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By: Steven Atwood
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Description:
ur Choice! A Journey of Life and Faith is an inspiring pro-life book filled with redemption, faith, and love. A Christian family is confronted with teenage pregnancy and the issue of abortion. It has good messages for every Christian teenage girl and boy.
Senior year is finally here! Sarah has been dreaming about her last year at William Wallace High School all summer long. She was going to go to the best parties, drink with her friends, and, of course, the Senior Prom. Being a virgin and a senior in high school is tough. She dreamt about her first time with her mystery man throughout the summer. Her parents would never approve though. They believed in not having sex before your married. What could possibly happen if Sarah had sex only one time?
My Review:
I have received this book for free in exchange for an honest review
This in no way affects my opinion
I received this book directly from the author in exchange for my review. He commented on a previous review of mine, on another blog, and we got talking. He agreed to send me a copy of the book for me to read and review.
I knew going in that this was a book written for the younger reader. I wouldn’t even target this at older teens, (it is written about teens in Senior year at highschool), but a younger age, of Grade 8/9, or possibly younger. The style of writing would appeal to those ages more than the older age group. I did find the simplicity of the writing to be a challenge, but I tried to look at this book from the view of, “would I want my daughter/son to read this”?, and “what is the message”?
The messages where very powerful, and well given. And, through teachers’ eyes, Steven Atwood did his best to show both sides of the argument – for and against abortion, and teenage pregnancy, as well as teenagers raising children.
I found Mrs. Hume to be a very strong character, and while I appreciated her points, I do feel she could have been a bit more compassionate in her delievery. While I appreciated the “pressure” to get Sarah to “pick” Mrs. Humes way, Becky’s way, Bills way, etc. I found Mrs. Hume to be extremely pushy. I also know that this is a very Christian, Pro Life, book, but not all pro-choice people are anti-christian, nor are they all that pushy. I did find the book fairly stereotypical of people with pro-choice beliefs, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t like it.
Steven Atwood did a good job of showing the target reader a number of pros and cons of teenage pregnancy. I do feel he made the choice to keep the baby a bit too cheery. It needs to be remembered that most kids (and mainly teenage girls) who read this book are NOT going to be pregnant, though may be weighing the choice of having sex for the first time. Because of this I feel it should have been pointed out more the consequences of having a child, and going through with it. After all Sarah had sex with Bill, and got pregnant. However, while her parents weren’t happy with it, they supported her. And I think that was an EXCELLENT message to pass on (cause parents DO need to support their kids, even through bad decisions!) However, they where a bit too supportive. Move in. Don’t pay rent. Have most of the cost of living covered, while they pursue higher education, have a paid for shower, wedding, and honey moon… etc. Most parents would not be like this. Regardless of faith. Also the dangers of teenage pregnancy where not really discussed. Everything was soo perfect. Never was she sat down and told about prenatal vitamins, proper eating, and the risks. Including low birth weight, misscarrage, premature birth, and so on. Regardless of the choice, the consequences suck. Abortion has consequences. Adoption has concequences. Keeping the baby has consequences. I feel some of these should have been touched on, instead of not mentioned at all.. as the book kind of painted a romantic happy picture on getting pregnant in senior year. Which is deffinately not the case. The choice of what to do is hard, and the consequences follow, regardless of choice.
However, overall I felt the book was good. It had plenty of good points that teenagers should think about before having sex. While the fact remains that many many teengers have sex in highschool, this is not necessarily best decision to make. I would like more teenagers to read it. It does have a educational value, and with the right approach can be very educational. However as a parent reading it, I know my kids would have plenty of questions and comments after reading it, and hopefully they will find honest, correct resources to answer these questions, and not rely simply on heresay as truth.
*as a side note, this book is not yet included in the GoodReads library, but I am working on getting it added.*
raisingpositivekids 