Last updated on May 14th, 2018
A thoughtful tale full of allegory, mystery, and adventure, Theodora’s Children: A Tale of Hope will bring you into the Christmas spirit. In my case, Christmas in August.
The Good
- A quick but interesting read
- An effective use of symbolism
- A clever Christmas story
- Crafts a story within a story
- Younger character’s I can relate too
- A imaginative way to bring the Bible into the tale
- Creates a compelling story which increases my desire to learn more about the land
The Bad
- Unessential character “attributes” given to the narrator. This narrator introduces unneeded lead-ins. The narrator became distracting in chapter 11 when the narrator, for a short time, became a living breath person. The chapter begins with, “Before we discover what Gretchen does next, let’s rejoin our storyteller and his great grandchildren …” The chapter ends with “Now that Jesse has answered his two young listeners, let’s go to the next chapter in Gretchen’s story.”
- Note: To give a sense of the problem, I recommend showing-not-telling. The narrator told what happened, but the story would have flowed better without being told.
- Note: There were a limited amount of unusual narrator breaks.
The Unsure*
- A little too much of the “ly’ adverbs. Again, I would show-not-tell. Although I found that sometimes these adverbs are unnecessary. An example: “Along the way her heart thumped so powerfully and loudly that she felt it was going to fly clear out of her body.” A rewrite could be: “Along the way her heart thumped like it would fly clear out of her body.”
*My opinion: what I didn’t care for or do not prefer. This will not lower a rating unless it overly distracts from the story.
Check out Theodora’s Children at Amazon.
You can find other Indie Christian Book Reviews here…
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
