Rough And Rugged Lily

“Hang on!” she heard Dad cry out.

Lily groped for a handhold and her hands landed on something thing that gave under her fingers as she latched on. The van stopped spinning and slammed to an abrupt halt. Icy snow sprayed the window above Lily and then everything was quiet and still.
Lily held on tight and squeezed her eyes shut and waited for something to hurt.

Book: Rough and Rugged Lily (Young Women of Faith: Lily Series, Book 9)  by Nancy Rue, Zonderkidz, 2002

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 11-14

Subjects: Greed, Selfishness, Love for others, Family Relationships, Teen pregnancy

Summary: How selfish could Joe be? A 2 page Christmas wish list? But Lily’s isn’t much better. She just writes smaller. Art has a ton on things on his list too. Lily is counting on getting all the camping and survival gear she’ll need for the youth group camping trip. Her parents ruin that plan real quick when a single announcement. In fact, they ruin every single plan she and her brothers had for the entire Christmas season with one announcement! Instead of a huge tree loaded with gifts, making Christmas cookies, checking the mail for Christmas cards, and their other traditions, they’re going away for Christmas! Their parents have rented a cabin in the woods and the kids can only bring one game, one book and one snack. Presents? Homemade. Food? Sandwich supplies from the grocery store. Lily, Art and Joe are confident this is going to be the worst Christmas ever! But it seems, even their parents plans are going to change when they’re caught in a terrible ice storm that leaves them stranded at a school gym with a bunch of other travelers. If the kids thought it bad before, now it’s even worse!

Notes: This is the ninth in the Young Women of Faith – the Lily Series, a series of 14 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 wants to be an expert in wilderness survival. Her book on it doesn’t do her much good in a crowded school gym though. Her parents have decided the children are too greedy and self-centered when it comes to Christmas and want to use the holiday to strengthen family relationships and get their focus off of themselves. Lily starts the trip determined to prove to her parents she has learned the lesson so they can get back to normal. She ends with an overwhelming feeling of thankfulness for her family.  There is also a lesson about teen pregnancy in this book. One of the families stuck at the gym with them is a mom, a teenager and a little girl who they eventually learn is the daughter of the teenager. Art makes a comment that after seeing this he understands why you’re not supposed to act like you’re married until you truly are.

Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Philippians 2:1-5 – If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus