kallistarichards-grace

__ **Grace** __

**by Morris Gleitzman** **Published August 3rd 2009 by Viking**

**The book is set in a religious cult for the first half and slowly moves into the real world, as Grace rebels against her** **religion and runs away to save her family. The book describes modern life from the point of view of Grace. Who has lived within her safe haven religious cult for her whole life. She sees the world we all live in every day as a scary place saying that there are sinners everywhere.**

**Grace is a young girl around the age of thirteen who has never experienced a normal life, because she has been abiding by the rules of the higher roles in their community. Because of this Grace struggles with communication “without siders” and fails with coping in everyday situations. This leaves Grace very confused when she has to fight the challenge of rescuing her father and bringing their family back together**.

**In the beginning of the story it was grace her mother her father and two brothers who living happily within there religious cult. When she produces a school project called The Family Bible, she doesn't realize the consequences. When her** **grandfather turns on her and tells the 'elders' of their church, she finds out that asking questions can land her in big** **trouble. When her father is taken away from her for being a disgrace to their religion, Grace's world is turned upside down. The community she thought were her friends, and the people she thought she knew going against her when she needed them most.**

**The story is constructed in an interesting way almost like a story from Graces point of view. In the story she list all of her thoughts at the time of the event she is talking about. The book is set in past tense but still offers a large amount of information about what is happening. You really get a chance to see everything through the eyes of someone with totally different opinion and views on everyday life.**

**Grace and her dad get along amazingly they have a tight father daughter bond witch can’t be broken. Both of them will do** **anything to keep them together, even if it is putting their whole family on the line it’s worth it. Both of them are intelligent quick thinking people always know what to do next as they say great minds think alike. This strong bond makes it easy for them to conversate, Grace tells her dad everything she can just blurt all her thoughts out to him for hours on end.**

**The book made me think about how lucky I am to have grown up in the society I grew up in. Comparing my life to Graces there’s a massive difference. Grace has to face heap of rules and regulations that keep her from having a normal childhood. Grace also has to deal with sexist people that make the rules grace is made to do unjust things and forced into unfair punishments for example grace had to wash the feet of the elders with her own hair on her hand and knees to show her appreciation to them.**

**Although I didn’t really like the book I found it interesting to read about Graces life, as it’s so different compa****red t** **o mine. I think the book would be s****uited to a certain group of people, as its very complicated and some events were hard for even me to understand. I would not suggest the book to anyone younger than 13 because there are references to catholic views which may not be understood by children that haven’t learnt about catholic faith or religions .I also wouldn’t suggest it for anyone older than 30, because it would be hard for them to understand what Grace is going through as she is much younger and the book is fairly recent. This book would be good for someone who is studying religious education as it shows others religious views.**