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CURRENTLY IN BOOKS
A good trip

Jim Coggins

Janey’s Girl
Gayle Friesen. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1998, 222 pp., $6.95.

Gayle Friesen is a member of Killarney Park MB Church in Vancouver. This, her first book, is a novel for teens. Narrated by 14-year-old Claire, it describes how Claire and her mother Janey drive from Toronto to visit her grandmother in Smalltown, B.C. The plot involves the unravelling of family secrets and the reconciliation of old quarrels.

The story is well-written, well-crafted, moving and thought-provoking. It is simple enough for young teens without being sentimental or silly. The characters are well-rounded, with both positive and negative traits. My 12-year-old daughter enjoyed the book.

This is not a “Mennonite” or even “Christian” novel, although “Smalltown” looks suspiciously like the Bible belt in the Fraser Valley. There are no conversions to Christ, although church is taken seriously and Christian values (such as sexual purity, love and forgiveness) are at the heart of the novel. The struggle of a teenager facing a rigid parenting style is depicted convincingly.

There is a shortage of good literature for young teens, and this is considerably better than most teen books I have seen – better written than most “Christian” teen novels and far better in content than most secular teen novels.

Jim Coggins is editor of MB Herald.

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Last modified September 18, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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