Customer Reviews

Keepin' It Real: A Young Teen Talks With God

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3 star:		(1)
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As a mother of five children, one of whom is coming up on the teen years, I found Keepin' It Real a good reminder of the deeply-felt concerns of those no longer children but not yet adults. This is a genuine glimpse into the thoughts of a young person struggling to sort through some of life's toughest questions. It highlights the importance of the journey itself, and of keeping God always in sight. As I read it, I felt I easily could have been reading my own diary from my growing up years, when emotions were high and confusion an everyday feeling. Both parents and teens will benefit from a read-through of this sensitive approach to growing up in today's world.

Do you remember being in junior high and all those changes? Or are you in junior high and wondering if you are the only one with all these thoughts and conflicts running around in your mind? This book is a junior high girl's diary of her talks with God. She talks to him about her new house, new school, new church group and how frightened she is with all these changes. We read her thoughts as she handles her feelings that a new teacher doesn't care, and that her parents' rules are too crazy. We watch as she shares with God her fear about her parents' pending divorce. We see her mature in her strength in God as she goes through this school year. This is a nice book that a teenager should find comforting by realizing that they aren't the only one dealing with feeling that their legs are too thin, nose is too flat, that they are too shy or wondering if God is real and answers their prayers.

--- Reviewed by Tammy Moore for Christian Bookshelf

This book takes on all the trials of teenagehood--pimples, dates, gym class, even parents contemplating divorce--and gives her readers an idea of just where to turn for help.

An amazing book which through letters to God a teen develops her beliefs, finds answers and comfort through her stormy year and concludes with a strong faith and an accepting heart. The book includes humor as it explores the tramas this teen faces. Her letters to God give the wonderful reality of the fabulous relationship one can have with God - talking to him each day. This book is on its way to my teen granddaughter - Thank you Sandy!

Anyone who is (or who ever has been) 13 will identify with Leslie's struggles to make sense of her family, her faith, her own thoughts, and the world. Through her letters to God, Leslie deals with questions as big as the very nature of God and as small as why Mom gets so bent out of shape about how the bathroom towels are folded. Sandra Humphrey has done a beautiful job of not only creating a very believable character, but more importantly, of showing young readers how inextricably faith is linked to the issues of everyday life.

What's really cool about 13-year old Leslie, who wrote every single letter in this book, is how she figured out that you can talk to God like a friend, and then how she went ahead and did it. Any young person who wants to feel closer to God (but who wonders what the "right language" is supposed to be) should read this wonderful year-long diary. Before you know it, you'll be wanting to start writing your own set of letters to God.

For Leslie, a junior-high girl in a new town, every problem seems too big. How will she make new friends? How will she find her way around school? How can she do something about her nose being too flat? She tries writing her thoughts to God in letters, and ends up having her best friend of all. Through the year, she takes part in a "life group" at her church, anxious at first about having to share her feelings, but learning to trust and finding good friends among the rest of the group. She knows she worries about small things and relates that her life group leader says she thought it was terrible when she met a man with no shoes until she met a man with no feet. Well, Leslie has worried about a lot of things ... and then her mother and father talk about getting a divorce. Leslie has developed skills to help her cope. It's a thought-provoking book that will resonate with many teens.

It is incredibly hard to write an interesting book that is all internal dialogue. It is also hard to write a compelling book about a child's faith relationship with God. The author managed to do both by sticking religiously to issues that cause us all great pain. At no point in the book will you doubt Leslie's need to have a friend in God. Nothing is sugar-coated as an average child faces average issues and resolves them through a unique style of prayer.

This is a wonderful book for young adults and their parents.

This is a delightful easy-to-read well-written journal about a 13-year-old girl talking to God about her life. She is new in a school, somewhat shy, and has trouble adjusting to new people, new classes, and a new routine. In talking with God she makes conclusions on how to go about doing things in order to fit in, make friends, and be happier. This book is not preachy and does not go into religious beliefs of specific churches. Therefore, I think it is an excellent book for teen age girls of any religion or of no religion. The author, Sandra Humphrey, was a children's clinical psychologist for 35 years, and it shows how good she must have been by the way she got into the mind of a young girl. This book gently dips into drugs and other problems, but it has no graphic scenes about the horrible things many of our teens experience today. I highly recommend it for all elementary, middle-school, and high school libraries! Karen McWilliams, children and YA author as well as book reviewer for Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

The "inside" story of the questions, thoughts, and emotions which fill the heart, mind, and life of a 13 year old girl is fully revealed in this book by Sandra Humphrey: body changes, friendships, boys, house chores, school work, grandparents, pets, drugs, church attendance, youth group, and family turmoil. The vehicle to this end is a daily diary-like dialogue between Leslie and God (similar to Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis) that draws the reader (both early teen and adult) into real life perplexities and how God figures into this picture.

The beauty of this book is found in its realism about life issues for every early teen and how answers to questions about self and relationships to God and other humans often come gradually, which is wisdom at its best that Humphrey knows how to impart. I'm giving this book to my grandchildren, telling my friends about it, and urge you to do the same!

Dr. Donald Draayer
Parent, Teacher, Principal, School Superintendent
National Supt. of the Year, 1990