Homeward Heart

He looked her up and down, taking in her short white top, her long gauzy Indian print skirt, her ankle-high lace-up boots. He especially stopped to study the dainty silver chain that hung around her waist, and draped through a tiny navel ring. “You can’t possibly be a Christian.”

Book: Homeward Heart by Lissa Halls Johnson, Paladises/Questar Publishing Company, 1996

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 17-19

Subjects: Dating Relationships, Family Relationships, Drugs

Summary: Always somewhere new, never staying in one place for very long – that’s how Maddie has grown up. Now Maddie is grown and is attending college and she has to make some choices. She has become a Christian and wants to live right so she says no to the opportunity to do drugs or anything like that. However she has two people, two guys to be exact telling her conflicting messages. Her boyfriend says she’s saying no to too much. Her coworker at the library says she’s not saying no to enough. How is this girl supposed to figure out what is right and what is wrong?

Notes: This book does a great job discussing the topic of personal convictions. One character harshly judges Maddie, assuming she can’t even be a Christian because of the way she dresses or hangs out with. He doesn’t even want to be associated with her. He can’t see her heart for the homeless or her caring towards those around her because he is too busy being judgmental of her. Maddie however has to learn that sometimes the small things you do send messages you don’t want sent to those around you.

Recommendation Scale: 5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

1 Corinthians 10:23 – Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.