Amazon.com: What Would God's Pottery Do?: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Your Teens and/or Being Successful! (9780307464613): GOD'S POTTERY: Books
What Would God's Pottery Do? and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Acceptable See details
$3.98 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Kindle Edition
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
What Would God's Pottery Do?: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Your Teens and/or Being Successful!
 
 
Start reading What Would God's Pottery Do? on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

What Would God's Pottery Do?: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Your Teens and/or Being Successful! [Paperback]

GOD'S POTTERY (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

List Price: $17.00
Price: $13.26 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $3.74 (22%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Monday, February 27? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
Paperback $13.26  

Book Description

September 8, 2009
Youth of Today, Rejoice—This is the book you’ve been waiting for ever since you stopped watching Davey and Goliath and started growing hair on your downstairs area!

Gideon Lamb and Jeremiah Smallchild totally get it. From their take on Hootie and the Blowfish records to hip biblical parables to the joys of home-schooling, they know what the kids are into, and they know how to relate to them like a couple of “awesome dudes.” Which is why Gideon and Jeremiah, aka God’s Pottery, are the perfect people to address the tough issues that plague the Youth of Today—issues as complicated and troubling as rap music, speed dating (“the silent killer”), and the myth of “sexercise.”

What Would God’s Pottery Do? combines essays, photographs, frank confessionals—not to mention several clearly labeled “humor” sections!—to help steer kids in the right direction, all while speaking their language. Gideon and Jeremiah are totally jazzed to reach out and touch the youth using their trademark blend of people skills and biblical know-how. Though aimed primarily at adolescents, What Would God’s Pottery Do? contains life lessons for students of any age (except old people)!

Many cynics out there claim that God’s Pottery is not really a Christian duo but rather a brilliantly executed parody. To those nonbelievers, Gideon and Jeremiah have but one thing to say: “We still love you, and we still want to help everyone—even the ones who will be going to Hell when they die!”

Check Out Related Media



Editorial Reviews

Review

“This book really opened my eyes to many of today’s hot issues. Who knew the Theory of Evolution had so many holes?”
—Janeane Garofalo

“If you want to go to Heaven, buy this book. If not, see you in Hell. Or rather, see yourself in Hell—I’ll be in Heaven (I bought the book)."
—Will Forte

“I love God’s Pottery! Gideon and Jeremiah are like the brothers I never had, if I’d had two really judgmental brothers who dressed funny.”
—Mike Birbiglia

About the Author

GIDEON LAMB and JEREMIAH SMALLCHILD have starred on television both in the United States and abroad, most recently as finalists on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. When they’re not on television, you can often find them on tour throughout the United States! And when they’re not on tour, Jeremiah loves to spend time with his Shetland pony-dog Zaccheus while Gideon loves to read about magical places and then images he’s playing pick-up basketball with Jesus in those places.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Three Rivers Press (September 8, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 030746461X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307464613
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,833,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Consummate satire for teens and parents, September 13, 2009
By 
David R. Cook "Dave Cook" (Menomonie, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: What Would God's Pottery Do?: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Your Teens and/or Being Successful! (Paperback)
Full disclosure: I know Jeremiah Smallchild (aka Wilson Hall) quite well, as well as his parents who are good friends. I am also an 80 year old grandfather. So I promptly ordered two books because of my connection to "Jeremiah" and because I have a couple of teen age grandsons whom I thought would like the book. I have only seen God's Pottery perform once while they were on NBC's Last Comic Standing series. They are very funny. Now having said all that here is my unbiased review, except that this is "a guide to surviving your teens" and I'm now surviving old age. Judging the book for its intended audience is a bit tricky.

First of all the book is very funny in lots of places, outrageous in some places, and in one or two perhaps subtle spots I winced at some lines that seemed out of bounds or uncalled for. Nothing very damaging. As I read the book I had to pause to read passages aloud for my wife that I sometimes couldn't complete because I was laughing so hard and so was she. Keep in mind I am reading the book in the first place to satisfy myself that it is OK to give to our teen grandsons. So I have to tell you that these guys are in a class with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert when it comes to satire. And frankly, I cannot judge how my teen grandsons will respond to this sort of humor. My out will be to send the book to their parents to check it out for themselves before passing it along.

For me the funniest chapter was on "pubescence" and the "dating" chapter was a close second. I laughed tears in many places. Here is a sample: Throughout there are faux letters written to Gideon and Jeremiah from faux teens. There is one from 14 year old Brad who confesses that all he can think about is SEX. He writes, "I was watching our lunch lady stuff all these hot dogs in their buns, and then my Downstairs Area began to get tingly and warm, and then...well, I had to 'go to the bathroom.' if you know what I mean. And I've been choosing to 'go to the bathroom' about four or five times a day! I'm so ashamed. Please tell me how to be a better person." G&J respond with a convoluted explanation as to how the hot dog buns could have prompted such thoughts (very funny) and they conclude this way: "Yet even though your mind brought you to the brink of sexual action, you are to be commended, Brad Washburn, for not acting on the impulse! Going to the bathroom four to five times a day is perfectly normal, and it sounds like a good way for you to get your mind off of the dirty stuff. We recommend that you keep going to the bathroom as often as you want." OK, this is not only marvelous dead pan humor but a very subtle way to give teen age boys permission to masturbate without feeling guilty about it. I wish I could have learned that when I was in my teens. The book is replete with this kind of "advice". Will a teen "get it"? Quite possibly in an educated and reasonably "liberal" family system they probably will.

On a more personal note, the chapter on dating spoke beautifully and hilariously to the most memorable agonies of my adolescence, the anxiety that accompanies asking a girl for a date. Throughout the book they provide examples of "conversations" between people to illustrate how to handle certain situations. There is one for asking a girl for a date and it is gut busting funny.

Each chapter concludes with a section "For the Parents". In the introduction to the book the teen readers are warned darkly in no uncertain terms that they are to refrain from reading those sections. Fat chance. But the parents shouldn't miss these gems. Here you will find some satire that is totally outrageous, unless you "get it". For example, in the chapter dealing with accepting your parents as friends and supporters, albeit with absolute authority to tell the teen what he or she must do, the parent's section deals with the one problem parents will have with invoking their absolute authority, which is the presence of grandparents who will promptly undermine them. The solution to this problem is to insure that the parents keep grandparents away from the house at all times, limiting their teens just to occasional visits to the nursing home when the grandparents are near death.

"God's Pottery", by their own subtle reference buried in a line in the book, are a "fake Christian" rock team doing a fake mission of saving people for Jesus. Jesus is referred to often as a model for teens, a regular guy who just happened to have died, waited three days, and then rose again. Face it, there is a heavy dose of satire for the fundamentalist family values crowd in this book. While I think the subversion this book would provide for that sort of fundamentalist right wing morality could maybe "save" some of those teens from worse problems down the road, this is clearly not the niche for this book. Are they subversive of religion in general and Christianity in particular? Only if your brand of Christianity gets your knickers in a twist at any satirical word play with Christian orthodoxy. Yes, for some there is blasphemy to be found, but as a Christian myself in the church in which "Jeremiah" grew up, the references to Jesus throughout can pass the test of the core of the Gospel without a heavy hammer of evangelism.

I have to say this is a really remarkable book, possibly unlike anything that's ever been written as a guidebook for getting through adolescence. For one thing it is extremely (I use the word advisedly) sophisticated. It has to be read and understood as humorous satire first, something a smart teen will enjoy like they enjoy sophisticated comic books such as Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts. So that leaves the question of whether there is any good advice in here for the teens. In a quirky way, I pondered the theme of chastity/virginity that is pushed throughout, albeit in a good natured way. It is hard to argue against virginity before marriage as the best way to insure against the curse of an unwanted pregnancy. They don't provide any satirical loopholes for this admonition so I take them as serious on this. They never discuss "safe sex". They take a number of opportunities to poke satirical fun at the danger of believing in the THEORY of Evolution and for parents who "worry about the Godless curriculum" in schools they offer the possible solution of "HOMESCHOOLING". Among the values of home schooling are that their children will "bypass" all the bad advice from peers and "just learn how to become young adults from you." And "Best of all, you never have to say good-bye to them again. Summer/winter, morning/afternoon/night...they are always there with you. What a joy!"

And so it goes. Is this just a book of teen humor for teens, or adult humor about teen life for adults/parents, or serious advice and good information for teens delivered in a humorous satirical mode intended to be "hip" to the teen argot and culture? Whatever its intentions are, the GP's have written a very high quality satirical advice book for teens who appreciate satire and will probably get some good laughs along the way, will hopefully want to read a passage to their parents, and just might get some good things to think about with regard to their decision making while negotiating the terrifying and exciting teen years.

I might also note that the tipoff to the humor quality and "frame" of this book comes from the cover statement of Janeane Garofalo: "This book really opened my eyes to many of today's hot issues. Who knew the Theory of Evolution had so many holes?" Garofalo has to be every progressive's favorite comedian.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars God's Pottery is well-crafted satire!, December 22, 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: What Would God's Pottery Do?: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Your Teens and/or Being Successful! (Paperback)
I had seen the comedy duo God's Pottery on "Last Comic Standing" and thought they were great, but I wondered how their routine would translate to the written page. The verdict: innovative and wide ranging satire (with funny figures to boot). "Gideon Lamb" and "Jeremiah Smallchild" take a tongue-in-cheek approach to adolescence, social issues, and fundamentalist religion. Just about everyone is a fair target, especially themselves. If you can't laugh at yourself what *can* you laugh about? They cover a different topic each chapter in a good natured sort of way, with the best sherds of humor at the bottom of the page in footnotes that had me rolling.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful dark humor with a sunny disposition, November 9, 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: What Would God's Pottery Do?: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Your Teens and/or Being Successful! (Paperback)
Overall this is a very funny book that skewers pop culture and religion very, very sarcastically. So if you can't appreciate sarcastic humor, this certainly isn't the book for you. But if you enjoyed books like "Betty Bowers is a Better Christian Than You" and Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You)", then you will probably enjoy this. In the guise of an instructional manual for teenagers, this book takes you through topics like family, relationships, and drugs and alcohol(I both fear and pity the person who could mistake this book for a serious self-help guide). The footnotes are great, they reminded me of Jen Lancaster's brand of humor. I ended up reading most of the book out loud to my husband when he would ask why I was laughing, and he found it as funny as I did. I felt like it wasn't 100% of what it could have been (not every section was as funny as others, thus the 4 stars), but it was well worth the price of book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews




Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Create a Listmania! list

So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject