Converting Kate [Hardcover]

Beckie Weinheimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2007

Kate was raised in the Holy Divine Church—it influenced everything from her homeschooling to her handmade clothes. But ever since her unbelieving father’s death last year, she has suspected that there’s more to life than memorizing scripture.

Taking advantage of their move to a new town, Kate—to her devout mother’s horror—quits Holy Divine. She joins the cross-country team, wears shorts to public school, and even tries a traditional Christian church. As she struggles to come to terms with her father’s death and her mother’s unquestioning beliefs, Kate discovers there’s a big difference between religion and faith—and that the two don’t always go hand in hand.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up—Having moved with her mom to Puffin Cove, ME, to live and work at her Great-Aunt Katherine's B & B, 16-year-old Kate has, in her own mind, already left the Church of the Holy Divine. But she hasn't yet told her mother, whose belief in the church is resolute. Kate's faith weakened following her parents' divorce when she was 10, and has further diminished since her father's unexpected death and her mother's cold refusal to have a funeral. As Kate makes new friends and shares new experiences, she begins to express her "conversion" away from the church to her shocked and angry mom. She experiences something of a crash course in the wide world that exists outside her mother's church's cloistered confines through her loving Aunt Katherine; Will, the outgoing young lobsterman she likes; Jamie, her X-C teammate; Richard, an enigmatic rich kid; and other members of the local church youth group led by the young, liberal Pastor Browning. Occasional swearing by Will and Richard is realistic. Subplots about homophobia and the teen's changing feelings about Will propel the action, but the real story is Kate's heartfelt search for beliefs in which she has confidence—discoveries requiring effort, courage, and strength, especially in the face of causing pain to her mother.—Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Kate Andersen is back in her father's Maine hometown, living in his aunt's B and B, which her mother now manages. Her parents divorced because of her mother's faith and commitment to the Holy Divine Church, to which Kate also used to be devoted. But her father's death changed everything, and, now, in a new place, Kate is willing to explore things her church (and mother) have long forbidden: books, boys, and religious questions. This is Weinheimer's first novel, and she overdoes it: too many subplots and too many characters. It's particularly difficult to get a handle on Kate's mother. In an effort to make her multidimensional, Weinheimer has characterized her as both a dowdy religious fanatic and a competent, sometimes flirtatious businesswoman--and the two sides never mesh. Yet the book is strong when it focuses on Kate's questioning of religion. Although Weinheimer overuses 1 Corinthians 13 as a thread that runs throughout the book, the first time Kate reflects on looking at existence through a glass, darkly, it's quite moving. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Viking Juvenile (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670061522
• ISBN-13: 978-0670061525
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,404,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Converting Kate is a story very close to my heart. First of all, like Kate, I have had to be the new girl, the outsider many times.

I have lived in Arizona, California, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah and currently Virginia.

And like Kate, I broke away from a conservative religion. It was one of the hardest experiences of my life, because saying I didn't believe meant turning against my family, my friends and the society I was raised in. For me, writing Kate's fictional
story was therapeutic and honestly made me feel less alone.

Unlike Kate, I am not an only child. Instead I am the eldest of nine children. I guess in my writings I liked to imagine how it would have been to be an only child. But that's not to say I didn't enjoy my brothers and sisters. I had great fun growing up with so many kids about my same age. We always had a game of Monopoly going, there were plenty of kids to help dig a hole to China in the vacant lot next door, to build snow forts and have snow ball wars.

I still like to shop in the teen section at clothing stores. When I was growing up so many of the stylish clothes that were popular were restricted by our church's standards. So in some ways I'm reliving my teens, only this time I'm doing it MY way!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, are you sure this is fiction?, June 14, 2007

By 

Marc Peterson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Converting Kate (Hardcover)

Wow, Are you sure this was fiction? It rang true on so many levels, from my early longing and search for religion, but more so about who I was then and now.

I appreciate the all the hard work and spiritual insight that Becky must have, to write such a great book. I laughed and cried as my friend read the entire book out loud over a 12 hour drive back home to Salt Lake City this past summer.

Warning: May effect driving, caused by tears and laughter.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars crystal michelle a twelve year old reader, January 22, 2011

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Converting Kate (Kindle Edition)

im only 12 years old and i lived like kate did i felt a deep connectionon on how she feels.I loved this book and impacted and I will never forget this book. Its like she was me and understands how I feel about my mother.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling, Unforgettable Portrait, April 19, 2007

By 

Sheila M. Holsinger (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Converting Kate (Hardcover)

Converting Kate gives us a poignant yet uplifting picture of a teenager reared in a fundamentalist church who grieves over multiple losses: her parents' divorce; her father's death, for which her mother refused a funeral because of his unbelief; and a cross-country move separating Kate from family and life-long friends. Adjusting to her new situation, she struggles against the strictures of both her mother and the church, from which Kate slowly moves away. Through her mother's actions we are given glimpses of the ethical lapses such religious groups tolerate in the name of bringing others into the fold, behaviors propelling Kate into friendships with more tolerant friends as well as attendance at a mainline Protestant church. Issues of homophobia also play a part in the story as Kate observes the intolerance of her own church manifested in others, as well. In small, beautifully wrought segments, bits of memorized church dogma in Kate's thoughts gradually give way to quotations from the books her father treasured and bequeathed to her. If you have teenagers in your family, buy Converting Kate, not only for its compelling story, but as armor against religious intolerance.