Note that this series holds a special place in the hearts of many Christians who read this when they were young and are now Christian parents today. Our goal here is to take a fresh and honest look at this first title, keeping future first-time youth readers in mind.
The most important thing for Christian parents is that this book should only be considered only for older, more mature teens and young adults. This first book is a story that ends in salvation, but for 99% of the book Christy is unsaved. We see life through her eyes and she is worldly and honestly borderline obsessed with boys, being pretty/liked, and is often jealous of other girls. While this is all too often an accurate picture of someone untouched by Christ’s love and redemption, it does put a lot of focus for a long time on un-Christlike things. There are people in the opening credits who shared encouragement with the author about being moved by these books, and we have no doubt that is true, but it is important to know what is here so you can determine if this is a good fit for your kiddo. We will try and catalog this so you understand the road this book takes on the way to redemption. We should also say that we are only reviewing this book. We would expect and hope that future books, after her giving her life to Jesus, have much more to offer in faith-building material. While we fully expect this Focus on the Family published book series gets better, we just wish more of it was in this first title. Make sure to read the next section of this review below too, as it is important to have the full picture. This is also a very important book to read the other reviews on below, as several we found provide a lot of content around the larger series.
Christy is 14 years old and we read life through her eyes. She spends much of the book obsessing over boys, eventually locking in on one she desperately wants to date. It is a constant throughout. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t really resolve this nearly as much as we would have liked (e.g., having her start to realize her sufficiency in Christ and not needing to focus so much on dating). She is jealous of those around her who she views as prettier and better with boys than she is. This is especially unfortunate in her treatment of one of the great Christian characters who she believes may be dating the boy she likes. Internally Christy is jealous and ugly to her, eventually spilling out into her actions towards her.
Early in the story Christy ends up at a party. Even though she is unsaved she is out of her element in this environment. We soon see a lot of drinking and smoking. She eventually ends up upstairs looking for one of the only people she knows. Christy walks in on a group smoking marijuana. She really wants something to drink so she begins talking about Coke, which gets confused with the drug. She also mentions she tried beer at age 10 at her friend’s house and didn’t like it.
There are a couple of more mature parts of the book. In a heavy moment, one of the kids who was using drugs at the party dies while high. There is quite a bit of focus on this. Later the girl Christy idolizes (who earlier we see clearly implied she is leaving to sleep with a guy she just met) breaks down and tells her that she is miserable. Her mom is a major alcoholic and has hit her. An older guy who Christy just thought of as “hot” comes over and, not realizing Christy is there, tries to push for sex. Then, seeing Christy he turns extremely rude and ugly. This girl also admits to trying to take her own life recently. This part ends with her saying, “You just don’t realize how good you have it. Stay innocent Christy, stay innocent”.
Other things to be aware of:
The book opens with Christy looking at her reflection saying, “I hate you! I hate you!”.
Christy has a frightening dream where she is being pulled under the water by something and can’t escape (meant to be symbolic).
Despite being described as a family that always went to church, there is a strained relationship with her Dad, who she feels never listens (hopefully this is setting up for reconciliation in future books).
Christy makes a few comments about hating the beach environment and that she thinks everyone there is stuck up
In one scene, surprisingly late in the book, Christy gets mad at her aunt and begins doing anything and everything she can to displease her and rebel.