Title: Insight
Author: Diana Greenwood
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Zondervan
Release Date: April 2011
Format: Kindle/paperback
Pages: 224 pages
What if you could see things before they happened? What if you had INSIGHT?
Elvira Witsil is a 14 year old girl growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in 1940s Portage, Wisconsin, with her narcissistic mother, overbearing grandmother and selectively mute baby sister, Jessie. Jessie suddenly starts talking soon after her fourth birthday, but she doesn’t speak like a normal four year old. No, Jessie has a gift. A gift people fear.
So, the girls’ mother packs up the family and they all hitch a ride to California with a travelling preacher, with Jessie as his star attraction. Along the way, Elvira finds her own meaning of God, trust, and family.
My Review
This book is intended for young adults, but really it is for anyone who has wondered where God is in their times of trouble or why He allows bad things to happen. The story brought me back to those awkward early teen years when I had that one adult I wished I could grow up to be (mine was Pam Price) and I worried no boy would ever be interested in me.
One of my favorite lines from the book relate to Elvira’s learning about a God she’d never really known or understood before.
But then it occurred to me he meant you could believe in God anywhere, not just in some stuffy old church. You could pray and read the Bible in the middle of a campground and it was all a fine thing to do. God apparently didn’t mind where you were as long as you believed.
And another very wise Elvirism:
There’s only one God. But people see God the way they want to.
Read my interview with Diana Greenwood.
I was not compensated in any way, nor did I receive any review copies of the book for writing this review post. Diana Greenwood is a personal friend, however, this review represents my honest opinion.
Wow, I didn’t even know there were book trailers….Makes the book really real and helps to sell it!! Can’t wait to get the book.