Teens and Faith: Three Short Reviews

Regular contributor Virginia Thomas offers three shorter reviews of books related to ways that teens engage questions of faith.

Title:  Preacher’s Boy

Author:  Katherine Paterson

Publisher: Harper Trophy

ISBN: 0064472337

Audience: Ages 10 and up

Summary: Robbie Hewitt decides to give up believing in God. He’s heard the visiting minister condemn wicked thoughts and deeds and suggest that the world will end in 1900.  He’s in trouble because he has disrupted church and, as the preacher’s boy, the congregation holds him to an unreasonably high standard.  If the world’s coming to an end he wants to get in a lot of living before then; he wants especially to ride in a motor car.  Robbie’s oldest brother is severely handicapped physically and mentally and Robbie envies the time and attention Elliot gets from his father.  He also fights with the rich Weston boys who make fun of Elliot. His life is complicated by two drifters who camp in his hideout, Violet and her alcoholic father , and a fake kidnapping plot.  Finally a ride in a motor car restores Robbie’s faith and the new century begins with a joyous ringing of the church bells.

Giving up faith and doubting God are familiar themes for adolescents.  Robbie’s choice of “apeism,” a conflation of evolution and lack of faith, is chosen honestly; God interferes with the lifestyle he thinks he wants.  But what happens when you give up God?  When you need prayer? When you have to make a choice?  When you want to give thanks? When an answer to your deepest yearning can only be a miracle? Robbie’s father is a Christian minister seldom seen in fiction: gentle, modest, open to new ideas, strong in conviction and charitable in relationships.  Robbie is one of Katherine Paterson’s most appealing characters.  Through his voice she examines a young person’s developing faith and understanding.

Title:  Armageddon Summer

Author: Jane Yolen, Bruce Coville

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & Col.

ISBN: 0152022686 pb.

Audience: Ages 12 years and up

Summary:  Reverend Beelson is taking 144 believers to the top of  Mt. Weeupcut to await the End on July 27, 2000 when God will destroy the world and begin anew.  Fourteen-year old Marina’s mother insists that Marina and her four brothers join her there to prevent their destruction.  Marina’s father stays behind.  Sixteen-year old Jed follows his father to the mountain to look after him. He has been less than stable since his wife left him for another man.  In alternating voices, Marina and Jed tell their stories of the month on the mountain interspersed with county sheriff’s reports, Rev. Beelson’s sermons, the rules for Weeupcut’s camping facilities, and a physchologist on a radio talk show. Marina wants desperately to believe; Jed is firmly skeptical.  Events play out in a violent, dramatic climax as outsiders try to force their way into the camp to be safe with the believers. “Did we do wrong in believing? Asks Marina’s mother. “Never in believing, “ answers Marina, “just in what we believed.”

With the Left Behind series in the movies and news, Christians are prompted to ask what we do believe about eschatology or end times. This is a thought provoking, gripping book about belief, the search for belief, what happens when belief fails. Jed and Marina are well drawn, appealing young persons who survive the summer and begin to search for faith anew.  Before tackling this book is is well to know at least one basic fact about biblical eschatology: Acts 1:6,7.

Title:  The Heavenly Village

Author: Cynthia Rylant

Publisher: Scholastic Press

ISBN: 0439231493

Audience: Ages 9 years and up

Summary: The Heavenly Village is a place of peace and beauty with flowers, a river, trees, small houses and shops.  It is a stopping place for spirits who are not quite ready for heaven, for those who need to finish their stories. People are always arriving or leaving, something or someone is always being mended.  Here you will find Everett, a bank teller who needs time to see beauty he ignored on earth.   There is Violet Rose, a baker, who is still concerned for her cats. Dr. Blake was so busy on earth that he never had time for his family or to listen to his patients.  Now since no one is really ill, he listens to his patients for hours (and they think they are in heaven) and visits his home each evening, unseen by his family. And there’s Fortune, the rescue dog, who was a nuisance in Heaven but is quite useful in Heavenly Village.  There is some provocative idea on almost every page.  For example, God is surprised that no one wants to lose weight in Friendly Village.  Since they are not worried about what others think about their looks, they decide they look just fine. Or God usually sends a messenger or loved one to welcome a new spirit to Heaven.  He has learned that most people like to get a little unpacked before they meet the Creator.  This is a short, delightful, beautifully written plotless collection of characters and incidents.

What happens after death?  The Heavenly Village will stimulate discussion but not provide any answers.  The Bible gives us few details (and it’s well to know 1 Cor. 15, 1 Thes., Rev. 22, John 14 before you discuss  this book) but we can’t seem to get beyond time and space, beyond golden streets and gates of pearl and white robes. Rylant frees our imaginations. The book has more to say about life than the hereafter, about how we fail and how we grow.  God is depicted as gentle, wise, meeting the needs of all of his children but rather limited on earth. (Rylant is not concerned with sexist pronouns.)  Each chapter has a Bible verse introducing it and it’s worth some time to think about why a verse was chosen for a particular chapter. This is by no means a book of theology but it does stimulate theological thinking and it is fun.

Teens and Faith: Marcelo in the Real World

Title:  Marcelo in the Real World

Author:  Francisco X. Stork

Illustrator:

Publisher:  Arthur A. Levine Books

ISBN: 139780545054744

Audience:  Ages 14 and up

Summary: Marcelo Sandoval, an autistic seventeen-year old, has come to the end of his junior year at Patterson, the special education school he has attended since kindergarten. His autism has not been accurately identified but it is marked by an inner music Marcelo hears, a lack of social skills, a need for an inflexible schedule, and an intense interest in God. Marcello is a practicing Catholic who meets regularly with a Jewish rabbi and names his dog from a Buddhist prayer. He has a job for the summer caring for the ponies in the Patterson stable. Marcello’s father , a driven, successful lawyer, has other plans: Marcello is to work in the “real world,” the mail room of his father’s law firm.  If Marcello works successfully there, he can return to Patterson for his senior year; if not, he must go to public high school. The real world requires Marcelo to make “small talk,” learn to distinguish sarcasm, adapt to new situations, and follow a competitive law firm’s rules.  And so Marcelo learns-to work with Jasmine in the mail room, to read the faces and intentions of co-workers, to find his way around Boston, to tell the social lie, to be aware of sex. The discovery of an injured girl’s picture in one of his father’s files jolts him into an action that may destroy his father’s law firm.  The result of this action makes public high school mandatory and compels Marcelo to deal with suffering and God’s will for his life.

Literary elements at work in the story: Marcelo is a rich, multi-layered novel told in the first person.  This unique perspective never varies as Marcelo tries to process figures of speech, grasp the real intent of a statement, deal with multiple stimuli, understand a discussion about girls and sexual attraction.  It is a profound experience of a different point of view, of the strengths and handicaps of autism. Marcelo seldom uses pronouns, referring to himself and others by name.  Several times undesirable language is used and some vulgarity is expressed but both are integral parts of the story and highlight Marcelo’s difference in the way he thinks about sex and life.

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference to the story? Marcelo’s father is Hispanic and despite his success still faces racial and cultural prejudice. Marcelo’s autism elicits ridicule and contempt. Wendell, a significant character, is sexist and exploitive.  Rabbi Heschel and Aurora Sandoval are strong, compassionate women. The law firm is made up of successful males who compete, make money and use secretaries. Some characters are stereotypes but most are believable, vital persons.

Theological Conversation Partners: Because Marcelo’s keen mind sees most questions and events in religious terms almost every event in this novel has a theological slant. How do we pray, experience God’s presence, know God’s will?  What is the purpose of suffering and how do we live with it.  What is the purpose of sex in God’s creation?  How do we know right from wrong?  How can we talk about our faith in the secular world?  These are a few of the questions with which Marcello struggles as he leaves the sheltered environment of Patterson for the law firm.  His conversations with the rabbi about, sex, suffering, and finding God’s will require attentive, repeated reading.

Faith Talk Questions:

1.  What is the real world according to Mr. Sandoval?  How does this contrast with Marcelo’s view?
2. Jesus asks God not to take his followers out of the world (John 17:15) and Paul suggests to the Corinthians that they are to maintain contact with the world as Mr. Sandoval sees it. (1 Cor. 5:1) How do we and Marcelo bridge this gap?
3. Marcelo calls his life of prayer “remembering.” Is this a good description?  How would you describe your prayer life?
4. What’s the difference between small talk and large talk?
5. Marcello attempts to explain to Mr. Holmes how to control worry and anger?  What do you think of his suggestion?  Do you think Mr. Holmes understood?
6. Marcelo’s father tries to explain to him how he can talk about religion in the real world. Is it good advice?  How does it handicap Marcel’s communication?
7. Marcelo asks Rabbi Heschel why Adam and Eve felt shame in the Garden of Eden when they realized they were naked. (Genesis 3:7) Is her insight about evil affecting the imagination an adequate explanation?
8. Rabbi Heschel says that God speaks to us through urges that are painful. When Marcelo follows this urge that may hurt his father, her advice is, “Trust God. God will know how to use whatever hurt results for His own ends.”  What do you think of “painful urge” as a term for God’s guidance?  Do you think her advice is sound?
9. Have you tried to discern God’s will as Marcelo does? How did you know?

This review is the last full review with faith questions in our series on teens and faith.  For the next two Mondays, shorter reviews of six books will also be offered.  Virginia Thomas is the writer of this series.