Johanna Florez

Picked up in the library because I wanted to read it

A different book in this series (I Love To Cuddle) was my favorite as a child and shaped my personality. I related to this one so much I almost cried?

Contrary to the complaints in some negative reviews, this book is very upfront about being based in Christianity. It is openly targeted at people of color and also remarkably gracious towards white people. It is structured around anecdotes retold by someone educated in trauma recovery who finds Christian faith to be, overall, a source of strength. I do agree with reviewers who note that this is not the book for anyone whose church experience has been a source of trauma (racial or otherwise). Rowe speaks to those seeking healing inside the church. I found this book informative and encouraging.

I appreciated the readability of each one-page reflection. I could read one or twenty in a sitting. I am also glad it included a wide variety of Lewis's works - it exposed me to some themes and genres he wrote on that I want to explore more. The final chapter, based around The Last Battle, got a little weird and touched on issues that need far more than one page to address with any nuance. But the Bible references after each reflection offer an opportunity to read more in context, if someone chooses to.

Felt less like a book and more like a long string of sermon illustrations. Final chapter is quotable and disjointed.

Super weird. I loved it.

Short chapters were easy to read, and some packed a lot of insight into a few paragraphs. Others oversimplified complex issues. Few things have ever made me angrier than reading her suggestion that a woman was murdered by her abusive husband because she had failed to pray enough. Also troubled by descriptions of anxiety and depression as things that WILL disappear after a single prayer of faith. Literally Jesus Himself told people that suffering or a lack of healing is not punishment for anything a person or their family did wrong. God can and will do amazing things, and His failure to do it on MY timeline is not evidence against Him or of weakness of my own faith. Two stars for those chapters that were reminders of underappreciated character qualities Christian women should seek to cultivate.

Did not know I had gotten a play about math when I started. But it's also about learned helplessness and how exhausting it is to not be understood. Enjoyed it even though I have no idea what the math conversations are about.

HYSTERICAL read through. I can't wait to perform in this. (An Officer Brophy gently gender-bent so as not to be distracting... I cannot pass for a Mr.)

Woohoo I can read a book in Spanish

Full review will come later, because I have THOUGHTS.

For now: European Spanish tripped me up until, late in the book, a “vuestras” finally reminded me why some of the usage was unfamiliar to me.

Also, the afterword states that this is MPH's favorite book cover of hers, and I definitely agree

Weekend home sick = finally finished this book!! Well worth a couple years reading slowly.

Helpful read in digestible chapters. It affirmed a lot of what I intuitively did with adolescents and was full of practical advice for families and younger children.

Cute reflection on siblings: best equipped to get under your skin, always there for you.

A moving re-read, a decade after memorizing portions of the story to perform. My perspective has changed and new elements stood out to me. But it's still interesting historically and culturally, and both inspiring and challenging religiously and personally.

Read for work (love that for me). Cute story about true art history, told through barnyard animals.

Also the book is literally a day younger than me. God saw a universe with me but not this book in it, and fixed it.

Learning the author was 15/16 when she wrote this explains a lot to me. It's not the highest quality writing, but it's got the earnestness of a teenager with a huge burden on her heart.

Oh my Mexican-New Englander corazón

I loved revisiting LaVaughn, a couple years more mature with a long way left to go. The end of Make Lemonade gave me goosebumps; the end of True Believer leaves me hopeful.

I was surprised that the chapter on submitting to husbands wasn't more insulting towards non-submissive women, because earlier chapters had talked down on women for such “sins” as failing to be a natural morning person. The study guides sending me to Bible verses were good, as well as some of the suggestions for reframing feelings of frustration towards loved ones, but other areas of advice were inconsistent with basic psychology (for example, strongly recommending that parents never pause to reflect prior to giving physical punishment... adult brains think more clearly after a couple deep breaths...........). It reminds me of a blogger who criticized coffee-drinking in church because coffee is for relaxation and you should be attentive in church - maybe the writer drinks coffee to relax, but everyone else drinks it to be alert and attentive to important things. Peace sometimes framed her own experiences as the only Biblical way to live, without grounding the advice in general understanding of other human beings.

Reminds me why I loved historical fiction when I was in middle school.

I will always count the random board books I impulse buy towards my reading goals.
Not sure whether to make this a gift for my dad or my nieces.
Just cute.

Saw it in the grocery store and needed it, as one who has suffered Zoom school from both the student and teacher ends.

Such a cute read, even more fun now that I have a cat of my own

I had fun using this as the first Shakespeare my 8th graders read.