I recently had the opportunity to read Heart Changer written by Jarm Del Boccio, Author and SchoolhouseTeachers.com teacher. This is her debut book and I’m so excited to tell you about it. With farm life and fairs, life has been busy so getting any of the kids to read an entire book has been a challenge. I decided I would read this one to preview it before it was an assigned reading this fall for Eli and Rebekah. Wow am I glad I did! It was that good.
The Heart Changer is written from the perspective of a 12 year old Israelite girl, Miriam, who is captured by the head of Haaman’s army. She is bitter and resentful, how could Jehovah allow this to happen to her?! Could she even believe in the Hebrew God? Why would He allow this to happen and what about her family were they hurt or killed? Miriam is taken back to the home of Haaman to be the maidservant for his wife, Adara.
Slowly, Miriam begins to feel her heart soften to her captors. However, just when she starts to soften her heart it seems that something would happen to bring out her bitterness again.
When Miriam overhears that her master, Naaman, has leprosy and that nothing seems to be working to cure his skin condition and that he is considering sacrificing his only daughter, this is more than Miriam can bear to think about. She insists that her God is the God of miracles and that he should go to see the prophet Elisha so see if there could be a miracle. Miriam begins to realize that perhaps she is here for such a time as this.
When Elisha tells Naaman to dip in the Jordan, Naaman couldn’t believe what he was hearing. In fact, Naaman was very resistant to washing in the dirty Jordan river. Why would the prophet insist on the Jordan river when there were much cleaner, purer waters much closer to him?
His wife begs Haaman to at least try, after all what would it hurt? Finally she was able to convince him to make the trip and at least try. Once she got Naaman conviced to try, plans were made for them to make the trip. Miriam was excited to be invited along on the trip with her captors. She could hardly even believe this was happening, would she be able to see her family or at least find out their fate?
What Did I Think?
This 112 page, historical fiction book, written for children 7-12, was a quite enjoyable read. I generally do prefer physical books, but the Kindle format that I reviewed worked out well. I downloaded the Kindle app to my phone which was quite handy. With the busyness if the summer, having the book at my fingertips anytime I had a few extra minutes proved to be quite handy.
I would certainly recommend The Heart Changer as a great read for any young person or family.
There is also a study guide that can be used alongside the book to help make the learning experience much richer.
I hope you will take the time to read the reviews from other members of the Homeschool Review Crew by clicking the link below.
Blessings,
Jennifer
