Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Book Review: Boomtown

My boys get up every morning with ideas of what they can build, take apart, and create. The adventure is in the creation and every empty box and strand of string is fodder for their latest creation.

If I told them that we were going to move to a city like Boomtown, I think that they would put the "For Sale" sign in our yard before I could get the words out my mouth. Boomtown is every boy's dream. The city lives to blow things up and invent things to blow up. The people are eccentric and accept others for their uniqueness. When you arrive in town the "Welcome Wagon" greets you by delivering a 150 pound box of fireworks.

The family in this book are a pastor and family and his family who arrive not realizing what this town is all about. They soon realize that this town is very different from any other city they have ever lived in before. It is a crazy adventure.

While this book is cute and full of creativity and imagination there were definitely some things about it that I wasn't too crazy about. The story is told from the point of view of the Dad (pastor) which takes away some of the appeal for the child reader which is the whole point of this book. The family was immediately faced with people who were different from them and they learned to embrace their new community as well as their community embraced them.

Also, the kids were incredibly disobedient in so much of this book and there wasn't any accountability. The wife was portrayed as nagging and demanding. The pastor even does a poor job. During a baseball game he prays and says, "Dear God, ...Well, Just whatever you can do." I was hoping for better role models from a parsonage family.

Although I have seen this book on the Christian bookstore shelves, I personally give this book a thumbs down!

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