Race for the Record: Joy Ridderhof

Trailblazer Books (Chronological) #37

by Dave Jackson, Neta Jackson

No written language. That’s the problem facing eleven-year­old Alastair Sutherland’s missionary parents in the Philippine Islands in 1949. How can they leave the Palawanos tribe a copy of the Gospel in their own language if it can’t be written down? Then they read about Joy Ridderhof, a missionary who, with her portable recording machine, makes records of the Gospel message in tribal languages. Alastair is pleased when she agrees to come to their town, especially since his good Palawanos friend, Lastani, is chosen to translate. He also secretly hopes that Miss Ridderhof will accompany him on the ship to Manila so he can start boarding school with other English-speaking kids.

But monsoons, malaria, and a temperamental tape machine interfere with Alastair’s plans and set off a whirlwind adventure. With Miss Ridderhof about to leave and the record still not made, can Alastair and Lastani find a way?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Fiction, Christian, Childrens

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1999

About the author

Dave and Neta Jackson are a full-time husband/wife writing team who have authored and co-authored many books on marriage and family, the church, relationships, and other subjects. Their books for children include the TRAILBLAZER series and Hero Tales, volumes I,II, III, and IV. The Jacksons make their home in Evanston, Illinois.

Reviews

[Star Shining Forever · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joy Ridderhof's mission was to record the Gospel message on records in all the different languages in the world, them distribute them so people could at least hear God's Word, even if they had no translated Bible yet. This is the story of a Scottish missionary's son and his native friend who race to get this done in time for the Philippines to get records in their language. This was an exciting book and I enjoyed leaning about this amazing servant of God.

[Dawn Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

We enjoyed this read aloud. Some of what happened to the boy was a bit far fetched, but we loved learning about the real life person Joy Ridderhoff and how her dream furthered the Gospel in many parts of the world!

[Grace Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Assigned to read this whole series in middle school, and I learned a lot. Great educational read!

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite school read aloud this school year

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good story to read. I enjoyed the way the authors created the lives of the characters and how they helped Ann Sherwood & Joy Ridderhof as they put the Gospel in several different languages for the natives in the Philippine Islands.

In this book it is really an inspirational story about how no matter how challenging life can get when you are trying to accomplish great things, you just to need to remember that God has a purpose for everything.