” To God alone the glory. But with God’s help these “devotions” will trigger such discussions.

The book is a rare treasure, a must for all parents!

Discernment label
(For more on this, see "Discernment labels" in our article section)

CONTENT: The Great Escape is a collection of forty short stories about events in the lives of Christians and unbelievers: each story teaches, each tale tells about the role of God in the lives of his subjects.

CAUTION: Some stories may be too intense for very young children.

CONCLUSION: When your children ask you to read them a story before they go to bed, this is a great book to pull out. The stories are exciting and, as an added bonus, each ends with two questions to get your children (and you!) thinking through the moral of the story. Without the questions, it’s a fantastic read, but when you add them in it becomes a wonderful tool for parents and children to talk together about what God has done in their lives, and in the lives of saints in the past.

A Short History of the Boxer Rebellion: China's War on Foreigners, 1900

by Diana Preston
Robinson, 1999. 459 pages including index.


If you love history (like me)  you're always on the hunt for a book that not only expands your knowledge, but is also a really good story. The Boxer Rebellion is both a good historical narrative and a really good read.

The Boxer Rebellion took place at the beginning of the 20th Century and was an uprising by the Chinese people led by a quasi-religious sect known for their martial arts style, and thus dubbed "boxers." The Boxers were quietly encouraged by the Imperial court in their battle against the foreigners who had come to dominate much of China's economy and politics.

The book carefully displays the Chinese xenophobia towards the British, Germans, Americans and others who were busy exploiting China, but focuses on the racist attitudes of the foreigners towards the native Chinese. These people dominating China believed they were superior to the Chinese and thus well within their rights to mold the county into they image that pleased them, whatever the Chinese may have thought of that.

The author attributes the racist attitudes of the foreigners towards the Chinese to Social Darwinism. Applying the Darwinist Theory of Evolution to humanity, it was only reasonable to assume that some cultures and some "races" had evolved further than others, and that the fitter should rule the less fit.

What makes this book a really good read is Preston's abundant use of quotes from the diaries and other writings of the foreigners in China. Her liberal use of quotations really gives a sense of the actions and emotions of those directly involved in the events. It also reveals the callous attitudes of many of the foreigners who were under siege by the Boxers. Though the foreigners had given sanctuary to the Chinese Christian converts who had also been attacked, they seemed unwilling to equally share the food and resources at their disposal. While the whites ate their fill, many of the Chinese Christians, literally across the street, starved to death. The diaries reveal the irony that the foreigners in China were upset by the Christian converts' suffering yet failed to raise a finger to help them.

Cautions: Since this book tells the story of a violent period in Chinese history, violent scenes are often depicted, occasionally with a lot of detail. The detail is not sensationalist but it is sometimes graphic. While it certainly adds to the story, it can be skipped over if you'd rather not know quite so much about the brutality.

Conclusion: Read this book if you want to understand why more than 100 years after the Rebellion the Chinese still seem cautious about embracing Western values and practices. The unChristian attitudes displayed by the many foreigners, who were at least nominally Christian, appear to have set up a barrier between East and West that has yet to be taken down. This book will not only help you understand China and Western culture, but will force you to examine yourself and wonder whether, just maybe, you think yourself a little superior to someone not quite as evolved as you think you are.

The Hiding Place

by Corrie Ten Boom 
co-written by John and Elizabeth Sherrill
Chosen Books, 2006, 269 pages

When our school adapted this book into a play, it was hard for some of the older members of our school community to watch, because it reminded them so strongly of the hard times in the Netherlands in World War II. This classic memoir tells how Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie were called by God, and prepared by Him through the compassionate example of her father, to hide Jews from the Nazis and cope with the resulting brutality of the Germans. The book is incredibly suspenseful in its account of how the Ten Booms seek to keep their activities hidden from the occupying Germans. It is also inspiring to see how Corrie's father shows his Christian faith in response to the soldiers'  persecution; how Corrie learned to love her persecutors through the example of her physically weak but spiritually strong sister Betsie, in a concentration camp; and how God used Corrie to bring His good news even to those who ran the concentration camps.

The Peacemaker: Student Edition

by Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson
Baker Books, 2008, 175 pages

shows, with practical examples and real-life stories,
1. how young Christians can pursue peace and unity by following the Biblical principles in Matthew 18 and many other passages:
2. when to let it go, and when not to;
3. how to confess your sins to God and your neighbour;
4. how to forgive;
5. when and how to negotiate; and
6. when and how to defend your rights.
This book would make a great book for school libraries (it's in ours) and church libraries, devotions or group study for young people, or a textbook for a life skills course. More importantly, if young (and old) people lived more consistently by the principles in this book (many of which will remind you of good Biblical principles for discipline in church, home, and school), the body of Christ would be strengthened and equipped for greater service and greater glory to God (Ephesians 4:1-16).

The Hobbit

by J. R. R. Tolkien
Houghton Mifflin, 2001, 328 pages
Tolkien’s work is the best old-fashioned fairy tale ever written - one I enjoyed both listening to and reading aloud to my own sons. The main character, Bilbo Baggins, is just the kind of hero that children love: a small person (much like themselves) who gets into adventures - facing trolls, goblins, spiders, hostile elves, and a talking dragon - without meaning to, and manages to get through with a little cleverness and a good measure of desperate hope (just like the first time a child loses his parents in the mall). The ending battle is a little grim, just like a good fairy tale should be, as it shows just how deadly both vanity and greed are, even for the “good guys,” but the central character makes it through.

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring The Proverbs to Life

by Peter Leithart
Canon Press, 2003
(audio book: four-CD set - also available in paperback)

What makes Peter Leithart’s 18 fairy tales so entertaining as well as wise is how he plays with the images, characters, and events of classic fairy tales, Biblical accounts, and history that we already know. The Preface (which you should skip if the kids are listening along) explains how Leithart seeks to echo those familiar stories to make the wisdom of Proverbs more vivid, as each story’s “moral” is a verse from that Biblical book. For example, the first villain of the story “King Jacob of the Green Garland” is called King Eric the Red (but not for the reason you might think). When this cruel king flees for his life from an invading king, he is reduced to eating grass and drinking muddy water (much like a certain Babylonian king). Eventually, Eric’s younger brother, Jacob (a shepherd who treats the poor kindly and justly, like both David and the Son of David) restores order, and the story proves the verse from Proverbs that explains, with suddenly greater vividness and meaning, how a king is established through faithfulness, and how through love his throne is made secure (Prov. 20:28)

What is enlightening about the stories, besides the obvious references to Proverbs (some of which are a bit of a stretch, but can still stimulate some worthwhile discussion) is how often Leithart’s stories are clearly redemptive-historical, in that they connect the book of Proverbs to the story of Christ’s coming that runs through the whole Bible. For instance, one verse says how it’s better to live in the desert than with a nagging wife. That can make the guys feel pretty smug, but not once Leithart has shown how the worst wife in the world is “Meribah, the Goatherd’s Bride” – a story that should remind us of the frequent ingratitude of Christ’s bride, the Church. No gender excluded in that moral.

If you’re looking both for ear candy on those long car trips and food for thought for the New Testament Church, Wise Words has the wit and wisdom you want.

A Family Secret

by Eric Heuvel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009, 64 pages 

It’s Queen’s Day in the Netherlands, and the celebrations include nation-wide rummage sales. So young Jeroen heads to his grandmother’s house to see if she might have anything she’s willing to give him to sell. And like grandmothers everywhere, she is quite obliging to her young grandson, and sends him upstairs to the attic to let him see what he can find. In his searching Jeroen discovers his grandmother’s old scrapbook… and while paging through it uncovers a secret she has kept to herself for more than 60 years.

His grandmother then tells him the story of how World War II divided her family. She was best friends with a Jewish girl named Esther, and along with her mother and one brother didn’t want anything to do with the Germans. But while this brother fought in the resistance - the Dutch Underground - her father chose to work with the Nazis, and her oldest brother decided to go fight for Germany on the Russian front.

This is an amazing graphic novel, drawn in the style of Tintin, and published by the Ann Frank House and the Resistance Museum of Friesland. It’s gripping enough for adults, but for children this is an absolutely amazing way to teach them about World War II, the Dutch Resistance and the Holocaust. 

I'd particularly recommend this as a book for grandparents to give their grandchildren. Every year we set aside a day to remember the sacrifice of those that fought for our freedom. Giving this book to a grandson, and talking with them afterwards about the war - about why some fought the Nazis, why some did nothing at all, and why some even joined them - is one very good way to ensure we never forget.

Girl Soldier

by Faith J. H. McDonnell and Grace Akallo
Chosen Books, 2007, 240 pages

Girl Soldier shows both just how sinful man is in the real world of civil-war-torn Uganda after the fall of the dictator Idi Amin and how God’s grace healed the psychological and spiritual trauma of children kidnapped to fight for rebel forces at that time. Grace Akallo herself was conscripted into the grotesquely misnamed Lord's Resistance Army, and chapters telling of her ordeal and miraculous escape alternate with chapters by McDonnell telling of the rise of the Lord's Resistance Army in the midst of Uganda's political conflict and spiritual possession by demonic religion. By the end of the book, you will be both horrified and inspired to know more about how you can help the child soldiers of Uganda and elsewhere.

The Peacemaking Pastor

by Alfred Poirier
Baker Books, 2007 - second edition, 317 pages

Any officebearer who wants to apply the Biblical peacemaking principles explained in Ken Sande`s The Peacemaker will appreciate the depth of the discussion in The Peacemaking Pastor. Alfred Poirier approaches the issue of conflict within congregations from a Reformed and Presbyterian perspective. He shows how we are all part of the problem of conflict because of our desperately deceitful hearts (Jeremiah 17:9), and how peacemaking is a basic part of the message of reconciliation between God and His people, and among God`s people. Finally, he makes clear how proper church discipline should support and promote peacemaking. A book worth study by consistories and anyone who knows how sin breaks down peace, and how our forgiving God is a God of peace.

Mother Kirk

by Douglas Wilson
Canon Press, 2001, 283 pages

If "Listen to this" is one of your favorite phrases to say to others while you are reading a book, you know the book is worth not just listening to, but reading. Mother Kirk is that kind of book - a solidly Reformed look at, the front cover puts it, "Practical Ecclesiology." In other words, Douglas Wilson tells us not just what the church is, but how to be the faithful people of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ according to His word - how to observe the Sabbath, issues of church music and liturgy (which was my "listen to this" chapter), church government and discipline, the character and call of God's shepherds in the church, and how to reach out to the world outside the church.

The strange, dark state of teen fiction

I visit our local public library at least a couple of times every week, and over the last year or two I've noticed a marked trend in the Young Adult section: instead of Arthur Ransome titles, Hardy Boys or Encyclopedia Brown books, the shelves are filled with stories of teenage werewolves and teenage vampires coping with pimples, or female fare featuring lesbianism, or girls sleeping with their teachers. 

And this is the public library in ultra-conservative Lynden, Washington! What, I wondered, was it like elsewhere? So I did a little digging on Amazon.com, and compiled this list of the top 30 bestselling teen fiction books. Let me tell you, my kids are not going to go to the library without me! (Click on the graph to make it bigger)

Love That Dog: A Novel

by Sharon Creech
Joanna Colter Books, 2001, 86 pages

A review of a read-aloud book, to be read aloud

As I started reading the very first page of this book, I thought it was dumb. I’ve never been a fan of poetry, particularly if it was the type of poetry that didn’t even rhyme. And that’s what was in this book.

But I kept reading and found out, on that very first page, that the author agreed with me! The book is by Jack, a boy in elementary school, who doesn’t like poems either. Each day he writes a journal entry, for his teacher Miss Stretchberry, and there on the very first page, in his first entry, he tells her his thoughts on the poem they have just read in school. He writes:

If that is a poem

about the red wheelbarrow

and the white chickens

then any words

can be a poem.

You’ve just got to

make 

short

lines.

It was a book of poetry, by a boy poet, who didn’t like poetry!

So I kept reading, and I started learning. Jack’s teacher showed his class poems. Some did rhyme, some were by famous writers, and some weren’t very good at all. But I started learning, along with Jack, that poetry doesn’t always have to rhyme, or even have a set rhythm. Sometimes it can just be a different sort of way to express your thoughts, to lay them out, so people understand them better.  Poetry can be easier then teachers sometimes make it. And it can be powerful. And it can make you cry. 

I started reading this book, about a boy learning about poetry, and making poems, and expressing beautiful thoughts about his beautiful dog, and by the time I got to the end of it I realized it wasn’t dumb at all.

Love that book.