After Anika’s half-brother, Rick, arrives unexpectedly in Africa, the Scott family decides to spend some time with him at Kenya’s game parks. Still struggling to accept Rick’s arrival, Anika is even more confused when he begins to express his hostile views of Christians and Christianity. To complicate things further, fellow missionaries believe her parents should resign because Rick’s arrival has compromised their testimony. Anika’s attempt to seek help for a wounded animal have different consequences than she intends, and she and Rick find themselves in the middle of a confrontation with poachers.
Although this fourth book in the Anika Scott series does not deal with these problems in a simplistic way, the Scott family seems to give spiritual responses to questions or comments far more than most missionaries would, unless it was specifically for the purpose of expressing their beliefs to a non-Christian in their midst (as, in this case, perhaps it was).
Reading level: age `10-14 years
Anika has always longed to climb Mount Kenya, so when she has a chance to go, she is determined to make it to the top. Even her mother’s tearful response to a letter and the confusing conversation she overhears between her parents cannot distract her from her goal. But when a strange young man shows up on the mountain with them, Anika has to fight to keep her mind on the grueling climb, and when her lurking suspicions are confirmed, and she learns the young man is her half-brother, she needs to call to mind all that God taught her amidst the dangers and hardships of the climb to help her to respond in a Christlike way. This is the third book in the Anika Scott series about a Canadian MK to Kenya.
Reading level: age 10-14 years
In this second book of the Anika Scott MK series, Anika faces reentering Canada. When her family takes an unscheduled furlough because of her father’s health, Anika misses Kenya but tries to fit in in Canada. But the one person close to her age who is supposed to help her to overcome this frightening new situation is just plain mean. But her cousin Tianna has her own issues. Anika gets caught up in the problems facing Tianna whose parents are on the verge of divorce.
Reading level: age 10-14 years
The first in the Anika Scott series, this story is about a missionary kid (MK) in Kenya. In this book 12 year old Anika tries to overcome her initial dislike of Lisa, the new MK on the field who wants nothing more to go back to the States. At the same time Anika worries that her own family will be forced to leave the field because of her father’s illness. In the face of both frustration and danger, Anika relies on her faith in God, and in the process, she discovers something new about His trustworthiness. Other books in the series include: Tianna the Terrible, Anika’s Mountain, Ambush at Amboseli, and Sabrina the Schemer. These are some of the best Christian books for MKs in this age group, as they deal quite realistically and matter-of-factly with MK life.
Reading level: age 9-13 years
“True Son,” born John Butler in a frontier town, was captured by Lenni Lenape Indians when he was four years old, and adopted by a great warrior who re-named him and raised him as his own. When the Indians make a treaty and agree to return all white captives to their own people, True Son is sent away from his family and friends to live with the white men he has learned to hate. Uncomfortable with the ways of the white man and longing for home, he eventually returns to his tribe, only to find that he no longer thinks exactly like them either. Instead he discovers that he is an outcast in both worlds because he understands and defends both. Unlike the Disney film based on it, this book does not have a happy ending.
Reading level: age 10-13 years
Pearl Buck, the daughter of US American missionaries, grows up in China but when she spends a year in the States at age 10, she discovers that she is part of two worlds. Through writing stories of the people of China, she works to increase understanding between people from both of her worlds.
This is the true story of the American novelist Pearl Buck who is famous for writing The Good Earth and being the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. She was also a strong advocate for the rights of women and minority groups.
Reading level: age 9-12 years
