While dystopian fiction and manga fill the books shelves for teen reading
it's refreshing to find books that teach character qualities. I'm not against fiction and, if written well, many things can be learned in it, but these books are naturally read for entertainment. Realistically our lives don't consist of the ability to throw lightning from our hands or to transform our natural human body into an animal form, and, although, that would be awesome, it takes more superpower and courage to be a normal teen.

Through the eyes and hearts of my daughters I've seen and felt the drama of modern teen living. Teen life is dystopian in its own right. How God Grows a Courageous Girl by Carey Scott has been a wonderful tool for my youngest daughter as she navigates through situations that test her character. It's a book of 180 devotionals. Each one starts with a reading from Scripture, is followed with a few paragraphs of encouragement relating to the Scripture and each ends with a prayer. It's simplicity makes it easy to read and easy to remember.

Through the eyes and hearts of my daughters I've seen and felt the drama of modern teen living. Teen life is dystopian in its own right. How God Grows a Courageous Girl by Carey Scott has been a wonderful tool for my youngest daughter as she navigates through situations that test her character. It's a book of 180 devotionals. Each one starts with a reading from Scripture, is followed with a few paragraphs of encouragement relating to the Scripture and each ends with a prayer. It's simplicity makes it easy to read and easy to remember.

This book covers a wide range of topics such as waiting, godly beauty, peer pressure, fear, etc and these topics are addressed with how to be courageous through them all - with Jesus, prayer, and knowing God's Word. The encouragement is invaluable and my daughter used them by topic. I sometimes wished the devotionals were written more in depth, but I appreciated how quickly we could read them even before school.

If you're looking for an easy, quick to read devotional for younger teens this is an excellent source. It isn't meant to be an in-depth Bible Study or a discussion based devotional. This book would be a great gift for young ladies who have no time or who are new to having devotions.

Thank you Barbour Publishing for providing a free book through NetGalley for a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

You want to be brave, courageous, and win this world with Christ. Then this is for you and every woman out there. This book will help you understand faith, prayer, brave in Christ. This book will mold you and make you courageous in Christ.

Highly recommended to be read by all! Thank you, Author and Publisher, for this valuable book.

These devotions are preceded by scripture which is very nice. This is aimed at young girls. Very young? The wording or language is very young.

Here is what I liked: the scripture passages preceding each devotion. What did not work, unfortunately, was the language for the reader. It seemed liked the author tried too hard to write down to the vernacular of a kid. While the general message was good, I didn't like reading "drama queen" or "yucky" to describe the reader or reader's feelings. Give credit to the intellect of the young women for which this devotional is intended.

Nowadays we read a lot about girls being "brave", but what I see is that they are becoming rude. I´m so thankful about resources that point them in true courage, and how truly wants them to grow in that area. I´m excited to dig deeply in this topics with my dauther she is so excited to read this! Thankful. You´ll read more about this in my blog! stay tunned!

How God Grows a Courageous Girl by Carey Scott is great devotion for 10-12 year old girls. I just loved this devotion! It starts with a Bible verse, and then gives a summary of the topic with a real world example. Then finishes off with a prayer to pray that includes the topic. Reading the devotion lasts 30 seconds to a one minute so you do not lose focus and it really makes you think. This book includes topics from being strong, peer pressure, to when people are mean! My 11-year-old daughter even read a snippet of the book and wanted to read more! I highly recommended this book for tween girls!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I was intrigued by the title of this devotional book for girls and was pleased to review it through NetGalley. I found the topics to be right on track for junior-aged girls. Appropriate Bible verses were given for each day's reading. There were a couple things that gave me pause. I believe the book would improve if the selections were ordered differently. The foundation of God's promises is a relationship with Jesus Christ, but this book began with the assumption that "you're God's girl." The other drawback was that several selections directed the reader to focus on her own strengths rather than relying humbly on God. I would still recommend this book as a good one to be shared with an adult.

First sentence: God has big plans for you! And you can be confident in His plans for you because every day He is growing YOU into a courageous girl. He will be your constant companion and will give you just the strength you need to choose faith over fear. These devotions and prayers were written with you in mind. They are lovely reminders of the power you have because you’re God’s girl. Touching on topics that matter to you, like family, friendships, trust, hope, and prayer, these inspiring readings will help you grow a deeper relationship with God as you also grow into the courageous girl He designed you to be.

How God Grows a Courageous Girl is a devotional book with 180 readings. Each reading opens with a text of Scripture--a verse...or two--and closes with a short prayer. The Scripture texts that inspired the devotions come from the Old and New Testament. The prominent themes of the readings are fear, courage, faith, and trust. The translation of the Bible they use throughout is incredibly simple, perhaps too simple so that some verses are bordering on losing their actual oomph.

Expect a LOT of exclamation marks in each reading.

Expect the use of the word COOL and its variant (COOLNESS) throughout.

At times this one did come across as condescending. (Not every reading, not every paragraph but here or there.)

It does seek to speak Scripture directly into the lives of its reader, to offer application advice. This is what the Bible says and this is how you can apply it to your life in situation a, b, and c.

It makes some assumptions along the way. One that all readers are genuine born again believers. Two that they know the ins and outs of the whole gospel message and they don't really need refreshing in that area. To be fair, this devotional book does seem to have a theme of FEAR/COURAGE. So perhaps they didn't want to work the gospel into that theme? Three that all readers have body image issues or low self esteem.

The theology of this one can be very light and somewhat iffy. (I'm thinking of two or three out of the one hundred and eighty readings and not fifty. So I don't want this concern to be taken out of proportion.) But for example, when it talks about "listening to the gut feeling that warns you..." they could have talked about the HOLY SPIRIT DWELLING WITHIN YOU or THE CONSCIENCE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU. Either one of those or both would have been better than the vague not specifically Christian idea of "a gut feeling." The author may have had the Holy Spirit in mind when she wrote the word "gut feeling" but will readers pick up on that?!?! There are dozens of Scripture passages about being taught by the spirit, guided by the spirit, walking with the spirit, the Spirit living in you, being transformed by the spirit, etc.

Another reading that didn't quite sit right with me was the one inspired by Philippians 4:13. This shouldn't surprise me--or you. Adults--even adults that should know better--often get this wrong and pull the verse way out of context.
Have you ever walked away from a challenge because you felt weak and vulnerable? It’s common to look at the things life throws our way and say, “Um. . .no thanks. I’ll pass.” Sometimes it’s just too hard. But when we let those tests and trials scare us away, we’re forgetting one very important truth: you have Jesus on your side. That means with His help, you can do anything you choose to do.
The approach at times seemed to be: you can handle most things on your own in your own strength; you've got this, no worries; BUT when you do find yourself in trouble, you can go to God with your needs. Perhaps the author's intent was good. Perhaps she didn't mean it come across that way?! "God is ready to fill in the gaps that need filling. " But the truth of the matter is that we need Jesus all the time, every single day, every single hour of the day. There's never a time when we don't need Jesus--HIM but also HIS grace, HIS love, HIS redemption, HIS strength, HIS presence, HIS promise, HIS faith, HIS compassion, HIS comfort. I could go on and on. Perhaps this is the kind of wisdom that comes with age? Or that only age can appreciate?

But for the most part, most of the readings were good. There were plenty of entries that I liked.

I love the message this devotional sends to girls; that they are strong and can do great things with God’s help. The devotional touches on topics that matter to young girls: self-esteem, the drama queen, fear, forgiveness, being seen and the list goes on. I will happily go through this devotional with my daughter as she gets older.