The Stranger’s Son by Grace Allman Burke will be a welcome addition to your family or school library.

A page-turner, moving in a couple of hours through the tumultuous years of a pre-teen-aged boy’s life, the book puts the reader right in the middle of a time and place that we rarely hear about from a young person’s perspective – the ancient world of Old Testament times. For kids that think they don’t like history, it’s a story that opens them to history, without the baggage of that label.

The main character, a pre-teen named Gershom, experiences crossing cultural barriers, discrimination, physical pain, and family dysfunction, but also discovers adventure, faith, hope and purpose. Other characters in the book help shape important themes about cross-cultural family relationships, parenting, cruelty and justice. Although it’s a fictional account, Bible readers will find it amazingly accurate to the biblical narratives, but with a fresh cultural perspective that speaks to readers of diverse backgrounds. It is appropriate for both religious and secular families and settings.

As an educator, I highly recommend The Stranger’s Son for classrooms and afterschool programs, home schoolers, family devotions, rites-of-passage programs, and book clubs for boys, girls and adults.   I was so inspired that I have created a teacher’s guide that includes language arts, social studies, geography and mathematics activities inspired by the book. 

You can order the book from the author’s publisher ( www.Winepresspublishing.com )  or www.BarnesandNoble.com or www.amazon.com .  The teacher’s guide will be available from the author’s website, which is coming soon.  In the meantime, you can order or get more information on the guide here: