Customer Reviews

Time To Love: Stories From The Old Testament

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

 

 

Love comes in many forms-the love of a brother, of a father, of God, and the love for your community. All of these forms of love are written about in unique perspectives as Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers consider the stories of love from the Bible.

We read of Sampson, but here this tragic tale from the perspective of Delilah, who gives us insight into how and why she betrayed the man she loved. The story of Isaac and Abraham is told from Isaac's point of view, and the reader is emotionally moved at the moment when he realizes that he is the sacrifice his father is making that day on the mountain. The story of Naomi and her daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth is told from the voice of Ruth who watches the discrimination her mother-in-law suffers because she is travelling with these two women from Moab. And Lot's daughter, Zillah, tells of her struggles in trying to understand how her father is going to follow his heart and lead the city of Sodom away from their destructive ways.

The stories in A Time to Love, though directly translated (albeit with literary license) from the Bible, seem to be more about right and wrong than they are about studying a particular religion. The stories are easy to read and understand, yet require a great deal of thinking about how events happen and how people make the choices they make.

The concepts presented-honestly, truth, morality, trust, devotion, love, responsibility-are excellent choices for maturing young adults. The introductions to the stories are thoughtful and offer great insight into why this book was written and how it relates to today's youth.

This book is fascinating and captivating. Myers has a gift in telling stories about young people and their lives. This time he has done it with bible characters. He reminds the reader that some familiar bible characters were just teenagers. This realization gave me a new perspective and more appreciation for these characters.

As a mother of a teen, I bought this book for him but I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. The stories made me laugh and cry and even help me put words to some experiences I had as a teenager. The book captured my heart because I was able to empathize with Delilah, Joseph, Reuben and Zillah as they dealt with their dreams, fears, disappointments and their faith. The main message of this book is that people are people and that although we live in different times and cultures we face similar dilemmas with our parents, siblings, partners and parents in law.

I highly recommend this book because it sheds light to characters that play secondary roles in these stories while remaining true to the facts.