An Empowering Book

Do you ever buy a book just because it’s beautiful and then you find that the contents are even more beautiful in ways you couldn’t have even imagined?

I bought this book because the concept sounded cute, and I absolutely love the illustrators’ work, but beyond that Empowered by Catherine Parks was just another book.

Until I opened it up and was immediately hit with a Gospel-rich introduction. The easy to read, short chapters slipped past my 2020-induced reader’s block, and I wanted to both savor it and gobble it up.

Le book

Numerous chapters brought on the tears with portraits of women of God in unique, defining moments of their lives. I learned about Pandita Ramabai, Esther Ahn Kim and others, women of color whose stories I’d either never heard or only knew the revisionist details of.

I read stories about the Ten Boom sisters, Elizabeth Elliott, and others you would expect, ready to skim over testimonies that felt literally drilled into my head but was shocked and delighted to find new perspectives, new highlights to their lives, and even more inspiration and encouragement.

I found topics such as racism, slavery, and the Holocaust to be handled with age-appropriate honesty and respect to those who experienced them, and I would hand this book to readers of all ages.

The study questions, while best used in a book club of middle-grade readers, were helpful and interesting to me as well.

Charlotte Grimke

The illustrations (as expected! ) were a delight, and God shone through every chapter.

(If you haven’t yet, enter the giveaway for a chance to win this book.)