Book Review – Ten Girls Who Made A Difference by Irene Howat

Ten Girls Who Made A Difference

Ten Girls Who Made A Difference In by Irene Howat

Synopsis:

Would you like to make a difference? These ten girls grew up to do just that…Katherine Luther, Bethan Lloyd-Jones, Sabina Wurmbrand, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Edith Schaeffer, Ruth Bell Graham, Monica of Thagaste, Susannah Spurgeon, Maria Taylor. Read this book and find out what God wants you to do. (Taken from GoodReads page)

Review

The final entry into the girls’ series and the final book in the entire series. The whole series was a joy to read and to review and to learn from. This entry had me slightly apprehensive that it would only be “the wife of” or “the mother of” great men. While they share those qualities among themselves, the author does a good job of highlighting them as individuals.

In this volume, ten girls which include Katherine Luther, Bethan Lloyd-Jones, Sabina Wurmbrand, Susanna Wesley, Ann Judson, Edith Schaeffer, Ruth Bell Graham, Monica of Thagaste, Susannah Spurgeon, and Maria Taylor follow a similar story pattern of about 15 pages each. The sections starts off with a childhood and family setting and move to either some early important events or through to teenage and college-age and then into adulthood of what they’re known for. The stories include mostly fictional conversations so as to give young readers more than just facts to remember. The conversation are in the spirit of learning about the person. Each person also has a focus on their Christian faith and it usually inspires the conclusion of the story as a way to glorify God. At the end there is a “FACT” of the story expanded upon, a “KEYNOTE” that focuses on the aspect of the story to think about God, a “THINK” area in which a challenge question is presented for discussion, and a “PRAYER” section.

As stated above this looked like women who made a difference because their husbands or sons made a difference. While some of these might fall into this a little more, the women are shown coming alongside the men in their life. So someone like Monica of Thadsgate is the focus because of Augustine but that’s also because what we know of her comes from her son and shows the impact mothers have. One of the best stories is Edith Schaeffer who seemed like just an amazing person who made L’Abri an even more special place. What this book maybe could have focused on a little more is actually showing an even closer connection to how great men are affected by the great women in their life. Someone like Susannah Spurgeon is known for her great love of her husband and supporting him with his consistent bouts with depression – there are other books that talk about this for later study.

This book was a nice surprise from what I thought it would be and that’s true for what this whole series was. If you’re looking to get your younger kids into Church history or even if you’re an adult looking for some entries into who or when to study and read about further.

Final Grade