Have you ever met a reluctant home schooler? Lisa Dunlop has. In fact, she has known quite a few. She understands how hard it can be to switch from conventional schooling to home schooling because she has experienced this switch herself. Wanting to help make the transition easier, she wrote a book about it. A School to Come Home To tells the story of a fictitious character, Elizabeth Shirley, who learns to adjust to home schooling.
The book opens near the end of Elizabeth’s sophomore year in high school. Beth, as she is often called, is not very happy at school. Her grades are poor, and her friends encourage her to skip classes. Beth just manages to avoid having to attend summer school. The summer passes quickly, and it is soon almost time for the new school year to begin. Near the end of the summer, Beth’s parents announce their decision to home school her, along with her brothers, Jeff and Josh. This is not a complete surprise to Beth because she had found a book about home schooling on the coffee table months earlier. Yet her parents’ decision still stuns her. “I don’t see how they could do this to us, “ she complains to Jeff. “They’re going to trap us in this house with them all day. We’ll never get to see our friends... And I was going to be a junior this year. This year I would ha e gone to the prom. How can I go to the prom if I’m not even going to school?”
But Beth’s surly outlook gradually changes as she spends more time with her family and new-found friends. She gets along better with everyone. She even starts to enjoy being schooled at home. In her heart, however, the change is not complete. Something is still missing in her life. Then a dramatic series of events teaches Beth a vital lesson, a lesson which changes her life by changing her heart. “It made me realize how important my parents are and how much I need to listen to them,” she says.
I would recommend A School To Come Home To for anyone to read. It effectively demonstrates the rewards of home schooling through high school and emphasizes the fact that home-schooled students have plenty of opportunities to do things with their friends. -by Janelle Wiley
A School To Come Home To,
by Lisa Dunlop, US $9, DBLM Publications
In Pursuit of God,
The Life of A. W. Tozer
The writing of A.W. Tozer has had an incredible influence in my life this last year. I picked up a compilation of his work entitled The Best of A.W. Tozer in my church’s bookstore and ever since have been challenged and knocked over the head more than once by his inimitable ability to communicate God’s truth. When I found In Pursuit of God, The Life of A.W. Tozer, I bought it immediately in the hope of learning more about what made this man of God tick. Those who have read Tozer know that his writing is potent. His own passion and intimacy with the Almighty drip from his work. Though his life was not particularly adventurous and the book is not filled with death defying acts of bravery, my own curiosity about how Tozer had grown so close to the Lord made reading it a joy. The author provides a glimpse of how Tozer’s relationship with God translated into real life. Using commentary by close friends and “Tozer-Grams”, pithy sayings taken from early church newsletters Tozer worked on, we are given a view of the “whole” man. The book chronicles Tozer’s humble beginnings as a street preacher, his later unsought acclaim as a successful pastor in Chicago and Toronto, and his work as editor of the Alliance Life. It reveals a man of singular devotion and focus on knowing God. “Tozer preferred God’s presence to any others,” the author writes. “The foundation of his Christian life was prayer.”
For me, the most inspiring part of the book was the insight it gave to his unquenchable desire for learning. Entirely self-educated, Tozer never attended college or seminary but taught himself by a voracious schedule of reading. He disdained wasting any moment that could be spent in study. He carried a notebook with him and was always either reading, writing or praying. Often he would take several hour train rides just for the opportunity they afforded to study undisturbed.
Though nothing can replace reading his actual writing, this book succeeds in making Tozer human. The author explains his strengths along with weaknesses that accompanied them.
For the aspiring pastor or writer, In Pursuit of God will give valuable information on how Tozer succeeded. But most importantly, it gives every Christian a model of how a pursuit of God is sustained in daily life. -J .Harris
In Pursuit of God, The
Life of A.W. Tozer, by James L. Snyder, US $11, Christian Publications
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