Marie Durand: A book review

from Christian Biographies for Young Readers

   I was excited to try the newest Christian Biography for Young Readers on Marie Durand by Simonetta Carr.  I'd previously reviewed the biography on Jonathan Edwards in the same series and fell in love with the style and detail.
   My book arrived in the mail and I set it aside until evening when it would have more of my attention.  That plan got derailed when when my daughter Mookie (age 10) couldn't sleep.  I gave it to her joking that either it would be so boring it would put her to sleep or it would help keep her up ;) The next morning I checked in and she had read the whole thing!  This is the kid who doesn't really like non-fiction.  If it is about a strong girl figure she'll give it a chance, but it needs to be really striking to get her attention. 
  Anxious to see who this Marie Durand was I delved in.  Marie was jailed for her Protestant faith in a time where the rule of the land was to be Roman Catholic or you were an enemy of the state.  The subject is timely since we are seeing an increase in persecution of the Christian faith throughout the world. I could personally identify with Marie because my grandfather's ancestors were French Huguenots who fled France prior to Marie's time and finally took sanctuary in the United States. 
 

translated "to resist" scrawled in the jail where Marie was held

    Marie remained in prison 38 years. Thirty-eight years where she ministered to those she was imprisoned with.  Thirty-eight years where she encouraged by correspondence those who were persecuted as she.  Thirty-eight years where she inspired those that visited her prison and wished to help her and her fellow prisoners in their plight.  What a woman!  Marie epitomizes all the strong characteristics that would appeal to my Mookie, a deep love of God, a love of writing, and a love of family - no wonder she couldn't put the book down. 
    These books are just fantastically set up: an intro to the subject matter, a body that is written like a story but just chalked full of excellent facts, pictures of the actual places and things that the main character was at or used.  The end of Marie's book contained a timeline, pronunciation key (for those tricky French words), a "did you know?" section, and a translated letter from Marie to her beloved niece Anne. 
    As a historian, I love these books for how they draw young people in to history and make it come alive!  As a homeschooling mom, I love using these because they point out the sources they come from and encourage the kids that are reading them to delve in more to the time by giving them a brief bit of information on either side of the time they feature.  As a reader myself, I enjoy being able to sit down for an hour or less and dig in myself and learn something new!
    I received this book free from the publisher and the thoughts and comments are my own and was not required to write a positive review. 

Jonathan Edwards

  I don’t take much time for myself.  That’s the point I’m at in my life and I am contented with it.  So, when I go to pick out a history book, I’m kind of picky.  History is my thing.  Well, its kind of our family thing, with a mom as a historian and a dad as an archaeologist, there’s no escaping it.  So since I don’t have a lot of time to read all the stuff I want to and I’m always on the look out for things to make history alive to my kiddos, books in our household have to fit these two criteria: 1) teach me something new and challenging but in a short format 2) make it easy to understand and interesting for my kids too.  Bonus points for using a Christian perspective.

  That’s why I like Christian Biographies for Young Readers series.  Being a purchaser for our church library I have bought some before.  I hadn’t delved into them beyond general perusal, but knew they were chalked full of absolutely wonderful illustrations, historical pictures and manuscripts as well as side notes explaining some items in more detail. That is very important for me in non-fiction kid books, if you don’t have an interesting format, you’re losing them right off.

  I didn’t know much about Jonathan Edwards beyond him being one of those fire and brimstone preachers of the Great Awakening, so I was looking forward to this review.  From a historian’s perspective, Ms. Carr did an excellent job drawing in many facets of colonial history: Plymouth, the Deerfield raid, Isaac Newton, the French and Indian War and other characters of the Great Awakening, George Whitefield & David Brainerd. 

  The book takes a very different turn than I was expecting.  It focuses on his upbringing and how it and his other life experiences contribute to his ministry, but it primarily focuses on how he incorporated God’s handiwork of his natural environment into his ministry.  How he used the wonder of God’s creation to over come such fears as those of thunderstorms, which were a menace during that time.

This was a wonderful segue into his eventual work with the Native Americans at Stockbridge.  

  Tidbits I loved about this book: how detailed it was down to the illustration of George Whitefield which showed him with his lazy eye (something that was not covered in the book, but it was cool to see it come out in the illustration).  The appendix at the back of the book with the timeline of Edwards’ life and a “Did you Know” section, things that I could see the author thinking really interesting and while they did not fit into the flow of the story, she wanted to share with us. 

  I’d definitely recommend this book on one of the great theological minds of early America!
  I received this book free from the publisher and the thoughts and comments are my own and was not required to write a positive review.