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Lightkeepers
Ten Girls Who Used Their Talents
These ten girls all believed that God had given them given them special gifts, and they all put those talents to use. Helen used her skills as a doctor to bring the truth about Jesus to Africa; Maureen drove a bus and shared food with homeless communities; Mary cared for others even with her own disability. What are your gifts, and how can you use them to spread God’s kingdom?
160 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2006
40 people are currently reading
152 people want to read
About the author
Irene Howat
92 books34 followersIrene Howat is an award-winning author who has many titles, for adults and children, to her name. She is married to a retired minister and they have a grown up family. She is also a talented artist and now stays in Ayrshire, Scotland. She especially enjoys letters from children and replies to all of them!
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 28, 2025
Interesting
February 26, 2019
This is a pretty simple book for young girls to learn about great women who have done various things in the world. I read it with our youngest at bedtime and she enjoyed it (we will read the following books in the set). They were effective stories, but several of them didn’t seem all that consequential therefore it eroded the strength of the books undertaking. When the stories were weak, the book falls back on an evangelical message. I wish this book could have been more focused.
July 8, 2012
This book of 10 biography is full of well... what it says on the title it's there stories about how they used the gifts and talents that God had given them for his work in the world.
March 21, 2013
I've read the whole series and it is amazing how strong these women are. I'm quite a history nerd and I found these books fitted perfectly into my the history I knew.
April 18, 2019
very goooooooood
June 29, 2023
I loved this as a child and i love it now
August 23, 2020
Review to come soon.
October 10, 2021
Interesting read about dedicated people and the way they used their talents to benefit others and praise the lord.
June 14, 2022
LOVED THIS BOOK!! So inspiring <3
August 18, 2022
really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 19, 2022
The first entry into the girls' section of the series is just not as good as the boys and the flaw resides not in the subject matter of it being women but in how well the boys' stories were structured and this girls were not.
In this volume, ten girls which include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mildred Cable, Sarah Edwards, Annie Lawon, Maureen McKenna, Katie Ann Mackinnon, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, Helen Mackinnon, Patricia St. John, and Mary Verghese follow a similar story pattern of about 15 pages each. The sections starts off with a childhood and family setting and move to either some early important events or through to teenage and college-age and then into adulthood of what they're known for. The stories include mostly fictional conversations so as to give young readers more than just facts to remember. The conversation are in the spirit of learning about the person. Each person also has a focus on their Christian faith and it usually inspires the conclusion of the story as a way to glorify God. At the end there is a "FACT" of the story expanded upon, a "KEYNOTE" that focuses on the aspect of the story to think about God, a "THINK" area in which a challenge question is presented for discussion, and a "PRAYER" section.
I really enjoyed the boys' version of this entry. It had details from their childhood that built up into the career path or missionary work or what talents they would end up developing. Along the way, their coming to Christ was included and specific enough to also be built into the abbreviated storyline. The conclusion combined everything into what was the outcome of their lives using the talents talked about earlier. Howat fails to do that here for the most part. Other than a few medically trained women there aren't really any talents developed within the storyline. The women chosen did some great things but it fails to build the talent and it comes off as "this girl did a thing". That's not the story in the boys' section. The story of coming to faith feels very thrown in here as well and feels, for many of the stories, just a thing that the girls came to.
The positive aspect of this book is that it brings many unknown women from Church history to young readers. However, the impact of their lives and their talents just aren't there. For example, Sarah Edwards (wife of Jonathan Edwards) is a pretty amazing woman who faced a lot of hardships in her life but her and her family's life but her story doesn't build her childhood into the overall story. She seems to just happen to come to faith in Christ. She lives a hard life but glorifies God in some sense. Then she dies. The story isn't cohesive and it isn't compelling like Ghillean Prance was with his botany. That was a perfect story written for the boys side.
Having the high task of writing about a group of people who were just important to Christ's Kingdom but not always focused on, this really fell flat and it's a shame that it did. It's not a terrible book at all or terribly written. It just missed the cohesiveness of the boys' version. Final Grade - C-
In this volume, ten girls which include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mildred Cable, Sarah Edwards, Annie Lawon, Maureen McKenna, Katie Ann Mackinnon, Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, Helen Mackinnon, Patricia St. John, and Mary Verghese follow a similar story pattern of about 15 pages each. The sections starts off with a childhood and family setting and move to either some early important events or through to teenage and college-age and then into adulthood of what they're known for. The stories include mostly fictional conversations so as to give young readers more than just facts to remember. The conversation are in the spirit of learning about the person. Each person also has a focus on their Christian faith and it usually inspires the conclusion of the story as a way to glorify God. At the end there is a "FACT" of the story expanded upon, a "KEYNOTE" that focuses on the aspect of the story to think about God, a "THINK" area in which a challenge question is presented for discussion, and a "PRAYER" section.
I really enjoyed the boys' version of this entry. It had details from their childhood that built up into the career path or missionary work or what talents they would end up developing. Along the way, their coming to Christ was included and specific enough to also be built into the abbreviated storyline. The conclusion combined everything into what was the outcome of their lives using the talents talked about earlier. Howat fails to do that here for the most part. Other than a few medically trained women there aren't really any talents developed within the storyline. The women chosen did some great things but it fails to build the talent and it comes off as "this girl did a thing". That's not the story in the boys' section. The story of coming to faith feels very thrown in here as well and feels, for many of the stories, just a thing that the girls came to.
The positive aspect of this book is that it brings many unknown women from Church history to young readers. However, the impact of their lives and their talents just aren't there. For example, Sarah Edwards (wife of Jonathan Edwards) is a pretty amazing woman who faced a lot of hardships in her life but her and her family's life but her story doesn't build her childhood into the overall story. She seems to just happen to come to faith in Christ. She lives a hard life but glorifies God in some sense. Then she dies. The story isn't cohesive and it isn't compelling like Ghillean Prance was with his botany. That was a perfect story written for the boys side.
Having the high task of writing about a group of people who were just important to Christ's Kingdom but not always focused on, this really fell flat and it's a shame that it did. It's not a terrible book at all or terribly written. It just missed the cohesiveness of the boys' version. Final Grade - C-
March 3, 2023
Number of pages: 150
Genre: Non-fiction Missionary Biographies
Series: Ten Girls Series (order is unimportant)
Age recommendation: 6-12
Summary: Each book in the series gives a short biography of ten different Christian ‘girls’ who used their lives for God. Ten Girls Who Used Their Talents tells the stories of Anne Lawson, Selina Countess of Huntingdon, Mildred Cable, Katie Ann Mackinnon, Sarah Edwards, Patricia St. John, Helen Roseveare, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Verghese, and Maureen McKenna.
My thoughts: Since this whole series is pretty similar, I’m reviewing the series all together. When I was in elementary school this was one of my favourite missionary series. I thought it was cool what all the girls were able to accomplish. I especially liked reading about the girls that were married to very famous preachers because often we don’t see both sides of the story.
My only criticisms of these are that they’re kind of short (which is the point to make them easier for younger girls to read), and I know that the writing isn’t very good (though I mostly ignore it and still enjoy it the way I did when I was 8; they bring back so many good memories for me😊). Overall, I loved all these stories and the different women I got to learn about. I would definitely recommend this series to young girls.
My personal rating: 5/5 stars.
Link to blog: https://karinaschristianreads.wordpre...
Genre: Non-fiction Missionary Biographies
Series: Ten Girls Series (order is unimportant)
Age recommendation: 6-12
Summary: Each book in the series gives a short biography of ten different Christian ‘girls’ who used their lives for God. Ten Girls Who Used Their Talents tells the stories of Anne Lawson, Selina Countess of Huntingdon, Mildred Cable, Katie Ann Mackinnon, Sarah Edwards, Patricia St. John, Helen Roseveare, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Verghese, and Maureen McKenna.
My thoughts: Since this whole series is pretty similar, I’m reviewing the series all together. When I was in elementary school this was one of my favourite missionary series. I thought it was cool what all the girls were able to accomplish. I especially liked reading about the girls that were married to very famous preachers because often we don’t see both sides of the story.
My only criticisms of these are that they’re kind of short (which is the point to make them easier for younger girls to read), and I know that the writing isn’t very good (though I mostly ignore it and still enjoy it the way I did when I was 8; they bring back so many good memories for me😊). Overall, I loved all these stories and the different women I got to learn about. I would definitely recommend this series to young girls.
My personal rating: 5/5 stars.
Link to blog: https://karinaschristianreads.wordpre...
August 1, 2024
Great book. I liked it because every chapter had a different story of a women who used her talents.
December 24, 2025
Really enjoyed this one. Definitely still some clunky phraseology--not sure if that's due to British phraseology I'm unfamiliar with or simply writing quality.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews