Book Synopsis:
High school is full of temptations. How can you stay focused on God? This book tells about teenagers in the Bible and how they handled hard issues. Their examples can help you remember your identity in Christ when life gets hard.
My Review:
3.5 stars. I would summarize this book like this: good ideas, poor execution. There were lots of good messages and advice, but the way the author presented it wasn’t great in my opinion.
This book felt too dumbed-down and oversimplified. It's like the author thought that teenagers wouldn't understand it unless it was written in a super simple way. Maybe it's just because my first apologetics book I read was I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, a book that isn't specifically written for teens and is therefore very academic, but the writing style was overly simple.
Another small thing I noticed that I thought was odd was that some longer Bible passages that were quoted were from the message version of the Bible, a very badly paraphrased translation. Other times where scripture was included, it wasn't the message version, but it also didn't specify which version it was any of the other times.
The biggest gripe I have with this book, however, was how hard the author tried to make it modern and relatable to teens. Each chapter discussed a different teenager from the Bible and how they faced the same sort of struggles teens face today, but the author took those people and inserted them into modern times. It was just cringey, in my opinion. Jesus' mother Mary did not play on her high school volleyball team, and James and John didn't play Xbox at a party. You can still have the same messages and make it relate to modern times without having to put them in completely unrealistic situations.
The author also had everyone using modern language, like Paul saying to Timothy, "Just chill out, Tim." It was almost laughable how much it was "modernized".
Despite the poor attempt at making it more relatable, the actual content and lessons given in this book are pretty good. There was a lot of the same stuff I've heard before, but also some new stuff for me to think about. It's definitely outdated, because there's a lot more stuff happening now in our culture that wasn't discussed, but I think it could be helpful for someone really struggling in their faith.
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