Customer Reviews

Prayer for the Twenty-First Century

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love Marsden's work even though I'm quite a few years past being a young adult. This prayer, which reads like a poem, is haunting and evocative and inspiring. It made me cry the way the end of It's a Wonderful Life makes me cry. It's frightening, sometimes, to see all of your fears laid out before you like this, even the ones which you are afraid to name. It's comforting, though, to know that what frightens you most deeply frightens others as well, and that we all pray for safety, for kindness, for love, for acceptance, for strength, and for courage.

Read this all the way through so that you understand the whole of it, and then read it again slowly, savouring the way the words and the pictures lend to each others' interpretation.

I teach high school English and was introduced to this book during a writing workshop over the summer. My first thought was that it would be for the elementary range as it is in picture book form. After we read it once, I realized that was not the case and went home that night and ordered it. I have since read it to each of my classes, 9th-12th grades, and everyone of them was able to offer valuable insight when we went back to analyze it. Some even came up with things I would have never thought of myself! I would absolutely recommend this book to any teacher of any content area. It is easy reading for deep thinking.