Ranger’s Apprentice – The Early Years

This family are all solid fans of John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice and Brother Band books, so we all quickly turned to these two new books set about 15 years before the Ranger’s Apprentice books.   For those who have come to love the story, characters and writing as we have, they do not disappoint.   They fill in some of the gaps of the younger Halt, with the first book The Tournament at Gorlan, showing how he came to be a Ranger and the early story of how Morgarath tried to steal the throne.  It also follows on from a shorter story found in Book 11:  The Lost Stories.  

The second book The Battle of Hackham Heath, continues to fill in the story of Morgarath and the Wargals, laying the groundwork for understanding more of books #1 & 2 of the original series.   

Flanagan writes a great story, and he appeals to 9/10-year olds right up to adults.  Almost all the kids we know who like these books have parents who also like them and seek them out to read on their own – high praise indeed and not always a given.   His writing is witty, accessible, intelligent and not condescending.   Upon re-reading them to Miss 9, I have been pleasantly surprised to rediscover the wide range of vocabulary he uses - it will definitely extend your kids!  So, if your kids (or you) haven’t tried them yet, it may be time.  I’d still suggest starting with Ranger’s Apprentice #1 – The Ruins of Gorlan, and then look forward to 20 books awaiting your reading pleasure!  I reviewed them about 4 years ago when we first discovered them, and since Miss 11 has devoured them (at age 9-11) and as I said, Miss 9 is now just discovering their delights for the first time. 

Lion & Compassion

This excellent movie, based on a true story, tells the story of five-year old Indian boy, Saroo, who in 1986 gets totally and completely lost and separated from his poor, rural family.   Trapped on a decommissioned passenger train, he is transported 1500 miles from his village home to Calcutta.   With no local language and no ability to explain who he is or details of where he has come from, he quickly ends up on the streets, at the risk of falling into the hands of those with sinister intent.   He ends up in an orphanage, but his mother cannot be located, and so he is adopted to the Brierleys in Tasmania (played by David Wenham and Nicole Kidman).  They are a loving, patient couple who adopt two boys from India.

The second half of the movie is 20-25 years later as adult Saroo (Dev Patel) slowly begins to realise that with technology like Google Earth, he may be able to find out where he came from.    He is haunted by the idea that his mother and siblings would still be waiting for him, never knowing what happened.

It’s a beautiful story about family.  Both Saroo’s birth family and his adoptive family, in all their differences, are loving, gentle and kind.  There are constant echoes of the prodigal son throughout and the joy of seeing a lost one return.

At the same time, it’s a challenging look at the lives of and risks to street children.   I found the scenes of implied evil intent quite confronting, and they stayed with me for some time, feeling the pain of sin in the world and how evil is often perpetrated on the truly vulnerable.   I want to give even more help to those who work with street children around the world.    Linked to that is the traumatic disorders that children can have with childhoods like these – as Saroo’s adoptive brother shows.

For us as a family, it struck even more – as we have had a sponsor child in India for 10 years, but Compassion have to remove all their programs from India, after being prevented from continuing by the Indian government.  This beautiful girl is now 20 and I am so sad this is the way it has to finish.  We’re all in the process of writing our final letter to her.   

So, while this is a great movie, be warned – it’s a confronting one too.  I cried for much of it.    But the overarching message is the love of a family and how that unites us all.    Highly recommended.

Calm my Anxious Heart

Calm my Anxious Heart, Linda Dillow

The reading recommendations I received recently have all paid off – I have discovered some great books.    This is yet another to add to the list.

Subtitled: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Contentment, Dillow addresses the issue many women face – finding true contentment.  We live in a world that tells us we cannot be content, and we also live with our own worries, greed and small view of life that prevent us finding true fulfilment in Christ.

Dillow starts with her own story and struggle towards contentment, emphasising that “true contentment is separate from our circumstances.  Contentment is a state of the heart, not a state of affairs” (p13).    A lack of contentment comes from thinking we can ‘help God out’ and do a better job than he can: “When we take over and try to control what happens, we take our focus of the One who is in control and put our eyes on our circumstances” (p16)

I found this a helpful introduction.  It was then somewhat surprising when the next 4 chapters dealt with various situations: content in circumstances, content to be me, content with my role and content in my relationships.   All of these were helpful though and addressed issues many women have in finding contentment.

Then she dealt with three barriers to contentment: greed, lack of purpose and worry.   This was where I found the book had real strength.  For greed, she addressed real issues over money and whether we truly think what we have belongs to God and is a gift from God.    Practically she looked at credit card debt, seasonal greed (eg. do you always spend too much at Christmas?) and the trap of desiring the temporal rather than the eternal. 

I found the chapter on purpose particularly challenging.  We are to be women of purpose with clear idea of where we are going and why.   I appreciated the reminder that “children are your platform, not your purpose” (p112).  She gave a few examples of women who had defined their life purpose, either by writing a statement of faith, adopting a bible verse which spells out their goals, or writing a prayer to that effect.  What worked for me was the challenge to think about who you want to be at age 80.   Do you want to be a woman of faith, prayer, godliness, contentment, etc at that age?  Well, from now to then, in God’s grace, is the path to there.  I have been working on this idea for myself and have come up with something that works for me. 

The third barrier was anxiety.  She is clear she is not talking about clinical anxiety, but the day to day worries about what might happen.  How anxiety drives us from present day to weary calculation of condition that might never arrive, and how worry is destructive for it changes nothing except the worrier.  As someone who constantly battles worry about what might happen, this was a very helpful warning chapter.

At this point, the book reached the core of what I was expecting in the first chapter – faith is the foundation we need.  Faith is rooted in God’s sovereign, wise and loving character, and faith is based on God’s word not our feelings.  Trusting in God and who He is is where our true contentment comes from.

She finishes with chapters on how to trust God with the ‘what ifs’ (which can lead to anxiety), the ‘if only’s’ (which can lead to anger) and the ‘whys’.  I quite liked the observation:

“I am here (1) by God’s appointment, (2) in his keeping, (3) under his training, (4) for his time.” (quoting Andrew Murray, p181)

It’s solid and bible based, yet with an openness and emotional vulnerability that draws you in.  You could read it with a group, and the edition I had included an extensive bible study guide.   It would also be a good companion read to Compared to Her, which comes at contentment from another angle.  I found it a very useful book.