The Discovery

It didn’t take him past lunchtime, which he ate alone in the corner of the cafeteria, to figure out that if he was going to be stop being invisible before the end of the school year, he was going to have to win this contest, and win it all on his own. Then they’d be impressed. Then they’d want him included in everything.

Book: The Discovery by Nancy Rue, Bethany House Publishers/Focus On The Family, 2001

Genre: Historical Fiction

Target Audience: Boys 10-14

Subjects: World War II, Friendship, Relationship with family, identity and heritage

Summary: With his dad off fighting in the war, Will is starting a new school no matter how much he tries to convince his mom otherwise. And it’s just as he expected: he doesn’t know anyone and no one cares to get to know him. Although it doesn’t take too long to find some kids who don’t like him. After school is particularly a problem as his mom works there and he is supposed to stay and hang out until she can go home. This is the time the other kids keep finding him. Finally Will works out a compromise with his mom. He doesn’t have to hang out there if he’s willing to hang out at the home of their landlady. He doesn’t care much for this option either though, especially when he meets Fawn, a young Native American girl struggling with her heritage. When Will discovers an old photograph with a confusing date written on it things get even more difficult for him. Will anything ever make sense again?

Notes: This is the fifth set of books in the Christian Heritage Series. Each set focuses on a particular time period and tells the story of a young boy growing up in that time. This set is about a young boy who is growing up during World War II while his father is off fighting in the battles. In this book Will and his friend Fawn both are struggling with their heritage. Will discovers his mom was married to someone else who died before she married the man she is married to now and that he was the son of her first husband rather than her second. Fawn is desperately trying to avoid being Native American because she sees the difference in lifestyles between her poor relatives living on the reservation and the more wealthy Caucasians her mom works for. Will is surrounded by strong Christians who point him toward his Heavenly Father and the identity that can be found in belonging to Him.

Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Hebrews 12:1 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.