For a change, I am reviewing a series of books that are locally available in National bookstores and other Christian bookstores in Metro Manila. Online casino Ireland. ###
The TRUECOLORS Series by Melody Carlson, published by Navpress Philippines, is a Christian fiction series for pre-teens and teens. I’ve always wished for Christian fiction to come along and here is a series that is worthy of our time and investment.
Deep Green Color Me Jealous is the story of Jordan Ferguson, a Christian teen, who seems to have everything – she’s a cheerleader, she’s popular and is hanging out with a popular guy – that is, until another cheerleader steals her boyfriend away from her. Becoming extremely jealous, she does everything to try and take him back, even going to extreme lengths to “win”. Her old friend, Kara Hendricks – another Christian teen, stayed loyal to her and tries to help her through her struggles.
Torch Red Color Me Torn deals with the issues of purity and promiscuity. Sixteen year old Zoe believes she’s the only virgin left on the planet. While her friends talk about sex casually, she is described as the only ‘honest-to-goodness’ virgin left among their friends, and she is ridiculed because of this. Feeling the pressure, she decides to do something about it. We’ll see here how this young Christian teen will cope with the pressure with the help of another teen.
Fool’s Gold Color Me Consumed is Melody Carlson’s take on “keeping up with the Joneses”. Hannah Johnson, a missionary kid from Papua, New Guinea, visits her rich relatives in the USA. Her relatives and friends try to catch her up on the latest trends in clothes and accessories. As she tries to keep up with the rich kids, she soon finds herself in the claws of credit card debt. How she crawls out of her dilemma, while keeping her faith in Christ, is a delightful read. This is a pretty humorous story and my daughter, Guitar Babe, thinks its worthy to be produced into a movie.
Burnt Orange Color Me Wasted talks about teenage alcoholism. Amber Conrad, a Christian teen, feels flattered to be invited to the “cool kids'” party one night. Little did she know that alcohol will be served in that party. Without much ado, friends convince her to drink the alcoholic beverages and soon she finds herself enjoying the drinks and the attention. Though she struggles with herself each time, she continues to find herself in situations where she takes drinks with her so-called friends. This story details how a teenager can slowly but surely sink into the depths of alcoholism.
Divorce in a Christian family and how a teenager copes with it is what Bitter Rose Color Me Crushed is all about. Maggie comes home from youth group one night and learns that her father has left home. She is crushed and blames her mom for her constant nagging for driving her dad away. She battles with thoughts of which one to really blame, her dad or her mom? Should she forgive them? In the meanwhile, she also has to cope with each parent moving on with their own lives, thereby changing her family’s life and her own life forever.
Teenage suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in teenagers. This sensitive and real issue is dealt with by Melody Carlson in Pitch Black Color Me Lost. Teenager Morgan thought her life was pretty tough - living with a mother and her 20-year old boyfriend and having a drug addict for a brother. Things come to a head when she finds out that her close friend, Jason, has committed suicide. This affects so many of the students in their school that Morgan and her friends decide to follow Jason’s example. How Morgan survives and even helps her friends through the ordeal makes this an eye-opening and encouraging read.
I have read every book in this series and have cried and laughed with every character portrayed here. It brought back my own memories of my teenage years and the pressure I went through. Melody Carlson writes in such a way that every story is realistic. Every character is a Christian struggling with the realities of teenage pressure. They are all not perfect and we see how they have all succumbed to the pressure. However, in every story, the main character always comes through with a resolution to follow Christ in their lives, with the help of the Lord and availability of praying Christian friends. At the end of every book, there are a number of discussion questions that will make you search every issue deeper.
My 13-year old Guitar Babe also read all the books here and finished it all in ten days! She says that she thoroughly enjoyed each book and she was able to relate with every character. I also had my 10-year old Artsy Princess read FOOL’S GOLD COLOR ME CONSUMED. She narrated the book to me as she was reading it and it was quite funny. This book in particular is a good read even for someone as young as her.
If you want to understand your teenager, I suggest you read the TRUECOLORS Series of books. If you want your teenager to be encouraged, to learn ways to share their faith in Jesus to their non-believing friends, have her/him read this series also. Both parent and teenager will certainly be helped in talking about the issues that plague our teenagers today.
Again, these books are available locally at National Bookstores and Christian bookstores for only P199.95.
These can also be purchased from NavPress online.
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