Girl Talk with God

Shellenberger, Susie. Girl Talk with God. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011.

This book is aimed at tween and teen girls who find it difficult to talk with God.  Each chapter is a conversation between God and a girl on a particular topic.  The topics range from acceptance by peers and  forgiveness to eating disorders and cutting.  Some chapters discuss particular problems a teen might deal with; other chapters focus on emotions a teen might feel regardless of the situation.

It took me a while to get used to the style of this book.  I suppose this is a sign of my age, as I don't think in IM or chat-speak, so the idea of reading a dialogue was a bit odd to me.  Once I got past my initial hesitation, though, I found this book to be very insightful.  The anonymous girl conversing with God is very real, and God always brings her back to Scripture so she can see the words He has written for her.  I appreciate that this style of writing might make God seem more real to the teen girls who read this book, and even those of us who are beyond our teen years can benefit from this reminder: God loves us and He desires a relationship with us, a relationship as real and close as any human relationship we have.  He longs to communicate to us and to listen to us. 

If I still had a classroom or a ministry with teen girls, I would make this book available to them.  It would definitely be a great conversation starter for some of the more difficult discussions that, although awkward, are completely necessary.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purposes of review.