The Battle Of Trickum County

Standard Publishing sent me some books to review (Thank you!) so you will be getting a few of those for a couple of days. Here's the first one: an adventure story for boys about a boy who lives with a circus.

#1 - The Battle Of Trickum County, Standard Publishing, 2007
 
Genre: Adventure & Realistic Fiction
Target Audience: Boys 12-15
Subject: Salvation, relationships with non-believers, attitudes towards those who are different, spiritual warfare
Summary: The Circus isn't doing so great at the moment! Another circus, a not-so-good one is sneaking ahead of them, stealing their territory. There are also problem within the circus itself. Twin seems to be getting more and more consumed with these supernatural beings he is serving. Thad is in great danger. And someone seems to be deliberately sabotaging their train!
Notes: Caleb Pascal & the Peculiar People is both intense and light-hearted. The writing is definitely more focused on the adventure, moving the story along, then on dwelling on the hurt or pain of the characters. But the hurt and pain is there. We get just enough glimpses to make this book extremely realistic, although, quite a different lifestyle than the average teenager leads. In this particular book there is a demon-possessed man wanting the bones of a young boy, multiple people who are not saved but are facing life or death situations, and prejudice talk towards those considered to be "freaks". The need to be saved is communicated very clearly multiple times in the book. The Christian characters are dealing with forgiveness and love for enemies. I definitely recommend this book for young boys wanting to read of a good adventure and for those needing to hear good Biblically-based teaching!
Recommendation Scale: 5
Reviewer: J:-)mi