I read quite a different sort of book when I was a pre-teen / teenager. Yet, some of them still feel like a comfort read and that they might be good to revisit. So, that’s what I did. I re-read books from when I was younger to see if they were still a win now that I’m quite a bit older.

My Life as a Screaming Skydiver – Bill Meyers

5 stars

Silly, Super-powered, and So worth the read!

Facing the idea of taking responsibility, with a funny tone that I could easily see why appealed to me in school – this book was fantastic (move aside kids, I’m taking over the Wally McDoogle books and reading them for myself!).

I read this in Yr5, and again as a late 20s adult and it held up both times for me.
There’s something about this book. Yes it was silly, outlandish, and impossibly ridiculous, but it WORKED!

The funny jokes (which I still enjoyed as an adult), the breaks in paragraphs just to give descriptive words of Wally’s uncoordinated hits, and the uplifting tone throughout was perfect.
I loved the simple message (taking responsibility for our actions – mistake or not), and it was delivered in such an entertaining way that it didn’t even feel like a “lesson”.

Highly recommended to kids for the simple, entertaining, and solid life advice in these books.

Windy City Danger – Jenkins and Fabry

3 stars

Preface: I’m no longer the target audience for this.

Lots of focus on the twins coming back to Chicago and pretty much everyone mentions their dead dad to them (not nice for them and annoying for the reader).

Things were pretty surface or preachy.

The mystery was interesting but not the central focus of the story. I would have liked it the other way around – mostly mystery and little other stuff.

Bad Connection – Melody Carlson

3.5 stars

Interesting look into how consistent dreams and visions from God could look in the hands of a teenager. I enjoyed the solving crimes aspect. It was written in a way that actually came across as a teenagers POV, which doesn’t always happen anymore – and even though I’m not one anymore, I appreciated that element of it.
The Christian themes were a little heavy handed. I know the story is literally about the Spiritual Gifts, but some of it felt a bit…. Pushy or messy.
The very short and not substantially addressed family with a drug problem didn’t really need to be there but it was fine.

Torch Red – Melody Carlson

3 stars

I did make my way through this quite easily but wow.
This was pretty heavy on the sex talk, but without going too detailed that made it feel smutty.
The double standards on how EVERYONE in this book see men and women when it comes to sex was insane. That boys will be boys, and only women get hurt stuff was infuriating.
Stupid choices and pretty heavy handed Christian views on everything was from start to finish.
Still, I was engaged and invested.

Raiders From the Sea – Lois Walfrid Johnson

3 stars

I read this when I was in school (that’s who it’s aimed for after all), but I still enjoyed it now.

It’s book 1 in a series, and they’re a little shorter than I’m used to.

The story was interesting, and felt true to the times.

The biblical principals and themes felt a little ‘throw it in your face every five minutes’ but I didn’t mind too much. Someone who isn’t used to that, I could see being frustrated by it though.

I liked the characters, but because of the shortness of the book/s, it was hard to become too invested.
There was also a lot of ‘looking back’ / info dump-type moments. Some of which, I had to skim read over.

Overall, it was good and I’ll probably read the rest to find out what happens in the rest of the story.

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Well, sometimes when you aren’t the target audience you can still enjoy a story. Other times, it’s clear that this was not written for you. Either way, it’s always nice to go down a stroll on memory lane.

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace