A DESPERATE SEARCH
By Gill Jacobs
Day One Publications. 124 pages. £7
ISBN 978 1 846 154 284
Gill Jacobs has written a book that helps young readers step into the New Testament world, taking them on an adventure across the Roman Empire and into a greater understanding of faith in God.
This short novel, aimed at a young audience, follows the journey of Alex and his friend Mattias as they seek to find his kidnapped sister Irana. They are lead from their home-town Antioch to varying places in the Roman Empire and find themselves caught up in the narrative of Acts, bumping into Peter, Barnabas and Paul as they search.
Jacobs creates an immersive New Testament world that brings to life the cities, religions, people and culture of the first-century Roman Empire. By creatively including some stories from Acts, the reader finds themselves right in the middle of the story of the Bible.
As well as helpfully bringing to life the biblical world, the story explores what it looks like to have faith in God when life is hard. Alex and Mattias struggle with doubts and questions in the midst of their adventure, but in it they find a God who is good, whom they can trust and who is looking out for them.
The depiction of persecution of the early Christians may require a child of younger maturity to have an adult available during a couple of chapters (Paul being stoned by the crowd). Nevertheless, this is a helpful and inspiring book for a young person further to explore questions of faith and the life of the New Testament.
