Book Review – Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In by Irene Howat

Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In

Ten Boys Who Didn’t Give In by Irene Howat

Synopsis:

These ten boys grew up in hard times throughout history to become men who didn’t give in to the pressure against their faith. Living as a Christian was difficult, but they chose to do the right thing instead of the easy thing. In a world where we give in too easily, be inspired by the true stories of those who didn’t! Includes the stories of Nate Saint, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Cranmer, Polycarp, with the biographies of other great heroes of the faith. (Taken from Goodreads page)

Review

The second entry into the series is just as good as the first. Although the subject matter maybe a bit too much for younger readers.

In this volume, ten boys which include Polycarp, Alban, Sir John Oldcastle, Thomas Cranmer, George Wishart, James Chalmers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nate Saint, Ivan Moiseyev, Graham Staines 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.

It is probably best for young readers to read alongside a parent as the subheading is not included on the book cover but is listed online. The topics all cover people who were martyred and involve some details of death, cannibalism, and torture. Mind you there aren’t graphic descriptions and I don’t have a negative review about that as I believe stories like these are very important but I think the warning is important. Either way, the series does capture people who were willing to die for their faith and the questions at the end cover that fairly well. There are deeper conversations to be had within the people covered. The childhood stories don’t flow into the climax of the story as much as the first book does but the pattern is important for the narrative and to invest young readers into.

Another great entry into the series that allows for conversations to take place for a number of people including first-world Christians to get a sense of what holding to their faith sometimes requires, those who desire to be missionaries and the mindset one might have to have, and those who support missionaries with prayer and money and what they might have to go through. This series really does a good job of showing us why Church history is so important to study and learn from.

Final Grade