A Place Called Blessing (book review)

 Five-year-old Josh and his two older brothers lose their parents in a drunk-driving accident. A series of foster homes and a shocking tragedy eventually separate them, leaving Josh alone, angry, and distrustful of most everyone. At age eighteen, Josh strikes out on his own to find work. With only a high school education and few life skills, he is one step away from homelessness when he meets Anna and Mike. For the first time in his life, Josh receives unconditional love and something every human being craves, the gift of "the blessing."

I chose to review this book because I am looking at becoming a foster parent in a year or two, so the premise of a child who lives through the foster care system and how that impacts him was something I wanted to explore.

This book is written as a fiction read, actually, it is fiction but with a non-fiction point.

From what I understood, the author wrote this as a companion to his nonfiction book called “The Blessing: Giving the Gift of Unconditional Love and Acceptance”

The following is the synopsis for it “The Blessing by Drs. John Trent and Gary Smalley explains how the biblical gift of "the blessing" is the key to one's self-worth and emotional well-being. A foundational parenting tool, "the Blessing" consists of five essential elements: meaningful touch, a spoken message, attaching value, picturing a special future, and an active commitment. If you've missed out on the approval of your parents, the final chapters are for you. They include help for those who grew up without their own parent's blessing and ideas for blessing events”

After reading “A Place Called Blessing” I am very interested in getting my hands on a copy of the original book.

But back to the review- this story is a simple read (which I appreciate) and written only from the perspective of the character Josh so it has a limited scope of details but what really draws you in is the way you can picture this young boy and all he went through. By meeting and being accepted by just two people, his whole world was changed from an angry loner to a man who found forgiveness and a family.

The point of this whole story was that anyone can give a blessing by using the five essential elements: meaningful touch, a spoken message, attaching value, picturing a special future, and an active commitment.

Through a fictional story the author gives an example of how each of those elements can be used in a person’s life and the change using them will have on the recipient.

*I recieved this book free from BookSneeze