I recently read one of my Aunt Peggy's books.  She is a confident and very creative author, and I am an English nerd and literary critic.  This made for an interesting relationship.  The story is about a girl named Lilia who lives on a farm in Hawaii with her family.  For the most part it is a wonderfully flowing story of the transition from kid to teenager, as well as learning to live life for God.  But my critic tendencies came swirling through my head as I started getting into the story.  I thought the character development was thorough, and the perspective from which the story was told switching between characters was fun.  It was funny to notice how some of the characters and events were inspired by my aunt's life and relationships.

However I got a little caught up on how "Utopian" the setting was.  It didn't seem possible that a family could be that Christian, and get a long that often, that the girl should be good at so much, get so much attention, live in such a beautiful place and have so few financial problems.  But then I got to thinking again.  Aunt Peggy was good at all those things as a child, and lived on a farm; she's had experience being a Christian who also doesn't have too many financial worries, has created a loving Christian home, and has been to and knows people in Hawaii.  This thought led to other friendships I've had with Christian families of all walks of life who also do work everything out as a family and adore each other.  So, I'm not certain, but perhaps I should retract that critique and simply conclude that the story is about someone other than me.  Just because those were not my experiences, doesn't mean they're not possible, and doesn't mean the average reader will not be able to identify with the characters.  In truth, toward the end of the book, the characters and situations do become more and more complex, and conquer great hardships.  Read as a whole, this book can stir the heart and you can empathize with everything in it.

The other thing the critic inside of me jumped on was the dialog.  This is a very difficult area to master.  There's a balance between clarity of who's speaking and natural flow.  As I was reading, I saw many hiccups in the flow as well as a few ambiguous speakers.  However, when I spoke to others I knew had read it, none of them mentioned that as a problem.  So once again, I got to thinking it over, and I remembered that this book is targeted to 11-13 year-olds.  The books I read at that age had dialog much like this book's.  A girl that age doesn't worry about those technicalities, and this book does not cater to the 24-year-old English nerd and critic, which is good.  That would be something with which a young teenage girl would not be able to identify.

All in all, a fun story, with unexpected twists and turns, and a very very solid Christian focus.  It shows the reader an example of how your family could live life focused on God -- in an exciting and colorful way.