Addison Blakely: Confessions Of A PK

It’s not like I have a problem with God or anything. He’s been there through a lot – like the death of my mother when I was five. It’s just that lately my prayers don’t seem to be getting father than my bedroom ceiling. And I can’t help but wonder what living outside of the fishbowl labeled “PK” would look like.

Book: Addison Blakely: Confessions Of A PK by Betsy St. Amant, Barbour Books, 2012

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 13-20

Subjects: Dating relationships, friendship, loss, relationship with parents, salvation, hypocrisy

Summary: Addison has been a PK all her life. That’s her identity. She’s been in the pew every time the doors were opened, volunteered for all sorts of things, attended Bible studies and even fed the homeless. And yet, she really has no idea what a relationship with God is all about. She knows all the “answers” but when temptation comes calling in the form of an attractive boy, when her dad starts dating her teacher, when her best friend turns against her, when her drama teacher gives her more responsibility than she can handle and when all the other kids start to spread nasty rumors about her, she has no idea where God is or how to respond. Drowning her sorrows in mocha isn’t helping. There must be some answers out there, but if being at Church every time the doors opened hasn’t provided them, then what will?

Notes: This is a very spiritually focused book. The main character has been a preacher’s kid all of her life and based her identity around it. But when a friend and the boy she likes starts challenging her, she realizes that she was basing her view of God on her view of her earthly father – with whom she has a very strained relationship. Her friend points out that her faith needs to become her own, not just her dad’s. The boy she likes has rejected Church because of hypocrisy, primarily the things his Church going parents did. The primary lesson comes at the end when, with the help of her friend, Addison begins to realize that her faith must be her own and starts to listen for God’s voice and follow His leading. It’s a picture of growing up, of struggling, of doubting, and then of coming out on top, stronger for the struggle.

Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

2 Timothy 1:5-7 – I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.