Conversations With God for Teens

Conversations with God for Teens reads like a rap session at a church youth group, where teenagers discuss everything they ever wanted to know about life but were too afraid to ask God. Once again author Neale Donald Walsch acts as the verbal conduit, showing teenagers how easy it is to converse with the divine. After the enormous success of his previous Conversations with God books, Walsch was asked to write a book for teenagers. So he collected questions from teenagers around the world, brought them into his private dialogue with God, and then printed God's answers on the page. So when Claudia, age 16, from Perth, Australia, asks, "Why can't I just have sex with everybody? What's the big deal?", the answer God offers her is: "Nothing you do will ever be okay with everybody. 'Everybody' is a large word. The real question is can you have sex and have it be okay with you?" There's no doubt that the casual question-and-answer format will help make God feel welcoming and accessible to teens. And the introduction by Alanis Morissette raises the "cool" factor considerably. Nonetheless, it's not for all teenagers: older adolescents (17 and older) may find it hokey or manipulative, and preteens (10 to 12) could find some of the questions too mature. --Gail Hudson