90 Minutes In Heaven

Title: 90 Minutes In Heaven

Author: Don Piper

Publisher: Revell

Place and year of publication: United States of America, 2004

Number of pages: 206

Where you found this book: Public Library

Story Review

At the moment the truck impacted the car, Don finds himself standing in heaven surrounded by a brilliant light. A large crowd of people were standing before a large gate. The crowd moves toward Don, and he begins to recognize people he knows. The first person he sees is his grandfather, Joe Kulbeth. Joe embraces Don with a strong hug, as Don remembers riding in an ambulance with his Grandfather and then receiving the news that Joe had died. Many others crowd in to embrace and welcome Joe. A childhood friend killed in a car accident greets him; Don's great-grandfather appears, as does his great-grandmother and several school teachers. Don realizes that each of these people have played a role in his own Christian walk.

Don Piper dies in a horrific car accident. Ninety minutes after his death, Don Piper begins singing "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" inside his crushed car. In what can only be explained as an amazing miracle fueled by intense faith. Don Piper dies and then lives again after spending ninety minutes at heaven's gate. For the rest of his life, Don will try to come to terms with why he was allowed to experience the comfort of heaven only to be sent back to earth. In this book there are themes of prayer and faith. This book is called 90 minutes in heaven because Don was in heaven for 90 minutes.  

Christian Perspective

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. Jeremiah 28:11 We as humans have plans and goals for ourselves, and if we are followers of Christ, the plans that God has for us will come to play. Don’s plan was to go to the conference and preach, but that wasn’t God’s plan for Don at the moment. Instead he got into an accident and shattered his leg. At the same time he experienced the time of his life in heaven’s gate! God’s plan for our lives is so much better than we expect from ourselves. God’s plans for his children are good and plans that will help us grow, never to harm us. God’s plan for Don turned out to be for the better, when Don came back to life he was sharing his story and related with people who lost a loved one. Don’s story impacted many just because God had something to do with it. Make sure God has something to do with your story, because without him it’s like a sandwich with nothing in it but bread, bland and bitter.

Your Thoughts

I chose this book because I like reading stories that are true and give me knowledge.  Since I have a desire of having a good understanding of heaven, this book caught my eye. I would recommend this book to people who would like to know more about heaven.  The book is so interesting; I would like to read it again.  The reason I liked this book is due to the clearer explanation that it provides about heaven.  I want to have God in my story, and to see heavenly things outside of this world. 

Olivia's Book Review: RULES

Title: Rules
Author: Cynthia Lord
Publisher: Scholastic
Place and year of publication:  New York, 2006
Number of pages: 200
Where you found the book: school library

Story Review:
12 year old Catherine just wants a normal life. Since her brother has autism, her parents don't pay attention to her and her needs. To keep her little brother out of trouble, she makes rules for him like "no toys in the fish tank" or "keep your pants on in public". Catherine's best friend goes to Florida every summer to live with her dad, and when Catherine's new neighbour Kristi moves in, she hopes that they will become friends. The themes in this book are strictness, routines, romance, and being worried. This story takes place in North America, in the summer. This book is called "Rules" because Catherine is always making rules for her brother to keep him in order without him embarrassing him and herself. The main characters in this book are Catherine, her little brother David, Kristi, Ryan, and a new interesting friend named Jason.

Catherine and her mother take David to the clinic every day to help him with his autism. Catherine loves to draw, so while they were waiting for David, she decides to draw a boy in a wheelchair sitting across the room. The boy's mother leans over to the boy then sharply asks Catherine to stop drawing her son. Catherine was surprised and embarrassed so she apologizes and draws something else. The next time they go to the clinic the boy in the wheelchair was there again, but when she sits down, the boy's mother wheels his chair over to her, tells her that his name is Jason, and explains to her that he cannot talk, so he uses a book that has a bunch of words with pictures beside them which he taps to make sentences. Over the weeks they became friends and Catherine makes new, exciting words for Jason.

Ryan is a boy who lives on Catherine's block who she can't stand because he always makes fun of David and takes advantage of him since he cannot help himself. But when her new neighbour Kristi comes, she likes Ryan and Ryan likes her too. Kristi sees the picture that Catherine had drawn of Jason and asks if he is Catherine's boyfriend. Embarrassed she says no and doesn't want to tell her that he is a disabled boy because she doesn't know what Kristi will think of her. One day Catherine and Kristi go to the pond to swim. While they are there Ryan comes to the shore, so they get out of the water to meet him. Ryan asks if Kristi has asked Catherine yet. Confused, Catherine asks what they're talking about. Kristi asks Catherine if she wants to go to the dance with them on Saturday night. Catherine was pretty sure that the only reason she asked her was because she wasn't allowed to go by herself, and one of Catherine's rules is "no dancing in public unless it's pitch black", so she tries making excuses not to go.

At the clinic the next day Jason asks Catherine if she wants to come to his birthday party on Saturday. luckily, it was the same day as the dance so she agrees to come. She tells Kristi that she was going to Jason's party and that she was invited too, even though she knew Kristi couldn't come. At the party Jason asks why Kristi didn't come along, Catherine explains that Kristi is going to a dance in the evening with Ryan. Jason asks if Catherine wants to go to the dance with him but Catherine hesitates and looks away. Jason asks if she was embarrassed of him and she says "no, it's just that I doesn't like dancing". But Jason knows better and says that that is a stupid excuse and wheels his chair out of the room. The party's over. Catherine feels really bad and decides to make it up to Jason and see if he wants to go to the dance after all. When she calls, Jason's mother says he probably won't come, but Catherine begs and then waits at the dance for Jason to come. Will Jason ever show up and make up with her? Or is their friendship ruined forever?

Christian Perspective:
This book was not written in a christian perspective. Catherine had patience with her little brother, but sometimes she got fed up with him, which is understandable. She was always too worried about what Kristi and other people would think of her and that they would think she's weird for having a handicapped friend. Instead of shying away from the truth about Jason when Kristi asked, she could have just told her the truth and not be worried about it so much. And instead of worrying about her little brother always messing up or making Catherine and himself  look stupid, just to accept him the way he is just like Jesus would have done.

Your Thoughts:
I chose this book because it looked interesting and a few of my friends had read it and told me I should read it too. I really liked this book because it talks about things that a normal teenager would have to deal with in  life, like fitting in, and family and friend problems. I didn't really like the ending of the book because to me it felt like it wasn't finished or there was a page missing or something, but otherwise the story was very good. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic fiction books, or something they can relate to. I would also recommend this book to teenagers with younger siblings or a difficult relationship with friends, and it might give you some guidance.

THE TUNNEL KING

Title of Book: The Tunnel King

Author of Book: Barbara Hehner

Publisher of book: HarperTrophyCanada

Place of Publication: United States of America

Year of Publication: 2004

Number of pages: 147

Where I found the book: CHS library

Story review

This book is titled the Tunnel King because this book is about a man named Wally Floody who was captured by Germans during world war two when his planed got hit and he had to bail out. The Germans took him to a POW (prisoner of war) camp where he and some other guys planed to escape and his role was the boss of all tunneling operations they nick named him the Tunnel King. This book took place mostly in Germany some of his training to be a pilot was in Brandon MB and his home town was Toronto MB. Wally was captured on his first mission in 1941 when a German fighter plane shot his plane down and he had to bail out. Wally was born in1918 and escaped imprisonment in 1945. The only main character in this book was Wally there were some other characters but they were not main. The problem in this book was Wally was captured and could not escape despite his best efforts all his tunnels were ether discovered or collapsed. The only reason Wally escaped was because Russian forces captured the POW camp he was in so he didn’t really escape he was just set free by Russians. I think this book was about never giving up even if it’s hard because the tunnel collapsed on Wally more than once but he kept trying even though in the end his plan never did come through.

Christian Perspective

This book  was not based on a Christian perspective but it showed some of Christ like qualities for instance Wally did not get all upset  when things didn’t go his way instead he kept trying and the Germans even though they were the enemy the Germans still showed respect to them. The prisoners also showed respect to the Germans they did not try to kill them or say words to them that were negative. Even though this book was not based on a Christian perspective it still showed Christ like qualities.

My thoughts

Over all I liked this book but some parts like the beginning of the book  were it  was telling about his normal life and all that  kind of stuff was a little on the boring side of things but closer to the middle and the end of the book it got more eventful. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books that are true and is based on wars and history. 

Thura's Diary

Information

Title: Thura’s diary 

Author: Thura Al-Windawi

Publisher: penguin group 

Place and year of publication: 2004  

Number of pages: 144

Where I found this book: school library

Story review

Well Thura’s diary is about war in Iraqi, Baghdad and how Thura saw it in her own eyes. Thura was just like every other girl before the war started. So when it started she too started to write a diary. The diary was about what was going in the war and what her and her family went through to stay alive. So after they spent a while in Iraqi, Baghdad they saw that it was getting worse and that most of their friends and neighbours where leaving for some where safer. So they left for the country side to their nephew house.

When Thura and her family got there most of her other relatives were there too. So they worked together and helped each other out, and Thura learned a lot of new things from her relatives. After a while Sedam Hussein was killed in the war by the Americans, so by the time the war ended Thura and her family went back to Iraqi and went on with their lives. Most schools were closed and destroyed; even her father couldn't go back to work. 

Even after the war ended life in Baghdad became harder and there was less freedom. Women had to where headscarf's so that they can be safe. So Thura's diary was turned and made into a book when she was 20 years old and it became published. Some of it was on the times newspaper in UK. This all happened about 10 years ago in Baghdad, but know it’s not as bad. So the title for this book is named Thura’s diary because before it became a book it was her diary so that's probably why she named it that.

Christian prospective

This story isn’t from a Christian’s point of view but more from a Muslims. But even so it was still a good book to read. Thura went through a lot, but even though she still had hope that one day she could have the freedom she had back then. So this book thought me that I should be glad that I don’t have to go through war and, be in the middle of it trying to stay alive. So I hope that as Christians that we are thankful of where we live and that we are in a free country.    

My thoughts

Thura’s diary thought me many things and it showed me how people who have to go through war fell like. So I think that this book is good to read and it teaches you more about what other people have to go through. I choose this book because I thought it would be interesting to see what happens in war and what Thura felt like. For all those people who enjoy peoples stories and their thoughts. I recommend this to you all peoples.