Ask Lily

What was Suzy doing there? She didn’t go to their church! Matter of fact, she didn’t go to any church. And worse, Lily worried, how was she going to explain all this to Reni with Suzy there? She had a whole other set of issues with Suzy. There was no little voice, and it was too late to run to the bathroom. Lily sank onto a floor cushion, numbly opened her Bible, and tried to look like she was following along in 1 Corinthians as the teacher read.

Come on, Answer Girl, she thought. Tell me what to do!

Book: Ask Lily (Young Women of Faith: Lily Series, Book 5) by Nancy Rue, Zonderkidz, 2001

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 11-14

Subjects: Friendship, Truth, Popularity, Wisdom

Summary: It started innocently enough. Someone was crying at being rejected by the popular girls. Lily encouraged her to move on and find some friends that would accept her and not focus so much on the only two in the whole school who reject her. Then she gets recommended for the newspaper staff and starts dreaming of being a star reporter – only to learn that only 8^th graders get to be reporters. 7^th graders do grunt work. But there is one option for some writing. 7^th graders sometimes do columns. So Lily starts the “Answer Girl” column. It’s fun and genuinely helpful for a time. She’s the only 7^th grader on staff and the response her column is getting brings respect from the 8^th graders – including the editor. Lily may not be boy crazy, but she is project-crazy and will do whatever it takes to keep the right to continue her current project. So when the popular girls who have always snubbed or even bullied Lily and her friends invite her to a sleepover, she lies to her friends, her teacher and parents in hopes of keeping her position on the paper. The problem is, lies have a way of coming back around to hurt.

Notes: This is the fifth in the Young Women of Faith – the Lily Series, a series of 12 books about a young girl desperately wanting to know God’s will for her life. She wants to know what her “thing” is. Everyone else seems to have one specific passion that’s also their talent. Throughout the series Lily explores many options to figure out what hers is. In this book, she pursues the being on the school newspaper. As with the other books in the series, she instantly pours all of her energy into being the best she can be at the project. When she finds success, she gets prideful – and desperate to keep her position – which is dependent on following the popularity rules. Lily resorts to lies to accomplish her goals but soon learns what the negative consequences of lying are and learns that instead of believing herself to be the Answer girl, she needs to ask advice from the Answer Man – God. True wisdom is found in following Him, rather than her own way.

Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

James 3:17 – But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.